(As in the previous post, if you haven`t read any posts after Wednesday of last week, please scroll down to the Flamenco entry to start at the beginning-the last couple of days have been broken into seperate entries!)
Sunday morning was actually a day to sleep in a bit, as Moroccan time is an hour behind Spain, so I didn`t have to crawl out of bed until at least 8 am Spain time. As there was only one sketchy looking shower, my morning bathe consisted of rubbing my face and arms multiple times with the baby wipes my mom and I had purchased so long ago at Target. I was very happy I had packed them, since I`d thought I`d never need to use them in Spain- I definately didn`t count on Morocco!
Afterwards, I decided to brave the bathroom once again. As is very common in many countries, (but definately not the US) the toilet isn`t your nice porcelain rimmed utility. Nope, it pretty much looks like this everywhere in Morocco and elsewhere:
(a bit dirty this one is, so a slight warning if that might bother you at all)
http://i284.photobucket.com/albums/ll32/natalia_en_espana/IMGP4233.jpg
As my brother would say.. shennanigans!
Walking out of my room, I immediately noticed one of the ¨hotel´s¨ owners had placed a small mat in front of a tiled wall, the wall itself having a posted litany in Arabic. I was confused to why that mat was there, but my confusion lead to realization as one of the men walked over, and immediately knelt down on the rug and began bowing multiple times, off and on rising to his feet, then returning to the bowed position. He was doing the daily ritual of prayer in the Muslim fashion, and I took a snapshot of the area a while after he had left:
http://i284.photobucket.com/albums/ll32/natalia_en_espana/IMGP4229.jpg
Soon, everyone was waking up and preparing themselves for the day, as the opening and closing of doors indicated. We all met at 8:3o Spain time in the main room (near the prayer mat) to discuss breakfast plans. We ultimately decided to wander a bit around the hotel area, and we weren`t without success. Our group found a small little breakfast bar, and as always, the friendly locals were more than happy to take our orders and our dirham-(though in Euros, dirhams are very cheap! .09 Euros=1 Dirham) We all ordered some breakfast breads, much like a pastry, which contained honey and a kind of cream cheese on top. I was very fond of the tasty meal, and of course, I had my favorite traditional mint tea with it!
We climbed up the restaurant`s narrow staircase to fit all of us in seats. Then came the discussion of what the day`s plan was- apparently, Chechouan was about an hour away from Tetouan. The problem arose was this- the direct bus from Algeciras to Granada was at 5:45 Spain time. It was coming on 10 AM Spain time, and we still had to get to the port Tangier, buy tickets, and get on a ship to get to Tarifa, and Tarifa to Algeciras! Needless to say, the 1 hour ride to Chechouan, and then approximately 2 hour return trip wasn`t going to let us view Chechouan, nor get home on time.
Me and Jamie discussed this for a few minutes, and we decided our plan of action was thus: The `Granada´ gang would go straight from Tetouan to Tangier, and have a bit of time to at least explore the port town. The rest of the group would continue on to Chechouan as planned. I was slightly disappointed in not making it to Chechouan, but the cost and time wouldn`t be worth the hassle. I guess I`ll have to just stop there first next time!
Soon we were back outside, and heading to the hotel to grab our things- packing away all of our stuff for our seperate adventures:
http://i284.photobucket.com/albums/ll32/natalia_en_espana/IMGP4232.jpg
Jamie had enquired to some locals at the restaurant about taking buses to get our seperate ways. He explained to us taking a taxi would cost nearly 100 Euros- we definately were not interested in the option. However, there was a bus system slightly akin to the Spain version, (and when I mean slightly.. slightly!) in where the cost would only be about 5 Euros, and we would head straight to Tangier. We ultimately decided that would be our best way of getting home.
After checking out of the hotel, we walked over to a long line of waiting taxis camped nearby, and hired two to take us to the bus station. Once again, it was pretty packed tight, but luckily it wasn´t for too long. Granted, the taxis are pretty old, so the room inside made for 3 had to suit 4-5.
