Leaving Cadiz - What I'll miss

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As my time in Cadiz flashes by towards a very hasty end, I've been taking time to wander the streets and soak up all the things I'll miss about the city. This blog is more intended to be a photo blog - as I really don't have the words to try and describe what Cadiz means to me! I'm going to start with my flat. I've never lived in such an old or beautiful building, and we have a woman who comes to keep it clean every day. Probably originally a merchant's house - the house was split into four flats and retained many original features. I loved walking up our marble staircase, I loved looking out my balcony out towards the sea, I loved how at home I felt there and of course I loved my housemates especially little Cloe who always wanted to come play with me when I was lesson planning!

I fell in love with the Old Town as soon as I arrived here on my first day of work. So much rich vibrant cultural history is evident here on every street corner. I loved all the many green plazas filled with trees and exotic plants imported from overseas. I loved how I can walk everywhere and still by by the sea in ten minutes. I loved the bricked and cobbled streets, not so much the crazy traffic that navigate them! And I loved looking up at all the old buildings.

I loved all the many different and quirky architectural features to be seen in the Old Town. Many houses still sport door knockers shaped as someone's hand. Many corner buildings have an ornate painted metal side from aeons back that told you the name of the street. I loved all the ornate cast-iron balconies, there were so many different designs and types to be seen. I loved the watch-towers on top of the old rich merchant's houses, that offered them a view of their ships coming into port. They really are a unique feature of Cadiz.

I love the individual shops here in Spain. Yes they have bigger supermarkets, but the traditional market in the centre of town was always busy (as well as being an excellent place to practice Spanish). But I also liked all the small individual shops you would see everywhere e.g. the greengrocers, the fishmongers, and the Tabacos shop. I found the Tabacos shops hilarious as they are so small and sell so little but are to been seen everywhere! I got my bus tickets there, but this is where you can buy your cigarettes and whatever else they might sell like a postcard. I also loved the Chinos: the small one-stop shops run by Chinese people and the small random Spanish shops where sweets were displayed right next to stacks of blank CDs and jamon. The Spanish have an infatuation with sweets it seems! And what I loved most of all about all the shops was that I could buy my favourite bottle of red wine for less than e5 (e10 at home).

Another thing about Cadiz is that the level of cleanliness is astounding. Bins are emptied every night and the streets and plazas are hosed down before the next day. Gaditanos are rightly proud of their city.The beaches are spotless. There are four beaches in Cadiz: La Caleta in the Old Town and three more in the new town that adjoin each other. In the winter they were practically empty but in summer they swelled with people and you could hardly see the sand for the umbrellas and bars that popped up! One of my favourite things to do was to sunset-hunt! I would sit by La Caleta with my camera (and often a glass of wine) waiting for the sun to set. So many were absolutely stunning - the skies over the ocean turning all shades of red and pink. It filled me with such a sense of calm and happiness.

And last but by no means least, what makes Cadiz so special are the local people - those crazy, friendly, good-natured Gaditanos. From my students to my co-workers and people I met in shops and on the street - they made my time in Cadiz so memorable. I love their vivacity and creativity at Carnaval, I love their fierce pride and independence evident at the constitution anniversary, and I loved the immediate feeling of community you get here. I loved kissing people on both cheeks to say hello and goodbye, and I loved that no matter how bad my Spanish was everyone was patient and helpful and chatted away to me regardless. I even got used to their complete lack of tact; when I told all my students that I would be going to teach in Korea, everyone, even my adult students, pulled their eyes up at the corners, something they do when you mention any Asian country.

For my birthday, my beginner level students surprised me by hijacking the lesson, presenting me with a hand-painted cloth fan, and we sat eating home-made triple chocolate cheesecake before going out for coffee. They made they day so special. On my last night in Cadiz, my housemates and I went down to the Alameda to watch the Spain v France Euro 2012 match. People had set up a big TV screen between two portable huts that were selling drinks and snacks, and the nearby population, about 50 people, were sitting around the edge of the park watching and cheering on while their kids played around their feet. At 8/9/10pm at night. This sense of family and community in a foreign country is something I'll deeply miss.

Oh, and I discovered I love teaching!

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Photos

community gathering together
watching football by Alameda park