!Vamos mi Seville!

O wow. We just did Spain and might I add we did it well. Everyone on the ship is exhausted, I have never slept so much in one day before. In fact that’s all I’ve done is sleep and wake up to eat then sleeping again. So excuse me if this entry is a bit delirious at times, I’ll try to stay awake to finish it.

Spain was incredible. I cannot wait to go back and spend more time there. We docked in Cadiz on Wednesday morning and woke up to the sun shining off the top of the incredible Spanish buildings right outside our windows. It only took a short time to clear the boat so Vanessa, Emily, Ally and I went out to get café con leche and explore some of the city streets before our day trips started. I had signed up for the Cadiz city orientation. We first got on the buses to the town hall and got to go inside and see where the mayoress and her cabinet met. I never knew much about Cadiz but its history is extremely interesting and dates much farther back than I thought. My friends and I have a running joke that everything was invented in Cadiz because it seems like that’s all that the tour guide said. But we saw the inside of a beautiful cathedral and had some free time to eat fresh pan at an outdoor flower market. Then we walked to the Archeological museum. The Phoenicians were the first inhabitants and not much is known about them but they left some fascinating artifacts behind. Then the Romans came in and built plenty and there are still remains of the ancient stadium they built. Really cool stuff! The Moorish influence is of course the most prevalent and can be seen everywhere but I never knew the history before that. So after a while the tour got kind of dull but I’m glad I went and learned the background of the beauty all around me. The beaches here are beautiful too.

As soon as the tour was ended my friends and I met outside the port for tapas and vino. We found this smoky little bar and sat around for hours drinking and having good conversation. These were my favorite moments of the trip, good wine and good friends! Back to the ship then to change for dinner but then we decided to just hop a train to Seville that night instead of waiting for the morning. So we grabbed our backpacks and headed for the train station. High on life and so happy to just have the freedom to travel when and where we pleased, we dilly-dallied through the streets of Spain and apparently took our sweet time because we missed the last train by 10 minutes. O well, good thing were all pretty flexible travelers. We then rushed to the bus station hoping we weren’t too late. We just made the bus to Seville and it turned out to be the better situation because we later found out that the train took about twice as long as the bus. We all immediately passed out on the bus, I guess our excitement caught up with us finally and knocked us out. An hour and a half later we stumble out in the middle of the night into the middle of Seville with no plan and no map. Were all tired and hungry (that was mostly me) and annoyed. We were so hungry that Sean picked an orange out of one of the many trees that lined the streets and we ate it. Bad bad bad idea. It tasted pretty much like straight acid. We later found out that these oranges are shipped to England to make marmalade. Carrying our backpacks through the city trying to find a hostel and food and beginning to argue with each other about which to do first, we suddenly hear this girl ask us, in English, if we needed a place to stay. You would have thought we had just found water in the middle of the Kalahari we were so excited! They were 3 students from North Carolina studying abroad and they showed us to a hostel and where to eat, and handed down the map that they first got when they got to the city. We are trying to figure out how to hand it down so that this map continues to save students in Seville. I think I might give it to Cass when she moves here;) So we got settled in our hostel (one room for the boys and one for the girls) and went out to eat because we were still famished.  However, the funniest part of the whole trip was the fact that the only open restaurant we could find was a Chinese one. So as midnight hit, I turned 20 years old in Spain eating my first real meal there in a Chinese restaurant! Haha, good memories. Now our goal is to find a Spanish restaurant in China. We went straight back to the hostel and passed right out. And that was our first night in Spain ☺

