Este es Spain, hombre!

Yes, they are real (that's what she said)!

September 5
Note: When I get back on Cadiz tomorrow I am going to upload all my photos to my Photobucket account so expect that soon…hopefully.
Today was my first day in Cadiz (pronounced Cah-deeth), Spain. We arrived in port around 0730 this morning while it was still dark. I had my first field program which was the Spanish Coastlines: Beaches to Gibraltar. I woke up at 6:40am this morning to be ready for the 8:00 departure time, which was delayed due to prolonged docking procedures. I am glad I did wake up early at the crack of dawn, though, because I was able to get a good view of Spain as well as the sunrise. Upon looking out my window after my alarm woke me at 6:40, the first thing I saw was the lighthouse’s light in the dark. I took a shower and when I came back out we were really close to port- I could see the cathedral from my window as well as the beginning of a spectacular sunrise over some silhouetted hills (wow, that sounds like something out of a poem). I went to breakfast with my roommate and met a couple other people who were going to be on the same coastlines trip. Afterwards, we both grabbed our cameras and went to the top deck and began snapping pictures of the amazing Spanish sunrise. Around that time they called people going on trips to get they’re passports. The reason we needed our actual passports is we were leaving the country, as part of the trip, to go to England (or rather a territory of England) believe it or not. Gibraltar is a province or territory of England.
Our buses left late at around 0900 and we drove through the edge of Cadiz, which really isn’t that large of a city. Some of the things I saw were very interesting and gave some insight to people’s daily lives. For instance, the first thing I noticed was the number of people I saw walking their dogs- not just in the morning but all day. I saw moms walking down the street with their kids in strollers, older residents walking up and down the beach, some taking an early morning swim, and we also came across a man taking his mentally handicapped son to the beach for the day. I also spotted rugby field posts on the beach, showing it does exist here in Spain, despite the fact that it is overshadowed almost completely by ‘football’. Speaking of football, the beaches here are never short of soccer goals as they appear on every beach. It struck me that people here (and probably all through Europe) live far more active lifestyles than back in the U.S. This makes me feel fat.
There were a few minor stops on the way to Gibraltar, the first of which were two Spanish forts (Santa Catarina and Saint Sebastian) in Cadiz built to protect the city from an English invasion. Though we only stopped for about five minutes to take pictures, we learned that they were made of what is called ‘oyster rock’ which is rock composed partially of shells (including oyster shells).
The city itself is a lot like other European cities (except smaller) in that old structures and buildings, etc. are incorporated into the urbanization of the city. For instance, a large wall constructed to keep the French out (I don’t blame them) now runs through the edge of town. It’s really cool how these elements from the past fit really well with the newer European architecture. Anyway, we continued driving south-east-ish and after stopping at the two forts and leaving Cadiz, our next stop was a small, beachside town (which I forgot the name of). We walked on a walkway by the beach for about 15 minutes, enjoying the views of the beachfront houses lined up down the shore. We headed further down on the bus and came to another beach called Bolonia- however this one had ancient Roman ruins. Though we ran out of time and didn’t get a chance to see them up close unfortunately, we did get another chance to walk closer along the beach which was enjoyable. Again, we headed further southeast towards “The Rock”.
Originally I thought that Gibraltar was just a really big rock that you look at from shore. It turned out to be an insanely gigantic rock with a population of over 30,000. As we approached I caught my very first ever glimpse of Africa off in the distance (it was the horizon line of Tangier) as well as the Rock itself which was indescribably large (think of, like, Louie Anderson, Rosie O’Donell, and John Madden rolled into one ungodly abomination and multiply that by one thousand…and then tell me what you get-I kinda want to know). Within the isthmus we could see a lot of scattered freighters anchored offshore.
Crossing the border into ‘England’ was easier than…stealing candy from a dead person? Literally we just flashed our passports and continued walking. The first thing we saw when we left the building was the English red telephone booth. The town itself didn’t look too much different than a Spanish town- it still had that small-town feel. The town was situated next to the steep, suicidal cliffs of the 1,400’ rock. We got on new buses and began to serpentine up the cliff. A testament to the smallness of the town is that they have a small airplane runway which is intersected by the main road- meaning you drive across the runway as if it were a road. Before leaving up the hill, however, I was surprised to hear the bus driver mention that closer to the top there were monkeys (specifically Barbary Macaques aka rock ape). As I looked out the window on the way up, I saw the first monkey which was nonchalantly sitting on a fence. We stopped off at the cave, which was a large, mostly natural cavern used by many throughout time. In Greek times, the rock was one of the Pillars of Hercules and also contained ancient documents. It was used by the Spanish as a hiding place from the English and was a bunker area during WWII. It was full of stalagmites and stalactites, and had the appearance of a rock that melted. Upon exiting (conveniently into the gift shop, not unlike Disneyland), there were many monkeys dashing around, apparently with no fear of humans. On the roof there was a mother monkey with her baby who was joined by a third that proceeded to courteously eat her back lice. I got an awesome close up picture with one.
We went back down the hill to have lunch in a small town on the cliff side. There was a huge square with restarurants and a long street with shops on either side. Four of us decided to eat at an English bar/pub called The Horseshoe. They serve shepherd’s pies and fish and chips and stuff. I had pot roast with Yorkshire pie and a pint of John Smith smooth beer. It was wild having an English meal on the Rock of Gibraltar.
We headed back across the border and back on the buses to the ship. We went straight back through cow pastures/farmland to Cadiz (which btw is surrounded by marshes). Back on the ship, two of my other friends and I decided to go into Cadiz just to poke around and find something to eat. We walked down small alleyways which yielded into large squares, usually with a church or theater. These alleys really remind you of where you are (the scooters zipping past also jog your memory). Our original intention was to find a bar and grab a local beer and watch the Spain vs. Belicia game. We didn’t find many bars showing it so we decided to grab a bite. We went from square to square, eventually settling on a square with tables next to a fountain and surrounded by restaurants. I saw that they had octopus (pulpo) on the menu and we ordered a dish of that. It was really small so we decided to get a pan of chicken Paella to split. It was amazing and after finishing we walked back along the stone wall next to the water. We saw two ficus large trees brought back from Africa by 2 nuns who planted them in a park over 100 years ago. We also saw a convertible full of Spanish matadors in their full bullfighting costumes, blasting music, obviously drunk and cheering at people, waving cigars in their hands. My God, if only the rest of the world was this awesome.
So far Spain is an absolutely stunning place with unique people and fascinating sights. I’ve only briefly covered it as it is practically indescribable and what is amazing is that it’s only my first day here. Again I’ll say I forgot some details but only minor ones. I’ve already planned to go to the cathedral tomorrow with some people (everything is just about closed Sundays). Spain already set the bar for the other ports really high and I’m excited to see what Morocco and beyond will be like.