Oh I so apologize for this not being up sooner! I thought I had posted it and when I went to post the next one it wasn't up. My bad.



Ah man, so another anecdote before starting this post. I showed up at my third grade science class to find that the normal teacher (remember, I’m an assistant) had taken another class to the pool. There was a music teacher there but as soon as I showed up she was like, “oh, glad you’re here. My plan is to sit here in this chair while you teach the class.” Uh, Hahaha, I was thought to myself, “whew, wing it time.”

Since it was on eating though (the correct diet) we made out just find ;-)

 Haha, when I was waiting for the butcher to get some meat from the back that I had ordered I looked on the counter and was like, “ are those pigeon eggs”? Sure enough. Anybody in the mood for an 18 egg omlette?

 Uhg, sorry but Spanish tradition or not these cured pig hams are gross. Bleeeeeh, the close up below would turn anyone’s stomach J

 Okay, so when I posted about going to Cádiz last Friday to get my International Foreigner Card I didn’t mention (purposefully) that I didn’t have my street address and thus couldn’t apply… YEAH, I was bummed!!! Ah, in my defense that stipulation was absolutely nowhere in the instruction. I checked them thoroughly before.

Ah well, so here I am headed back to Cádiz and I was stoked to have this back seat open. In common with the small food portions here in Spain they also don’t give you much leg room on the busses. But on this trip, I got to slouch and leg those legs kick out as far as they wanted J

 Yummy huh? Left my window open the night before because it was so balmy and beautiful out. Got some skeeters in the flat who thought I was a find. Uhg, not doing that again!

 Walking around La puerta de tierra. I really like Cádiz. A beautiful city, just wait for the proximate pictures.

 I don’t know why more walls are made with this slight slope. I mean obviously they would be a touch easier to scale but seriously, they gotta be soooo much stronger because of it.

 The beautiful puerta de tierra.

 Okay, I didn’t realize this the last time I was in Cádiz but it’s an island. Haha, I thought that was a long bridge to get to the city, but anyways here’s the southern coast.

 These are old walls that protected the city from naval attacks. Oh, and another tidbit. Cádiz is also the oldest city in Europe!

 A bunch of cement blocks placed between the walls and the ocean to protect them rom the surf.

 The ocean off to the south of the city.

 I was walking along the water front and was like, “what is this building.” More on that in a moment.

 Hmm, so many options for a tourist!

 More pictures of this amazing building, which I was beginning to recognize as some sort of cathedral.

 West entrance to the cathedral of Cádiz.

 West tower on the North side of the cathedral.

 On the north side of the cathedral there was an awesome little plaza and this building was on the west side. I like the architecture.

 The cathedral! This is the north side and the main entrance.

 East tower

 West tower

 Okay, so I guest this cathedral was under construction for 160 years (don’t quote me on that, I think that’s what I overheard a tour guide saying), and it had seven different architects working on it. Thus, the design changes slightly as it progresses from ground level up. Also, due to the financial state of the people building it the stone changed. I don’t remember what’s on the bottom but farther up the white stone is limestone. Definitely a type of stone I’ve never heard of in the construction of a cathedral and the tour guide said it’s not the best for longevity.

haha, okay, so you could go in but it cost 3euros for a student… So of course I hesitated right? Haha, I felt like such an idiot when I got in for thinking about not going in for the measly cost of $4.05! I gotta give credit to my amazing homeschool mother though for tipping me over the edge. I knew if she saw me waffling over paying $4.05 to go tour such a historic site she would scold me so soundly J. I coughed up the dough mumo, IT WAS INCREDIBLE!

 H

A statue of St. Pedro right inside the door.

 Wow, looking down the hall of the place. Is this not fantastic architecture or what!?

 There were these big nets all overhead to prevent the plaster that was starting to come off from saying hello to an unobservant tourist. I appreciated that.

 So inbetween all the pillars that were seen two photos ago there were these memorial to different saints or biblical moments. Very ornate with statues and pictures.

 Another memorial

 The center of the cathedral had some chairs and was centered around kind of an alter.