 The next morning I woke up to the boys raiding our room and kicking my bed as a good morning wake up it’s your birthday greeting. Not the most pleasant good morning but o well. It started a great day! We went for café con leche and pasterias and began to plan our day. We bought our tickets for the partido de futbol later that night; Seville FC vs. Valencia FC, supposedly the best game of the year. On the way back, since it had only been an hour since our last huge meal and we were already starved again, we stopped at a restaurant for another amazing luncheon. A few bottellas de tinto y muchas tapas later, I got to call mommy and Cass and Jules to talk to them for my birthday! It was so good to hear their voices! That was definitely one of the best meals I ate. We made friends with the waiter who told us to come back later for cervezas antes del partido (beers before the game) and we readily agreed. But we first had to go meet our other friends and stop by the hostel. We changed into our Seville FC jerseys and scarves and headed back towards the bar. The atmosphere just getting closet to the stadium was insane. You could feel the electricity in the air; everyone was pumped. We made friends with guys in the bar who taught us the cheers, which have been stuck in our heads for days and you can hear people singing it around the ship. “Vamos mi Seville! Vamos campeons!” and there’s a nice little tune that goes along with it too. So we get into the game and its even crazier inside. I guess we were a little late because Valencia had already scored a goal. But lots of jumping around wildly, chanting, singing, wildness, new friends, and screaming later Seville scored the winning goal in the 89th minute. Everyone lost it. We were all screaming and running and jumping and hugging everyone and kissing everyone on the cheeks and waving our scarves and shaking fences; it was sheer madness and some of the most fun I’ve ever had. Pretty awesome birthday present. I am a brand new futbol fan and a diehard Seville FC follower. Mikey, some day were going to a Real Madrid game, I promise. So everyone is stoked and we head back to the bar to celebrate with all of Seville our party occupied like 3 tables of just SASers. The drinks kept flowing and the entire bar sang me happy birthday and I even got a birthday cheesecake with a candle! It was so much fun! A couple hours after that we go out to the discoteca and there’s only like 5 other people in there. We were fine making the party ourselves though and more and more Spaniards kept showing up and dancing with us. We were the only Americans in there which was perfect! It turned out to be the craziest night ever. And the best one I might add. The girls and I were dancing on little stages and I’m pretty sure the whole club sang me happy birthday too. We had so much fun! It was the best birthday of my life and going to be pretty hard to beat in the future! We stayed up till I think 5 or 6 in the morning talking and making video messages to send to Russell. And I’m pretty sure Jordan had to carry me to the room hehehe☺ Like I said, best birthday ever!

The next morning though, not as much fun. Jose and I are no longer friends ha. Senora had to wake us up by banging on our doors. We went back to our café for desayuno and met up with the girls there. Immediately after breakfast we went to lunch. That is how we planned and executed our days was by meals. So when you all ask me about Spain, I’ll only be able to talk about the food and I’m more than ok with that! After lunch we split from the girls to go see the cathedral. I guess it’s the third biggest in the world. It was beautiful. And yes Grandma, I was a good little Catholic girl and knelt down and said a prayer for everyone I love. There were walls made of pure gold carvings and statues and the detail that went into everything was amazing. I’ll try to post pics soon. We trekked to the top of the tower to see a bird’s eye view of all of Seville. Incredible. There aren’t words to describe how beautiful it was. I am so grateful we got to see that. We headed to the Plaza de Espana after that but we were all so tired and sore that the impression it made wasn’t as magnifique as it should have been. A vendor gave Heather and me free scarves though which was pretty sweet. We hopped a bus back to Cadiz after that. Showers and more food were definitely in order so after everyone got cleaned, we went tapas hopping! It was raining by now but that didn’t bother us. We had found an outdoor tapas restaurant with a covering and sat around with laughed and talked and ate until it was time to move onto our next tapas bar. Walking back to the ship in the pouring rain was awesome. Doesn’t sound fun but we were loving life, nothing could bring us down and we were in Spain! Slept like a baby that night too ☺

The next day we spent getting snacks for the ship and finding an internet café. Everyone was so tired when we got back on the ship, we have all just been sleeping. We were stopped in Gibraltar all day to get fuel but at logistical pre-port they told us that since the seas have been too rough we couldn’t get it and now might not get into Morocco until tomorrow night. We were supposed to be there at 8am tomorrow! So everyone is kinda freaking out right now but honestly, I could use another day of rest.

Miss you all terribly but I’m having an amazing time. I love this experience and I can’t believe we are already one port down. So excited though! Jordan and I are planning on taking the train to Marrekesh to meet up with our friends. I cannot wait to eat their food haha! Update soon and sorry this last one took so long, I've been very busy!

Lots of love,
Al