I know I am behind with writing a blog about my Morocco weekend, but I feel like that will take way too long to write about right now. Yesterday we went to Jerez and Cadiz for the day, and since the trip is fresh in my mind, I want to write what I can about that! :) To put very short and to the point, the day felt almost perfect. I was feeling so much more relieved after finally deciding to go home in May, that everything seemed to feel better. It was very relaxing.
Although we had to wake up by 7:30 in order to get ready and meet at our meeting point by 8:15 (about 25 minutes away walking), we were smart and went to bed by about 12 the night before--yes, on St. Patrick's Day. Not to get sidetracked, but St. Patrick's Day was a blast also. Even though most Spaniards do not recognize the day as a holiday, there are several Irish bars in town that had drink specials (where all the Americans and study abroad students flocked, of course... and a few Spaniards, probably just to meet Americans, like they do on Calle Betis). Maeve and I went to Flaherty's Irish Pub at about 5pm to meet up with Tara, whose birthday was also that day. (We had gone out to Caramelo, a discoteca, the night before to celebrate since she was turning 21, but unfortunately I was practically falling asleep on the dance floor, so I wasn't really much fun)
We planned ahead of time that we did not want to go out late that night since we knew we would have to be up early for our day trip, so we had a few hours before dinner to hang out and whatnot. I, for one, was not planning nor trying to get drunk for dinner, but we tried a couple of "firsts" that day, and decided we wanted one of the t-shirts they were selling, to commemorate Tara's Birthday and also our time in Spain.
One of the drinks we had were REAL Irish Car Bombs... when you drop a shot of whiskey into half a pint of Guinness and have to chug it. I thought that I was going to want to puke or something just from that since I hate beer, but it actually wasn't that bad, and I also finished first. What a champ, right? :-P Next, we tried their special shot, called an "Irish flag shot"... I haven't the slightest idea what was in it, but there were 3 different colored alcohols/liquors that were poured in to match the Irish flag (I think It was green, white and red? unless it was orange...?). The only one I could make out the taste of was mint (possibly Schnapps?), but it was very good.
Next, I wanted to have a drink with Bailey's in it (which I was also just drinking to enjoy... it's not usually something to get you drunk!), so I asked the bartender what he could make me with Bailey's. He replied that he would make me something "special"... which ended up being a big glass with amaretto, Bailey's and coffee liquor. It was SO GOOD; and definitely not ingredients that are meant to get you trashed! But, what must have done me over was when we decided we wanted the shirts, which for 10 euro came with a pint of beer...but I, of course, convinced the bartender that I hate beer and "would it be at all possible to get something else?" So, he said he would make me another drink with Bailey's!!! (I enjoyed it, and my friends also ended up ordering some) I'm pretty sure Carmen could tell that I was drunk when we got home for dinner (at about 9:30), but she seemed to be fine with how I was acting... just a little more happy and airy (if that's the right word..?)
The next day, our first stop was in a town less than an hour from Sevilla, and about 20 to 30 minutes from Cadiz, called Jerez, where many world-renowned wineries (aka "bodegas") are located. While in Jerez, we visited the John Harvey Winery and tasted a "fino" wine, which is served chilled, and the "bristol cream", their most well known product of sherry wine, which tasted sweeter. Mostly everyone didn't like at least one of the wines we tasted, but I was shocked to find that I liked both of them, when I normally don't like wine. (they both had a bit more alcohol content than usual also, the fino wine with 15% and the sherry with 20%) Since we were split up into two different groups to tour the winery, when the second group was touring, we went on a tour of the city. While the city was beautiful, at this point of the day I (and many others) had no attention span and was just waiting to get back on the bus and eat our lunch and go to Cadiz.
When we finally arrived in Cadiz, it was about 2pm. We were told that we had to meet back at the same spot we were being dropped off at 5:30 and that we could either go relax on the beach or explore the city. Almost everyone decided to go to the beach and try to work up a tan (my reasoning was that I will be back in Cadiz with my History and Mythology course in a couple of weeks anyways... so I will be able to tour the city at some point with them). The beach was gorgeous and not crowded at all, it had fine sand and almost no rocks at all. The day was perfect; not scorching hot, but the sun was warm enough to lie in comfortably and there was a light breeze. The water wasn't too cold for March, either, but I was not up for swimming in it. We loved the beach so much that a few of us decided that we are going to plan an overnight trip there later on this semester; to spend the days at the beach and exploring the city at some point. It was a beautiful city; reminding me of a more modern and clean Myrtle Beach or Rhode Island.
When we had about an hour until meeting up, a few of us decided to go hunt down some ice cream (in all seriousness, I think that was only my 3rd ice cream since being in Spain; the first two being a soft serve cone and the other a McFlurry--both from McDonald's). We ended up getting some Carte D'Or ice cream (which they apparently sell all over Sevilla too!)... I got some chocolate and chocolate cookie dough. The serving sizes were a lot smaller than the U.S. of course, the cookie dough didn't taste like real cookie dough, and the chocolate ice cream was so much better than regular chocolate ice cream (apparently it's made with chocolate from Ecuador, and also has little pieces of chocolate inside it).
All in all, yesterday was a relaxing day. I even got myself to go on a decent jog last night, do some stairs and crunches/ab workouts before dinner time (now I just need to start getting into a regular routine!) After dinner, I decided to stay in because I was tired... and didn't want to fall asleep on the dance floor again! (and will probably go out tonight) I think I may have started an almost insignificant tan (and I started off have a strange splotch of sunburn on each of my arms, which are now gone--it was weird, because I put a good amount of sun lotion on, too).
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