Cape Town--Safari

I have thoroughly enjoyed every port, but especially CT. I could see myself living there. The climate is Mediterranean of the “Scrub” biome, similar to that of Spain, or California with huge rock mountains surrounding the town. The tallest is called Table Mountain, but we all called it Table “Top” Mountain, which we were made fun of for by taxi drivers. The first day I wanted to climb it, but it ended up getting fogged out and they closed the lift. I got as far up as I could though to snap a few pics of CT from above. But I spent the first day walking around with Genvieve and Jess who go to Pace University and also Carly’s friends from home.

The first day I also went to see a play called “Freak Country”. The title is supposed to be a pun on “free country” and it’s about Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe has a lot of issues right now with, hyperinflation, Mugabe and the newly appointed Prime Minister. It was a comedy-tragedy type of play. It was about how an actor who lives in South Africa, born in Zimbabwe was traveling to his film shoot and had a connecting flight in Zimbabwe and got held at immigration. The head of customs wanted to kill him, but he found a way to escape. It was funny but the situation is serious, and I’m not South African, so it was hard to connect with the jokes.

(Genvieve and me with Table Mountain in the background)
The next day I woke up at 6:00 am to go on my Safari in Pilanesburg, South Africa. We flew to Johannesburg and then drove 2.5 hours to Pilanesburg where we had “high tea” and went on our first game drive in the safari. Our itinerary for 3 days was sleep-eat-safari. Within the first 3 minutes we saw so many zebra, and antelope type animals. Within the first 25 minutes we saw a huge pod of elephants. An entire family! They were so cute. Our guide was a little frightened though and had to maneuver the jeep in a position that he could take off if a mommy elephant charged…b/c they do that especially when there are many babies around. We were thinking that the safari would get boring because of all the animals we saw shortly into the first drive…but that wasn’t the case, we didn’t see another group like that. We did see one elephant at night, which was eating in his sleep. I spoke to a man who worked at the Athlete’s Foot in South Africa who said he was a park ranger and he lived close to Pilanesburg, and that his town tribe follows the elephant. There are tribes that identify themselves with game animals, and his is elephant because they like the way an elephant lives and they think elephants rule the land. Elephants sleep for 5 hours a day and eat ALL day…I see why one could idolize elephants. Not to mention a bull can weigh up to 4 tons—they are so strong too.

That night toward the end of our night-drive when we were 3 minutes from the gate to the park the two boys on either side of me, who some refer to as “the lumberjacks” were being brave and hanging out of the side of the jeep…All of the sudden we see King of the African Land Male Lion. Our driver reverses the vehicle, the boys jumped inside the car, and they even shrieked. The lion was soooo awesome at a distance, until it started approaching our jeep. Reed was on my right, where the Lion was approaching, and he grabs onto me, and us three cram to the left side of the jeep away from the vehicle, the boys put their feet up to block the window so the lion couldn’t jump in. I am the one getting smashed in the middle of this chaos, but I try to take pictures even though our guide was telling us not to make a move or a sound…then the lion came ONE foot close to our window and just walked around back into the bush. It was sooooo scary! The guide was saying that it was a rare occurrence for the lion to come right up to the car like that…I think the lion was teasing us. It was scary to even look into his eyes. The funniest part about this was when we went back to the lodge to tell the other group about our stories, the boys made it seem like they were ready to tackle the lion…but everyone in our vehicle had to remind them that they both grabbed onto the smallest girl (me) on the trip to protect them. Of course they said they were ready to wrestle the lion…but we all know what really happened when Simba came close.


That night we enjoyed a barbeque at the lodge and went to bed early to get up for our 5am drive. They told us they’d give us wake up calls, but my roommate and I did not get one. Thank god she set her phone too, but all the groups left without us. She and I ended up going with some German tourists until we found another SAS group. They weren’t too happy that they had to come back for two American girls…oh well. This was by far the best drive though so it was hard to complain. We saw 2 sets of mating lions. This was remarkable—straight up National Geographic style. I have documentation…we were about 30 feet from the first “honeymoon couple” and we could see and hear the action. The second set of lions was even closer…about 10 feet away from our vehicle. The male lion got up and approached the jeep and roared a little, marked his territory a little and went back to his girly lion. We got back to the lodge at about 9am for breakfast and we had until 4:30 to relax by the pool and have lunch…by far one of the hardest school days in my life! We swam, worked on our tans, maybe enjoyed some mimosas and daiquiris, took a nap, showered and went back out on the Safari.

