NO HABLO ESPANOL (Cadiz, Spain)

I feel like in Cadiz I got one step closer to being an actual traveler. I walked off the ship with two friends in Cadiz with a backpack, no plans, three free days, and a direction towards the train station. We ended up deciding to go to Cordoba in the station and took a three-hour train there (where we got off at the correct station). Wandering around Cordoba, then to Sevilla the next day, and back to Cadiz, I finally felt like I got a grasp on traveling and exploring with no plans.

Even so, coming to Spain after being able to speak some French in Marseille, left me a little frustrated. I could understand some of the Spanish but when I would open my mouth to respond, it would come out in French. Luckily Ian spoke some Spanish, but that was amusing because he would go up to a Spanish person and say “Hola”, to which they would respond “Hello”, and then the Spanish person would turn to me, say “Hola”, and I would say “Hi”, back. #epicfail #brownpeopleproblems. I am sorry my Cordoba Spanish blood for failing you.

Regardless of the Spanish issue, Spain was lovely and on the last day in Cadiz we went to find a beach. On the way we walked passed these incredibly huge trees that looked like something out of Avatar. Because I travel with college-aged boys, aka children, they of course went to climb them. I admit I wanted to, but there was no way I could have made it up. The climbing seemed silly at first until I realized how high up they were and started freaking out. I could just imagine the pre port describing how two guys wrecked themselves, not from cliff jumping, but tree climbing. It not only sounded embarrassing, but terrifying. Of course they made it down just fine and I looked dumb for worrying but like every other stupid thing friends or I have done on this trip, it made for a good story.

P.S. my friends are 6’2 ish so you can see how massive this tree was.