After a short walk around the town centre which was considerably small, actually it mainly consisted of an old cathedral and square. Just like Seville it was very hot but was slightly cooled from the breeze off the Atlantic Ocean.
We found our small hostel, Casa Caracol, which turned out to be a cramped run down old building hostel. In comparison to the hostels we stayed in previously it was well below the standards that Katrina and I had expected. Our room consisted of doors that didn’t lock, meaning that I had to carry my laptop around for the entire day. Not a good experience when its well over 30 degrees, the heat furthered when under direct sunlight. The toilet, which unfortunately Katrina didn’t know of at the time couldn’t flush toilet paper. Meaning that you had to wipe and bin, if you don’t what that means you can use your imagination. She fell into the traumatic situation of having to plunge a mixture of toilet paper, faeces, and urine, in the toilet as the staff inconveniently didn’t tell us prior that we couldn’t flush toilet paper down the toilet. Paint was worn off the concrete cracked walls as if it were a war torn country. The bed that we slept in looked as if it were used as the spare sex bed of the hostel if it were spare.
It’s surprising the people that you meet while travelling. The female that was at the reception desk when we arrived was from Australia and had also been travelling around Europe for the past year. She told us of her experiences travelling and also during her time on Hamilton Island in Australia. She was also incredibly beautiful and could have easily fit the position of a model. Prominent cheek structure accompanied with alluring eyes standing around 5”10. No make still had the presence of a Gucci/Versace, magazine cover attraction. Running into someone like that particularly on the Gold Coast or in Brisbane you would assume that she would be too highly maintained to live in such lowly maintained conditions. It was humbling to see someone with such an image show that beauty can only go so far as there’s something else that people search for in life.
Katrina and I walked around the relatively small town for the remainder of the afternoon hoping for the high expectations of Cadiz to improve. We saw the main cathedral and city gates which was impressive but the experience didn’t surprise or glorify us in any way as we’ve seen an overload of cathedrals and monuments already the past couple of weeks. We did see the long beach though, which was just a beach. I’m guessing that European beaches although average in comparison the worst of Australian beaches, are the highlight of some people who live no where near water for months at a time.
Just like Seville though Cadiz was scorching hot and the water was so tempting, almost like the forbidden fruit in the garden of Eden, but I couldn’t go for a swim as I was forced to lug my laptop around in my backpack. An extra 5KG with my SLR included. We ended up sitting a Café Bar that was located directly on the beach for an hour. Old men in the Speedos roamed freely about before us. I’m still waiting to see a Penelope Cruz beauty walk before me, which was one of my highlights of seeing some Spanish girl while I’ve been in Spain.
Finding nothing else to do after a short couple of hours we went back to the hostel to relax we paid 5 Euros each to have dinner provided for us at the Hostel. Food was scarce in Cadiz at the time as the Spanish transportation union decided to stop food and most forms of public transportation to protest against rising oil prices. Don’t know what that could have done as oil prices were increasing all over the world. Don’t know what the South of Spain would have done to save the world from rising oil prices by inconveniently stopping food and public transportation for the week. Food stores throughout Seville and Cadiz were running short on Fruit and Vegetable supplies during this strike. There were isles of shelves empty in some of the stores we went to. Wasn’t the greatest impression of how they handle situations like this in Spain.
At 8:30pm we ventured to a sanded beach area to view what was proclaimed by the fellow Australian at the reception desk to be the best Sunsets in all of Europe. After hearing of such a high acclamation Katrina and I went out for a 15 minute walk along the beach to see if it were true. From what we saw we weren’t disappointed in any way whatsoever. In actual fact the sunset that we saw made our 1 day trip to Cadiz. We saw a mixture of yellows and oranges complimented by a flaming cloud formation that made the site more unforgettable. It was the first time I’ve ever seen the sun set over the Atlantic Ocean and it was one of the best sunsets I had ever seen up until now. We sat and stared at the sunset for a good 30 minutes reminiscing of life, travels, and future aspirations. The typical thing to do when you see natural beauty I guess. Katrina took well over 30 photos of the sunset. All of which could pass as trademark postcards of the small southern town. Disregarding the Sardine Train and the hostel I’m glad to have experienced the sunset of historical Cadiz.
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