Night(s) Out on the Town and Farewell to Spain

September 7 and 8
Spain Day 3 and 4
Note: I got a few of my pictures up but not a lot. I’ll end up finding an internet café in Morocco (hopefully) and uploading the rest- I had a weak signal.
Yesterday, I got up around lunchtime and I met with some of the girls from the previous daytrip in one of the dining halls. We were going to go to one of the markets- I did not realize what I was getting myself into (girls + women’s apparel x cheap prices = sad Colin). We took a bus to New Cadiz which consists of tall apartment complexes and a lot of retail shops. The market was along the bay where there were stalls set up selling various fashion accessories and cheap jewelry. The girls spent about 20 minutes at a one of the stalls. Not that I’m complaining- I was glad I could join them. But while girls want accessories and purses and dresses for souvenirs, men (real men) want something cheap that looks cool and is meant to entertain you for, like, 10 minutes. There was nothing really that caught my attention- I more or less looked for souvenirs for the people reading this blog. After the market we went to the Spanish version of a Target store (while in there I really felt like I was back in America). After buying some stuff to bring back on the ship, the girls decided to go across the street to a fashion clothing store of some kind. I decided to leave the group, and I convinced the other guy with me to go back to old town with me.
We caught the bus back to Old Cadiz (I don’t believe they’re separate cities) and stopped off at a souvenir shop to pick up some postcards, again for people reading this blog. (If you want a postcard, or one from a specific country, email me your address.) After purchasing the cards, we walked through town with the intent of finding a market or something. While we were walking down one of the alleys, I spotted two of my friends walking down the next street. I found out they were heading for the market to by some supplies for back on the ship. We decided to join them and head to the market. It was a newer market and not the type we encountered earlier, so I got a 2 liter of lemon flavored soda which ended up lasting a couple hours. We then had lunch at a restaurant next to the place I ate lunch at yesterday.
After lunch, the four of us decided to walk to the beach at old Cadiz and hang out on the beach. We walked along the beach and found a bar. We bought some beers and hung out on the beach and talked about Semester at Sea and what we thought of it so far- we all concluded that we were really lucky to be here. It was as I was looking out at the really blue ocean and lying out on the beach that I had that same feeling as before that I was in the middle of a life-changing experience. We continued down the beach and made our way back to the ship. We then showered and decided to get dinner and then find a bar (I heard Spain has an incredible nightlife) and poke around town at night as it was officially our last night in Spain. We had dinner and walked around town and ended up walking along the beach.
The next day I woke up and around 1:00pm, my roommate and I went out to go to the cathedral plaza to check out this temporary exhibit in front of the cathedral. It was titled (in Spanish) “What if you could live in 125 years?” and I’ve got to say, after walking through, I still don’t know what it would be like to be 125. Aside from the fact that the whole exhibit was in Spanish, there were really a bunch of cool multimedia effects and displays. For instance, there was a projection of a fish pond on the floor and if you step on the water it would ripple and the fish would scatter if you stepped close to them. There was also a book that had a projected image on each page- and as you flipped the page the 3D image would adhere to the page.
After we finished the exhibit, we walked next door to the cathedral and decided to walk up to the top of the cupula (tower). There was a fellow SAS student there and I ended up spotting him 4 Euros so he could buy a ticket. The three of us walked up to the top up a spiraling, stone walkway. When we reached the top, I discovered it was well worth the hike up as we got to see a 360 degree view of Cadiz. We could see the boat as well as the various beaches we’d been to as well as a good view of the below plazas and squares. While taking pictures, I found out that the other SAS student, John from San Diego, was also a rugby player (I had a good feeling he played rugby).
After taking countless pictures we headed back down to go to the markets, which was something I had wanted to do. Walking through the market (which was indoors), I saw lots of seafood, including squid, octopus, and eels, as well as fruits and breads and other products. Afterwards we walked a little more through the town as this was our last chance to be in the city. It was about this time that I got that sentimental feeling you get when you realize you’ll probably never see something again, in this case Cadiz. After getting on the ship, I grabbed my computer and uploaded pictures and checked emails. I got back on the boat and about 45 minutes later it turned 5 (PM), which meant that you couldn’t get off the ship anymore and at 6:00pm, everyone has to be back on the ship. It’s about 6:40pm and we are scheduled to leave port for Morocco at 8:00. It takes one day from Spain to get to Morocco so I’ll resume the blog then. Hopefully the posts aren’t overwhelmingly long. So see you all in Morocco in like a day! (From now on, I’m probably not going to reread my posts because I’m too lazy, so again excuse grammar, etc.)