 Hmm, I guess we’re in the year of faith.

 Wow, the dome at the top of the cathedral was incredible.

 They had an enormous pipe organ but of course it was fenced off.

 A shot of the ceiling above the organ. Very ornate.

 So here was the alter that the cathedral was centered around. I’m sure it’s not called an alter but that was what it made me think of. I also couldn’t get close enough to it to really see what it was.

 Off to the left of that alter looking thing there were these places for singers or preachers to stand. There was one both the left and the right side.

 Hmm, at first, I was like, “how did they wire those into marble pillars”? They did a really good job of putting the wire in the grooves of the pillars. You had to really look for it.

 Another memorial. I eventually got tired of taking pictures of these. There were so many of them!

 Oooo, the dungeon. Haha, or lower level. It really was a little weird going down. My head barely cleared the top of the stairway and it was so dark and dank.

 Yep, it was eery.

 Some of the stuff down there.

 A memorial to a martyr

 Back up top and taking pictures of memorials. Haha, I don’t mean to sound unappreciative, but seriously, this cathedral was so full of them and they were structured so similarly that they lost their aura pretty quickly.

 A closer shot of the center structure (the alter as I called it earlier).

 Ah, the dome right above it. It’s really quite difficult to appreciate the magnitude of this structure from pictures, it was huge!

 This whole thing was silver!!! Or at least plated with it. It’s the largest custodia in the world (what’s a custodia? I don’t know and I have to finish this post so you get to look it up ;-).

 Wow, I’d dub it a war machine if I didn’t know what it actually was. What a sweet looking pipe organ!

 Ginormous doors! Had to be at least twenty feet tall.

 A giant painting of some ritual as I was walking out of the cathedral.

As I was walking out of the cathedral I was like, “oh sweet blessing of blessings!!! Ben and Jerry’s”! Haha, Spanish ice cream is garbage (to put it sweetly). Ah, their chocolate ice cream is like nes quick mixed in water and frozen while churned. Definitely was craving something creamy.

 This was tempting. Buy one get one half off. I didn’t cave though ;-)

 Hmm, so little! I was ready for a tub. Ah well.

 More pics of the cathedral.

 The plaza in front.

 Haha, this guy was vending birds at the open food market. Just in case you had this sudden urge to own a canary, this was your man!

 Little streets of Cadiz

 Haha, this truck passed me. Okay, so this is the beer of Spain and the guy is usually very fat. This is the light beer (sin) and check out that stud on the back lol.

 Looking for food in the open market.

 Yummy.

 Hahaha, so I know all those in America will get a kick out of this. I was walking along the street really wanting some protein something and there was this guy vending krill. Hmm, that’ll work I thought. 

 Sparks an appetite it does ;-)

 Haha, they were actually pretty good. I’d just pour some in my hand and toss them in my mouth like peanuts and crunch away. Delish!

 Walking back to the bus station. Big cruise ship. There’ll be more pics later of this feller. It was huge!

 Ooo, that signs a bit tempting. Already had one American tradition today why not a second. I had to get going though.

 I decided to take the ferry to this city that was further up along the coast and catch a bus from there to Chipiona. Here’s that same boat from the dock.

 Here’s the dock.

 Heading in to board the ferry.

 Boarding.

 I know, I’m obsessed with this boat but seriously, it’s magnificent!

 The top of the ferry.

 Heading out.

 The boat again! Doesn’t that just make you… I don’t know, get chills or something. It’s aggressive looking, huge, and beautiful with that white paint.

 Some cranes in the port.

 Bye boat lol.

 The bay.

 This is the city I made a connection at. El Puerto de Santa Maria and this was some sort of coliseum in the center.

 Haha, as I was walking back from doing a little internet work at a café in town I kept on hearing all this honking and wondered what was going on. A wedding procession of course. Man, I love my little Spanish costal town!!!

 All the family members bringing up the rear in another little carriage.

Look at those dresses! Haha, I don’t think it’s typical to take pictures though, they looked at me like I was a little weird for doing it.