Spain

I am so sorry it has taken me so long to update, we had a day between Spain (the mainland) and the Canary Islands and then after the Canary Islands we have had lots of mid-terms which have kept me busy.  Anywho, here is some info on what I did in Spain.  I apologize that I cannot put up pictures right now but I am going to try to attach some—it may work, it may not. 

Spain:

We spent six days in Spain as we had two days added as part of plan B (because we couldn’t go to Morocco).  The first day we (Sarah, Danielle, Amy and I) spent in Cadiz just wandering around and figuring out train tickets and such.  The Cathedral/Mosque in the middle of the city reminded us of Belgium and the alleyways reminded us of Lisbon.  There were a lot of gelato and candy stores which we loved, of course.  That night there was a very cool parade that apparently happens only once a year and everyone was lining the streets.  Children and teens marched slowly down the street with candles and a big “platform” with a statue of Mary surrounded by candles behind them—it was very impressive!

The second day we got up and took a train to Madrid, which took about five hours.  Basically my friend Sarah has a professor at her home university who sailed on a previous voyage.  This professor met a man in Cuba and through talking to the various SAS students he was inspired and left Cuba for Spain.  We met him at the train station and he took us to the hotel that we were staying at that night (as his plumbing was being fixed).  He showed us around Madrid (where we randomly found our friend Jess) and took us out to a traditional Spanish restaurant which was amazingly good—honestly some of the best food I have had all voyage.  We met up with some of his friends there and helped one of them practice his English.  After that we to the Irish Pub down the street (ironic right?) and hung out there for awhile before heading back to the hotel.

The third day we went to his house for breakfast, he had gone to work but left us this amazing tableful of food—sweetbread, nutella, cereal, fresh fruit!, eggs, etc.  Basically we were all salivating because breakfast on the ship is good but…..well its breakfast on a ship.  For most of the day we wandered around Madrid and got some souvenirs.  We tried to find some Spanish food for lunch but Sarah and Amy got this pizza with a very gross looking green cheese on top so that didn’t work out too well :(  We met the friend back at his house and he showed us around a bit more on our way to his favorite wine shop.  We got to taste different Spanish and Italian wines (Danielle and I shared a glass) which were pretty good.  There was one that costs over 270 Euro a bottle and it was okay but I would never pay that much for wine.  All in all we probably had less than a glass total but it was really fun and we got some good cheese to go with it!  As he came from Cuba, he wanted to take us out for Cuban food so after the wine tasting we went to a traditionally Cuban restaurant which was again really good food!  That night we went salsa dancing with his friends and I missed dancing at Eau Claire with all my friends there (love you guys)! 

The next day was spent seeing just a bit more of Madrid before Jess and I bussed it back to Cadiz (that was cheaper than the train) even though it was an eight hour ride—we slept for the most part—and the final day we wandered about Cadiz a bit more before getting back on the ship in preparation for the Canary Islands—which I will tell you about hopefully later today.  Love and miss you all—hopefully this attachment with the pictures works :)

~Colleen