Una vuelta por Cádiz

My Cádiz Reunion Tour started off pretty rough. It began with the 8 hour bus ride that I was told would be less than 7. Fortunately we stopped about 4 hours into the ride because my behind was getting a little tired of sitting. Fortunately the seat next to me was open so I tried a variety of sitting positions. Feet up on the seat, feet down. I tried sleeping sitting up until I quickly realized I would probably get a headache as every bump quickly landed my head sharply against the window.

All in all though it was a fairly easy ride. The problem was the arrival. Four years ago the buses used to stop in the Casco Viejo (old part of Cádiz where my host parents live) after stopping in La Puerta de Tierra (the new part). So we arrive in the new part and half the bus gets off. Then, thinking we are going to turn around and head to the old part, we start heading down the highway to San Fernando (a neighboring town about a half hour away from the Casco Viejo). I jump up to ask the driver if he is going to stop in Cádiz. "No, that WAS Cádiz." So he drops me off in San Fernando and tells me there is a bus stop to Cádiz "down there". I walk aimlessly for 15 minutes, on the verge of tears, and do not find a single bus stop, bus, or taxi. Thinking to myself, this isn't a big deal, you will get to Cádiz, I walk back to the rude bus driver. "I don't see the stop anywhere." After a few seconds he tells me, oh it is because they moved it. So helpful this man was. I spend another 15 minutes looking for it (all the while carrying a particularly heavy duffel bag) in very humid weather. I call Katrina, the new UW host student. She has no idea where I am (she just moved here) and starts looking up phone numbers for taxis. I finally see a taxi and flag it down and end up paying 20 euro to get to my host parent's house, which was exactly what I paid to get from Madrid to "Cádiz".

Así es la vida. ¡Y eso no me importa porque ya estoy de vuelta en Cádiz!