CÁDIZ: excessive, hedonistic delights...part 2

Let me just begin this post by saying that I went into my trip to Cadiz with the intention of just letting loose and being a crazy hedonist. So I'll just preamble the post now so that nobody is surprised by anything: I ate a lot, drank a lot, among other things. There, I put it out there. I hope that nobody judges me for it, for you see, I just needed one night of insanity before classes began. I mean, come on, I'm in Spain for cryin' out loud!
That being said, here is my night in Cadiz.
After dinner with Herbie, Stacey and I returned to Sam and his hostel room and did some more makeup preparations, ya know, girly stuff. Sam had bought some pot back in Sevilla and rolled a bunch of joints to hold him over for the week/weekend. Herbie had to shower, so he grabbed one and all of us walked a block over to that garden plaza with the big trees next to the ocean that the girls and I had discovered earlier that day. There's another stroke of luck in Cadiz: their hostel was located mere blocks from the bus station. We were so nervous about getting back to the station because we had no idea how to navigate the city, but miraculously we were located right near it...no problem! Sam, Jessica, and I sat on a bench and smoked a joint, as people walked by, mind you...Spain is so silly! It was a small joint, so we finished it pretty quickly, and this creepy man kept walking by us and eyeing us in a way that just rubbed us the wrong way, so we quickly headed back to the hostel to pregame. Once we got up to the room, we realized that we were actually pretty stoned. Jessica, particularly, was off-the-wall stoned. I mean, laughing incessantly and was unable to form complete sentences. Although I was stoned, I would not allow myself to be crazy and thrive in it because I had a long night ahead and I needed to be awake and sane. Courtney, Sam, and Stacey started taking shots of the vodka, but I chose to hold off until my high calmed down. We played a drinking game which is a concentration game which was really fun and kind of difficult. I can't really describe it, you sit in a circle and pass around slaps with numbers, I don't know, I can't explain it without demonstrating. You drink when you break the number pattern, which is actually quite intricate. I was really grateful for the game, because I wasn't drinking, but I used it as a means of regaining concentration so as to reduce the high. I mean, I had a long night ahead of me, I wasn't going to throw it away on getting high. As we were playing, I literally used mental power to coax myself out of the high; I got present to my altered state, and made it disappear for the most part. It worked! My high was definitely going away gradually. Herbie had left to grab some sodas, and returned baring bad news: the guy at the front desk told him that the girls in their room had to leave now, or else he was coming up to personally kick us out. I guess that you could distinctly hear our voices all the way out into the street! Little do we forget how thin the walls are in hostels. I was ready to drink, however, so I quickly threw back a couple shots, we gathered up our things, and were out. We all apologized to the man at the desk. He told me to leave our keys with him, I thought that he was referring to Sam and Herbie, so I told them to. Then the man pulled them aside because he realized that us girls were not staying in the hostel. This was bad news because I guess that you're not aloud to have guests over, not to mention loud guests. The man threatened to charge them for us, but since they were unaware of this rule, he didn't. Sam and Herbie assured them that we were not coming back. The man was quite stern, but only because he was doing his job. We felt bad, we never meant to break any rules nor get the boys in trouble. I guess we forget that we were not in a hotel, but a hostel. We then took a 10ish minute walk over to la Plaza de San Francisco which was basically a huge botellon that reminded me of Alfalfa in Sevilla. This botellon definitely beats out Sevilla's because it's in this huuuge open square with plenty of room for anyone to sit and chill. The people there are also less creepy. AND one of the surrounding bars is an Irish pub. Oh man, I LOVE Cadiz! Everything about it is just so perfect. A group of guys next to us let us take one of their extra plastic cups so that we could take shots. I had about 2-3 more and we all finished the bottle. I was definitely in good spirits, I was drunk, and still a bit buzzed from the weed, so I was feeling pretty nice. We met this group of Americans who were also studying abroad in Sevilla and had rented a car for the weekend and drove down to Cadiz. They all seemed pretty cool, I think that perhaps they were East Coasters. Sam and Herbie started flirting with the 2 girls in their group which I found kind of endearing. Jessica and Courtney, though, found it kind of obnoxious because they were supposed to come out with us, and they thought that these girls were pretty lame. Courtney drunkenly pulled Sam aside and told him that they were ugly and not to go for it. Ohhhh man. Jessica started coming down from her high, and therefore getting tired, so I walked into the Irish pub with her and bought her a cafe con leche which woke her up. When we got back outside, the boys were still talking to those 2 girls. They wanted to stick around and chill with them, and were making plans to drive to some random place in Spain with them the next day. Who knows. We told them that we were leaving. This is when things start to get a bit blurry. Our first destination was this bar/club called Nahub that Sam heard about at Ben&Jerry's. We stumbled around la Plaza de San Francisco asking for directions, which not many people