Cadiz

I spent a little extra time at breakfast this morning helping the staff extinguish a small fire I started in the toaster. The woman assured me that it happens all the time, which made me wonder if perhaps they should consider getting a different toaster.

But while I was stamping out burning embers, I thought a little about how extravagant the included breakfasts have all been in Spain. No pre-packaged Sara Lee danish and make-your-own waffles here. There are endless tables of breads, pastries, meats and cheeses, and yogurt and cereals, not to mention the hot foods – eggs, pancakes, bacon, ham, other animal products I don’t ask about and so on.

And then . . . off to Cadíz in the far southwest corner of Spain. This is a part of the country I’ve never visited and is economically, culturally and even linguistically quite different than the north of Spain where I typically go. If the northern part of Spain had its way, it would secede from the south and form its own country. But every time the government in northern Spain makes a move in that direction, the southern Spain police arrest the leaders, thinking “it’s not southern Spain, it’s just Spain.” And plus, northern Spain has a lot of wealth that southern Spain doesn’t want to lose, although I’m sure there's more to it than that.

When I checked in at the hotel, the woman asked me if it was my first time in Cadiz. I said yes, but that I’d travelled a lot in the north. “That’s almost like a different country,” she said. “Well that’s one thing both sides can agree on,” I thought.

Anyway, like northern Spain, Cadíz also has beaches and an ocean, just a different ocean than the one I’ve been on for the last week. It also has the classic whitewashed buildings one might associate with sunbaked southern Spain. First thing I did was try cazón, a local seafood dish that is basically shark or cousin of shark. I didn’t wake up this morning thinking I had a hankering for some shark but when in Rome . . .

I spent most of the day getting here, so tomorrow I’ll have more time to explore. Hopefully that exploration will include a small map, given that when my phone ran out of power, I immediately got hopelessly lost in the old town.

And one last thing. I'm questioning the interior decorating choices in my room and wondering if I’m going to have trouble falling asleep with this guy staring me in the face.