The 2nd night drive we found sooooo many giraffe’s, which were really the one thing I hadn’t seen (other than Leopard, but no one expected to see them). We also saw a pregnant Giraffe who wandered by herself because she was due any day. The Giraffe’s are fascinating. We also got pretty close them—in fact we got really close to all the animals we saw. And it’s not off-roading because they are national parks that need to be preserved—there are pathways for cars paved, or dirt roads that animals hang out on. That night we watched a little bit of Rugby with some locals at the lodge. We met some businessmen who wanted to talk about Obama. Obama was EVERYWHERE in Africa. People either loved him or didn’t. Unfortunately because of Apartheid there is still so much racism and they don’t hold back and some people love him and worship him, and some think he’s a joke. I guess they were being disrespectful towards us, and were shamelessly bashing American Politics, and even though I don’t agree with most things they said, it was interesting to hear a different perspective. That’s one thing I’ve learned to be flexible with—we’re visitors in these countries and politics regarding foreign affairs has been a sensitive topic everywhere.


That night before bed, I suffered a traumatizing experience. I was getting ready for bed and putting my clothes on, and I was standing right next to the door, so I thought it would be a good idea to double check that it was locked. When out of the periphery of my eye I spot a HUGE shiny black scorpion. This thing was at least 6 inches long, with a spiny poison tail, and it was AN INCH away from my foot. If I stepped anywhere, a scorpion as big as a 3-pound Maine Lobster would’ve attacked me. Instinctively I started screaming, skipping, waving my arms—a serious freak out. My roommate was in the shower, and she comes out and I am standing on the furniture naked, shaking, pale as a ghost, my heart racing…my legs kept doing this weird jumpy, hop and kicking thing…I lost control. It’s hysterically funny to me now, but it was a scary situation then because all I could think about was the possibility of more Scorpions waiting to attack me in our room. Well the good news is I scared the scorpy out of the room and he crawled under the door--I don’t know how he even fit under there. When I called housekeeping, they sent Mona up with a dust brush and Raid to kill the “insects”. She had no idea what we called about because she didn’t understand, so then we decided to put a towel under the door and we all looked in the curtains, our shoes, under the beds for more. I felt like a little kid proofing my room of monsters. I took motion-sickness pill to help me fall asleep (b/c they make me drowsy) so that I could sleep without fearing the scorpions. And I didn’t have any scary dreams, and I woke up and went on a Safari game-drive.

The next early morning drive we didn’t see many animals at all. They knew it was Saturday so they all went into hiding from the tourists. Oh well. I still saw all the hippos, rhinos, elephants, LIONS, 3 sets of MATING LIONS, giraffes, pumba’s, buffalo, etc. I also cannot forget to mention that when we returned for breakfast, a Bull Elephant wandered into the Lodge grounds to take a mud bath. So from my breakfast table, right where I was sun-tanning the day before was a huge bull elephant playing in the mud. The rangers said they do that every once in a while because they have a little pond in the middle of the Lodge area. The elephants step right over the electrical fences to get in!
When we got back to Cape Town, I had dinner with Annie and Ashley from Fairfield, CT who went to Kruger national park. We exchanged Safari stories, and then went out to some local places after eating an authentic African dinner. I couldn’t even tell you what we ate…but the meats were Springbock, Kudu, Ostrich, and Beef (all animals I saw). We socialized with locals, girls and guys, and they loved us Americans. They told us where to go and what to eat. We went to this club called Tiger Tiger. They played a lot of cheesy American Music earlier in the night because they knew we were there, and the later it got they played the Euro techno-house music that I love to dance to. What I love about the culture is that their fashion is very similar to ours, the people were so nice, and the city is so YOUNG. It kind of reminds me of Boston and how everyone is my age. Even though the drinking age is 18, you still have to be 21 to get into clubs on weekends…guys had to be 23. They were also building the World Cup Futbol stadium for 2010 next year, so the town was buzzing with futbol excitement.

