The journey to Cádiz

I wasn't sure what to expect from my Year Abroad in Cádiz, I felt so unprepared it was untrue, how was I supposed to fit everything I need for a year into one case weighing less than 20kg?!

I packed the bare essentiels and ended up at 17kg, so I threw in a few extras to bring me up to just under 20kg, I left a bit of space in case my scales were wrong, didn't want to start off year abroad with an excess baggage charge. I met a friend who was also going to Cádiz at the airport and checked in my bags, said goodbye to my parents, which was strange, but I was sure they would want to visit me in Spain - any excuse for a holiday, and if not Christmas wasn't far.

The flight was uneventful, I read my book and ate my Boots meal deal rather than buying overpriced food on the plane. Unfortunately I couldn't sit next to Claire, my friend, because we were last on the plane - her hand luggage got stuck in the box that RyanAir used to check the size of it. So the only seats available were apart from each other. We met up on the tarmac and joined the queue for passport control, Jerez airport was tiny! There was only one man on the passport control desk for 2 plane loads of people, so it took a while. I turned on my phone and got a text from my Spanish landlady, Ana, I had sorted a flat on easypiso.com so that I didn't have to sort out accomodation when I arrived or stay in a hostel. Ana asked when I would arrived and how I would get to Cádiz, I said I would let her know when I had got my case, which thankfully did show up on the luggage carousel eventually! Claire and I left the arrivals hall and went in search of our preffered mode of transport, the train. By this time it was nearly 10pm and after some searching we decided to ask a local rather than wander around the airport in the dark. He informed us that it was too late for busses and trains to Cádiz, our only option was a taxi. This was unfortunate, but thankfully there were two of us to split the cost, and it saved us dragging our cases around. We got in the taxi and secured a price (60 euros!) and asked how long it would be so that I could let Ana know, it would take around 40 minutes, so I let Ana know. I quickly got the reply that she had been expecting me to get a train as I had previously said in e-mails so she had gone to the train station to pick me up in her car! This was really nice and I felt bad that she had been waiting, but we met up outside my flat and she took Claire and I upstairs. Claire was staying in a local hostel but Ana brought her up to the flat to wait for me as I was going to help her to her hostel. After a tour of the flat, which is lovely, so chuffed! Ana explained all the important things that I needed to know, how to connect to the wifi for one! Then gave us directions to the hostel and told me not to hesitate to contact her if I needed anything. She would be back the next day anyway with one of my new flatmates. I walked Claire to her hostel (The Melting Pot, would reccomend it for Erasmus people looking for places to live at the start of the year) we managed to get a little bit lost but a local soon put us right! Afterwards I returned to my flat and had a quick Skype call with my parents to let them know I had arrived safely, I put up some photos and a poster from friends to make my room a bit more homely, then completely knackered from all the excitement I went to bed!

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