Morocco

Last weekend I embarked on one of the biggest adventures I have ever taken--a trip to Africa. I was excited to be able to explore another continent (as one of my goals, now, is to visit each one before I die), but the idea that it was Africa, something so different from everything that I had known, was overwhelming. Our trip was to Morocco, which I thought of as Africa Lite, so I packed my (relatively) Muslim culture sensitive clothes (no sleeveless shirts, long pants, no shorts) and hopped on a red eye out of Spain.

When our plane first landed, I immediately noticed all of the French. In most airports, if there is a foreign language, the translation is in English. In Morocco, however, the first language is Arabic and the translation is ALWAYS in French. This is because Morocco was a French colony for many, many years, and most Moroccans are bilingual. We somehow found which bus to take after buying a map for 20 DH (about 2 euro) and headed into town. Of course, we got off at the wrong stop, as the hostel's directions were horrible, and ended up getting lost. We found where we thought we were supposed to be on the map, and started out on foot toward our hostel. What we saw on the way is difficult to describe. The street was some kind of market, but not the tourist kind that sells nice jewelry and souvenirs. Instead, this was the real Moroccan market. There were stands for meet, and big slabs of beef stacked up on top of each other. We saw flies covering food that the Moroccans stood in line to eat. Little children weaved in and out of the motorcycle traffic in the streets, and we held on to our backpacks tightly as we realized that we were in a new world. At one point, we saw a man holding five barely live chickens tied up by their ankles, about to go in for slaughter. The street smelled of urine, sweat, and heat. It was one of the most shocking experiences I have ever had.

Since I'm sure you are wondering, we eventually made it to our hostel. That is, after a man offered to help us, then stuck out his hand for payment after. We were completely jolted into what is Moroccan life within the span of 2 hours.

That day we went to lunch. I ordered chicken tagine, one of the staple Moroccan dishes. It was very tasty, to my surprise. The Moroccans eat it with bread to sop up the juice instead of silverware, but our waiter reluctantly brought us a knife and fork. After lunch we went to visit one of the most important palaces in Morocco. It was certainly very interesting, but the difference between Islamic art and European art, as seen through their palaces, is astonishing.

This palace was almost minimalist compared to El Palacio Real here in Spain, with its ornate ceilings, grand staircases, and fancy furniture. We were so hot in Morocco that it was hard to breathe at times. We would buy bottled water, and after 10 minutes, the water would be completely hot and undrinkable. We settled in after walking around the city to take a nap before dinner.

The dinner process in Marrakesh is quite interesting. People set up tents of different restaurants, only demarcated by numbers. They all serve the same thing, and representatives from each stand out to haggle customers into choosing their restaurants. They shoot clever, and sometimes obscene, English phrases at passersby to try to entice them. Fortunately, our friends had recommended tent 1, so we made our way there. We were happy with the service and enjoyed a great dinner.

The next two days in Morocco seemed like a whirlwind, or maybe I should say a hot sand storm. We visited more palaces, learned how to bargain in the markets, and ate lots of food. No buildings in the old city of Morocco have air conditioning, except for this one really nice hotel just outside of the gates. We went to visit it one day. It had a Dior, Gucci, etc...but seemed so oddly placed in the midst of all of the poverty we saw each day. My entire experience in Marrakesh was a complete dichotomy. On one hand there were Moroccans living in unimaginable poverty. On the other, there were rich French tourists. I have never felt more like I was in a colony in my life. The Moroccan's sole purpose in life seemed to be to work for the tourists (French or English)--talk about understanding the meaning of mercantilism.

I must admit that by the time our three days had come to an end, I was ready to leave Morocco. The number of mosquitoes in our hostel room alone was miserable, not to mention the stifling heat. Still, my experience is one that I will never forget and that I feel like I am so privileged to have had.

Here are some examples of the images of Marrakesh:

Big square (where we at dinner) at night

Coke in Arabic!

Majorelle Gardens

Marrakesh from the rooftop

Streets of Marrakesh

Italy and Greece

I have been traveling now for 18 of the past 25 days, and although I am exhausted, I would never trade the things that I have gotten to see. For 12 days, I ventured to Italy and Greece with friends from the program. One of my top three places to see in Europe was Italy. While my other top places were simply cities (Paris and Berlin, to be exact), I had always wanted to see all of Italy since I imagined it to be so beautiful (and, of course, the food to be so good). Well, let me just say that I was not disappointed.