The weather is perfect, the landscape and oceans is BEAUTIFUL and 20 minutes outside of Cape Town is the beginning of the wine regions.
The next morning we went on a wine tour through the Stellenbosch region. I organized a trip for 6 of my friends before we went back on the ship. Natasha, Gillian, Genvieve, Jessica, Annie and I went to three wineries and we learned techniques for wine tasting, how to select wines with meals, and we got to spend time with each other in the country side learning about country life. Our tour guide, Pim, was so funny, but I think we entertained him mostly. We went to Blaauwlippen Vineyard, Avontuur Estate, and Hazendal Vineyard. They all export to the U.S. so I look forward to seeing some of them at home.


Right now, I am sitting in Mauritius writing this. It is a beautiful volcanic island off of Africa, East of Madagascar. It is a vacation spot for Australian’s and Africans, and the island is about 40ft long. I woke up at 6:30am to watch us pull into port. Volcanic mountains are gorgeous, and the sunset behind them was one of the most stunning sunsets I’ve ever seen in my life.

Namibia!

Namibia!!! Absolutely AMAZING!
February 14th-Happy Valentine’s Day, Namibia!

Early in the morning we had some U.S. Embassy people board the ship to talk to us about Namibia. They shared some personal stories and gave us some advice about getting around and safety. They told us that 51% of the population dies from AIDS, which explains why Namibia is such a “young country”. The average age is 42 years old. This information may be shocking and you can only imagine what my first impression of Namibia was like after hearing about it from American’s. But Namibia is a beautiful country, and incredibly rich in culture even though the official country is only 17 years old (it used to be inhabited by South Africa and lately Germany).

My friend Ashley and I went on a City Orientation Trip to a town called Swakopmund—it used to be a German colony, and it’s a beach vacation type of town for Europeans and especially South Africans. There are about 30,000 residence in the town which is just about the size of Boston University. The German influence in the town is apparent in the architecture: buildings and hotels look like Disney-World, cute and fun colored. First we visited a Namibian Weavery called Karakula. They have a website too, but they have their own wool farm, they spin the wool and dye it there and there are 14 specialty weavers. They distribute mostly to Europe and make custom carpeting and tapestries. For example we saw a photo of a newborn, and they made it into a rug. Their signature pictures are African Animals—the most popular one is an elephant rug, which I custom ordered to be sent home, you know I love ellies. I got to meet the lady who is weaving it, I picked the colors, and I picked the size. I really enjoyed talking to the people in the weavery, the owners are two German men, one spoke English, the other didn’t, but we all had a conversation about the culture of their business. I was also ecstatic to have my own Namibian tapestry made and sent home. It should take at most 3 months to make and send.



Then we went to a crystal factory. I learned about the native gems and precious stones. I found the gift shop so fascinating because I bead with a lot of the same stones at home, and for a while I thought that the gift shop was what they took us to see because it was so incredible. Haha my friend Ashley goes “Katie did you see the museum!” and then that’s when I realized there was more to see than the gift shop haha but in my defense the gift shop housed huge rocks of crystals with signs saying ”Do not touch” with information cards=very museum-ish. Pietersite is unique to Namibia and is only found in Namibia. There was a rock of Pietersite, which was 85 USD and it was about 2 inches in diameter and circumference—so it’s expensive, but the ball looked like a globe from a satellite captured picture—that’s the best way I can describe it! I learned how they made the jewelry and how they shaped the stones in their workshops.

Then I went to a craft fair in the center of town. I did more talking to the craftsmen than buying their items, but I was surprised how they approached us. Not in a threatening way like I felt in Morocco, but in a way that they wanted to know where we’re from, what we’re studying, what our name is, where we are studying at Semester at Sea, and most of all they wanted to shake my hand. I met one guy named Elia who crafts masks and buffalo bone among other things with his father. He hadn’t sold anything in 4 days, but he still was out there every day spreading out his crafts to sell to people to support his family. Of course there are lots of guys concentrated in one area, only a few women who all shared a similar lifestyle of collecting their resources and crafting them. I haggled with him for this amazing African Mask, he said it’s his very special design, and truly incomparable to any other masks I’d seen that day. He wanted to sell it to me for 1200Rand ($120 USD) and I got it for 300Rand (30 dollars). So I did a great job bargaining. I also learned a lot about the culture behind their craftwork. In general talking to locals is something I would like to do more because I’ve met such interesting people—interesting in that they have very different lives than I.
Ashley and I climbing Dune 7!

