CÁDIZ: excessive, hedonistic delights...part 1

Oh man. Talk about a way to live up my last weekend of "winter break". Cadiz was crazy, uninhibited, excessive fun, and I don't even know where to begin. So, let's just start at the very beginning (a very good place to start). Woke up at 8:45 to get ready. Made myself some killer peanut butter toast, and went back into the room to get ready and "pack" (a.k.a. stuff enough for one night in my little purse). We had told Maruja the night before that we would like some bocadillos for the bus since we would miss lunch. While Stacey was in the bathroom Maruja entered our room and asked if we wanted 1 bocadillo or 2. I said 2 thinking that she meant 1 for the two of us or 1 for each of us. Little did I know that she would pack us 2 ham n cheese sandwiches each and 2 flan cups each. Oh man. We decided not to pack our wigs since we knew officially that it wasn't going to be Carnivale weekend, but we packed the fake eyelashes and glitter anyways, just for kicks. We headed out around 10:30, made a quick VIPS stop (I decided to go all out in the next 24 hours, food, alcohol, what have you) and got a cangrejo wrap (!!). Then we made the 25 min walk to the bus station. It was supposed to rain that day (50% chance), but it had rained in the middle of the night, and the sun was breaking as we walked to the station. Talk about luck! We got to the station about an hour early, so we bummed around and such. We ran into Rachael, Julia, Elena, and Julia's friend Zoey from back home who were all on our bus. Then Jessica, Courtney, Sam, and finally Herbie arrived. We boarded the bus at 12 and were off! The bus ride was fun, it was gorgeous out and we were all having a good time and joking around...the ride was about and hour and a half. We got to Cadiz around 2, and everyone besides Jessica, Courtney, Stacey and myself went to check into their hostel (they decided to stay for the weekend). So, the four of us were on our own, in a big beach town with absolutely nowhere to go and nothing to do. It felt strange, and awesome! It's so exciting to feel like the world is your oyester, per se. So we decided to walk towards the beach, which is pretty damned easy since Cadiz is a peninsula. Oh man, it was beautiful out, it WAS our lucky day! We walked up this old overpass that looked like it used to be a church or fortress. It is right over the ocean, overlooking a steep drop to rocks and water. We took a bunch of pictures because it's kind of hard to explain, and hung out overlooking the vast ocean ahead. It was so nice. Then we walked down and entered a little park/plaza. I saw the biggest trees that I have ever seen in my life! I'll have pictures, trust me. The plaza was so nice, garden-like and peaceful. Lots of fountains, trees, flowers, and stray cats, hehe. Then we walked through the center of town, not knowing where to go, really, without maps, relying simply on our intuition. We ended up in la Plaza San Antonio which had a huge church and some hippies sleeping on the ground...love it already. Cadiz is awesome, it reminds me a lot of San Diego, except better because, well, it's SPAIN! I am a huuuuuge fan. The people even remind me of San Diego people. Me gusta. After we passed the plaza, we entered a shopping district which was really quaint and nice. It was siesta time, so the streets were pretty empty and a lot of stores were closed. We went into a few chain stores that were open, so that passed the time. Then we realized that we were tired for some reason, and sat on some benches and tomamos el sol (took in some rays). It was so relaxing. I ate one of the flan cups I had left (that's right, I had already eaten both sandwiches, the cangrejo wrap, and one flan cup...I was planning an awesome day of simple excess and freedom, what can I say?). We saw an old lady with a little dog wearing some scottish print sweater feeding pigeons from a huge bag of breadcrumbs. It was extremely Mary Poppins-esque! Therefore, it made me quite happy. There were some Spanish guys and girls hanging out in the same bench area as us, they looked around our age. They were really friendly, asking us where we were fun, trying their English and whatnot. It was nice. One of the guys was blatantly flirting with us, and tried speaking English to us the whole time. He asked us why we were just sitting around and I answered, "Porque somos flojas" ("Because we're lazy"). The guy nodded as if to confirm that that was a legitimate reason. Then Jessica turned to me and said, "Wait, doesn't 'perezosa' mean 'lazy'?" and I told her that I had always learned that 'floja' means lazy. She then said that she had learned recently that "floja" can mean "loose". Oh man, we all started laughing. That's embarrassing, if it's true. Who knows, I know for sure that in my Spanish classes in the states we learned that "flojo" is lazy, but perhaps it's different here since I learned Latin Spanish. Oh man. That was our cue to leave. We decided to get some caffeine, so we went to this cute little cafe where we were able to sit outside and take in the Cadiz atmosphere. I got a cafe cortado (coffee with half the amount of milk as a normal cafe con leche) which was very good, and thankfully small (coffee servings here come nowhere close to the size of coffees in the states, it's quite refreshing). Everyone else got cafe con leches (coffees with milk) and various pastries. Then we decided to find a beach, which again, was not complicated. We walked down, took our shoes off, walked through the water, etc. It was amazing, the water was cold, but the waves were huge and soothing. People were actually swimming