This past weekend I got to visit one of my favorite places in the world for way too short an amount of time, in fact what ended up being less than 40 hours. The place I speak of is Cádiz, a small city located on the southern coast of Spain, approximately an hour and a half train ride away from Seville. For those of you unaware of the special bond I share with Cádiz, allow me to provide some background.
In 2010, fresh out of my sophomore year in high school, I headed off to Cádiz on a Spanish immersion program where I was to live with a local family for the summer. Not only was this my first trip to Europe, this was also my first time traveling alone. That summer, I fell in love with Cádiz over and over again. Not only does the small city boast some of the most beautiful beaches in the world, it also has this unexplainable charm that originates in the hospitality of the people. To sum it all up - Cádiz is a home away from home for me. Every few years, when I am given the opportunity to go back and visit, I experience a feeling of relief. Why relief, you ask? Because Cádiz doesn't change and I have a feeling it never will, or at least in my book it won't.
While this weekend may sound perfect, it did not begin that way. I've never once given attention to Friday the 13th because I'm not much of the superstitious type. However, I may now be making an exception for Friday the 13th because wow did I experience bad luck. My luck actually ran dry around two hours into the trip south when my flight was unable to land in Seville because of the heavy cloud cover. Instead, Ryanair, oh the ever-so-loved Ryanair, dropped me off in Málaga. Yeah, that is nowhere near Seville. After enough people complained however, the airlines was forced into supplying buses from Málaga to Seville so tack on two more hours that I didn't expect to be traveling on Friday. Oh wait, I mean tack on another six hours because when Tori and I actually made it to Seville, we had missed the train we had previously booked to Cádiz. During the Málaga episode, we had figured hey no problem... trains are easy enough to book. Except, oh wait, had we already forgotten this was the weekend of Cádiz carnaval? So with six hours to kill until the next available train, Tori and I called a friend studying abroad in Seville and met up with her for drinks. We love ya, Jules! I'd say the bad travel luck ended there but once on the train, Tori and I continuously got kicked out of the seats we chose because apparently seats are assigned? I ended up sitting in a luggage hold area but all was good because at 10 o'clock at night after traveling for 13 hours (once again, I reference it being Friday the 13th), we were finally in Cádiz.
Well, Tori and I made the best of the night with what little energy we had left. After checking in at our airbnb, we met up with one of my friends from the 2010 program, Maddie, and her boyfriend. Just as I had wanted to share Cádiz with Tori, Maddie was thrilled to bring Ryan to our favorite place. The four of us had dinner at a restaurant that was recommended by Maddie's Spanish home stay parents and then hit up what was "the regular" for Maddie and I, an Irish pub called O'Connell's where we watched every World Cup game including the game where Spain won their first-ever title! By the end of the night, we found ourselves in a mass of people outside of the theater in Cádiz where a series of carnaval events take place. Maddie and I vigorously searched the crowd for our Spanish guy friends or anyone that knew them but LOL... everyone we talked to was visiting from Málaga. Sweet.
Quick interjection: sorry for this post being an actual essay. I could talk about Cádiz for years, not days.
Anyhow, Saturday was the big day of this trip. In the morning, Tori and I walked around some of the main streets and saw some of the "famous" sights, such as the cathedral. Later on, we met up with Maddie and Ryan to see Torre Tavira, a tower in the old city which boasts the best panoramic views of the city. Following our visit to Torre Tavira, we wandered around the local market where my Spanish mom would buy the food for our meals daily, meaning everything was always so fresh... farm to table and sea to table. We decided upon having a picnic of sorts on the beach so we left the market with fresh bread, Iberian ham, manchego cheese, grapes and strawberries, and some Cruzcampo beers (tinto de verano for Maddie because it's her favorite). At La Playa Caleta, we enjoyed lunch with a view. I also took this time to run around and take pictures with ribbon number three. #BeBrave
After a quick siesta because siesta exists in the south of Spain, where it absolutely does not in Barcelona, Tori and I transitioned from tourists to pirates. On our way to O'Connell's for night number two, we stopped by my former Cádiz home to say hi to the 'rents. Once again, nothing will ever change in Cádiz. My parents graciously welcomed both Tori and I into their living room where we shared both updates and some laughs about funny things that had happened during my stay. Yes, my mom then revealed how hysterical she thought I looked the night I painted my body to look like the Spanish flag and went to O'Connell's in a sports bra and nike shorts to watch the world cup finals. If only she'd voiced this opinion before I left the house that night, she could have saved me a lot of embarrassment looking back on those pictures. During our visit, my dad also spoke up and said that he would recognize me if he saw me anywhere because although I am five years older, my face is just the same. That could potentially not be a compliment if someone considered me to have a baby face but thanks dad, I LOVE YOU TOO. MISSED YOU MORE.
That night, Tori and I partied in O'Connell's with some random study abroad kids visiting from Madrid and ran into the whole TCU crew studying abroad in Seville. Go frogs. As a group, we migrated from the pub to Plaza Mina, and again from the Plaza to La Punta, a strip of "clubs"... not sure if you can really call them clubs, hence the quotes. While my bearings had been all screwed up on Friday night, this time I got Tori and I smoothly home in less than 10 minutes walking. Go me!
Sadly, on Sunday it was time to leave and so we stopped by the market one last time for some breakfast churros (a personal favorite) and enjoyed coffee at a nearby café. Right before heading out to catch the train back to Seville, Maddie and I received a Facebook message from the one person we were dying to see, our Spanish friend Kiké. Kiké - if you are reading this right now via Google Translate, I hope my weird sayings don't translate into anything...well... weird and know that te echo de menos siempre.
Well, that's all folks. That was my perfect weekend in Cádiz. If I don't get to visit one more time before I'm headed home for the summer, I hope the time after that I am able to introduce my real parents to my Spanish parents. That's the dream right there.
Julia and I making Spanish friends.
The original Cádiz girls (Maggie McDon's, where you at?)
Go frogs.
AND LASTLY
A quick flashback to 2010...
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