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French Impressions

July 6th, 2007

Some fellow bootie travel friends have been on a round the world trip since last October, and were soon to be leaving Europe… currently in France. We’d been trying to meet up at some point, and this was going to work as the best option, so I met them there. Despite the close proximity to Holland, I hadn’t made it there yet, so I was excited. I took the overnight Eurolines bus to Paris (€82 return), and then caught a train in Paris to Rennes (€50) where I was to meet CJ and Bri. After a rather restless 8 hour bus ride, I found them waiting for me at the train station. And after a coffee and croissant, we were driving towards Mont St Michel. Read the rest of this entry »

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The Madrid Experience, part dos

March 18th, 2007

Maybe… just maybe, I could have just one flight on this trip not delayed. But so far, not the case. Read the rest of this entry »

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Parting Thoughts on Morocco

March 18th, 2007

I like Morocco. A lot. I’ve had several friends that have been there, and everyone speaks favorably of it, and now I understand why. The Moroccan people are some of the best-hearted people I’ve met in a while. Seemingly always willing to help and be hospitable, whether it’s each other, visitors, children, poor… ask, and if they can, they will. While trying to find my hotel, Zak employed the help of many on the street to ask if they knew it, and many would walk with us for a bit in attempts to find it. If somebody needed help loading luggage on a bus, someone would always jump to help. I saw Mohamed several times give some change, which he did not have much of himself, to a poor child. Tea was always offered when meeting with someone… a shop owner even made us tea for coming back the next day. The sense of community was much stronger than many other places. Read the rest of this entry »

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Essaouira

March 18th, 2007

The next day, I was going to go to the beach town of Essaouira. Mohamed offered to come with, as he knew the town. Zak had other things he needed to take care of that day. We met at 7.30 and got a cab to the bus station. 65DH each way, 2 hour bus ride, with a 10 minute stop halfway to use the facilities and have a tea. At the bus station, we saw another friend… another Mohamed, also going to Essaouira. On the bus, they began talking to another French family of three. When we arrived, we all stayed together, so they must have made some arrangement to show them around, too. The mother and father didn’t speak English, but their daughter did pretty well, and helped to translate at times. I, on the other hand, have also by now learned a few key French phrases! Read the rest of this entry »

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Another day in the sun…

March 18th, 2007

In the riad in the morning, I met a couple Americans, Alex and Trevor, that were teaching in France. They were going to be going by some of the mosques, so I went with. While near the Kasbah Mosque, we wanted to check out the tombs, too. In the winding streets, it’s difficult to find things, and the local kids know it. So they hang around and try to offer their guide services for a few dirham. Now, this is one of the situations that often leads to problems for many people. If I legitimately get lost or need directions, I understand that I’ll need to pay a little for it. The problem is, some of these kids will them almost force you into being guided by them by just walking with you, and then demanding money. Personally, I didn’t find it difficult to deal with. You just stay persistent with saying “No”, and they’ll leave you alone. I think not speaking French also helps in these cases, because they often don’t know much English at this age, so any attempts to argue become futile when neither person understands, and they’ll give up and move onto the next tourist. At one point, when we were trying to find the tombs, one kid did become our guide. I knew what it was going to lead to and since we were somewhat in need of help finding it, I wasn’t upset by it. When the time came, Trevor told him in French that we didn’t need his help any more, and I threw him a couple dirham. Trevor seemed a little more perturbed by it, but gave him a couple as well. As we walked more, I found that he seemed to be hassled by these kid guides more than us. Maybe because Alex is a girl and I don’t speak French, he was the one they went for. Sometimes, though, older Moroccans would scold the kids when they could see that we were trying to get them to go away and they wouldn’t. It was good to see that. I think the Moroccan people have very good hearts and intentions in general, it’s just the situation and life they live that causes some of them to resort to less-than-dignified means of making money. Read the rest of this entry »

