Reflections of Spain

Spain was awesome. I wish we could have done more, but I know that I will be back again. It was such a wonderful experience to see all of the beautiful cathedrals of Cadiz, the amazing architecture and city life of Barcelona, and the soccer match. It was incredible to see how much a simple game means to an entire culture. However, some of my favorite experiences during the past four days were simply those spent conversing with the cab drivers. Even though the conversations mainly consisted of my broken Spanish alongside their broken English, it was still great experience; something I will always remember. Spain was definitely a great start to the voyage. I’m excited for Morocco, only one day to wait.

Spain Day 4 (January 31, 2009)

By getting back the previous night, we were able to spend a full day in Cadiz. We first went to lunch. I ordered this ravioli, which looked and tasted exactly like the kind you get out of a can in any grocery store in America. I can honestly say that it tasted great though, I was craving for a little taste of home after eating fairly-bland Spanish food for the past three days. After lunch, we walked around a good amount of the city, seeing a number of beautiful cathedrals and historical monuments. Apparently, Cadiz is one of the oldest cities in Europe. I have a load of pictures from the city itself.

Spain Day 3 (January 30, 2009)

Our third and final day in Barcelona was a great one as well. We woke up early, and hit the streets once again, our flight being later that night. The girls went shopping and Matt and I just sort of wandered. The streets of Barcelona are filled with entertainers: brass-painted men and women pretending to be statues, different fantasy like characters, people pretending to be animals, kind of weird but interesting. Also, you can buy almost any type of bird or rabbit from the different vendors. The available birds for purchase range from a parrot, to a rooster, to a pigeon. You can get any sort of rabbit as well; there were even ones that looked almost exactly like that character from Gremlins. Pretty random stuff, but I guess birds and rabbits are just popular pets in Barcelona. The flight back to Sevilla went very smooth. We weren’t exactly sure how we were going to get back to Cadiz that night though. We arrived too late to catch the last running train, so we forked over some major cash for an hour and a half cab ride back to Cadiz. Not an insane amount when divided among six people, but a lot. It was worth it though, we were able to get a little taste of the Cadiz night life, and got to check back into the boat and sleep in our own beds (which was excellent)!

Spain Day 2 (January 29, 2009)

Day two in Barcelona was full of sight seeing and just simply walking the streets, trying to soak in as much of the culture as possible. Throughout the entire day though, we were all filled with anticipation for the coming night’s soccer (futbol) match. We had ordered tickets about a week before arriving in Spain. We didn’t find out until we actually arrived in Barcelona that the match meant much more than we had thought. It was a Spanish Cup Championship Match, pairing up FC Barcelona (the team we were rooting for) against RCD Espanyol (one of Barca’s biggest rivals, also located in Barcelona). We arrived to the match a little late; it took us a while to get there -- the subway being absolutely packed the whole way. We arrived at the stadium, Camp Nou, which looked about 3 times bigger than Lambeau Field. Standing outside the stadium we could hear the roars of 100,000 plus Barcelona fans inside. On our way to the ticket window, we passed a number of security squads, which looked more like the Spanish military than security guards at a sporting event. Once we got our tickets, we quickly ran to our gate, which was located on the exact opposite side of this massive stadium. The roars of the crowd continued. Matt and I thought that the score must have been 10-0 by the time we actually got to our seats, we both looked at the scoreboard, sure enough: 0-0. The inside of the stadium was absolutely breath taking. Never before in my life have I seen 100,000 people completely focused on every single movement of the field. Also, instead of booing the opposing team, they whistle in very high pitches – it is a really cool sound. It was crazy to observe the anticipation in every single person as a player would make an attempt at scoring. It was even crazier to observe the explosion of the stadium once a goal was actually scored. Barcelona’s star player, Lionel Messi, is only 21 years old. His ball skills are like that of an artist, and he is incredibly quick as well. Before seeing this game and specifically this player in person, I did not have much respect for this sport. But after being there, it is simply amazing, everything about it. It is amazing how every person in the stadium worships this player Messi. Whenever he makes a good move or has a good attempt, the entire crowd chants “Messi, Messi, Messi”, and 100,000 people bow up and down in the direction of this 21 year old kid. It is absolutely breath-taking. I could tell by just being in attendance that the magnitude of importance this sport has in this specific culture, cannot be matched back in the states. We were fortunate enough to have been able to see a great game. 3-2 was the final score: Barcelona the victors. I bought a jersey on the street outside the stadium after the game -- #10 Messi.

