PUMA--carless in Andalucia, don´t do it!

So I had to do it, I finally broke down and bought a watch. Since those trains and buses run on this thing called a schedule. What? You mean it´s not possible to just show up and go wherever I want on a whim? Now that´s my idea of dream traveling.

So about this schedule thing, the buses actually leave on time, if not earlier, the trains not as much but still I´ve been impressed. In the cities at least. Until I decided to be stubborn and visit the small Andalucian towns without a car. So to borrow a term I just learned, traveling in the tiny little towns in Spain without a car is a royal PUMA (pain up my a--). Especially one in particular, that I´m going to name because I´ve never been more frustrated in my life: Arcos de la Frontera. Gorgeous town, horrible experience. It didn´t help that NO one could understand my Spanglish, nor I their whatever they were speaking. Wassup with the mumbling or maybe they speak a dialect of Spanish, totally indecipherable to English speakers. And they thought I had the accent! Ok, now I´m exaggerating but how is it possible that two bus drivers and multiple passengers could not understand the difference between Cadiz and Jerez? Surely it can´t be me, ha! I even spelled it out when they questioned me, C-a-d-i-z, oy. Due to this miscommunication, I missed two buses, found out there was not even a bus to Cadiz (where I was trying to go) despite their schedule showing one. So 2 1/2 frustrating hours later, I was on a bus to Jerez where I then had to transfer to a train to get to Cadiz!! Cadiz better be damn amazing, I was thinking the whole time, that and if I have to spend another night in Arcos, I would die. Dramatic? Me? No! Only later did I find it amusing that a whole group of young people were trying to translate for me, so many voices shouting in Spanish to the bus drivers!

So to report, Cadiz was worth it: the oldest town in Europe, along the ocean and bay with the typical Andalucian Moorish influence. And now I´m even happier in the quintessential Spanish town of Seville. This city girl has her groove back and will be sticking to the tourist spots...for a bit anyway.