The rest of January was full of desire to still be on vacation but was instead spent writing multiple papers, teaching English, saying goodbye to Alfonso, and studying for finals. Alfonso left for a trip to New York and will be working in Belgium for the next few months until he returns to find a more permanent place to live in Madrid. I kind of forget sometimes that he is 26 with a real job... While a piece of the Princesa family is now gone, I was able to move into his old room, significantly upgrading the comfort of being at home. I finally have a bit of space to spread out and keep my things, as well as a much nicer mattress and a suitable desk. After a steady diet of writing and studying, my first finals were upon me and I went in needing to pretty much dominate if I wanted to save myself from my sub par midterm results. After a few relatively sleepless nights, I had more studying to do for my last and most important final the coming week. As we're in Spain, I decided I couldn't pass up the opportunity to take a trip south with Dominik that weekend. This in spite of my good conscience telling me that was probably the last thing I should do with my entire grade riding on the final I would have to take right after getting back. There was also a good possibility we'd be going without sleep our last night as it was Carnival and all of the hostels should have been likely booked in Cadiz.
We awoke very early Saturday morning and after a few cups of coffee and a solid breakfast we were on our way south in Dominik's car along with his German and Chilean friends, Malte and Nicolas. Malte can best be described as a very friendly giant, very interested in politics and photography, and it was fun to be absorbed in conversation with him for the first few hours of our trip in the back seat. Nicolas was also very friendly, but a bit more quirky, and I spent much of my time trying to work through his thick accent. We broke through the cloudy gloom of the north and were soon basked in the bright sun of the south. We made a few stops to enjoy the views and spent a few hours walking around a little town named Ubeda before rolling into Granada in the early afternoon. It was the most gorgeous day, and we spent the first few hours hopping around eating tapas and randomly searching for a hostel that had an open room. The city had the true ambiance of Andalucia, where the people are relaxed and there is nothing more important to do than enjoy the sun. Clearly in one of the more touristy areas of town, we decided to get off the beaten path a bit, winding our way through narrow streets up the city's giant hill. Atop, we were greeted with the most enchanting view of the city and the famous La Alhambra, which we unfortunately didn't have time to enter. The top of the hill was full of old, tiny, semi-run down homes with terraces built to suit the lifestyle of southern Spain. As Dominik and I stood there in awe that it was possible to live in such a beautiful and unique place and two beautiful Spanish ladies in their twenties stood drinking sangria on their terrace, I promised myself that I would spend more than one day on that hill sometime in my life. It was absolute paradise.
Just over the hill, we were met with another surprise, which was explained to us by a local after we offered to buy him a beer in exchange for a history lesson about the area. The entire mountain was covered by inhabited caves that were carved out during the civil war by people who had been displaced by the fighting. Today there is still a colony of free spirited people inhabiting these caves, spending their days playing guitar and sustaining their beautifully simple lives with one of the most beautiful views in Spain set in front of them.
As the sun set that evening we found a plaza overlooking the city below and the snowy mountains set behind the seemingly gilded Alhambra. Surrounded by locals sipping beer, playing instruments, and simply enjoying life, we soaked in what was one of the most beautiful views I've had in my life. Having purposely forgotten about the need to still find a hostel that night, we walked back to the center of town and after being turned away a few times, settled on the first place with an open room and a cheap price. The rest of the night was spent in true Andalucia style- tapas. Here we discovered just how misinformed madrileños are about what constitutes a tapa. We were ever so pleasantly surprised when after ordering our beers for 1.20 Euro, we were served a plate of large hamburgers. Unbelievable. And delicious. Other places offered us soups and stews, while others more traditional toasted treats. We also spent a few relaxing hours in one of the many tea and hookah lounges whose aromas tempted those passing by. At the end of the night, as everything started to close including our eyelids after a long day, we headed back to the chilly hostel and hopped into bed, dreaming of the hot cup of coffee that would await us in the morning.
After breakfast in the hostel and another short walk around town, we hopped in the car and continued our journey south, this time all the way to the Mediterranean. Passing through snow-capped mountains and river valleys, we drove along the rugged coastline, looking out into the infinite blue. Stopping a good distance short of Malaga as the sun dropped lower in the sky, we pulled into a scarcely inhabited beach town looking for a place to set up camp that night. However, upon seeing the crystal blue water, we parked, did a quick beach change into our suits, and went sprinting full speed into the frigid sea. The ice cold water sucked the air right out of me as I dove in headfirst. After many screams of agony and furious splashing in a futile attempt to ward off the cold, we emerged from the water and I quickly put on every article of clothing I had brought on the trip. Before long we were basking in the fading sun and enjoying a beer and baguette with cheese as we traded stories. After watching a brilliant sunset, we lugged our supplies over to a nearby park and set to work on the vegetable soup we had planned to make that night. The temperature dropped quickly along the breezy coast and with full stomachs we set off to find some sign of life in the deserted town. We found one open bar that offered a respite from the chilly night air and spent a few hours warming up, catching the soccer scores, and playing some intense games of foosball and pool. Deciding it would be easier to just camp illegally on the beach instead of illegally on someone's land across the road, we unsuccessfully hid our tent behind some palms and decided that the worst that could happen would be an even earlier wakeup call by a laid back coastal police officer who would just tell us to be on our way. It was a chilly night despite being wrapped up in a sleeping bag and all of my clothes, but waking up to the sounds of crashing waves was delightful, and breakfast on the sunny beach was the best possible way to start the day.