I also climbed Dune 7—the largest sand dune in Africa and The best workout in 15 minutes! Our tour guide said if we climbed the dune in 7 minutes he’d buy us a drink. Well, it didn’t look so hard, but once you start climbing it you have to keep going or else you sink into the sand. And the sand is piping hot so it burns your ankles as your feet sink down. Not to mention by the end I was sweating bullets and covered in sand because it was so hot and so hard to climb—really unlike any Stairmaster level I’ve ever experienced. The sand dunes are so gorgeous though, they look fake.


Rachel and I during the sunset at the condo, night one.

For dinner, Ashley, Molly and I enjoyed a romantic dinner at a restaurant that specializes in Ostrich. We started off with Ostrich Carpaccio (even though they advised us NOT to eat anything uncooked) It was the most DELICIOUS meat I’ve ever tasted—low in fat, high in protein. A local also told us where to eat and what to eat, so we had some guidance. That night I checked into our rental condo in Swakopmund—some very IRRESPONSIBLE boy was in charge of 35 people, so I didn’t even have the address of where our place was I just knew it was by the “Rafter’s Bar.” So we walk into the bar with our big weekend bags, and the bouncer was like, “you can’t come in here with that bag” so I got even more irritated, but he was kidding, so I went in and then was basically swarmed by locals asking me if I was “checking into the bar” and cracking similar jokes at the two little American girls walking into the locals bar with our huge bags. To my dismay we found that all of our friends already left. So Ashley and I awkwardly stood in the middle of the bar and waited for our friends to come and show us where our condo was located. I roomed with 9 of my girlfriends in a place with 4 beds, and then the rest of the group were all dispersed among 4 condos—which we never saw and I’ll explain why. That night I hung out with my roommates and went to some local places.
Dinner at The Lighthouse Restaurant, sunset, night 2. (From Top: Annie, Gillian, Rachel, Rachel, Me, Ashley)

The next morning (Feb 15) at about 8:30am the landlady comes in and says we have to move out by 11am—yes we were EVICTED. BUT it was NOT the girls fault, we’re 9 girls, how loud could we be? TWO of the four condos had serious noise complaints, and obviously it was the boy’s condo’s that got EVERYONE kicked out of our houses. It’s funny because even before we arrived in Swak, we agreed that we were never letting boys plan anything ever, EVER again. I don’t know why the landlady’s would rent family-style condo’s to a massive group of American college kids either.
Natasha, Gillian, and me revving our engines. day 3.

February 15th

It worked out very nicely after we got kicked out though. We split from the huge group into many smaller groups. We found a great bed and breakfast hotel next to the beach called, “A La Mer” with 24hour security. The guy who owns it really was so generous and tolerant of us. He planned Desert Adventures for us, and told us where to eat game and dinner. Annie and I shared a room and then Molly and Ashley came banging on our door at 5am because they were locked out of their condo down the street. But during the day we walked around Swak, talked to locals, enjoyed the beach and some local places.

February 16th

When we woke up we ate breakfast that they prepared for us and we went ATV-ing and Sandboarding in the desert. We had such a blast in the desert, and it was so beautiful. Sandboarding is literally sitting on a cardboard sliding down the dunes. It was such a thrill, and we even made a chain of people sliding down the dune too. I posted a video to show. But I would love to go back to Namibia for a few days again. I know we all had a great time together and it exceeded all of our expectations!

Well after one day of classes we’ll be in South Africa tomorrow! Can’t wait!
xoxo



Reed, Ryan, Kat, Molly, Me, Gillian, Bobby
sand-sled team.

