Food and water are two of every human's basic needs.

Sunday was our second CIEE excursion of the semester. Cádiz, one of the last known cities in the time of Columbus, with great historical monuments and... the beach. Talk about "studying abroad."

Cádiz is about an hour and a half and since I lacked sleep earlier in the weekend, I enjoyed a nice long nap on the way there. We came in on the only land entrance to the city; the majority of the people that enter and leave do so through the many ports of the peninsula. Our tour guide first took us into the antique portion of the city to see the cigarette factory. This factory was inspired by Sevilla's tobacco factory, which had been a great source of economic gain for Sevilla. (The tobacco factory in Sevilla is now the University of Sevilla.)

A statue in memory of the women who worked in the cigarette factory

We continued on to part of an old Roman theater that has been excavated from underground. This Roman theater is possibly one of the largest in the world, but is unable to be retrieved because of its location under some of the most historical buildings of a later century. One of these buildings is the oldest cathedral in the city, which is relatively unimpressive and in general, ugly. But the historical importance stands and it remains preserved.

Oldest cathedral of Cádiz

However, that hasn't stopped Cádiz from having a beautiful and impressive cathedral. During the 16th and 17th centuries, they built a large cathedral in the center of the city. The cathedral was started in the Baroque style, and finished in the Roccoco style as architects changed and time passed. The change is visible in the building by the change in of building materials. The bottom portion is made from a material that actually has whole shells in the walls. If you go to the top of one of the cupolas, you can see all views the city and the Atlantic Ocean that surrounds it.

Cathedral of Cádiz

Used to build the walls of the cathedral and many other buildings of the century
See the seashell?

Me and Molly at the top!

We continued onto another plaza which was the location of a statue of one of the Catholic saints. Legend has it, if you show your bra straps to the saint you will get a boyfriend. So Jackie wants to know, did I do it? Vamos a ver... ;) After our tour we had free time, for which they conveniently dropped us off and picked us up at the beach. Niiiiice. It was way more crowded than Saturday, but it was still beautiful. Also, it will be appearing in the upcoming James Bond movie. I'm pretty sure I looked exactly like Angelina Jolie coming baywatch style out of the beach. Jajaja. (Look Hanah, I'm Spanish now too!)

La playa

This morning I went to el mercado de Ferria, one of the oldest food markets in Sevilla, for my class assignment. There were tons of fruits and vegetables and also meat stands. And then I saw it. Brains. I asked my señora about it later and she said its popular to feed them to babies because of the nutrients. Mom and Dad, I hope you never fed me brains. Future children, don't worry I think its gross too. After meeting a wonderful fruit stand man (wasn't quite as great as the dried fruit guy in Roma, Ray) who let me try his fruit, I bought approximately a billion plums for the low price of 1,40 euros. Mmmmm. I actually like these obnoxious assignments that send me 45 minutes away from my house to look at fruit because it gets me to a new place of the city that I wouldn't go to otherwise. Thanks CIEE ;)

Mercado de Ferria

Well thought I'd catch you up on my recent outings before this week got too busy. But before I leave you here's a shout out to the padre...

Podólogos en España!