Sol Sancti Petri Aparthotel Chiclana de la Frontera

... and got ready to go out. Thinking I was back in L.A., I brought a red dress and heels with me. Everyone else had decided that the beach was a casual place, so flipflops and jeans would be perfect. Trust me, you'll notice the contrast in the photo I post! Anyway, we walked around the small city until we settled at a tapas bar. Cadiz is a very small city with little cobblestone streets and antique looking buildings. We walked around the ...

So today we didn't have an excursion because we had our own private tour guides in Rachel's host family from three years ago. They met us at the pier and were so happy to see Rachel it was great! They took us on a walking tour of historic Cadiz and we had breakfast at one of their places they like and we had churros an coffee with milk. Loly knew everyone we walked by it seemed and although they spoke no English and we speak little Spanish we were ...

... of the sweetest sherry called "Nectar" for 8 Euro. I really didn’t like their regular sherry though. They were pretty cool though. When celebrities or royalty come visit, they have them sign a barrel of Tio Pepe instead of signing a guestbook! And they have a family of mice that are sherry connoisseurs. One of the distillery ...

... the way we stopped in Olvera so Mike could get his photo of the village and church tower. We arrived to Nerja very late and couldn't plug in the address in our handy-dandy gps - so we had to call the owner in the UK to give us directions. it was kind of late by the time we got to the house (after midnight). ugh! this was a long, long day! But, we're excited to be at the beach for the next 7 days. Shae can't wait to get her feet wet in the mediterranean.

... streets at night. There might have been several million of the carnaval people in Cadiz that night, I think.

By the way, the most original and interesting costumes were of Lego; there were also a few people dressed up as Mario, the pope or Heineken bottles, but my personal best was a guy dressed up as Facebook. He was unbeatable.

Our train was scheduled for the evening, when it was already dark, and when the festival was actually about to begin. I ...

... Although hostal world advertised the hostal to be in ronda it was infact in a nearby village of cartajima. After hours of u-turns and toll roads and mistakes reading the map we finally arrived far after we told to inn keeper we would be there. The hostal was adorable in the small and gorgeous village. Only about 150 peopel live there. By the time we got there our alcoholic/hilarious/english inn keeper, Boss, was already drunk and had prepared us an amazing meal of paella ...

... ni normaal, ik liep in mijn jeansrokkie en tshirtje naart strand en dan alles uit en in bikini op strand liggen, zalig! Tis nu 21graden met ne wind, dus zeer cava nog! Der liepen ook kei veel supporters rond van de voetbal van Cadiz, aan hun outfit te zien en toen dak trug thuis was hoorde ik het geroep tot in ons app (vermits het stadion vlakbij is). Ik zou heel graag is gaan kijken, maar naart schijnt is nogal duur, dus ja we gaan nog zien dan. 's Avonds ben ik met Janin ...

... hier alleen maar dikke mensen rondlopen met scheve tanden en veel gehandicapten, mss heb ik er een verkeerd beeld van maar het valt mij altijd op. Er zijn ook veel zwangere vrouwen en heel raar, kei veel spanjaarden zijn megaaaa alternatief! Die staan vol met tatoeages en piercings maar tot op het overdreven af. We gingen donderdagavond naar een klein tapabarreke waar een bandje kwam zingen = flamenca, enkel zingen niet dansen, nu ja bandje? Het waren twee kerels in een kostuum ...

... knew what to do. He flicked the ball up for Dinho, but it was a poor flick, and he put it behind him. Ronaldino shifted his weight to the right foot and cradled the ball on his chest. He had his back to the goal, and the two defenders between him and the goal eased up a bit and waited for him to start to turn towards the goal with the ball to close him down. Instead of turning to the left or the right, Dinho, with his back to the defenders and the goal the whole time, let the ...

... that it just reminded me of Halloween with alcohol and only youth were invited. We were amazed to see that after everything had closed, there was no rioting. It was a peaceful mob, surprisingly. Because of the rain, we thought people would break windows for shelter or something (as that would happen, for sure, in Chicago). The streets were PACKED until we left at 8am. I am so excited to have a comforter and a warm bed, I cannot even tell you how great it felt to ...