We arrived at the bus station, and quickly hopped out to see what time the buses might finally take off. We arrived just in the nick of time- ten minutes later, after a bit of help from a tipped guide, and we were on the 10:45 AM bus. We also had to sprint to catch the bus as we had minutes to spare, but we managed a hasty wave of goodbye to our other travelers.
We all sat in different seats, as the bus was pretty full, but I did manage to snag a row by myself. I leaned against the window, and peered through to watch the route to Tangier. I took a lot of pictures on the way from Tetuoan to Tangier, and here are some I shot on the way, more to be found on on my photobucket:
http://i284.photobucket.com/albums/ll32/natalia_en_espana/IMGP4234.jpg
http://i284.photobucket.com/albums/ll32/natalia_en_espana/IMGP4234.jpg
(A person herding sheep on foot! Man, I really felt like I was thousands of years in the past!)
http://i284.photobucket.com/albums/ll32/natalia_en_espana/IMGP4234.jpg
http://s284.photobucket.com/albums/ll32/natalia_en_espana/?action=view¤t=IMGP4245.flv
The bus took about 2 hours to get from Teoutan to Tangier, and we did make several stops along the way. The interesting part was, that every time we stopped, the local people didn´t get on to the bus, they went under it. I`m pretty sure they were riding in the luggage compartment... boy, I felt like I was in first class riding up in a seat!
Finally, we made it to Tangier, all of us loading off in a quick fashion. Tangier has a bad rap for not representing Morocco very well, and I could see why: high apartment buildings and busy roads made me feel more like in a minor city than actually in Morocco. We wandered from the bus station, trying to hail a taxi to take us to the port, but every time we were rejectd- four was too many to seat. We ultimately decided to walk to the port as we had a bit of time to kill, and we weren`t about to get a taxi anytime soon.
I remembered seeing a sign as we had pulled into the bus station, and we walked over to it, it`s black letters proclaiming: LE PORT, with an arrow pointing up the road. I began to walk straight along the road, the rest of the group coming behind to make a single file. As we´d been walking single file all weekend, it would only make sense to start again!
We did have to walk for about 20 minutes through the city of Tangier, but it was mostly just apartment-like buildings and restaurants all around-not much the hustle and bustle of the old Morocco from the previous day. But suddenly the road ended, and before us laid a most beautiful looking ocean:
http://i284.photobucket.com/albums/ll32/natalia_en_espana/IMGP4253.jpg
But I did a double take while staring at the ocean, beacause in my most recent memory there usually aren`t camels on the beach...
http://i284.photobucket.com/albums/ll32/natalia_en_espana/IMGP4253.jpg
We of course, had to investigate exactly why there were a group of camels chilling out on the beach. I was guessing they weren`t there to soak up some rays, and when we walked up to them, a Moroccan quickly walked over to make sure we weren`t up to anything. I am not sure if they were for tourists or for some other event: we decided to ultimately go inspect the ocean. Scott took his shoes off and promptly stepped into the water, and remarked that it wasn`t as cold as Màlaga, and not as dirty either.
We only stayed on the beach for about a half an hour, and then we decided to head to the port that was right next to the beach. The Granada group all paired up and we walked over, it taking about 20 minutes to reach the entrance. Lots of cars were travelling into the port, and we weren`t sure if we were in the right place at first, but after walking for 10 minutes found ourselves at the port for travelling across the strait to Spain. We were finally on our way back home! But, our troubles from the day before were soon to come up again.
We bought our tickets from the boat line FRS as Jamie recommended, a 35 minute cruise to the city of Tarifa. From Tarifa, the attendant informed us, we would get a free bus ride all the way to Algeciras, and from there we could get on the 5:45 PM bus headed to Granada. We paid our fares, and as it was only coming on 1 PM, we wanted to scope the outdoor shops that were littered around the entrance. The boys decided to grab some food and sit down, me and Stephanie went to go do some quick shopping. I haggled with two sellers, and managed to spend the rest of my Dirhams on a few souvenirs, Stephanie likewise. 2òclock was coming up, and we decided we had better get aboard.