knew. I think that in the process we talked to random Spanish guys, too. But who knows. I don't remember if we got directions or were guided or what, but somehow we were on our way to Nahub. I honestly don't remember the walk. Now, I remember that at some point at the beginning of the night we took chupitos of tequila somewhere. I just asked Stacey when/where this occurred, and she told me that on the way to Nahub we stopped in a random bar, took shots, and then left. I don't really remember, but this kind of rings a bell, so I'll go with it. So yeah, on the way we took tequila shots. Then we arrived at Nahub (god knows how). Here's another stroke of Cadiz luck. Since I had just drank a lot, and I needed to take a short break and get food in my stomach, I was in need of some sort of food place. You see, I had a plan for the night: balance drinking with food, take breaks, only drink pure drinks (no sugary stuff, no wine, avoid beer). There was a candy store right next to Nahub that was open (extremely rare in Spain at 2am). Now, I definitely didn't want sugar, that's just bad news, so I was hesitant. Then, we saw at the desk, little meat pastries. There was a chicken pocket thing, which was perfect. Although it didn't taste that great, it was carbs and protein for energy and alcohol absorption. Then we walked into Nahub, which was a pretty cool scene. It was African influenced with really cool lighting and decor. The music was awesome...they were either playing a lot of 80's music, or "My Humps." I can't remember. One of those themes happened at Nahub, and one at another. Wherever we were when "My Humps" played, it made me want to drunk dial Nicole and Jason, but I had no calling card. So it was unfortunately a no go. The only downfall of Nahub was how unbearably crowded. I mean, pushing was inevitable. I was pushed and shoved around like crazy, I was not happy about it. We were against a wall, Stacey was sitting on a bar stool. At one point, it seemed like the whole bar started heading towards the door. It became so crowded, and we got pushed so hard, that I was pushed over, into Stacey on the bar stool, and we both began to fall over. Luckily, lord knows how, we caught ourselves. I mean, that could have been really bad, we could have been stampeded! Once that happened, suddenly the bar had cleared out a bit. I ordered a vodka tonic (sticking with the pure drinks), drank it, and then we left. We walked outside and somehow started talking to these two guys. One was a big, beefy Israeli guy and the other was a scrawny Spanish guy who didn't really talk much. I don't know what the conversation was, I was kind of zoning and did more listening than talking (although, since I don't really remember the convo, I listened quite poorly). All I really remember is that the Israeli guy had a bunch of origami paper with him and he made us all origami flowers. I still have mine, Cadiz souvenir! It was quite random. Courtney gets silly when she's drunk, so she decided to show off her origami skills. She sat down on the street and made a cootie-catcher! She couldn't figure out the color/number system, so I helped her out. She even made fortunes and everything...all in Spanish. It was quite entertaining. I think that we talked to those guys for awhile, we took a picture with them (random) and stuff. Then we were off to find a new bar, which wasn't hard since Nahub is located in a major bar area. We walked into a bar called Medussa, but it was too crowded and smokey so we went to another one down the street whose name completely escapes me. We walked in, and it was a pretty cool place. I don't think that it was too crowded, to my knowledge. All I remember is that we stood against the wall which was lined with thick neon green lights and a huge big screen TV playing clips of people skiing. Random. And the music was really good, too, maybe this was the one that played "My Humps"? Oh well. I went up to the bar to order a vodka tonic, which turned out to be quite a confusing ordeal. You see, when I order drinks that have english names (which is many) I order with a Spanish accent because that way the bartender understands what I'm saying better. I ordered a vodka tonic, but the bartender didn't understand me. I repeated it many times, breaking it down, even ("una vodka con tonic") but she said that she didn't know what that was! Huh?? She then told me to hang on and she got the other bartender to help me. This bartender understood me right away. AND I got my choice of vodka, so of course I stuck with an old friend, Mr. Smirnoff. Then the other bartender apologized, embarrassed, and said that she was new. I gathered from her accent that she's American. She didn't understand me, and was embarrassed about it. However, the Spanish bartender DID understand. This means that I passed for Spanish! Yayyyy!!!! So that was exciting. We hung out at the bar for awhile, drinking and socializing. Jessica got her first drink of the night: a huge frozen margarita, which made her very happy. The whole time in Cadiz she had been crazing a margarita...actually our whole time in Spain. You see, it's pretty difficult to find a quality cocktail around Spain, even a place that serves them. You can mostly get them at Latin American restaurants. I have yet to figure out where I can get a martini. The margarita actually got her drunk, so it was a good deal. By the time we left the bar it was about 4am, and it was time for a food break. We asked somebody what was open for food, and I think that whoever we asked was with a group and we followed them. Actually, I'm again not quite sure. But I know that we got there and ran into some more Cadiz luck. We went to a bar/cafeteria on this strip of bars and clubs along the river...it was a block or two from the bus