Hola Spain!

So, during the sail from Porto to Cadiz we got to do something amazing! We raced one fo the sister tall ships of the Sorlandet to Cadiz, The ship we raced was the other Norweigan sailing vessed called the Cristian Radich. They got some amazing photos of our ship which will be posted below. It’s an  awesome thing to say that you raced another Full rigged sailing vessel from Portugal to Spain. Its pretty freaking cool!

Since we were racing, we arrived there a dayt early, but we weren’t allowed off the ship until the next day because we had school to do (sad face). So on arrival day (Arrival days are kind of like Fridays to me because it’s a short day and then we don’t have school for 4-6 days after, so it’s kind of like our weekend.) Everyone got shore leave from 3-11 but I didn’t leave the ship for very long, just to go get some food and stuff. The next morning me and 3 friends, Anna, Allison, and Clio went for a  run around 6am, it was a Friday and let me tell you, the Spaniards do not stop partying until the sun comes up. All the clubs still had music blaring out of the speakers and there were (intoxicated) people everywhere! Which was rather entertaining for us. We came back to the ship and had a wonderful pancake breakfast and then we got ready for our Port Program, which was a day trip to the Spanish city of Seville! We boarded a bus and started on our journey. We split off into groups of 4 and I was with Grace, Clio, and Goldwin for the whole day. We started our day by going out on the search for food, we ended up at the National Festival, which happened to be conveniently there at the same time we were! Grace and I settled for pizza (how cultural of us) and Clio and Goldwin got some Indian food, also very cultural. We went shopping at the festival and I found the most awesome pants ever in the Moroccan booth (Am I the only one who finds it funny that I’m buying Italian food and Moroccan pants in Spain?!),they are these blue gypsy pants which are hard to describe, but a photo will be posted sometime along the way! I promise.  Afterwards we just walked until we found something unique or entertaining to do, eventually we stumbled upon the river separating 2 parts of the city, there was a little bar there and you were able to rent paddleboats, and that is what we did. We rented it for an hour and just floated down the river, which was very peaceful and relaxing, and the sun was shining and it was just beautiful! Time was up, and we got off and bought some lemonade slushies. It was nearing dinnertime so once again; we went on the hunt for food. We settled for the cheapest way out, El Super Mercado! (Supermarket) We each bought 2 items of food (Including ice cream!) and then headed to a grassy area and we picnicked! Then just relaxed and laid out in the sun and watched as it slowly went down. The Spanish nightlife begins to come out now, so we crossed the bridge and went to the busy restaurant/club side of the city. There wasn’t much for us to do over there cause we only had an hour left until curfew so we sad by the river and people watched and had deep conversations about life and the human brain (we’re weird kids). Then it was time to head back to the bus, I had made plans with my friend to sit with her on the way back, but we were both so tired that we ended up falling asleep within 5 minutes of the bus ride. Exploring a city sure takes a lot out of you!

             The next day after cleaning stations A few of us decided to have a beach day. We stayed on the ship until lunchtime because we all were so tired and just napped for a few hours. Then Christy, Nick, Madeline, and I left to go get some food and beach time! We stopped at this kebab/donair place and it was so delicious!! I love those, and they’re everywhere in Spain, which is a very good thing!  We then headed out the beach in Cadiz where we also met up with another group of 4 people from the ship, Annunziata, Kacey, Josh and Phil. We hung out with them for a bit, we splashed around in the water for a while and oh my god the water was so warm and it was a lovely sand bottom! Then we all laid our towels out and more people from the ship came and we all were just chilling there, suntanning, in Cadiz, in Spain, with our closest friends. No big deal at all!!  We stopped for ice cream on the way back to the ship. It was Ben and Jerry’s ice cream, which tastes just like heaven. I always have such a large craving for ice cream all the time here; probably because we ever have any while were at sea! Then we headed back to the ship and did homework, sooo exciting! Not.

Then we went to sleep!

So this was basically the highlights of Cadiz. I like Spain, ice cream everywhere and beaches all around, oh and very warm weather! J

Talk to you soon!

-Megan