Cai Cai Cai

Cadiz is a Province, a City and a neighborhood… so if you live in that neighborhood, you say that you come from Cai, Cai, Cai (Cadiz, Cadiz, Cadiz), if you just come from the city, it becomes “Cadi, Cadi” and from the province, then you come from Cadiz.

It’s said to be the oldest city in western Europe with traces of it’s Phonecian roots dating back 3000 years and is known today as the windy city. Legend has it that the word “Tapas” was coined here in Cadiz, as they used dishes with a cover or “Tapa” so the wind wouldn’t blow the sand in the food. The streets of the old town are also quite narrow to block off the wind and make it feel less chilly.

The city is actually almost like a peninsula or an Island connected to the main land with a long strip of beach on the Atlantic ocean (which is also why Napoleon failed to invade it). So it receives a lot of (up to 300!) Cruise Ships through out the year. The beach is probably Cadiz’s biggest attraction, with many older Hotels on the Malecon (beach front promenade). This promenade is also believed to be the inspiration for the more popular Malecon in Havana.

In fact both Malecons look so similar that Hollywood producers decided to film the Havanna scenes from the 007 movie “Die another day” (like this one) here in Cadiz instead.

One really interesting thing I noticed here, was the different heights of each story in the buildings in downtown. That’s because the ground floor was always the shop and the 1st floor would be the office, so both floors have a normal height. Then comes the floor with the owner’s home and so it would be around 1.5 times the normal height and finally the servants floor with less than the normal height. Another cool discovery here was a shop that sold frozen vegetables by weight. So they had several freezers with at least 100 different vegetables, seafood, meat and vegetable mixes in containers (like at an ice cream shop), some already seasoned and all deep frozen. With a scoop, you can scoop whatever you want in a plastic bag to take home and continue freezing or cook right away. It was quite cheap as well and really practical. Another ingredient Cadiz is famous for is it’s Tuna. Apparently the top japanese Itamaes (Sushi Chefs) come here to do their Tuna shopping.

And what’s the best thing to do in Cadiz after spending the day in the atlantic ocean for the first time ever?

Spending the late afternoon waiting with the locals for the sunset and clapping along with everyone as soon as the sun disappears over the horizon.

The Cadiz Cathedral.

Most of the older buildings in Cadiz are made from this Oyster Stone, which is a porous rock made from the remains of seashells. Making it very resistant to humidity. And to protect the building’s corners from cars trying to turn the tight corners in these narrow streets, they started using the remains of Napoleon’s canons, like this one!