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| Plaza de Espana in Sevilla |
Well, I never thought that I would be in the Malaga airport.
Do you know where Malaga is? Or what Malaga is? Yeah, neither did I. So Liz and
I were going to Cadiz this weekend, a small town in the south of Spain. It is
known for its carnaval where people from all over Spain come and dress up in
crazy costumes, eat, drink, sing, dance, and overall have a great time. Liz
studied in Cadiz one summer about five years ago and was dying to go back to
visit her Spanish parents, guy friends, and to see the city. I agreed to go
with her and see what this place was that she talked about so frequently.
So back to Malaga. We had a flight Friday morning to Sevilla where we had bought train tickets to Cadiz from there. It seemed easy enough. After passing out on the plane for two hours, I woke up to a pilot saying that it was too cloudy to land in Sevilla so we were going to land in Malaga instead. Okay…then what? So this was our first experience on RyanAir. I had heard horror stories but I hadn’t experienced an airline that was so disorganized before. We landed, treated ourselves to Starbucks and headed to the RyanAir counter where no one was quite sure what was happening. About an hour later, they decided on bussing us all back to Sevilla. We figured we would just take the free bus and then get on a train to Cadiz once we got in. So we took the bus and finally made it to the Sevilla train station where we found out we couldn’t take the next train for six more hours because they were all filled. We didn’t want to take our chances on finding a bus that was open when we didn’t even know where the bus station was or what the timers were. So met up with one of our friends Julia who is studying in Sevilla for the semester. Eventually, we got on the 8pm train and arrived in Cadiz around 10pm, met
The next morning we woke up and set out to find Antonio’s,
Liz’s favorite cafe to get orange juice. I don’t even really drink orange
juice, but el zumo de naranja was incredible. We walked around a bit more and
settled on finally getting cappuccinos and croissants before going up into
Torre Tavira which is known for having one of the best 360 degree views of
Cadiz, and the view was amazing. The city really is not that big but when
looking out from this tower, it looks like it goes on forever. Some parts are worn
down, some parts filled with people, and then you look out into the beach.
After taking pictures and soaking it in, Liz, Maddie, Ryan, and I decided to go
to the big market to pick up food and have a picnic on the beach. This market
has everything from seafood to fresh fruit to prepared foods so we picked up Iberian
ham, cheese, baguettes, fresh grapes and strawberries, ceviche, Crunch bars
(they’re better here), and beers. It was a beautiful day and we walked a few
minutes to one of the beaches where we made sandwiches and hung out just
relaxing. It is such a change of pace even from Barcelona and the weather was
perfect. Then, we decided to walk around a couple more shops and then head back
to get changed for the night into our costumes (pirates!) and get ready for the
big festival events. Before heading into the town, we got to meet up with Liz’s
Spanish parents who were so friendly and easy to talk to. They filled us in on
everything they have been up to, what to expect out of Cadiz’s Carnavale, and
to be very safe because of all the people.
We first started at O’Connell’s, an Irish Pub that Liz and I
went to the night before and one of Liz’s favorite places to go when she
studied there. We love O’Connell’s and we love Irish pubs. Even in Barcelona,
we always gravitate towards them. We met some other study abroad kids from
Madrid and of course have mutual friends because this world is just so small.
We hung out with them for a bit, spoke with other Spanish people visiting from
all over and eventually went to the Plaza where there were just masses of
people everywhere. AND, we did run into our TCU friends from Sevilla!!!!! It
was so fun hanging out with other TCU people and seeing how they have liked
studying abroad, where they have traveled and just catching up in general. We eventually
went to La Punta – a club near the water and called it a night, but overall a
successful Cadiz Carnaval experience.
It wasn’t a foodie weekend, but it was nice to get off the
beaten path and visit a place that is really meaningful to Liz in so many
different ways. Although we had a 15-hour travel day on Friday, I felt as
though I got to experience this city more than I have anywhere else and am so
glad that we were able to go. This upcoming Tuesday, we have Sitges Carnaval in
Barcelona and I am apparently being a devil…I have no idea how it is even going
to compare, but I am sure it is going to be interesting.
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