TRIP 1: CADIZ
Two weeks ago my program took us to Cadiz, a city on the coast of southern Spain. Besides its gorgeous beaches, it's famous for two things:
1. Spain's first constitution, written in 1812. The king ignored it completely and it was never implemented in any way, but it's the thought that counts, right?
2. Carnaval, the craziest party in all of Spain. If you like ridiculous costumes, political satire in song form, thousands of people crammed into a very small area, and drinking excessively, this is the party for you. It's so wild that Franco tried banning it several times, to no avail.
We got off the bus in Cadiz and met up with our tour guide-- a delightful Spanish chap named Teodor-- who led us on a walking tour around the city.
This is the wall that surrounds the original city of Cadiz. (You're not a real Spanish city if you don't have a wall.) Since the town has grown so much since the wall was built, it's really in the middle of everything.
The weekend we went turned out to be an especially good weekend to be in Cadiz because it was the anniversary of the aforementioned constitution. (They love it so much that they gave it a woman's name, "La Pepa". I'm assuming this is a reference to the 90s rap sensation Salt n Pepa, responsible for such masterpieces as "Shoop" and "Push It".) As a result, there were countless people running around in costumes, and a historical reenactment of Spanish peasants fighting Napoleon's army, and an open-air medieval market set up in one of the plazas. Fun!
There was a city-wide scavenger hunt going on while we were there as well. The kids in the yellow shirts are participating in the scavenger hunt, and the man with the awesome hat is giving them clues. I wish we could have played!
A picture of one of the many shops in the medieval market. It was pretty tough to refrain from buying a wooden crossbow or something equally awesome/impractical.
AMAZING. If you can't tell, this man is powering a merry-go-round using some sort of stationary-bicycle type mechanism. How energy-efficient!
On our tour we passed a shop that had this in the storefront: white asparagus, my arch-nemesis! See how unappetizing they look? They taste worse.
During the tour, we got the chance to go up into the tower of the cathedral.
The front of the cathedral, which was so large I couldn't get a picture with all of it in the frame. We didn't get a chance to go inside, but based on my knowledge of Spanish cathedrals I basically know what it looks like: Jesus on a cross at the front, a "retablo" behind the altar with important scenes from the Bible, a ridiculous amount of gold leaf, a vaulted ceiling, stained-glass windows, Mary crying all over the place, and enough angels to make your head spin.
A shot from the top of the cathedral's tower. You can't really tell because it's cloudy, but the dome (which is part of the cathedral) is covered in gold. When it's sunny out, boats can see the dome from miles away.
While we were up in the tower, we heard gunshot noises. What the what?! Thankfully it was just a historical reenactment of the time the French army tried to conquer Cadiz. They were unsuccessful, which is pretty embarrassing for them considering their opponents were illiterate, malnourished peasants armed with only pitchforks.
We had some free time after the tour ended so we decided to go to the Museum of Cadiz, which turned out to be a two-for-one type of deal: it was both a museum of archeology and a fine arts museum.
This imposing gentleman stands in the entrance of the fine arts section of the museum, subtly reminding you that it is TIME TO GET YOUR ART ON
This was probably the coolest thing in the archeology section of the museum: ancient Phoenician sarcophagi, made hundreds of years before Jesus was even born.
And of course, what trip to Cadiz is complete without a trip to the beach? It was cloudy and a bit cold, so we didn't actually swim in the ocean, but we did play volleyball on the beach for about an hour until our bus pulled up.
Unlike Malaga, no one tried to force themselves on me at the beach. Uh-oh, I must be getting less attractive...
Well, that's about it for Cadiz, since it was only a day trip. It was lots of fun and one of my favorite Andalusian cities. Highly recommended! Next up: Madrid.