Off To See The World

First things first, Scott: It’s good to know that it isn’t just me that is amazed/appauled by the amount of butter/sauce/salt John has on his food. I’m surprised he hasn’t had a heart attack or something like that! Oh, and I’ve told John to post comments on this blog but you know John… he’s probably one of the laziest people I’ve met… haha…next time you email him, ask him about his own blog… hehehe.

Anyway, the last couple days have been really relaxed… I spent most of the daytime poolside just reading, writing in my journal, or napping… it was really nice to just lay in the sun and listen to the birds and the sound of gently running water… and the occassional light breeze through the palm trees. I think John has A.D.D. though because he didn’t even make it through the first day at the pool… he was pacing and pacing until he eventually gave up and went back to the room to watch TV… haha. Oh well, to each his own. The second day at the pool, I spent most of the time attempting to swim and playing with my under water camera… it was actually kind of fun.

Oh! I almost forgot… mom, when I get a haircut and a real job, I’m going to bring you to Morocco one day. The Hammam that I mentioned in the last post was absolutely awesome… I felt like a new person after… my skin was as smooth as a baby’s butt. I think you’d really enjoy it… combo it with a massage and you’ve got your own little heaven.

Anyway, we are leaving Morocco tonight… taking the train back up to Tanger, then the ferry across to Algeciras, then the long train back to Paris. We are almost done the first part of this trip… almost 2 months in now! I guess over all it has been very enjoyable and the year of planning I put my blood, sweat, and tears into is really paying off. When I get to Paris, I will do my best to get many pictures up!

Hello everyone,
We are still in Morocco enjoying every minute… well I shouldn’t say every minute but most of the minutes. Yesterday, we went up to the Atlas Mountains.
First, we stopped to see a big mosque and our guide told us a little about Muslims and the Islamic community, as well as the history of polygamy in Morocco. It was quite fascinating! We then went to a small shop where we watched a young man use a completely manual potters wheel to make a tangine in a matter of minutes. Of course, we were pressured into the store after and yes, John and I bought a little something.

The next stop was a small Berber house in a small Berber village somewhere in the middle of the Atlas Mountains. Here, we were given a tour of a typical Berber house (the occupants of the house were going abouts their daily business). As the tour of the home came to an end, we were all told to sit in a large room where the mother of the house gave us a demonstration of how they make their mint tea here! As she finished making a large pot of the mint tea, we were all given some tea along with some fresh bread with honey, butter, or oil to have with the bread. The experience was…. we it was just such an awesome experience.

After a few photos, we jumped on a bus that took us into the Ourika Valleym where, on Mondays, from all over the mountains come to a market to stock up for the week. The Market was really hectic and the roads were crammed with people, donkeys, carts, kids, horses, etc. We were with a group so we stuck out like a sore thumb and people swarmed us trying to sell whatever they had. We swirved our way through the market… first stop: the MEAT section. Aziz, our guide, warned me that I could wait outside (being a vegetarian) but I went in to take a look. Whole heads of cows, goats, sheep lined the counters and floors, innards hung from hooks, tripe laid in big piles, eyes, hooves, skins… you name it… you could buy it there. It was quite disturbing but at the same time… just… wow.

We swirved through the rest of the market where we passed people selling pretty much anything you could possibly need… there were people following our group trying to sell everything. At the end of the market, we came to the parking lot…. where 90% of things “parked” there were donkeys! Again, this was such an awesome experience. We went for another huge Moroccan lunch to end the tour and then it was back to the apartment for us.
This morning, we actually woke up to RAIN! I didn’t think it would rain here but it was raining and it was raining good. Unfortunately, this is the day we went to the Souks (big market) but fortunately, it was still really warm. The Souks… basically, this is a big maze of artisans, vendors, everything… they are broken up into different sections (i.e. brass, iron, wood work, ceramic, dyes, clothing, slippers, etc)… so basically we weaved through this HUGE market again with vendors following us most of the way. Usually I’m pretty good with ignoring people trying to sell me things but there was one today that physically tried to keep me there to sell me a bracelet that I didn’t even want. He jabbed me a few times on the front of my shoulder telling me to tell him how much I wanted to pay for it and when I tried to turn away, he jabbed me harder. That really threw me off for the day… I don’t do well with high pressure sales and that is what it all is here.

In the middle of the market, we went to a pharmacy…. they gave us a demonstration on some different herbs and what not that “worked miracles” and what not. It was a fascinating demonstration but at the same time, it felt like a sales pitch. Of course, at the end, we were scammed into buying something… siiigghhh. Oh well… its all part of the experience I guess. We are nearing the end of our day today… John and I just bough jellebano? jelll something… they look like Jedi robes that everyone wears here. We were able to get a pretty good deal too. All that’s left for today is for us to walk past the snake charmers in the square and then head back to the resort for our Hammams… the perfect end to a hectic day of the market.