To leave Morocco, we once again had to pass through customs. I followed behind Scott, and we easily walked through in a matter of minutes. We went to wait on the other side for Zach and Stephanie, but imagine our surprise and growing dread when only Stephanie came through.
¨Where´s Zach?¨
¨I don´t know, the customs officials looked at his passport, and one of them took Zach away.¨
¨You´re kidding me.¨
Frustration permeated the group, as we had had trouble with Zach`s passport the day before-now the same issue rose again! We were beginning to grow worried: 2:15 was approaching, and were not sure if the boat left at 2:30, 3, or 3:30- the attendant had told us 3:30, another offical 3, and the pamphlet handed to us 2:30. The time we worried was 2:30, as that was the one in print.
We waited for about 20 plus minutes, then me and Stephanie had Scott watch our bags. We walked back through the small customs line, determined to explain to the officials that Zach was coming with us. But Zach was back in line again, and we all breathed a sigh of relief. But suddenly, Zach was talking with an official with help from a woman in line, and he then turned around and went out of sight again.
¨ZACH!!!¨
Hopping around with anxiety, we managed to flag the woman down who had helped Zach to tell us exactly what was going on. She then explained (in her English accent) that Zach had started questioning the officials why he was being told to go downstairs, and she had jumped in to help explain to Zach (and do a bit of translating) that you don`t really question customs officials, let alone in Morocco.
We talked a bit with her and her Californian husband as we waited for Zach, finding out that they lived most of the time in Morocco. Apparently, each summer they left Morocco to visit England for 10 weeks to get out of the scorching summer heat-a great idea in our minds. Finally, Zach appeared and went through customs, and our group breathed a sigh of relief. We walked with the couple and chatted a bit about ourselves with them, and soon found ourselves at our departure point. (The couple was going on another line) We thanked them for their help, and ran down the steps to get on the boat, that was thankfully still there.
We showed our tickets and our passports, and the three of us got through.. but when Zach came through, no stamp was to be found on his passport. The officials hadn`t stamped his passport, and the ticketer wouldn`t let him through. We about died right there at the news! Poor Zach!! The ticketer informed us the boat would be leaving at 3, and the time was now 2:45. Zach sprinted back to customs, as the three of us waited by the ticketer for his return, growing more nervous that we would not make the 3PM boat. But suddenly, Zach again appeared in our view, running like a madman. We eagerly cheered as he hastily sprinted over, the ticketer now letting him through with his stamp.
Needless to say, we finally got on the boat, and didn`t leave till about 3:30, but all the same enjoyed the hum of the engine as the ship soon began it`s fast pace towards Tarifa. Zach was a bit stressed from the ordeal, but we all assured him it wasn`t his fault, rather the confusion that was warranted from a Hong Kong passport. I took time to walk around the ship as Stephanie and Scott grabbed lunch, inspecting the duty free shop, and trading a Euro in for a 10 Dirham coin to have to bring home.
Finally, the boat made it to Tarifa, and we quickly got off the boat to head to our free bus. But as luck would have it, another pass through Spanish customs had us waiting for Zach`s return from a locked off room. However, the Spanish officials were pretty friendly, and had Stephanie go with Zach to help him out, as she would help Zach translate and explain to the Spanish customs the situation with Hong Kong passports. (She had studied abroad in China)
30 minutes later, we finally entered Spain.. but a few enquiries later, we discovered the free bus had already left. Zach suggested that we go speak to the company and get a free ride for ourselves from all the time we had spent waiting in customs, but by that point we just wanted to get to Algeciras. We hired a taxi for a total of 28 Euros, which really wasn`t a bad deal at all. The driver was very friendly with us, asking us about our trip and where we were headed. The trip to Algeciras was a scenic one along the oceanside, lots of high rises of cliff and rock.
