Spain, Losses, and Musings

I'm on the ship now, and we take off for Morocco in a few hours. We'll be in Casablanca in less than 2 days! I'm excited but nervous for this vastly different country.

Anyway....

The Top Ten Reasons I Love Spain:

1. The food! I've eaten seafood paella, the world famous (and rightly so) ham of Southern Spain, tapas, tapas, y tapas, the best ice cream and sweets, Mexican food (LOL) that was fantastic, and even more tapas, and SEAFOOD!!!
2. Sevilla. Me encanta Sevilla! It's about 2 hours out of Cadiz (where our boat was docked) and Kelsey, me, and some other girls rode the train there yesterday for about $20. While Cadiz is amazing and quaint, Sevilla is beyond words in beauty, shopping, and culture! I want to live there! I took a picture outside of a house for sale, so hey, you never know! Kelsey and I went into the famous Catherdal in Sevilla. It used to be a mosque, but when the Christians came, they destroyed all the Muslim relics, replacing them with their own. The current result is a Moorish structure with Christian artwork. It is unlike anything else I've seen. It is the home of Christopher Columbus' tomb, which was something to see. We bought a lot of stuff in Sevilla! I bought a wrap at H&M (lol) that will be a great head covering or shoulder covering for countries where I need to be more modest, like Morocco and India. In Spain a lot of women wear these pants that are reminiscent of Aladdin; they're flowly and puff out at the bottom. Well, for only 4,50 euros, I bought a pair! They are rather silly, but they are really really thin and will be great for the humid countries! Okay, but the best thing I bought in Sevilla was at a Borders-like store. I couldn't escape Europe without buying, of course, a DVD! I bought "El Graduado," which is the Spanish-dubbed "Graduate!" (I know what you're thinking, Megan and Ashley, will the obsession with "The Graduate" ever stop?!?!) It is my most awesome souvenir as of yet. We ate great food in Sevilla too. The best part was how many times we got lost in the University of Sevilla. We seemed to keep being forced to enter its grounds, only to come out the wrong end, surrounded by students going in all directions! The line of the day was, "Donde Estamos?" which means "Where are we?" When we asked locals that, they usually laughed at us and gladly showed us the way! Sevilla was a fantastic day trip!
3. The people. They come off stern and cold when you pass by the Spanish on the streets, but the second you ask for directions, or try to speak Spanish, or just talk to them, they turn from stern and cold to excitable and warm, playful and wild. They are so fun to hear and to be around. And they sleep all day and party all night! Which leads me on with my list....
4. Siesta. Siesta is Spanish for "nap." At 2pm, everyday, day in and day out, all Spaniards take a siesta. They close their shops, restaurants, and offices, and take a THREE HOUR lunch/nap break until 5pm. This may seem very odd to us Americans, being so obsessed with proficiency and speed. But no, in Spain, you sleep until 9am, open your shop at 10am, close from 2pm-5pm, and open again at 5pm, staying open until 11pm or midnight! All the Spanish stay out all night! The restaurants and bars don't even start serving dinner until 8pm or 9pm, and they all close at 6am!!! No joke! At 1am, there will still be little little kids out with their parents. The parents will be drinking and smoking cigarettes and the kids will be petting pigeons! It is actually pretty funny, because in America, family life is so different. But I guess when you sleep for 3 hours during the day, you can stay out later?
5. The history. The newest buildings in Cadiz seem to be from, you know, the 1700s. The forts that protected the city from Napoleon are still up, as well as the old wall that surrounded the city. It is so humbling to stand on cobblestones that thousands of years and even more feet have seen.
6. The Roman Ruins. Did any of you know that the Romans came into Spain?! I guess I should've known that, but I certainly was surprised to find Roman ruins all over Espana! I saw an old Roman theater, to name one structure. In Cadiz, the Romans were welcomed, as the Cadizians had been ravaged by other invaders, and thought Cesar would give them a hand! He did, and all people of Cadiz were given the privileges allowed to the Romans, including citizenship! I learned all of this on my trip to Gibraltar, thanks to my amazing tour guide, Maria-Carmen.
7. The beaches. Cadiz has the most beautiful beaches I've ever seen. The softest, whitest sand and the bluest, clearest waters, surrounded by beautiful jagged rocks, and flanked by old forts from I don't even know how long ago. At one beach in Cadiz, they have little huts that sell tapas and drinks during the late nights! So awesome to eat and drink in a hut on the beach of Spain! Down in that area they also had little huts that sold bracelets that I could've bought in Venice Beach, CA. LOL
8. One the second night, we went to the aforementioned beach area to shop and hang out, we ended up going to the only restaurant with seats open, which was a Mexican place! But, the food was sooo amazing and, most excitingly, the waitress spoke English! She loved us and kept bringing us free drinks! It was so much fun!
9. I love everything about Spain.
10. Tapas.

The Top Ten Things that SUCKED in Spain:

1. Wearing a money belt under my clothes. Uncomfortable, sweaty, and hard to use. I guess it is better than getting something stolen... maybe...
2. On the first day, I lost 20 euros.
3. On the third day, when we were in Sevilla, it was 10pm and we were getting ready to board the last bus home to our ship in Cadiz. We bought our bus tickets that morning so that if we ran out of money shopping (which we did) we would at least be able to get home. Well, at least we thought. As we start to board the bus, I realize I don't have my bus ticket. And the ticket teller refused to help me and just yelled at me in Spanish. Luckily, the bus driver believed me and my friends and let me on without a ticket.
4. On said bus ride home, I realized I had a horrible heat rash all over my legs. Lovely.
5. Oh yeah, then, this morning, I lost my debit card and my ID. (Don't worry, Mom canceled my card.)

Currently? Awaiting for embarkation towards Morocco and musing over traveling as a whole. When traveling, one risks so much--loosing luggage, passports, DEBIT CARDS, MONEY, BUS TICKETS, plane tickets, and valuable items. One risks being afraid and confused and yelled at because of language and cultural barriers. One risks missing the familiar. Missing it a lot. But then, one sees the Rock of Gibraltar and Sevilla, buys Aladdin pants and El Graduado, eats the best food in the world, and gets blasted by the Andalusian wind. It is easy to say the risks are worth it when standing in front of the oldest building in Europe (from, like, 900 AD?!), but not so easy when you are trying to buy lotion for your heat rash and you realize, as the cashier yells at you in a language you barely understand, that your debit card is missing. I'm trying to take the mistakes I've already made in Spain with me to the other ports I'm headed so as to not make silly mistakes anywhere else (especially since the other ports will be more dangerous and foreign to me than Spain has been).

I've just decided that these little mistakes are not going to ruin my image and feelings towards the most beautiful and magical place I've ever been in my life.