GHANA TOMORROW!!!!!

Hey Everyone:


ONE MORE DAY UNTIL GHANA!!!!!!!!


These last couple days have been tiresome, and last night I was going to finish up Spain, but I had a 5 page paper due today, so I thought it was a good idea to finish that up instead. So let’s finish up Spain:
Monday. Katy and I decided to make a day trip to Sevilla. We woke up around 8AM and headed to the train station after pulling out money from the ATM around 9AM. We were planning on catching the 9AM train, but Katy had to get money exchanged, and I had to find an ATM which both took awhile to do, so we ended riding on the 10:05AM train. The train ride was not that bad, about 2 hours. Upon arriving in Sevilla, we went to the tourism desk and received a map. With my Boy Scout skills I was able to orient the map with the sun and we started to head the direction (we hoped) towards the downtown area of Sevilla. After an hour of walking we finally, and to my relief otherwise I would have looked real dumb but I was fairly certain, reached the downtown area. We decided to explore and find a restaurant. We found one, and I ate another meat dish, which again, like all Spanish food, was awesome. Katy had a tomato soup-esque dish (cannot remember the dish’s name) which tasted like pureed salsa, but was good anyways. Immediately following lunch, we traveled through the city, trying to find the cathedral. After walking along the river, we found the minaret on the cathedral (an odd event, as if you did not know, cathedrals do not have minarets. This cathedral was at one time owned by Muslims, and therefore had the minaret introduced onto the cathedral) We toured the cathedral, a majestic creation. All the cathedrals I have been to, they are all majestic in their own way. This cathedrals main focus point for me was, in the center of the cathedral, a room had been constructed to portray aspects of Jesus Christ’s life, all made of gold. This creation reflected and glittered in the sunlight and lights that were shining upon it. An interesting fact about this cathedral, is it is the supposed resting place of Christopher Columbus, in which the tomb was erected in a part of the cathedral. Katy and I then decided to climb the massive minaret. The hike up to the top was well worth the exercise. The minaret gave a complete panoramic of the entire city of Sevilla. After finishing our tour of the cathedral we decided to make our way to the last “touristy” area of Sevilla, which was the Place d’Espagna. It consisted of a brown building, encompassing an island in the middle which had a fountain sprouting water from it. On the walls facing the fountain were inscriptions and tile work of the multiple provinces and cities of Spain, a great work of art. We left soon after and walked back to the train station to head back to Cadiz. On the train ride, Katy and I shared life experiences and views we have on certain issues, in which we kind of had the same opinions, and I think because of this she kind of became one of the closer friends I have on the ship. We got back to the ship pretty early, then headed out to dinner with another friend that I have gotten closer with, Kevin. The three of us, since most of the other people in our little circle of friends from the ship had gone on overnight trips, headed out to a wonderful restaurant we found right on the waterfront. I found the wine that I ordered a few nights previous, the San Diego one, and ordered a bottle meanwhile, Katy and Kevin ordered a large pitcher of Sangria. We had fun that night. I am telling you now, the Sangria tasted exactly like soda (we went back the next night and got the recipe, I will explain more in the next paragraph about the next day). After the fun time we had at the restaurant, we headed to the bar right next door, and Katy and I ordered a Sex on the Beach. Yes, it is a girls drink, but if you tasted it, anybody would drink it. We had a fun walk back to the ship, which was about twenty blocks away, then it was a good night world once on the ship.


Tuesday. Kevin, Katy, Kevin’s roommate Matt (his nickname is Asian-Canadian-Jewish Matt since we have two Matts) and I decided to take another day trip out to a small town about 3 hours by bus outside of Cadiz, Ronda. We arrived into Ronda after our 3 hour bus ride and soon after began our trek into the city, since we had only about four to five hours to explore to catch the last bus. We began our journey into the city center, which the day before there was a HUGE festival, since there were still balloons hanging from the buildings (if you have seen my pictures on my face book that is why all those balloons are above my head) We were hungry so we sat down at a café on the main boulevard, which there were not any cars driving, but massive amount of people walking up and down the pathway. At this café we ordered Chocolate con Churros, which. Was. Amazing. I do not know why we do not have this back in the states. If we had this, it would be for sure a hit. The churros reminded me of funnel cakes, but the hot chocolate, was real chocolate, none of this just-add-water hot chocolate. It was one of the best desserts of all time. We also ordered a plate of meat and sheep cheese. After this meal, I could see myself eating sheep cheese and meat for the rest of my life. This small and simple meal was one of the best meals ever, next to the Carne al Toro (which I never got to have again, but oh well, Le Pauvre) After completing our lunch we walked up the street to the top of the street. At this point we had spent about an hour and a half, and decided to walk the other way. We walked into a store, (we had been into a couple already), and we were all wondering why there was nothing in Ronda except for shopping, for all we had seen was shops. I decided to head out the shop and saw the pictures at the front of the shops. I looked through them and saw an amazing bridge overlooking an enormous gorge, then noticed at the bottom of the picture it said, in big red letters “RONDA.” We were all just stupefied. We were going to leave Ronda without seeing what makes Ronda, this bridge which overlooks a gigantic gorge. (Again since I cannot post pictures from the ship, check my facebook if you can). We then ran into where we could see it. It was an awesome sight to behold. The landscape the bridge overlooked was wonderful and peaceful. We took loads of pictures from an area you can hike down and look up at the bridge. The funny part about the hike down, was there was a Spanish man holding a boom box, blasting Elvis Presley. After staring into this mesmerizing sight, we headed back to the bus station, since we did not have much time left before the last bus left for Cadiz. We sat on the bus for another 3 hours back to Cadiz. On this ride, I told Katy, Kevin, and Matt about my favortie Mexican taco shop in San Diego, about the Korean place, Jeong Won, where I eat all the time and about when they get to San Diego, I will take them to these places. Just writing about it makes me miss these foods. Mmmmm. I am hungry, too bad dinner is in 3 hours….