The crew dressed in white robes, decorated with bows, tinfoil, and colorful decorations and stormed through every hallway, at least three times, banging on pots and pans, and blowing whistles to wake everyone up. At 9 0’clock am we were called to Deck 7, the top deck where the pool is and where the Neptune day initiation was taking place. There sat the royalty, Captain Jeremy and his Queen painted in green and adorned with seaweed wigs and other sea jewels

(this picture is deck 7 where I can be found before/between/and after class every day)

Crossing the Line, or Neptune Day, is an initiation rite celebrated in many navies. It commemorates a sailor's first crossing of the equator. The rite was intended originally as a test of new shipmates by seasoned sailors. The tradition dates back to the 16th century, and in the old days, the ship heaved to (that is, it set its sails so as to remain stationary) and the pollywogs were hoisted on the mainyard and dunked into the ocean 40 feet below; afterwards, shaving and other forms of blood letting took place.

The initiation first started with an oath.
Then experienced equator crossers poured green fish guts (I think it was slime) on me.

Next I kissed a fish…on the lips.
Then I kissed King Neptune’s ring, and the Queen.
Then I jumped into the water (it was freezing and I was laughing at all of the faces people were making when they surfaced—and then I made the same face and realized why they were making those faces)
Then I was knighted by a Sea Lord.
And now I am Initiated!
(and then…people went to get their heads shaved, yes girls too)

This went on for a few hours, and the rest of the afternoon we had off from class and hung out in the sun and caught up on some homework.
--great day. I asked Captain Jeremy, aka King Neptune Rex who was driving the ship. He replied, "I don't know." So then I asked if it was on Auto-Pilot, and he replied "I'm not sure."
Hopefully we'll arrive at Namibia in a few days!

xoxo

Neptune Day--The Preface

This is an email sent to everyone on the ship last night. Classes were canceled in honor of King Neptune.

SUBPOENA to all POLLYWOGS,

You are hereby requested to appear before the ROYAL COURT OF THE REALM OF NEPTUNE, in the DISTRICT OF EQUATORIUS, because it has been brought to the attention of HIS HIGHNESS, NEPTUNE REX through his trusty SHELLBACKS, that the good ship M/V EXPLORER is about to cross the equator and enter those waters accompanied by passengers who have not acknowledged the sovereignty of the RULER OF THE DEEP.

THEREFORE be it known to all Slimy Pollywogs that The Royal, King NEPTUNE REX, Supreme Ruler of all citizens of the deep, will, with his Secretary and Royal Court, meet in full session on board the offending ship M.V. EXPLORER on the 9^th day of February, A.D. 2009 at 0900 on Deck 7 aft, to hear your defense.

Regards,

-King Neptune and His Royal Court

In addition: All pollywogs with hair longer than 8 inches who wish to donate their hair to a worthwhile charity, should do so BEFORE undergoing the initiation ceremony, as only clean hair is able to be donated.

If there are any pollywogs who have brought hair clippers on board, your services are hereby solicited by King Neptune and his Royal Barber. You may help by bringing your clippers to DECK 7 aft, tomorrow morning.

Morocco! 3-days, 2-nights!

Morocco!
So after recovering from the traumatic turbulent waves and writing in my journal, I can now sit down and tell you about my trip.

