Bonjour-Mundo!

So a lot of the information I would normally give has been talked about.  And as usual myWhat to do but to make a meaningless list of the best sites and interesting details left off about them.  So in no particular order, here are the top seven sites we´ve seen, or as from now it will be known, the “Seven Wonders of Spain.” 

 First has to be Semana Santa in Sevilla.  It´s like a KKK demonstration ran into a Brazilian float during Carnival and had a baby named Oktoberfest.  We had the amazing fortune to be the only Guirí (or non-Spaniards) in a forty block radius due to hostal location, and made the most of it by finding a bar with uber cheap beer and food.  We were sandwiched among the hundreds (thousands?) of Spaniards who pass their tickets down through their families from one generation to the next–very Green Bay Packers. 

Second is the view from Park Guell in Barcelona.  You climb all the way up this ultra modern park that Antoní Gaudí designed and see this spectacular view of Barcelona and the surrounding hills and mountains. 

Third I give the nod to the Alcazar in Sevilla.  The gardens go on forever and come about as close as possble to recreating a fairytale.  Even with mossy fountains overrun by algae it still looked spectacular.

Fourth would have to be the flamenco show we saw.  There were two singers, and a dancer that were terrific.  But the guitarist stole the show.  I almost proposed to him on the spot.  His fingers blurred and wove a melody that needed no accompaniment.  He was also the only one who looked relaxed, the other three seeming like they had just realized their mistake of downing an entire bottle of Beno. 

Fifth I would give to Valle de Los Caídos.  It´s essentially a huge mausoleum dedicated to those who died during the civil war, though it seems only one side (the winner) is actually buried there.  Apparently the losers died building the place, which gives it a very sinister feel.  Plus Franco is buried there, and I was delighted to see that his grave was barely marked.  But it is spectacular in its macabre feel, sort of like something from Lord of the Rings or Jason and the Argonauts.

Six is the street signs in Madrid and the warning signs on the metro.  They are ridiculous, but not very funny to describe.  I´ll see if I can get the chicas to take some pictures of them for appreciation.

Seven is easily the Sagrada Familia.  The inside is like an eerie, tree filled Dr. Suess novel and the outside has façades of distinction.  One looks like a melting nativity scene and the other is a cubist impression of the crucifiction.  But what other attraction can attract such a crowd without being finished?  Or even halfway finished? 

I´ll update and change the list as our travels continue as I´m sure that my opinions will on demand from this blog audience.  Also, I just learned that some of my above material will be edited for mass consumption.  For an unabridged version, I guess you´ll have to ask me in person.

That´s right folks, the eighties are back! Weve calculated that since it takes about two years for fashion to get from Europe to the states, you´ll be enjoying what weve been seeing in about 2008. Apparently Spanish fashion has decided that mullets are the new hip hair cut. And seriously, I havent seen so many mullets in quite some time.  Weve also managed to spot lots of fun tapered leg jeans, off the shoulder shirts, converse, and other exciting styles. 😉

Allrighty, seriously though, we had a blast in Sevilla. I saw a bunch of cool stuff I didnt get the chance to see last time I was there, and it was great.  We also managed to find the fun tapas bar I ate at before, and enjoyed some tasty food and wine. In fact, we managed to spend one entire afternoon just tapas bar hopping enjoying lots of sangria and the fantastic people watching. We also strolled through Plaza de España, great architechture and took a picture in front of the Toledo bench. We also saw the catedral and the alcazar, neither of which I had seen before. The cathedral was beautiful, and we hiked up to the top tower for great fews of Sevilla. The alcazar had wonderful gardens and beautiful archways and tilings, similiar to that which we saw in Morocco. We also walked along the riverfront, and had a great time just enjoying the warm weather and the sunshine, as it had been pretty shilly in madrid.

Then it was on to Barcelona. The 14 hour bus ride it took to get here was surprisngly not as bad as I thought it would be, and we made it in around 7 in the morning. Oscar, a friend of a friend of Alexs was there to pick us up, and has been gracious enough to allow us to stay at his apartment, right in central barcelona. Its been awesome. Especially to have some homecooked food, clean clothes (we did laundry in an actual washing machine! this was HUGE), and get to speak more spanish. Oscar also gave us some great insight into barcelona and how the politics of Spain have been changing. There is a ton more Catalon (language of Catalunya region)  here then I remember before, it seems to even overpower Spanish. In fact, Oscar said the schools now only teach 3 hours of spanish a week, the instruction is mainly in Catalan.