Our first stop was Venice. Honestly, it actually is as amazing as everyone says. The entire city is on water. Instead of having a metro, they have water ferries and water taxis. It seems as though everything is floating precariously on the water, and I had to keep remembering that the city had been there for hundreds of years, and it wasn't going anywhere while I was there. It is sad that people say that Venice is sinking. For that reason, I am happy that I got to see it while it still exists.

My first Italian meal was a piece of pizza. Although I have, to a large extent, been dissatisfied with the pizza in Europe (it just tastes different), the pizza in Italy was different, but wonderful. I scarfed down two pieces for a little under 2 euro each and felt very satisfied with my purchase. Since we only had one day in Venice, we took a gondola ride, went to Murano island to see the famous glassblowing, and of course ate gelato. Unfortunately, Venice is also known for its mosquitoes. Italy began three weeks of being bitten by numerous mosquitoes from different countries.

The second city that we visited was Florence. Although I had been pushing the group to spend less time in Florence and more in Rome, I cannot explain just how beautiful the city was. The entire region of Tuscany is gorgeous, actually. I would like to go back to be able to explore the whole thing. We got to see Michelangelo's David while we were in Florence. It is amazing just how large and absolutely perfect the sculpture is. It is even possible to see David's viens showing through his enormous, strong hands. We sat there in awe, just staring up at such a masterpiece. I snuck a few clandestine photos, but they can't even begin to demonstrate how amazing it was.

The David

After the David, we climbed the Duomo, Florence's famous cathedral and got breathtaking views of the city.

Duomo

View of Florence

The next day we ate a wonderful lunch (my first spaghetti bolognese of Italy) and went to the Boboli gardens. These gardens used to be a part of the royal palace in Florence. They hold some of the most beautiful views of Tuscany that I have ever seen. My friends and I sat out in the garden for quite awhile, just looking at all that was in front of us. My friend Ali said that we would never forget that moment. I agree.

Stop three on our trip was Rome. I absolutely fell in love with the city. It is romantic like Paris, but also historical in a way that only Athens can compare to. The first day we went to the Vatican Museum and saw the Sistine Chapel. It was different than I imagined it to be, but still absolutely amazing. We also went to St. Peter's Basilica and saw Michelangelo's La Pieta. I got a great picture for Mom, the only thing she requested from Italy. Rome meant more good food. The first night we were there, we had a three course meal. I had Roman pasta, meatballs, and the best strawberry dessert I have ever eaten. I felt like all I did in Italy was eat, but really, no complaints here.

La Pieta

The Sistine Chapel

The next day we conquered the history of the city, visiting the Pantheon, the Roman Forum, the ancient ruins, and the Colosseum. All of the things we saw were amazing. It is hard to believe that such an ancient society could have built such long lasting things, some of which confound engineers and architects to this day.

Roman Forum

Ancient Rome

Colosseum

Finally, it was time to leave Italy and head to Greece. We stayed on Santorini island with all of the pretty white houses and blue roofs. The island was also beautiful, with clear blue beaches and perfect skies. I found that I love a Greek dish called Moussaka. It is basically vegetables and meat baked into a kind of casserole with cheese. It looks like lasagna, but tastes completely different. I ate it at least four times while in Greece.

We ended our trip in Athens, the founding city of western civilization. We climbed up to the Parthenon and gazed out at the city below. All in all, the twelve days that I spent were amazing, and among the events that I will remember for the rest of my life, just like Ali said.

Athens had hashbrowns, something that I haven't been able to find at any other McDonald's en Europe.

Views of Athens from atop the Acropolis

Barça

Just last weekend, my whole program took a trip to Barcelona. All 20-something of us haven't gone anywhere together in quite awhile, and it was a nice way to start off the end of our time here. Barcelona is COMPLETELY different from Madrid. It is hard to know that it is even in the same country. It is a part of the region in Spain called Cataluña (or Catalunya in Catalan). They speak their own language, which happens to be a mix between Spanish and French, and they have their own special culture. It is Cataluña that has been in the news lately for holding elections about succession from Spain. It is all quite a complicated issue, as the Spanish constitution has no clause for regions that want to succeed. Next Civil War? Hopefully not. I don't think that Cataluña is quite there, but the issue of nationalism (or I guess, regionalism) is definitely present everywhere in Barça, the capital of the region. Here is an example of that:

We spent our fair share of time the first day we were there touring the city. We saw the standard cathedrals, castles, etc...One of my favorite things the first day was walking through Las Ramblas. It is one of the most famous paseos (or walks) in the world, covered with trees and little cafes and street performers. It was beautiful even though the weather was pretty bad that day. At one point, when a thunderstorm came on suddenly, we all took cover in the market. I was amazed to see such a thing. It actually had butchers, bakers, and even candy makers. We ran around taking pictures of all of the beautiful colors and buying overpriced candy.