First thing in the morning I departed for the countryside to where the camels were waiting for me. I slept the whole way there on the bus, but don’t worry on the way back I wasn’t able to sleep so I saw 3.5 hours worth of green farmlands.
This picture is from lunch, which I actually ate even though I was prepared with 5 balance bars to avoid getting traveler’s sickness from the food. They warned us not to eat anything that wasn’t piping hot. I’m not sure if you can see the steam in the picture, but it was hot and spicy and DELICIOUS. The spices are key to Moroccan food. Then after lunch we rode the camels. When we got to Marrakesh we went to the Palm Groves to a village inhabited by Berber’s. Berber’s are North Americans who settled in Morocco about 5,000 years ago, they are mostly populated in the Atlas Mountains (which I wish I had time to explore).
This is me about to kiss Omal (my camel) and I don’t know why they put these blue bandanas on our heads but I instantly felt transformed into a Moroccan. The guide told me that I was “trop petite” and that I wasn’t allowed to ride this camel (b/c it was the biggest one), so I said “It’s okay, my friend will come with me” so Ashley and I mounted our camel, but we were thrown forward because when camels stand up they do their hind legs first, and then we lead the rest of the camel squad through a village. Of course we tried to make him start galloping and veering away from the other camels, but there were dogs and guides following to make sure we wouldn’t run off into the Atlas Mountains.
But camel riding was fun, and we went through a very desolate Berber village where little boys ran up to us asking for money, or tried to sell us things. A girl from another group supposedly tried to high-five one of them, and he attempted to physically harm her. This seemed to be the general attitude of Moroccans towards Americans. The middle of the city is definitely a very threatening area for girls to be, and we didn’t know that women are forbidden to enter liquor stores, bars, banks, so we kind of unintentionally brought the attention to ourselves…oops.
The next day we spent in Marrakesh sightseeing. We saw tombs, a mosque, and a palace ( A picture of Ashley and I in the palace courtyard). We also went to the Square of Death, also known as the souks, also known as the market place. There were snake charmers, monkey handlers, henna tattoo artists, vendors selling all handcrafted goods. When we got there, we were listening to Nigid, our tour guide, and a bunch of girls in our group start screaming because a snake charmer came right up to one of them and threw a snake around his neck then asked for money to take a picture. (Moroccans request money in exchange for taking pictures of them…actually they ask for money for almost any reason). One of my friends ended up paying a snake charmer to just keep the snake away. We had a lot of laughs.
This picture is from the best spice market in Marrakesh, where there were tons of shelves with jars of spices everywhere. We learned about some of the important spices in their culture like aphrodisiac spices and stress relieving spices. They wanted us to buy some—however, a former LAPD sheriff was on our trip with us and advised us that the ship security would probably confiscate anything that looked “blunt-able”. What do you know? At the security door on the ship there was a pile of plastic baggies that looked like the very saffron and nutmeg spices that the spice ladies tried to sell to us.

My French helped me in Morocco. I think it’s so cool that Morocco is bi-tri-lingual. They speak Arabic, French, Spanish, and the Berber’s have their own dialect, and I know one phrase in Arabic, “Bahebic Shamutas,” which I learned from a cab driver in Boston. But French helped me with bargaining especially--I was able to purchase some hand-made pashminas and pottery. We also learned that the weather we had was abnormal and occurred once very 30 years—50 degree weather and raining, and everything to do in Morocco is outside, but at least we had the only nice day for camel riding.

Code Blue!

Today we left Morocco. It was an extremely rough departure out of the harbor, rougher than on the way in. (on the way in, I was on the 7th deck hanging out, and in the room next to us in the salon, hair products fell to the floor and exploded everywhere, the "unshatterable"glass table shattered everywhere, we were cracking up b/c there was nothing anyone could do about it but watch--unless they wanted to get injured cleaning it up in the middle of the rough patch and we were laughing WITH the beauticians, otherwise it wouldn't have been funny if they didn't think so too).
And today everyone was excited for the 20 minutes of rough waves that the captain warned us about on the way out of the sound. We all put sweatpants on and found the biggest wooden or tile floors to sit on to slide across the floor. It was all fun and games and I was crying from laughing so hard, UNTIL someone got hurt. There was ONE wave that brought the side of the ship supposedly almost touching the water on the top deck. Everyone, and EVERYTHING went to the starboard side. So some boys that thought they were being funny running with the current were very badly injured. People rolled backwards into poles, and chairs, and tables--followed by everything on the opposite side of the room. I hit the center podium in the Student Union and I have the battle scars to prove it. We were all pretty shaken despite the fun we were previously having. After propping myself against the podium so nothing could hit me again, I realized my knee was bleeding--all the way down my leg. So now I have my first battleshipwound and I expect a gigantic bruise in the morning. Luckily, I'm okay. Unluckily for the stupid boys who thought it was a good idea to stand up and run, well, one broke his wrist, the other very badly busted his leg bleeding in several places, and one went through a wall in the Union. 10 minutes later we hear "Code Blue, room 5###". By this point I washed my leg and bandaged myself up and sat in the hallway until I could get up and move around again. But then I went back upstairs to look for my scattered belongings, when the man from room 5### came down the stairs holding a bloody rag to his head with the medical staff helping him. I think he is a professor, or a life long learner, but his head was in bad shape. These casualties affected those just trying to have fun by obeying the captains orders and sitting on the floor, and those who innocently wanted to sleep. Even though this sounds dangerous, this is a highlight of the voyage so far--and a thrill for most, no need to lecture, we were in the safest place on the ship that we could be, and still people managed to get hurt.