So far, the city has been great. I am actually enjoying it a lot more then I did on previous trips. We saw the sagrada familia, the huge gaudi cathedral…theyre actually getting work done on it! Although its still far from finished. We also saw another of gaudis apartment buildings, park guill, olympic park, and wandered down las ramblas. ps. gaudi is a famous architect from barcelona.

I dont have too much time left, but well be in Barcelona for the next few days, and then were moving up to San Sebastion. Also! Oscar was nice enough to burn my photos onto a cd, so hopefully I will be able to have those up for you all to see soon! Yay!

Hey all! I hear the weather is getting nice in Minneapolis, so I hope you all are getting a chance to enjoy some sunshine!

Things on our trip are going very well. Our time in Sevilla for the semana santa festival was great, it was definitely very interesting to see. Thanks to Jeff for recommending it. Although our ride to seville was not the most comfortable, and we had to wait all day to get a hostel room so we could sleep, but once we got there, all was good. Our hostel was right on the main procession route, so we basically got a free pass to see all the festivities, the only draw back was the drums beating at 4am.

For those who are unaware, Semana Santa is basically a week long celebration of the Easter holiday that occurs throughout Spain, however the largest of all these celebration occurs in Sevilla. Now, neither Emily, Alex, nor myself are anything close to Catholic, but seeing how huge this event was was definitely quite an incredible sight. The processions go on throughout the whole week, day and night, on thursday they go on literally all night long. The consist mainly of people, young and old, walking through the streets in hooded cloaks (think KKK type outfits in all different colors) carrying 3 or 4 foot long solid wax candles. The candles pass by so many times that in the morning all the streets are coated with a thick covering of wax in a variety of colors. Young children have a great time running up the cloaked figures asking for a bit of wax to add to huge balls. In addition, huge floats are carried by men marching underneath, they represent various catholic easter scenes and are covered in flowers and rows and rows of candles. Our hostel concierge guy told us that people make a prayer to their church, and then if their prayers are answered, they walk in the festival processions the following year, the bigger the prayer, the bigger the duty they take up, from walking to carrying the floats.

I have never seen anything quite like semana santa, so I was for sure glad that we had the opportunity. I felt like it was a definite cultural experience for all of us.

Hey all, I hope you are all doing well. We have finally made it to Spain, YAY! Our time in Morocco finished up well, but Em and I were certainly excited to change things up a bit…mainly we were quite excited to no longer get harrassed as we walked down the street.

Our last couple days in Morocco werent super eventful, we hightailed it out of El Jadida, and then spent a day in Rabat, which was actually pretty nice. The city itself reminded me of Madrid, and there were some cool things to see. We explored some roman ruins that overlooked some beautiful countryside. They were also chock full of enourmous stork nests! I have never seen so many storks…I actually dont know if Ive ever seen one, but here there were tons. There was also a masoleum and some beautiful views of the sea. It unfortunately also showcased the annoying men we´d been having trouble with, as no more then fifty feet from the mosque some middle aged man, walking with his wife, still insisted hitting on us as we walked past…Seriously! 

All in all though, Morocco is an incredibly beautiful country, and Im so glad I had the chance to see it.

For now though, ESPAÑA! I´m SO excited to be back in my old stomping grounds. Its great to actually be able to understand whats going on again, read menus and ask for directions and such. We started our trip in Madrid, and Alex has also joined our little party, which I am very excited about. 🙂  We had a decent time in the capital, but things were a little more hectic then I would have liked. Lots of running errands and trying to figure out the next leg of our trip, standing in lines to buy tickets and finding out tickets arent available and such. Apparently Semana Santa makes things insanely more diffficult. We are now not going to make it to Granada for now and are taking a 14 hour bus ride to Barcelona, barf. 

But the good in Madrid, excellent tapas, sangria, and shopping! I am no longer the good backpacker I was with only 4 shirts and two pairs of pants…shoot. H&M kind of did me in. I just couldnt resist. I also loved being in the bustle of the city again, and all the beautiful buildings.  We also made a trip out to El Escorial and Valle de Los Caidos, some wonderful monuments out in the more mountain countryside.

At the moment we are in Sevilla, and Ive had about 3 hours of sleep on an overnight bus, we are waiting for our hostel room to be ready, so if the post isnt the best, my apologies.  But just from walking around this moring, sevilla is way more awesome then I remember, and I am really excited to see the sights I missed out before. And we are here for the big semana santa festival, and from the looks of the preparations, its going to be a pretty huge deal to see. For now, its time to try and get some more sleep. We have till friday here and then off to Barcelona.