We continued our travels along the coast, past the overdeveloped city of Malaga and on to Gibraltar, where Malte and I spent a few hours atop the island's peaks, Dominik and the passportless Nicolas taking a little siesta in a local park. The city itself doesn't have much to offer, but the view from atop the island is spectacular as one can see the southern tip of Spain and the northern tip of Morocco from the same spot. It's a funny feeling knowing you can see three countries from one place. Surrounded my monkeys brought by the Berbers in the 12th century we basically had the area to ourselves, but in the end were a bit rushed to get back to the boys, and were soon aboard the cable car a second time to descend the mountain and get back to Spain.
Driving onward, we arrived in Cadiz a short time later, a classic beach town with interesting historical roots. It was basically the cradle of Spain's liberalization during the revolutionary war against Napoleon in the early 19th century, and its first constitution in 1812 before a back and forth period of constitutional and absolutist monarchies. Again, Dominik and I went sprinting into the even colder Atlantic Ocean as the sun drew low in the sky, but we stayed in longer to enjoy some quality body surfing before retiring to a beer on the sand. We continued on into the city as the sun began to set, and after luckily stumbling onto a parking place in the crowded city in the midst of Carnival, we joined the giant party in the streets. Although we had no expectation to find a hostel that night, we would include a relaxed hostel search into the first few hours of the night as we checked out what was going on in town. We would later find out that the crazy party had been during the weekend but until about one a.m. the streets were packed with people in costume with groups of singers and performers on every block. We even managed to find a few open beds for the night where I could take a much needed shower before heading out again until after everything died down later than night. Although we were a bit disappointed that we hadn't come for the big party that Saturday, we still had a great time.
Breakfast in a sunny plaza the next morning left me wanting to stay in Cadiz a few more days instead of returning to the final exam that awaited my arrival in Madrid. We took a long loop around town before finally finding the exit to the highway, and as Dominik and I eyed the university along the waterfront, our collective sigh spoke for us in questioning why we had to leave the south so soon. My mind was furiously scheming for ways to get back there someday, something that is becoming a common theme during my travels this year. As long boarders caught beautiful waves a good ways out into the water, it left me yearning for just one afternoon of surfing that side of the Atlantic.
The trip home was long, but broken up nicely by many stops along the way, including lunch on a hill out in the middle of nowhere and a stop into a pueblo (also in the middle of nowhere). With our blond hair and electronica/jazz music playing out the car's open windows we must have looked like aliens to the old men that lined the streets seated on their front steps with nothing to do all day but think in the town's absolute silence. We took in some sun and fresh air, and before long were back on the road and stopping in Mérida, Spain's best surviving example of Roman conquest. We stopped in for something to drink, saw a few of the town's old ruins, and finally hit the home stretch on our way back to Madrid as I attempted to fill my head with a semester's worth of European medieval history. Also, I could hardly contain my excitement for Super Tuesday which was beginning back in the States, and for which I would be voting for through Democrats Abroad that evening. Arriving home after dark, I lugged all of the bags and camping gear upstairs while Dominik drove to the university to park the car, and I was soon off to vote with Maren and Emma just a few blocks away. It was quite the sight to see, with signs in English plastered all over the front of the bar hosting the event, a few crazy guys yelling their nonsensical political beliefs to us as we passed by, and Spanish TV crews filming the event. As I waited in line to vote, I was approached by a news anchor saying she needed an interview of a young male American who could speak Spanish well enough, and before I knew it was being asked to explain why I would be voting for Barack Obama that evening. Amazingly, I think it actually went better than they have ever gone for me in the States, where I have always gotten so nervous by the suddenness of everything, and I made it through sounding relatively coherent. I just wish I knew if I made it on TV or not... After casting my vote with Julie, who had coincidently arrived at the same time, I walked home anxious for the day's results and not so much for the night of studying I had ahead of me. While it was far too little time to spend in southern Spain, and I will almost certainly be back to the region sometime before I leave the country, it was nice to finally take a trip with Dominik, who has become a good friend and for whom I have a lot of respect and admiration. While I awoke to slightly disappointing election results, and a full day of studying still ahead, I walked nervously into my exam really happy that I had decided to make the journey.
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