Ok so, yesterday we went on a school organized trip to a small town called Jerez in the morning and then on to the beach town of Cadiz in the afternoon. The morning was semi-interesting. We got to visit one of Europe's older and more prestigious wineries, Gonzales Byass where they make a world famous sherry. As you all probably know I'm not big on alcohol as it is. I do love history however, and so the visit was equal parts interesting and not for me. The casks and the process by which they make the sherry I knew nothing about going in so I learned a little bit. Boy are they ever proud of the tradition, and perhaps they have a right to be given the popularity of their Tio Pepe Sherry. It felt like a little piece of the Old World plopped down in the middle of city; they do all the collecting and processing the same way they did 150 years ago, and all of the evaluation etc. is done by hand. The only modernization as far as I could tell came in the form of their distribution processes and some of their bottling for the less prestigious brands. We all were offered free glasses of the driest and best sherry and one of something "sweeter". They both tasted about as good as beer ever tastes to me, which is to say it all tastes like pond scum and sweaty feet at best. Others in the group were more than happy to down their share and more. Then we headed for the beach.
On the first really cool, almost cold day in Spain we headed for the beach. It was really too bad because the temperature is supposed to climb back into the 90's this week in Sevilla and the 80's to the south where we were. Several of us, myself included, got in and swam anyhow. The water was nowhere near as cold as I've experienced on the west coast in San Diego, and even that water has absolutely nothing on the mountain runoff in the rivers of Colorado. So for me it was still a good beach day. Eddie and I played some soccer and ran around. The rest of the group drank. Boxes and boxes of cheap wine. I understand and even support wanting to have a good experience in Europe etc. etc. but yesterday my new friends went beyond a certain boundary. It may just be me but the majority of them were literally drinking from 2 when we got to the beach until 6:45 when we left. Okay if that is how you enjoy the beach more power to you. But then they went and brought the wine with them onto the bus ride back and proceeded to behave obnoxiously. They just got louder and louder and the majority of the bus was trying to rest. All of this would've just been kind of bothersome but tolerable, but then it reached a point where two girls spilled their wine on the floor. At that point Marisa, who works at ICS and was our guide and helper for the day came back and said that we weren't allowed to be drinking on the bus and to please clean up the mess. The first, typically American response: "Well, can we finish what we have? We can finish what we have right?" I wanted to punch this kid so hard he didn't wake up for days. Unbelievably disrespectful and ungrateful. All in all though the drinking was just a small part of the whole day and we really did have a great time at the beach. There are a few pictures below. I apologize for it being so few but I forgot to charge my camera battery. The beach really looks like just about any other beach, I know. The one really cool shot I got was of the cathedral of Cadiz, which was several miles down the beach. It cut an impressive figure among the other buildings. You can clearly see the Arabic influence in the domes, but Marisa assured me that it is now a Catholic cathedral. There is a ton of that all throughout southern Spain, Muslim architecture meshing seamlessly with Christian and Jewish influences. I'll put up more pictures if I can collect them from what other people took of yesterday.
I'm two weeks in now. I thank God every day for this opportunity, and of course without the support of Mom and Dad and all you family it wouldn't have been possible either.
No comments:
Post a Comment