 First, announcement. For all of you who have been curious, Alex has officially decided to accept a position in the masters program at the U of MN, Twin Cities. Thus the two of us will be in good old Minneapolis for at least the next two years. So, get excited to have us around for a bit after we finish travelling!

Second, Emily and I have now completed our circle in Morocco and are back in Casablanca. However, this was not the original plan. The original plan was not to get back until tomorrow afternoon after a fun filled two days in the wonderful beach town of El Jadida; or so our guidebooks promised…This, unfortunately was not the case.

 We left essouaira early early on Wednesday morning after having a very wonderful time there. The city was charming and peaceful full of lots of great cafes and beautiful ocean views. I was a little sad to leave. But our plan promised fun on the beach in the next town too. We arrived in El Jadida about 5 hours later by bus, and walked down to our hotel. The place was enormous with huge rooms. Very old and kinda creaky, but it seemed nice and we were to pay 3 dollars each a night with a view of the ocean. So far so good. (Little did we know that later at night the hotel would just seem kinda creepy. Emily mentioned today that it kinda seemed like a place for a mystery novel or something.)

Then we went out to look around. The city had a very odd vibe. Hardly any tourists, and certainly no western women. Lots of those cafes I had talked about before that are all men that just stare you up and down as you walk by, ick. We finally found a restaurant that served food and looked decent. But it was not so good. They didnt have half the food on the menu and the food they did have was particularly awful, especially emilys pasta. Who knew you could screw up spagettii?

Em and I decided we deserved some ice cream after a meal like that. We went on a long hard search for some. Announcement: There is NO ice cream in El Jadida. (We did find some really awful stuff, but I refuse to classify it as ice cream) What? Whats a girl to do? We even went to the ice cream shops that had pictures of yummy sundaes all over their signs, nope we were told, no ice cream until june! Boo to them. We went into a grocery store to buy some cookies for later at that point. The grocery was the most awful depressing sight. The shelves looked as if they hadnt been stocked in ages; the lights were pretty much out, and there was no refridgeration. And; Emily discovered later that one of the packages of cookies she had bought had nice little nibble holes on the back! Mice in the grocery! ISH! That about did it and we decided no more El Jadida for us thank you.

The only plus side was the old cistern in the portugese city part of town. Its this old eerie well/resevoir thing. When you go inside it at first glance looks like a large moldy room with a bunch of water on the floor. But then, as you look around, its really pretty cool. It was used in the filming of Othello, and looks extremely shakespearan. Its got all these huge old arches and colomns and because of the one circle letting light in in the middle, they all reflect onto the floor. It creates a really stunning effect with the light, and the pictures I took I think actually may turn out very cool. PS. I am eventually hoping to get you all photos, my camera just doesnt work with these computers yet.

In any case, for now, we are back in Casablanca, have had our fill of delicious ice cream and chocolate crepes, and are very satisfied. We will be taking a day trip to the capital city of rabat tomorrow, and then its on to Spain on saturday! I hope you all are doing well!

We have sucessfully departed Marrakech and made our way to the beaches of the coast. Yay, its lovely! Things here are much more laid back, and its a really nice atmosphere.  The medina has lots of little stone streets and then opens up to the sea and nice long beach.  Its also not even windy like the guidebooks warned. Theres tons of shops and lots of wooden crafts, jewelry, and art.

Upon arriving it took us a million hours and lots of wandering to find our hotel; tucked away on a side street of the medina. But once we found some one to lead us there; it worked out nicely. Our room is huge, and although slightly weathered and showing its age, we are spoiled for 4 dollars a night a piece.

Yesterday we wandered the streets and walked along the beach. We even had gelato and ate and a super cute little Italian place, Kate you would have been proud. And; they have wine here; so we finally got to try some moroccan wine; which was great. 

Also yesterday; senegalese hospitality was again showcased. Emily and I wandered into a  little jewelery shop along one of the streets and Emily recognized some of the jewelry to be from a people near senegal. The owner was impressed by her knowledge asked if she spoke wolof and then he was thrilled to hear that she did. The two of them took off into a conversation, and later we walked by the shop again to buy some earrings; and no sooner were we brought tea, stools to sit on; family pictures to look at; and then a bit later, as I tried to say we were hungry in an attempt to get the price bargaining going; wonderful hot sugared crepes and yogurt. We ended up talking to the man and his brother in his little tiny shop for next to 2 hours, and although we said we couldnt make it; he even offered us to come back for lunch the following day. The guy actually spoke 6 or 7 languages; and so was switching back from wolof and french with emily to spanish with me.  They were really sweet people; and it was fun to talk with them for a bit. 