station! We knew exactly where we were! It was perfect since we were nervous that we wouldn't be able to find the bus station later and end up spending money on a taxi or something. It was great, because we had a little over 2 hours left to eat and drink, and we were in the perfect location. The cafeteria where we ate was nice, it reminded me of the NYPD Pizza Co. on Williams in Ann Arbor. Everyone got a slice of roquefort pizza (roquefort is eaten a lot here) and I got a jamon serrano (cured ham) sandwich in order to get my carbs and protein in the simplest way possible (the sandwich literally was a baguette with 2 pieces of cured ham, no condiments, no nothing). Let me pause to say that jamon serrano has become a staple for me here. It's a biiiig Spanish food, cured ham, and the sandwich is found almost anywhere...and I love it! It's simple and healthy and does the trick. Wow, was I a vegetarian once?? Anyways, so we sat at the cafeteria eating and making funny drunken conversation for awhile. We left around 5am to go to one or two more bars/clubs. We walked into a club that was playing loud music, but when we walked in the music was a little too loud. So we went to one next store that was mildly crowded that only played Spanish music. We stuck out like sore thumbs, we were the only foreigners there. It was a bunch of Spanish young adults dancing authentically to real (recent) Spanish music. I loved it! I was drunk enough to not feel out of place, despite being immensely out of place. Everyone was growing a bit weary, but I was still up for one more drink. I ordered my last vodka tonic of the night...nobody else ordered a drink. I had outdrunk everyone, including Courtney which is a big deal since she's a big partier. I mean, don't get me wrong, I like to party, but I'm the girl who always goes home earlier and moderates my alcohol consumption. I'm the girl who would rather chill at a cute little bar and sip wine, not go dancing and whatnot. So, I was quite proud of myself, hehehe. Then, the club played Las Ketchup's "Asereje" which made me immensely happy! It brought back happy high school memories. In '02 Evan spent a Summer in Spain, and that song had just come out and was the most popular, trendiest song in Spain. What it is is Spain's own "Macarena" basically. It's a very repetitive, catchy song that has a simple accompanied dance, very similar to the Macarena. Evan had taught a bunch of us high school peeps the song and dance and we looooved it. So, I was very happy to actually hear the song in Spain, to say the least. Of course, in my drunken lack of shame, I went all out, sang along, and did the whole dance. Nobody else in the club was doing the dance. Haha. Obviously that song and dance is not as cool as it used to be 5 years ago. I mean, imagine this little analogy: you're in America, you go to a club and this group of foreigners walks in. The club starts playing "Macarena" which of course is very groan-worthy. Nobody would want to do the Macarena when the song came on, unless joking around, because, well, it's the Macarena! Blech. I'm sure you'd think that these were a bunch of idiotic foreigners who obviously don't know what's up. Well, that's what I was in this Spanish club. I was that idiotic foreigner who didn't know what was up. What's funny is that I was quite aware that that song is very 'out', but I didn't give a shit, I just wanted to dance "Asereje"! So I was happy, very, very happy. I finished my drink, got my dancing fill, and we left around 5:45 to head to the bus station which was about 5 min (if that) away. On the way we stumbled upon a huge stone monument. Our drunken logic decided that it'd be a good idea to climb on it and take pictures. At a high point on the monument is this carved throne (high enough to signal that it was not to be sat upon). So we climbed up and sat on it. I needed to be hoisted up to get on it. We took so many pictures, we had a great time being idiots, of course. After climbing all over a historical monument for about 20 min we finally got to the bus station. We were all very drunk, and quite obvioius about it, there were people at the station who definitely noticed. There was an adjacent cafeteria/bar that wasn't opening until 6:30am. It was about 6:15 and we were drunk and impatient. Stacey started getting a bit sad because she realized that she lost her origami flowers. She thought that maybe they had dropped at the monument so she and Jessica went back to find them. Yep, that pretty much describes our drunken logic/values that night. Finally the cafeteria opened up a little before 6:30 and we were the first ones in. Yeah, we were still pretty wasted, and we needed to sober up a bit for the bus. Jessica and Stacey ordered pastries, coffee, and water. Courtney and I ordered jamon serrano sandwiches (yes, another one!), but this one was better because it came with olive oil and tomatoes. We also got waters. So, in Cadiz I had eaten 2 ham n cheese, 2 flan cups, cafe cortado, salad, paella, chocolate caliente, a chicken pocket, and 2 jamon serrano sandwiches. On top of that, I had drank a shitton and smoked some pot. Yep, the past 24 hours was definitely a full 24 hours of excessive, hedonistic delights.
We boarded the bus a little before 7am still pretty drunk. Luckily the bus was pretty empty (but there were nuns on it, hahahaha) so we could all get our own row to lie down and sleep in. I really wasn't tired, I could have kept going. However, once I laid myself down, I passed the hell out. I set my alarm for 8:30am and slept the whole time. Who knew?
CADIZ WAS AMAZING. IT WAS THE BEST. HONESTLY, THE GREATEST TIME THAT I'VE HAD IN SPAIN SINCE I'VE BEEN HERE. I'M SO HAPPY THAT I WENT AND PLAN ON RETURNING! SERIOUSLY, NO JOKE, A FUCKING AMAZING 24 HOURS WELL SPENT!!!!