although the sun was getting ready to set and it was in the 60's. Sooooooo many surfers! I mean, a shitload of surfers, so that was a treat. After awhile wading in the water, we went back to sit on a stoop and warm up (Courtney's feet were legitimately purple!). We sat back, watched the surfers and the sunset over the ocean. Sam came and met up with us. He told us a funny story about how he and Herbie decided to smoke, Herbie started tweaking out, got obsessed with the idea of eating ice cream, at a huuuuuge serving of ice cream, and got sick from all of the ice cream and went back to the hostel. LOL. Ohhhhh Herbie. So Sam met up with us by himself. We all hung out on the beach for a bit and took some pictures and basically just took in the sights. After the sun was basically down, we took a walk towards Sam's hostel to see if we found anything cool on the way. We walked along the beach, the beach promenade there reminds me so much of certain areas in San Diego! We finally picked up a map at hotel and tried to navigate our way back to the hostel. Well, we ended up getting a bit lost, but we ended up in a central area and stumbled upon some old castle fortresses, cathedrals, and government buildings which were a joy to look at. We were hungry around 8ish, so we found a nice restaurant with a huge menu and went to town. We ordered a bottle of Riesling for the table which got us giggley and happy. We had a great meal; Jessica and I split a salad and a paella de mariscos (shellfish). The paella was good, not the best, kind of watery, but it had a crapton of shellfish in it, so at least we got our money's worth. After dinner Sam ordered a cafe solo (black) and I ordered an apple, hehe, I'm silly. We had a jolly ole time, so much laughter and joking, my cheeks were burning from laughing so hard. We weren't even feeling the wine anymore, we were just in good spirits. It just felt so good to have no responsiblities and be completely uninhbited in this lovely Spanish beach town. Stacey then reached over and accidently spilled Sam's coffee all over his lap! Luckily it wasn't too hot, but it was definitely not very attractive, hahahaha. He was a good sport. After dinner we made a special lil trip...Jessica had stumbled upon a Ben&Jerry's which seemed to tickle everyone's fancy. Stacey got a huge cookie sundae, and Jessica and Courtney got ice cream cones. I wasn't planning on getting anything, but then I noticed that this B&J's was unique: it had a hot chocolate menu (and Spanish hot chocolate is to die for). But the chocolate menu here had all these choices of ice cream to put in the hot chocolate. How cool is that? It was my day of excess, so I decided to take advantage...I had a chocolate con Chunky Monkey. It was good, overwhelmingly sweet, and despite the small size of the chocolate, I couldn't finish it. Also, the B&J ice cream here is not as great in the states cuz it's super frozen from all of the shipping. Ah well. Sam asked directions to the hostel, and also nightlife advice (the workers looked about our age), so we were off. On the way we bought a fifth of Smirnoff for pre-gaming. We arrived at the hostel, which was pretty nice...I had never seen a hostel before! Also, coincidentally, the hostel was a 3 minute walk from the restaurant/B&J. Oh us. Our time in Cadiz seemed to work out quite well, and not on purpose. We did very little planning, but for some reason everything seemed to fall into place. For example, we planned our weekend without looking at the weather, then found out on Thursday that it was supposed to rain...but it didn't! Also, we happened to stumble upon a restaurant that was just around the corner from the hostel for which we had been searching. Who knew? Sam and Herbie got a hostel room which was a double private with it's own bathroom and shower. All for 23 euro, not bad! We found Herbie face down on his bed, but he was OK. Haha, that boy. We hung out in the hostel room, watched some TV and such. Then Sam took a shower, and Herbie decided to get some food so Stacey and I decided to keep him company. We went to this little cafeteria near the hostel. We needed to buy some soda to chase the vodka we bought, and there just happened to be a candy/convenience store right next to the cafeteria! Pure luck, I tell ya, everything just works out in Cadiz. Then Herbie ate a burger and a Spanish tortilla, and Stacey ordered a Spanish tortilla since she had a headache from eating too much sugar and fried food (she ate croquetas at the restaurant earlier). And then, another coincidental stroke of luck. I had found out that morning that the Olympic opening ceremonies would be on that night, but that we would probably miss it. I had said that we should find a bar or something that will show them, but I had completely forgotten in the excitement of the day. When we entered the cafeteria, there was this huge big screen set up right next to the table that we ate at, and it was playing the Olympic opening ceremony! AND it had just started! I tell ya, everything just works out in Cadiz. We watched the whoooole opening ceremony! It was so great, and it made me sooo happy. Dammit, I freaking LOVE Cadiz! And I swear, Cadiz loves me, too. I could live here. It's so chill and so pretty and so fun! After a very satisfying hour or so in the cafeteria, we took a nice 3 minute walk back to the hostel. We started getting ready for the night, I put on the fake eyelashes, but they were a bit too crazy for Cadiz. I mean, I bet Cadiz gets crazy during Carnivale, but the overall feeling here is very calm and laid-back. I LOVE IT. I was so excited to see what the long night ahead held...