since you’re the one asking me to write more during my long pause on this blog, I think I should dedicate this postcard to you.
I’ve made it to the South of Spain and this time I was - for the first time on my journey faster than expected. The carnival starts in more than two weeks as I figured out on my trip from Fuenterroble to here. Even for the wrong date (14th of February) I got in Fisterra, I was two days too early.
So now the big problem: I’m running out of money and the main product of this region seems to be unemployment. This made me think about if I’d like to see the carnival of Cádiz, spending money I could earn by taking away another available job from a very thin market. And I decided that I will continue my journey west to Portugal and maybe see some minor carnival-festivals in the rural border-area of Spain.
As I told you before don’t worry when I don’t write that frequently, because usually that means I experience to much interesting people and situations so I can’t find the time to write. And hell yeah there was a lot!
I’d like to reduce this article to the passage from Sevilla to Cádiz and then write backwards in time to fill up the gaps.
Like with most of the bigger cities I passed on my way, I just rode/walked through Sevilla as fast as possible, though I couldn’t resist to stop and pick some oranges. (I definitely have to meet someone who can train me in this topic, because those I picked are sour as lemons, but probably very healthy)
The promenade along the Rio Guadalquivir reminded me very much of the Vltava in Praha the rest of the city looked like all the others: nice and old in the middle but dirty and noisy all around the center. Los Palacios y Villafranca, Las Cabezas de San Juan and even Jerez de la Frontera are more my kind of settlements.
The “landscape” in this region, if I can call it like that, is agricultural and provided very less space to camp.
North of El Puerto de Santa Maria I found an old monastery-ruin(ed), with a rotten mattress.
But that was the last nice thing I saw around here. After I went down the hill to El Puerto, there were only dirty suburbs, pimped-up touristic quarters and ugly harbors to see.
And I can tell you, I had to see them all, because with a bike you can approach Cádiz only from the South. The area around San Fernando, called a natural park, doesn’t really look very natural to me but I’m just a far-traveled landscape-gardener – so what do I know.
At least I found two cold showers in the dunes along the road from San Fernando to Cádiz. So after four smelly days I was finally able to clean myself and my clothes before I rested at a parking lot midway between the two cities, where I also met Emanuele, a nice Portuguese guy who reminded me very much of Nickel.
So much for now. I hope all is well at home.
Your troublesome Michael