Cathedral

Las Ramblas

Market

That night, we had a group dinner. The first thing on the menu, calzons (not sure how to spell that word, it is catalan). Basically, it consists of leeks dipped in this special sauce. It was very strange, but I tried it and it actually wasn't half bad! We also got these special wine containers that have a small spout. You are supposed to take turns going around the table with the spout pointed at your mouth, slurping the wine and bringing the container closer and farther away from your mouth. Quite interesting to watch. I did not try, as it seemed like a great way to choke, to me.

Me trying the leeks

The next morning we went to the Dali museum. It was crazy, as all of Dali's work is. Here is my favorite picture.

Can you see Abraham Lincoln?

The final day was completely devoted to Gaudi. We went and saw modernist buildings, and the Gaudi apartments. He is the beloved modernist architect of Barcelona, and his work is everywhere, from Park Güell, to the main part of the city.

Park Güell

Part of the park where the season finale of America's Next Top Model (Caridee) was filmed

Gaudi Apartments

We ended our last day there by visiting the beach, eating ice cream, and relaxing.



All in all, a great weekend.

A few more 3x5's

It is hard to believe that it is already May, and that I will be going home in one month. This trip has given me the opportunity to do some amazing things, and it has been an experience I'll never forget. The good news is that I still have a bunch of adventures ahead of me in this last month, but let me update about things I've been doing since Spring Break.

A few weeks ago, I went to San Sebastian and Bilbao, in the north of Spain. I can easily say that both the drive up to that region, called Pais Vasco, and the region itself both easily showed me some of the most beautiful parts of the country. In Bilbao, we went to the world-famous Guggenheim Museum. It had some amazing pieces of art inside, but the appeal of the museum is the architecture outside. The museum itself is a piece of art.

After Bilbao we headed to San Sebastian. We had been told that our hostel was right on the water, so we were excited. Before we even got out of the bus, we could smell the sea air. The bus let us off right by the river, and down the street from the ocean. I can safely say that trip satisfied all of my desire to be back near the water, and not so landlocked like I am in Madrid. That night we went out for pinxtos. I guess I should explain that one interesting thing about Spain is that in many of the regions, the people speak both Castellano (what one would think of as Spanish) and also a language native to their region. There is some intense nationalism in Spain in the different regions, and some, like Catalunya, even talk about succeeding. Back to the word "pinxto" --the "xt" in the Basque language sound like a "ch". Going out for pinxtos basically means you run around to a bunch of different places and eat little, bite sized foods. It was quite an interesting experience, and after four croquettas, I left pretty full.

The next day we took a tour of San Sebastian. We visited the old part of the city, where we are living, went to the ocean, and took a look at the newer parts of the city. Afterward, we were excited to have free time because all we wanted to do was go to the beach! We got changed, settled into flip flops (my first time wearing them since being in Spain), and headed for the ocean. Of course, I had to stop and get some gelato on the way, because I always want ice cream. The ocean was more beautiful than I can even explain. I am always amazed by just how expansive it is, and just how far the water goes. It is so grand and so big that it makes me feel so small. I think it really puts things in perspective.

That night, we climbed one of the two mountains in the city to watch the sunset. The views were absolutely breathtaking. San Sebastian is situated on el Mar Cantabria, which extends into the Atlantic ocean. So, I can officially say that I have seen the sunset over both the Atlantic and the Pacific. We had the perfect view of both the city at night and of the ocean.




To top it all off, I got to eat Italian food that night. I ordered spaghetti that actually had sauce, since in Spain, tomato sauce is very expensive and usually the pasta only comes with the kind of ground meat you would see on a taco, and grease. And I can't forget the most wonderful raspberry sorbet. When I ordered it, the waiter told me something about a spoon in Spanish, but turns out that neither I nor my friend caught what he was saying. We were worried that something really strange might come out for dessert, but it ended up just being this bowl of deliciousness.

Wonderful