I don’t know whether we are going to come into town until the night we leave.. the sun is finally out and we are looking forward to sitting poolside.

John and I are bursting at the seams right now… we just ate a 5 course meal… Moroccan Salad, roasted vegetables, tangine (lamb), fruits of the season, and then dessert…. oh and bread on top of that. If I could undo my button without my pants falling down, I would totally do that… instead, I’m going to buy one of those robes that everyone is wearing around here so I can eat as much as I want and there will be no more belly problems!

Anyway, so where did I leave off…. oh yeah, we were waiting in Tanger. I have to add a little thing about the wait in Tanger though. While we were sitting at the bus station, I was observing all the kids running around on the streets. At first, I figured it was just kids being kids… but I soon realized that it was more than that. Kids were begging for money but if one kid strayed into the wrong territory, he would be violently attacked by kids of that territory. Not only that, all the kids had socks in their hands… where I learned that they were socks dipped in either gasoline, paint thinner, glue, or something with fumes to make them high. It was really sad to see.

We left Tanger late at night and arrived in Casablanca early in the morning, where we changed busses to go to Marrakech. The road to Marrakech was pretty interesting… sometimes we would pass beautiful mountains, sometimes desolate desert. Every so often there would be a guy on the side of the street selling chickens hanging from a stick. Then out in the middle of nowhere, there was a gas station and cafe where we stopped. Here is where I saw somebody unloading a pig carcus from the back of a small car to the deli… can’t say I wasn’t totally grossed out… John didn’t seem bothered as he bought some of the meat to get a snack.
Here is the guy moving the meat from his car
Anyway, now we are in Marrakech. We are staying in a 3 room apartment with 2 bathrooms, a full kitchen and a beautiful terrace (thanks mom). It will be nice to just relax for a week… we plan to see the Atlas mountains tomorrow, the Souks (markets), and just the local stuff. Tonight, I think we are going for a Hammam (turkish bath thing) and a massage… mmm… the rest of the time, we will probably just sit pool side. There is actually no internet near our apartment so it may be a while before the next post. I’ll be sure to keep things in my journal though… I’m sure I’ll have time to write while sitting poolside. Catch y’all lata!

So John and I left Torremolinos… the owner of the hostel is a really nice Argentinian guy that seemed to really enjoy having us and all guests there. We headed for Algeciras and then made it to Morocco in one piece… we took the shi!ttiest ferry over here and the people wouldnt give us the 20% discount for our Eurail passes even though the booklet said we should. Either way, we are here now and the weather is hot. We will be heading to Marrakesh in a while and should arrive by tomorrow afternoon.

Oh, and this keyboard is the most challenging one to date… I still cant figure out how to get an apostrophe in and I had to cut and paste my exclaimation marks from another site… but can your keyboard to this? ضلاؤيثبلاهتنمكىخح شقسفعرئءغص ىخئ ه نىخئ كغ ضلاؤس ىثءف فهكث ئخىف غخع سهىل ئهفا كث؟, (I hope I didnt just write something offensive).

So far Morocco looks good… it reminds me a little bit of Istanbul with the vendors and people trying to get you to go in their restaurants… Oh but if you want to order a sandwich with fries but no meat in the sandwich, be sure to clarify that you want the fries on the side. I just ate a sandwich that had no meat in it but they put all the fries INTO the sandwich…. interesting to say the least. Anyway, I think thats it… hopefully there will be some sort of internet place in Marrakesh so I can write about us sitting poolside… or going to the market… and whatever else. See you soon!

1. Smoke Free Environments… everyone smokes here… and it stinks
2. Taco Bell… for some reason… just craving the food…
3. Bottomless pop… drinks are so expensive here!
4. Miss Vicki´s Salt and Vinegar chips (this ones for John)
5. Down Matresses and big fluffy blankets… although, it´s been so frickin hot at night here that I could go without for now.
6. Mom´s home cooked tomato and egg dish… mmmmmmm
7. EATING FOR FREE

Well, we dedicated today to going to the beach… but when we woke up, it was cloudy! However, we were DETERMINED to go to the beach so we packed up our towels, threw on our beach gear and our flip flops and headed to the beach. After the short walk to the beach, we found some fold down chairs and settled in. The beach was dead since it was such a cloudy day… although, it was still 20 degrees out! So, we spent about 5 hours at the beach even when it started to rain a little… we just huddled under the little grass umbrella above our beach seats. It really wasn´t that bad… John built a really crappy sand castle though… like… my dog could have pooed a nicer castle…. haha… just kidding… the first one was a piece of crap… the second one was better… he took a bucket from a nearby restaurant and it was actually decent…. kind of.

