Casi una semana
7-days in Spain: West Side Story, The Movie
Who knows? / It's only just out of reach, / Down the block, on a beach, / Under a tree. / I got a feeling there's a miracle due, / Gonna come true, / Coming to me!
It´s safe to say I´ve settled in.
J intelligently contacted a few ¨intercambios¨through schools here in Cadiz and we befreinded one - Paco - and his friends. They took us to eat typical Cadiz fare which is fried everything-from-the-sea: conch, merluza, tiny fish (anchovy?), squid, fish eggs... and cheese. We drank tinto de verano (aka, summer red wine, red wine mixed with light orange or lemon soda). They also pointed out the best parts of town for night life and a restaurant that serves over 100 kinds of montaditos, or baby baguette-sandwiches.
Saturday we went to a beach town and wandered the ancient roman streets of Baelo Claudia, a town built in the first century A.D. There are remains of a market, town square, thermal bathing house, ampitheater, a few residences, and fishing factory where they salted fish and made some fish sauce that was coveted in Rome. It was also the main port to Tangiers, Africa. The town is situated essentially on the beach, with mountains directly behind it and a giant sand dune to it´s left; beautiful. I really enjoyed walking the streets of such a complete ancient city; I imagined plays put on in the theater, a steet urchin illicitly grabbing fruit in the market square, a teenager stealing a kiss behind the statue in the town square, all some 2000 years ago. I wish I could upload pictures. (Alas, no computer; When I return.) Next, we travelled a little farther to the surfing-town of Tarifa, current much-used port to Tangiers. We didn´t go to Tangiers (next time, Gadget). Instead, we took a boat tour in the Gibralter Strait and caught a few schools of dolphins and whales.
Sunday we just missed the Cadiz town parade for Corpus Christi, but we did walk around the main square. The streets were filled with Sunday-Best-Dressed Andalucians and lined with pine-leaves; it´s bizarre for me to smell pine in 70-degree weather! In the afternoon we travelled to Sandalucar which was holding a wine festival. The feria was very big and full of vendors - like street fairs in New York - selling jewelry, shoes and clothing, leather goods, etc. There were also tons of tents selling beer and really only 2 kinds of wine; clearly naming it a wine fair was a bit misleading, but it was still nice to sip tinto veranos and people watch (women of all ages were wearing flamenco dresses and little boys were decked out as well)(PS Jenn and I are buying those outfits to dress our sons in, if we have any).
Today, Flamenco classes and beach. The weather was hotter and thus the water more bearable!
posted by V at 2:43 PM
1 Reflections:
I also was in Tangier and was impressed by this amazing city. Tangier is beautiful, combining many of the best attributes of other Moroccan cities: it has the rolling hills of Fez, which give most houses stunning views; it has the blue and white color palate of Essaouira, in addition to the Ocean and Sea; and it has a small but interesting medina. In addition, it has a much more varied architecture, with a variety of European influences. Also I know that people invest in Tangiers property. In addition, it has a much more varied architecture, with a variety of European influences.
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