The best part is reviewing the videos people took before it got so rough.

Morocco was great! I'll write about it tomorrow!

xoxo

Espana No Mas

Currently, the ship is sitting in Gibraltar waiting to get fuel to head to Morocco. Gibraltar shares a border with Spain, but it is a British territory. Tomorrow we will wake up and be in Africa!!! I am anticipating camel trekking in Morocco, and seeing the cities Casablanca and Marrakech.

But I had the best time in Spain! We arrived in port Cadiz, pronounced CAdith (with a lisp). We took pictures of our first time getting off the ship since Bahamas, and then set foot on land. At the time, we had a hard time adjusting to land, and as soon as someone started complaining about the swaying we all felt motion sickness, especially during the first two days in Spain.

In Cadiz we went to a little café for breakfast/lunch, but we ordered what we knew how to ask for: toast, eggs, coffee. Then we walked through Cadiz, stumbled upon Cathedrals, and monuments, and shopping of course. I signed up for a SAS city orientation, where a great tour guide got us VIP into the Town Hall, the Cathedral for a tour, told us about the local libations, vina y sangria. A wine called Sherry is the regional specialty. It tasted like prune juice, spiked with whiskey…sooo gross but at least we tried it and swallowed it politely. I went to a Flamenco dance and Bull Fight that night too. I was a little disappointed because they tease the bull and torture the trisage horses while the horses dance with the Flamenco dancers. I guess it’s a staple of their culture, and we have to respect that. Then we went out at night to a local bar where there were mostly SAS kids and some locals. One of the locals was a great dancer and lead a group dance very similar to the Cha Cha slide all night long. Obviously my feet were killing me, so I walked barefoot through the streets of Cadiz back to the ship. Good thing I got those Tetanus shots, but at least I can say I really got a good feel for Cadiz.

The next morning I woke up very early to catch a train to Sevilla, a bigger city than Cadiz. Tall orange trees are a staple of Sevilla, which we admired all throughout Sevilla. We checked into the hostel, Triana Backpackers. It was nice, but had a funky smell despite the fact that people were cleaning from the moment we got there to the time we left. Then we went out to a little hole-in-the-wall tapas restaurant for some breakfast/lunch at 3pm. After that we purchased tickets to the Futbol (soccer) game: Sevilla vs. Valencia. We had a great time at the game, Sevilla won, so the town was going crazy that night.

Spain is known for their nightlife and bars don’t get busy until 1:30-2:00 am in the morning. That night we went to Buddha Bar nightclub where we ran into so many SAS people. We danced all night—again, but I kept my shoes on this time. The next morning/day we spent sightseeing in Sevilla. Alcazar was a palace that was built in the 13th century with beautiful gardens, Islamic/Moroccan Influence/massive collection of handcrafted fans and tile.



Right across from the Alcazar is the 3rd largest Cathedral in the world: Cathedral de Sevilla. Christopher Columbus’ tomb is in the middle of the Cathedral right next to the massive, gold altar. The Cathedral was so lush. Then we hiked 40 floors up to the top of the Giralda tower for a panoramic view of Sevilla. I was mostly surprised with the amount of cranes hanging over the city—everything is under restoration. The city is very Romanesque in that each building is older than the next.



That night we went to a locals Flamenco night…we had to stick together because us American’s stick out like soar thumbs. I was wearing flip-flops to walk around the city that night, and some Spaniard who I stopped for directions asked me if I was going to the pool. Generally Spaniards feel contempt for Americans since the beginning of our involvement with Iraq. Nonetheless, I had an awesome experience with all of my new friends in Spain.

Morocco tomorrow! I miss you all!

xoxo

1st: picture of me on a vehicle in Cadiz, breaking the SAS rules
2nd: picture of "the posse" in front of Cathedral de Sevilla
3rd: picture me and Natasha at the Futbol game
4th: picture of me from a tower at Alcazar Palace
5th: picture of posse before Flamenco night at dinner