 Today we hope to enjoy the beach and then tomorrow we are moving on up the coast.

Today is our last day in Marrakech, tomorrow we will be setting off for the coast. It has been an enjoyable time here; but I am looking forward to some relaxing on the beach, and mainly, what may hopefully be a break from the desert heat.

Yesterday we went to the Cascades de Ouzoud, they were relly beautiful and picturesque, but the area was much too touristy for us. Too many people and not very good food for too much money. There also wasnt any swimming as our guidebooks had promised; so that was a bit of a letdown. But, I was glad we went as they were pretty to see and once we managed to hike away from the packaged tourists it was really peaceful.

We have one week down and one left to go in Morocco, and then its off to Spain. So far even in just a week I have been able to see quite a few differences in the way of life between north and west africa; and Im super glad I have had the chance to have both experiences. At least so far in Morocco the Muslim religion seems incredibly more strict. Wine and beer are only found at super high price restaurants, needless to say we havent seen any. The majority of the woman here seem to wear head scarves, much more so then in senegal. Also, we have seen a decent amount with their faces covered as well, even some that were completely veiled, very eerie at least to my western eye. In addition, the calls to prayer are much more prevalent, we were not the happiest of travellers to find that the window of our hotel room opened up to the prayer calls of at least 10 mosques, loud and clear (and really long) at 430 in the morning.

Women also seem to not get the same respect as men. Whereas in Senegal we were often hussled to buy things; here it seems we are much more just bothered because we are women. The tea cafes are also a very odd sight. Not a single woman sits at these cafes…they are just men, all lined up in a row staring out at the passers by. Very weird.

For now my time is up;but I am looking forward to ocean waves and finishing up some market shopping and one last time to the food stalls in the evening in Marrkech. I will miss the circus and the wonderful mint tea.

So today; Em and I decided has officially been our girly day; and its been wonderful. We finally got a chance to experience the traditional Moroccan hammam, and it was wonderful. Something Im not quite used to as a backpacker, but when the prices are so cheap; its hard to resist. A hammam is basically a Moroccan spa/bath. They take you into this small steamy room and a hammam woman scrubs you from head to toe with all these exfoliating mitts, then you get all sorts of body masks and such; and I have never felt so clean and smooth in all my life. After the hammam we each got an hour massage as well, which was positively fabulous. I feel pretty spoiled, but after how grubby Ive been, it was needed!

Today we also managed to get out of the main area of Marrakech and explore some beautiful gardens and take a little horse drawn carriage. Bargaining for the prices for these was an experience as the first guy showed us the price list, then insisted it was a good price if he charged us double….what? We opted not to go with him.

 Oh, and last night our experiment was a success for the most part. In the part of the square where we had gotten harrassed before, with head scarves we were mainly left alone, which was great. The only problem was the shopkeepers who knew who we were, they teased us a bit as we left for the night. I also didnt mean to make it seem in the last post that all the people in morocco are creepy…as many of the people we have come in contact with have been very pleasant. Last night we also enjoyed the food stalls for dinner, a key part of any marrkech experience. They set them up every night in the main square and its just a big jumble of wonderful chaos. Kabobs, salads, soups, calamari; sheeps heads for those more adventurous then us, and much more…people running around, lots of smells and languages and the grill smoke billowing up into the night. And the food is fantastic. We dined until we were stuffed and spent an entire 4 dollars each. Then we went up to a cafe overlooking the square and had mint tea and enjoyed the fabulous people watching.

Tomorrow we are head to the Cascades de something I cant remember, hopefully it will be fun. Only another week and then its off to Spain and Alex will be joining us! 🙂

We have safely made it back from our adventure into the desert. It was an amazing experience; and although the tour itself was a little odd; mostly in that it wasnt really a tour and the majority of the time we had no idea what was going on and we didnt really ever have a guide; seeing the desert and the landscapes along the way was incredible.

We started out driving through the mountains on Monday, extremely curvy roads which didnt make for a happy stomach, I was very happy for emilys dramamene. But the scenary was fantastic, I think a geology major would have been in heaven. For me, at the very least, it made for excellent picture taking. As we drove on and the landscape turned more desert like; many of the rock formations looked as if they were still moving magma. It was pretty breathtaking. My only complaint was that we nevr knew what we were looking at and just seemed to keep driving and driving. Once I figured out this was going to be the routine; at least for day one; I settled in ok. We passed through Valley of the Kasbahs, one after the other of berber settlements, whole villages built into the cliffsides that look like sandcastles. There were palaces made out of this brown mud like stone. Apparently the biggest one of these kasbahs we saw has been in over 20 films, most recently in Gladiator.