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Ourika Valley

March 18th, 2007

10.00 we met the Spanish group at the café and headed to the taxi stand. We were 8 people, so we had to get two taxis. They agreed to 500DH a piece, round trip, including waiting for us for a couple hours while we enjoyed the mountains. Split between the 6 of us (naturally, Zak and Mohamed wouldn’t pay for being our guides), it was a good deal. It took about an hour to get out there, and along the way there was a stop we could take some pictures of some castle-looking thing that I don’t know for sure what it was, and also sit on a camel. Very touristy, of course, but one of my goals was to ride a camel on this trip, and since I wasn’t going to have enough time to do a 3 day desert excursion, this 10DH faux-camel ride was going to have to do. Read the rest of this entry »

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Arriving in Morocco

March 18th, 2007

And once again, flight has been delayed. Only a half hour this time, but then I spent nearly an hour to get through customs. Not any problems, they just take long with each person, and I apparently chose the slowest worker of all to stand at the back of the queue of. My friend Liz has another good friend, Zakaria, in Marrakech and put me in touch with him before I came. He’d asked if I’d like him to meet me at the airport, to which I said yes to help avoid getting ripped off by the taxi and to help find where I was staying. I hadn’t heard back for sure whether he was going to be there or not, but he was, even enduring how long it took. Big ups to Zak! And I’m sure glad he was there to help, because the address and directions I had to Riad Rahba where I was staying were wrong. After wandering through the souqs a bit trying to find it, he and his other friend Mohamed went off on their own to find it while I stayed at a café for a coffee. Once found, I dropped off my stuff. the decor inside was very nice, in the traditional Moroccan style. Long bench-like sitting around the perimeter, with traditional coverings and tapestries, and an open courtyard area in the middle. Read the rest of this entry »

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The Madrid Experience

March 13th, 2007

Worst.Flight.Ever… Figures. I had a plan. Of course, it goes to shit. The flight was scheduled from Amsterdam to Madrid at 17.00, so I should leave my house and head to the airport around 15.00. I have a class from 10.30-12, and wanted to get some practicing in and finish up some packing. If I woke up at 8, practiced, went to class, I’d then have enough time to not feel too rushed getting to the airport, as I have the last several times. Well, as it turns out, my friend Francisco had a friend in town and was going to a really good concert of a composer doing some very interesting things at the moment, and premiering a contemporary violin concerto. So, I went… Read the rest of this entry »

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Ireland Road Trip

March 11th, 2007

Oops… it was bound to happen. My first somewhat major fuck-up as a traveller. I admit, I’ve been getting lazy and idealistic. I don’t pack as carefully as I used to, because I seem to do it so often that I feel comfortable enough knowing that I’ve got all the essentials. But, once in a while it means you forget something small. This time it was a hairbrush. Obviously, that’s not the major fuck-up. I’ve also been getting lazy with timing. I’m a late person. I admit it. I’m always just a little late for everything. I try not to, but I really can’t help it. So I’ve been getting to the airport later and later, with less and less time to spare, yet always make it. Except this time. Major fuck up? I thought I allowed enough time, because I try to always carry-on my luggage. I’m used to just needing enough time to get my boarding pass, get through security, and to the gate. And, I find Schiphol to be very efficient, so I rarely wait long to do any of those. But this time, Lindsey was with me, and she had to check her bag. And when we only got to the airport an hour before take off, we missed the cutoff for checking bags by the time we got to the counter. Read the rest of this entry »

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København, New Years 2007

February 17th, 2007

After the previous night’s New Years festivities, BostonBill and I made it up by noon and to Schiphol to get our 14.40 flight to CPH. Short and sweet, we were there by 16.00, and navigated our way into the city and to our ‘hotel’, the Euroglobe. It was already well into darkness as we walked from the train station, without map… it made it interesting, but we finally found it, but ran into a problem… The reception was closed, hardly any lights on in the building, and in what seemed a slightly shady area. After some poking around, we started banging on the door and someone came to let us in. It turns out they close reception at 17.30, and it was now 18.15. Read the rest of this entry »

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