The last night in Cadiz, the day we went to Ronda, was spent out. The group of friends I have been hanging out with and I went back to the restaurant from the night before. We ordered three pitchers of Sangria and my bottle of wine. We had a grand ole time at this restaurant, socializing, having great drinks, and tasty food. I went to the bathroom and on the way back I noticed the owners of the restaurant watching futbol. It was Argentina v. Spain, (Spain lost 3-0). I sat and watched with them and noticed that Casillas (the goalkeeper and my hero) was not playing. “Donde esta Casillas?” I asked. They replied, to the best of my knowledge that it was a friendly and none of the starters were playing. I asked the guy in our group who spoke Spanish to translate, and that is what he told me. We then began to talk to each other, told them I was American, and that “yo soy portello” (I am a goalkeeper) and “te amo Casillas” (I love you Casillas), which I thought meant I love Casillas but they took it in good fun, for they thought I said I love you to them. The Spanish speaking guy in our group got the recipe to the Sangria, (Red wine, Prosecco, Brandy, Triple sec liqueur citron, orange juice, oranges and a couple of lemons, and sugar. Since I will be 21 when I arrive back in the states, I am going to attempt to recreate this masterful rendition of Sangria) and the wife of the owner took a liking to me for when we were leaving, instead of a handshake, I had seen locals kiss each other of the cheek for when they departed. I pointed to my cheeks and made the kissing sound, she laughed and we parted as if we were old friends. It was a great experience and one I will always remember. After leaving the restaurant we headed to O’Donahue’s, a pub around the corner and decided to have a few more drinks. I had a Guiness and a free shot, for I sat and talked with the bartender for awhile. After experiencing two cultures, Moroccan and Spanish, I feel as if you give in to their culture, and you treat them like human beings, instead of foreigners who care nothing of Americans, they open up to you and enjoy that you enjoy their culture. This is based upon my experiences with the waiter from a few nights previous, the owners of the restaurant who gave us the recipe to the Sangria, to the bartender at O’Donahue’s, to Omar from Casablanca, and to my tour guide from the nomad trek. When you head into a foreign country, you need to go in with no expectations, and wait to be surprised. You must also respect their culture (for there are people on the ship who all they care about is going to every country, and just getting drunk, and to be able to say they have partied in countries around the world. Our little group calls them, “SASholes.”) After leaving the bar, the other Matt in the group and I went out to the clubs, while the rest headed back to the ship. I danced the night away, with a lot of people from SAS. Matt and I left the clubs around 430AM, (the clubs did not even open until 3AM). We were buzzing around this time, so we had no clue where we were. My Boy Scout instincts said lets just sit down. I watched the stars for about 30 minutes, watched where the stars were going (for EVERYTHING rises in the East and sets in the West) and knew exactly how to get back to the ship. Thank You Boy Scouts (Eagle Scout by the way). The minute my head hit the pillow, I passed out. I did not wake up until about 1400 the same day. I went out and got some things done before we had to be back on the ship before 1800. We left Spain at 2000 and headed for Morocco, which we got there the very next day.
That is the end of Spain for you, and I think I am all caught up. Had my last class before our small Spring Break, the next four days, IN GHANA!!!!!!! I am looking forward to Ghana very much. We had a man on board, who is responsible for helping to write some of Ghana’s present constitution, and his humor is EXACTLY like that of my soccer coach, Eddy, who is from Ghana. Friends and I have some plans on what to do. For the first day we plan on heading to Cape Coast and see the slave castles, and other sites. The second day I have Habitat for Humanity. The third day is open at the moment, but hopefully I am going to head to Kakum National Forest. Then the next day we leave. I will update you on Ghana the minute I am done, no more of this two weeks later stuff I just did for Spain.

I hope all is well to all my readers, update you in four days.

Until my next post,

“Though we travel the world over to find the beautiful, we must carry it with us, or we find it not.”
-R.W. Emerson