The second day was much more rewarding, lots less driving. We walked through an enormous gorge, talk about feeling miniscule in the face of nature, it was pretty amazing. Then we made it to the desert; yay! Apparently where we ended up was about 20 km from the algerian border, I had no idea at the onset we would be travelling that far. It was spectacular. They mounted us on camels and we trekked through the dunes to our camp where we would be spending the night. If you have ever ridden a camel you might know what Im talking about, but it was an experience. Kinda scary getting up and down, and they make the most awful sound I have ever heard. Something like a very angry chewbacca mixed with a dinosaur being sick to his stomach, or something like that. The dunes themselves were incredible; it felt surreal; almost as if I was in some sort of painting or a movie. Apparently the dunes at merzuga (where we were), according to my guudebook, are the largest in the world. Enormous mountains of the softest red sand you have ever felt. It was just beautiful. I got some wonderful photographs at sunset and sunrise, and Im really excited to see how they look enlarged. It was super peaceful; and at night we just laid back and enjoyed the stars. Although I didnt sleep super well; it was fun being able to stay a night.

The third day was a drive all the way back to marrekech, one much too long for me to do again. For now we will be in marrakech a few more days, just enjoying all the city has to offer. We are going to see some gardens and venture back into the market again. We are also going to try a little experiment of going out to the square at night dressed in headscarves and see if that leads to a little less harressment…the men here are really terrible, and I dont think I can deal with them anymore, but we still want to see the square at night. Ive already almost decked one; lucky for him he got out of the way and just got a swift elbow to the shoulder.

In any case, I hope you all are well, have a wonderful thursday!

I am now in Marrakech, Morocco; and I can say without a doubt it is one of more fantastic and exotic places I have ever been. And I love it.

 But first things first. Casablance ended up very well yesterday. Emily found out that our hotel there would store her absolute mountain of luggage for free, which was very nice of them. Hopefully she will be able to ship it moroccan post when we get back to casa for a reasonable price. Second, we actually found the mosque. It was not even close to where the map said it was, but once we found a nice taxi we got there in no time. The Grand Mosque in Casablanca is the third largest mosque in the world and its absolutely incredible. I was blown away by how massive it was and the craftmanship that obviously went into it. Its set right on the ocean as well which makes for quite a backdrop. The lines of the archways are stunning and I couldnt help but take a bajillion pictures, hopefully some of which might actually be pretty good. We didnt get there in time to take a tour; but of what I saw I was very impressed.

This morning we caught a train to Marrakech and it was so nice to travel by train again, I love watching the countryside go by. Morocco has such a beautiful landscape, lots of green pastures full of wildflowers closer to Casablanca, changing into more of a desert nearer to Marrakech. Around where we are now its particularly wonderful with swaying palm trees looking out upon the snowcapped mountains.

So far the city of Marrakech is fantastic, a complete sensory experience. It completely takes you in. There are amazingly colored scarves and pottery and fabrics draped high overhead, small moutains of vibrant spices and jars and jars of brillant powders stacked up to the ceiling, the strong scent of the herbs and dried spices and leaves and men carving fresh cedar drift in and out of the souqs as you stroll past. As you walk through the medina there are snake charmers flutes and drums and music in every direction. There are tons of stands selling fresh squeezed orange juice for 30 cents a glass. I am hoping tonight we will be able to see the acrobats and whatever other crazy things this place might hold.

There are some sketchy characters for sure here; but so far we have managed to keep them at bay. Today we feasted on coucous and tajine (a moroccan dish cooked up in a pottery dish of sorts) wandered the Medina, and most definitely got lost, but it was great just to find our way and look at all the things for sale. I am excited to head out shopping in a day or two and see what I can come up with. Weve also signed up to do a tour of the atlas highlands and a small desert camel trek. We will be gone for three days, so I let you know how it is when I get back. Another strange random tidbit; people here (and in senegal) often ask where we are from. They keep guessing tons of places from belgium to germany, england to italy or maybe canada, but it seems they never guess the US. I thought that a random fun fact of the day. Maybe we americans need to travel more!

 I hope you all are doing well, I bought a bunch of postcards today, so they will be on the way soon!