Spain Day 1 (January 28, 2009)

Got an hour of sleep the night before, woke up ported in Cadiz, Spain. Actually, three other friends of mine, my roommate and I stayed up the whole night just talking -- about everything. It’s pretty cool too, because we are the first students to have seen the lights of Cadiz, we went out to the observatory deck at 5:30 in the morning – I got some good video of it. The line to get off the boat was pretty long; it felt great to finally be on land though. Our group (four guys, four girls), walked around the streets of Cadiz for about an hour – first observation: a lot of stray cats. In addition, this city offers a number of amazing cathedrals; I was absolutely mesmerized just by the sight of them. I stopped by a small music shop to buy some guitar strings, which are way more expensive in Cadiz than they are in Champaign. It was a cool first purchase though. We headed to the nearby train station to catch a train to Sevilla; our flight from Sevilla to Barcelona was later that night. It is amazing how efficient the train system is in Spain and Europe in general. I had heard stories from my sister, who had lived and died by the train system when she was traveling throughout France and Ireland, but it really is amazing how many people use this means of transportation in these countries. The train ride to Sevilla was fairly calm and relaxing. When we stopped in Sevilla, we were all starving; so we walked the streets for a while in search of a lunch spot. The place we found was very neat. It was a small joint, looked exactly how I had pictured any small European bar-like restaurant to look like. There was a lot of cod on the menu (or bacalao in Spanish). The food was good, especially when accompanied by a certain native beverage, entitled Cruzcampo. After getting refueled at lunch, we continued to walk the streets of Sevilla.
The airport process was almost as simple as the train station had been. Customs is a lot stiffer in the United States than it was in Spain. I was a little nervous about the plane ride but everything went smoothly once we were boarded. I caught up on some sleep during the plane ride, recovering from the sleep lost the night before. Once we arrived in Barcelona, we caught a cab and rode to Matt’s friends’ apartment. The cab ride was my first site of the city of Barcelona. It was dark out so I couldn’t get a full view of the buildings and everything else, but it was still a beautiful sight. One of the most amazing sights the city has to offer is the Sagrada Familia, a massive Roman Catholic Church that has been under construction since the year 1882. It is still being built today and is honestly the single most impressive structure I have ever seen in my entire life. Matt’s buddies’ apartment lived close by. All of the guys that lived there were great, very generous for letting us crash at their place for a couple days. We got to know each other for a bit and then they showed us the Barcelona night life; which is absolutely nuts – an entirely different culture than back in the U.S.

Condensed Beginning to Bob’s Voyage – Preface (written January 26, 2009)

The first post is finally here! I will be most likely updating the blog after each port -- filling all of you in on my travels, adventures, thoughts and reflections of each country. I cannot believe that it has already been about a week onboard. The ship is amazing. I am just now getting my bearings for where everything is located, and believe me, there is a lot of stuff on this ship. First and foremost, I’ll fill you in on some SAS terminology about our ship, the MV Explorer: this is indeed a ship (not a boat) and the ship has decks (not floors). The first week though has flown by. It has been a great way to meet and get to know everyone aboard. My roommate, Matt, is from Philly and is a Beta at Penn State. He’s pretty much just like me – frat guy, into sports, likes music.
I cannot wait for Spain, only about 36 hours until port. It is definitely weird not really having actual 7 day weeks though (while on the ship). Every day on the ship we have class, which is different, but I do like all of my classes so far. Shipboard days are denoted as A and B days. I decided to sign up for some classes that aren’t typically offered at DePauw – Zoology (A), Ecoacoustics (A), Cultural Myth & Language / Identities (B), and the standard Global Studies (A&B) course which everyone takes on the ship. It is crazy that within the past week, we’ve seen nothing but water. A few students have seen other boats and whales, but besides for one small fishing boat, I have seen nothing but water. Honestly though, the water itself is pretty amazing. This is one of the first voyages where the ship has had an observatory deck (deck 8), apparently it was added a year or two ago. It is very relaxing and peaceful to go out there during the day, especially when the water is somewhat calm. We’ve been lucky to have had fairly good weather in the Atlantic so far. One or two small storms but nothing crazy. I’ve been able to get my lifting in for football as well. There is a solid weight room on deck 7, but you have to be careful – every once and awhile the boat will catch a swell and force you to perform a balancing act while lifting.