The afternoon was pretty uneventful… we are heading to Algeciras tomorrow to try and catch a ferry into Morocco. So Tomorrow will probably be another travel day. Then we´ll be settled in Morocco for about a week… we´ve already started talking about what foods we are going to be cooking at the apartment and what not… I´m really looking forward to getting to Morocco and just being able to stay planted in one place for one week.
This is our first glimpse of Africa.

Well, last night turned out being pretty good… John went out to see a movie and I went to the BEST vegetarian restaurant EVER. Al Vegetale in Madrid… I really recommend it. Anyway, I got a free drink for a coupon thingy so I got a big glass of fresh squeezed OJ… soooo good. Then I had a giant lasagna. The funny part is when I asked the waitress if they give discounts for birthdays, she gave me this look of pitty that I was by myself… and walked to talk to the other waitress who also gave me the pitty look… and next thing I know, i have a big free piece of raspberry cake in front of me! Wicked! So a 20 Euro meal came out to 10 Euro… score!

This morning, we hopped on the train for Malaga… due to the hostel prices there, we actually ended up in a little beach town not far away. So, here we are in… somewhere… we just went to the pub to watch the Madrid/Bucharest game… pretty sweet. And we´re calling it a night so we can have plenty of energy to nap on the beach tomorrow.

P.S. Happy Birthday Ed!

Ok, so I actually had to walk away for some woosaaa time today. (Retracted Comments… I guess I can keep my venting to private emails.) Tonight is Halloween and I´m curious as to what goes on here… guess I´ll find out!

For those of you who got a chance to read the venting, I unwound by treating myself to a massage and then writing a postcard in a park near the big bullfighting areana… siiigghhh… Much better now.
This is the bullfighting arena
Thanks for all the birthday wishes… maybe I´ll go out tonight and have some cake to add on to the fat belly I have been adding to. Woooosssaaaa….

Happy Halloween!

I´m officially getting closer and closer to being “over the hill”… but that´s ok.. I´m seeing the world and loving it! I do, however, do feel weird not being home for my birthday so my family can shower me with gifts and food 🙂 .

Anyway, John and I have broken off from the group of people we´ve met to continue our journey through Spain… however, we´ve stumbled upon another 6 hour wait at a train station so I thought I´d check my email to see if mom decided to put a big cheque in my bank account for my birthday…. still waiting…

Hope all is well with everyone back at home (wherever home may be) and thanks for everyone who has sent a birthday wish!

So, it’s been a day or 2 since my last post… the ferry ride over was long but pretty fun. We ran into a couple of Aussies which we were “racing” on the day of my “Amazing Race” post… small world. We also met a couple of new people on the ferry: A Texan (who was couch surfing for a few months, an Italian free spirit girl that was very…. free spirited.. we’ll leave it at that, and an awesome dude from San Francisco. The journey over on the ferry was actually quite entertaining since we actually met people. We shared stories of our travels, slept on really ghetto seats, played heart/dominos, and had some wonderful meals (you could buy a bun for 20 cents and then there was free parmasan/lemon wedges/salt/pepper… The San Fran guy showed us how a real budget meal is done).

Anyway, hostels are packed here so we’ve been staying at different hostels every night. I guess Halloween is a big thing here (considering they were celebrating starting a couple days ago). Tonight is our last night here and we are all in the same hostel again. We lost the San Fran guy today though. John and I went to… uh, I dunno anymore… I think we are kinda burnt out at this point. We saw a church and went to a big castle… and yeah, walked around. It’s been nice to just chill out with some people. The only thing I regret is not getting out to see more Gaudi works… and we are leaving tomorrow morning so we probably won’t get a chance to see any :s .

OH… I almost forgot! We went to a FCB Barcelona game last night! Now, I don’t follow soccer/futbol that much but being in that stadium with 80,000 fans was quite exhilarating! That and the fact that Ronaldinho is frickin’ amazing with the ball. Barcelona won 3-0 and each goal caused such an uproar in the crowd… it sent shivers down my spine. After the game, watching 80,000 fans rush into the streets was just as exciting (I was watching from waaaaay up… since my seat was the 3 last row from the top).

Ummm, I think that’s it for now. John and I are going to try some authentic Spanish Tapas tonight and then just lay low. We have to lug our bags across town tomorrow morning to catch the train to Madrid. A couple days there, a couple more on the southern coast of Spain, and then finally it’s off to Morocco for a week where we can just unwind.