Why You Should Celebrate Your Next Birthday in Spain

Advice: Spend a birthday in Spain sometime because you won’t regret it.  My birthday this year was one of the best that I can remember.  The day began with classes, which were the same as usual.  We then returned home for lunch.  Charo and Pepe presented me with a scarf that they had bought for me; it was precisely my taste and was so thoughtful of them!  We had a great lunch of French fries and meatballs in a “salsa” (one of my favorite meals here!) and then I Skyped with my parents.  After that, it was time for the beach.  

My friend Ling from Villanova who is studying in Madrid for the summer took a 7 ½-hour bus ride down to Cádiz to visit for the weekend!  So I met up with her (so wonderful to see her!) and then we all went to the beach.  It was great to be at one of my favorite places on my birthday.  We stayed there for a couple of hours and then returned to our houses to shower and get ready for the evening.  We met up with the group (just about everyone came!) to take the ferry to Puerto Santa María, a nearby town.  The ferry ride was wonderful – the views were spectacular and we were traveling during sunset which made everything that much more beautiful. 

Once we got there, after a bit of wandering around, we found a place at which to eat dinner.  We had delicious paella and all sat around and talked for awhile.  Some of my friends were nice enough to bring along some birthday champagne.  It was so nice. 

My roommate, Minn, had surprised me with a little birthday cake (they don’t seem to have cake here, so it was a chocolate tart-type dessert that was still delicious) and had brought it with her, so we had cake after dinner.  One of the grad assistants, Paula, even brought candles!  It was just like I was having birthday cake at home. 

We sat around at the restaurant until about midnight.  Afterwards, we went to a nearby karaoke bar.  A bunch of the people in the group sang songs (all in Spanish, of course), so that was pretty entertaining.  My friend, Rachel, bought me my first ever Mojito, a Cuban drink with rum, lime, and sugar; it was delicious and definitely my favorite of the night (need I insert a comment here?).

After hanging out at the bar for a while, we went to a club.  The music was great and it eventually got pretty crowded with people.  We all had a great time together.  We stayed there until about 4:45, at which point a few of us hailed a cab.  We were home by 5:30 and I was in bed by 6.  AM, that is.  Talk about a late night!  But I would not have had it any other way.  As my Dad put it, I was extremely well taken-care of by my friends on my birthday.  Our group is truly wonderful and I am so thankful for the great friends that I have made. 

My birthday weekend continued with another great, albeit very different, day on Saturday.  Ling, Rachel, and I got up around 10 (yes, I was a little tired but I have decided that I can sleep once I return to the U.S.!) and walked around for a bit.  We returned home for lunch and then met up again to explore some more.  We came across some beautiful parks, one of which had a little playground, a waterfall, and some cave-type things.  We really saw some beautiful sights.

Remember how I mentioned that there are lots of cats around here?  Take your pick:

After walking around for a while, we returned to our houses to shower and relax.  We dressed up a bit and walked the hour-long walk down to the area that they call New City.  It was so nice to talk about things as we walked.  We decided that we much prefer walking to riding the bus because of this quality talking time as well as the ability to enjoy the sights of the city.  Once we got to New City, we found a restaurant that both Rachel’s host mom and our host parents had highly recommended to us. 

It was a legit tapas place; the menu was this big:

Needless to say that it wasn't designed for an indecisive person such as myself.

It was a really nice restaurant right across from the beach.  We took a quick break before eating to snap some photos of the sky – it looked just like a watercolor painting!

We sat down at the bar and ordered two tapas each so we could share with each other.  They were delicious!  We then ordered two desserts (chocolate, of course) to split among the four of us.  Everything was wonderful.  After finishing dinner, we walked back towards Old City (where we live).  It was a great weekend to be in the city because Cádiz is currently celebrating the bicentennial of its constitution, so the streets were alive with parades, music, dancing, and the like. 

We had been hoping to catch the parade, but somehow we missed it.  We continued walking back towards Old City and walked by some people who told us that there was free flamenco happening in one of the restaurants nearby.  We stopped in there to watch – it was so neat!!  What a great cultural experience. 

We were so glad that we had stumbled into that because we had not yet seen any flamenco.  When that was over, we continued walking and were told by someone else about live music nearby as well.  We found that based on the huge crowd of people.  Turns out that I think it was the end of the parade; it was a huge lit-up moving vehicle with all kinds of people on it singing and dancing.  Everyone in the crowd was dancing to the music; it was really neat!  Glad that we came across that as well.

After that was over, we walked closer towards our houses and stopped at an outdoor café in a little plaza and had lemonade and talked some more.  After staying for a little while, we called it a night. 

The next morning, we went to mass at the cathedral right in the center of Cádiz.  It was absolutely gorgeous!  It’s hard to believe that we’ve been walking by this enormous ancient structure for four weeks but have never known how beautiful it is inside:

The best part of the mass was that there was music!  I felt more at home than ever.  Additional perk of posting this picture: "Look, Mom, I really did go to Mass!"

The remainder of the day was dedicated to homework until I Skyped with Pop Pop and Grandma Linda.  It was really great to talk to them, and the best part was that, as per Pop Pop’s request, I brought my computer to Charo and Pepe so he could speak with them!  It was such a neat experience and they were very impressed with his Spanish. 

And so concluded my birthday (and cultural) weekend in Cádiz!

Yes, we got a little artsy at the park on Saturday.  At least the flower smelled nice.