Trip to Bahía Sur

After passing it several times on the train we wondered if the large shopping centre that we had seen in San Fernando was worth a visit, from the train all we could see the massive Bahia Sur sign and McDonalds Drive Through. However after hearing rumours of a large international aisle inside the giant Carrefour there, were convinced that we needed to visit, after Googling the other shops there, which included a H&M we decided to set a date for a trip there. We all met up at 3pm at the Cádiz train station and bought our €3,80 return tickets to San Fernando – Bahía Sur, then hopped onto the train, the service is really regular, every twenty minutes to half an hour until five o clock. It was a quick journey to the station, only around 15 minutes, and the station was right outside the shopping centre.

In front of the shopping centre was the Stadium of San Fernando Club Deportivo, the football team that Cádiz played in the match we went to a couple of weeks earlier. This stadium made the Cádiz stadium look massive! We wandered on towards the shopping centre through a covered are lined with places to eat, there was also a McDonalds in the car park if you didn’t fancy any of the smaller restaurants available. Once we got inside the main building we were faced with a long corridor lined with shops, and we were excited to explore. Or first port of call was the Disney Store, everyone loves a good Disney Store! We spent ages in there browsing, wishing that it wasn’t just child sized costumes that were for sale, as we were all preparing for our Disney day next week.

After the Disney Store we headed on to H&M, it was a sizeable store so we spent a good amount of time in there browsing. Afterwards we followed the corridor around the centre where we stopped at Zara and Stradivarius, there were loads of other shops there too that we could have spent all day in if we had felt inclined. Once we reached the end of the corridor we headed into the Corte Ingles that took up a good portion of the shopping centre, it was much the same as the one in Cádiz, with a wide range of clothes and other departments such as books and household, we were thinking that we would be able to walk through it into the Carrefour that was the other large chunk of the shopping centre. However, we just ended up getting very lost and unable to escape the seemingly endless department store, but eventually we made it back out into the corridor, and headed along to the entrance to the Carrefour.

Although it was the biggest supermarket we have come across so far that was near to Cádiz, it wasn’t anywhere near as the massive as the superstores that I am used to in England. But I was more than happy to see the masses of aisles to explore, but most impressive of all was the shop assistant that was gliding around the store without a care in the world on her pair of roller skates. We all watched in awe at the novelty, yes it was a big store, but surely roller skates weren’t necessary, they were very cool and entertaining all the same. So we headed off to explore what this giant Carrefour had to offer, the first aisle seemed to be a seasonal aisle and was filled with an array of costumes, presumably for carnival. So naturally we spent an age browsing them all to see what we could expect, also Sophie was looking for a costume for Disney day. Once we had satisfied our curiosity in this aisle we headed off in search of the international foods aisle, and I think everyone else in the store knew when we had found it. This is mainly because we squealed with excitement, much to the amusement of the other shoppers, we went a little bit loony over the home comforts that were to be found, and after squeals of ‘THEY HAVE SQUASH’ the other girls came charging down the aisle. There have been no other stores that we have found that stock squash anywhere near Cádiz, the only one being Gibraltar, which is obviously not so convenient for a quick trip to the shops. Further to this there was a lovely array of ciders, including Magners, Bulmers, Strongbow, Rekorderlig (Wild Berry, Pear and Strawberry with Lime). So of course we were in heaven, there are plenty of shelves offering goods from ‘Inglaterra’ including our favourite chocolates, tea, biscuits, crisps and sauces, this is of course in addition to alcohol and squash. It was not just English foods that were available, also South American and Asian, which allowed for a nice varied diet as opposed to the slightly less varied options available in our local stores. We soon realised that we had nowhere near enough arm space to carry all of these items, so rushed off to get some shopping baskets which we quickly filled. Once we had picked up everything that we wanted from the international aisle we headed off towards the freezers in search of frozen goodies, Sophie hoped that she would find some form of Quorn or meat substitute, which doesn’t seem to exist in Spain at all. Unfortunately Sophie was disappointed, there was no Quorn to be found, but there was frozen sushi among other things that kept her happy, we also found garlic bread, which is uncommon around here. But for me the best part was finding Pukka Pies, I promptly deposited all of them into my basket, not missing out on this one.

We soon realised that we were going to seriously struggle to get all of our purchases home, so decided it was time to call it a day and head for the check outs. The prices of all of the international aisle foods were not too high, only slightly more expensive than what you would expect from a supermarket in England. There were no multi-buy offers either, which was a shame, the only thing that was cheaper was the cider at €1,95 a can, whereas in England you can expect to pay £2.15 each. We received some funny looks as we were such obvious foreigners and then headed back to the train station, where unfortunately we had to wait for over half an hour for a train as it was past 5pm. We enjoyed our purchases so much that a return trip was soon necessary. This time we came prepared with a granny shopping trolley, which of course we filled when we emptied the shelves of our favourite ciders. One thing we did note on this return trip (only a week after the previous one) was that the international foods weren’t quickly re-stocked, so perhaps best not to do a big stock up with lots of people, as the quantity isn’t there to provide for everyone.

Whether or not you want to go for food or a day of clothes shopping it is definitely worth a visit, we have already decided that we will be going quite frequently now that we have found it and that it is so easy to get to. 

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