We made it to Algeciras at about 5 PM, 45 minutes before our departure. Thankfully, we got our tickets and only had to wait a while to get on our bus, no issues whatsover. By 6 PM we were on our way home, me happy as can be that it somehow had all worked out.
It took us about 2 hours to get home, as we made 1 stop before heading to Granada. We listened to the Spain/Italy game, but by the time we disembarked the score was still 0-0. The Granada gang then spilt up to go our seperate ways, all of us tired from a long, fun, hectic, and all-around enjoyable weekend. Stepanie and I caught the number 33 bus, and a little under an hour found us back in our homestay. The house was empty, the family had gone out to watch the game. I made a quick call home to say I had gotten back to Granada a-ok, and despite the loud cheering from the city, I managed to finally fall asleep.
Monday morning was back to school, and at the breakfast table I found out that Spain had triumphed over Italy-hurrah! Also of interest was the last time Spain beat Italy in a sport apparently was 88 years ago- needless to say, the atmosphere was of excitement. I discussed my Morocco adventure with my family, then headed off for 9 AM class. 4 hours of class, a quick lunch and a call home later, I headed back to the computer lab to write all of what has transpired these several days! It took me a very long time, to say the least, but I am quite happy I got it all down! After stopping with part 2, I met up with Stephanie and our English buddies at about 9 to go out for some tapas for dinner. After about two hours of chatting, we headed straight home to nab some sleep after a very busy weekend.
Today was class again, and at 5 PM me and Stephanie are going to walk down and explore the giant science park in Granada- and of course, I am way excited!
http://www.parqueciencias.com/
It looks to be a lot of fun, and I`m taking my camera to take lots of pictures! So next update shall cover this fun excursion we`re going on today!
As always, (and if you`ve read all of these past entries, I salute you!)
Until next time!
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
Monday, June 23, 2008
The Màlaga and Morocco Adventure! Part 2!
(NOTE: This post has been broken up due to length. Please make sure to scroll down to the Flamenco entry to start at the beginning!)
We finally had made it into Morocco- after all the previous day`s near misses, it had all worked out! I could breath a sigh of relief by then-but that was to be replaced by intakes of astonished gasps, as 5 minutes out of the port of entry the world began to dramatically shift. Cars became fewer, and houses soon begin to transform more into older dwellings. I was amazed how quickly we began to really enter Morocco- I had assumed that Morocco really began in the middle of the country. Not so- it begins a mere 5 minutes by car.
We drove for about a half an hour to finally reach Tetouan. The city was a maze of old buildings compacted in, and a few cars indicated that we were still in a city that had roads-we had come into the more modernized part of town, leftover from French colonization. We then pulled up in front of our hotel, and quickly paid the drivers our share of euros for the trip. Then, our tour guide led us into the hotel, where we were quickly shown some rooms.
It was a lot better than I expected it would be, but the hotel guide informed us the rooms we wanted would be 5 Euros, instead of the 3 Euros promised. He quickly told us that there were 3 Euro rooms, but we were willing to pay the 2 extra Euros for the rooms we had. We quickly set down our backpacks and bags, and locked them away in the room. I took a quick snapshot of the window of the room, to give an idea what our neighboring building looked like:
http://i284.photobucket.com/albums/ll32/natalia_en_espana/IMGP4201.jpg
We all assembled together, and with our tour guide ever leading us, we finally headed out to explore the city of Tetouan. It wasn`t long until we crossed into the pre-French part of town, and it was just as fast the feeling of being a pink elephant amongst grey ones- women were dressed in headscarves and long pants and shirts, and we even saw a women dressed in a burqa-we could only see her eyes peering from the black hood. Needless to say, our shirts and jeans screamed foreigners.
We first stopped in front of a large building- our tour guide telling us this was where the King and Queen of Morocco paid visit when they came to Teouan. It was a pretty impressive building!
http://i284.photobucket.com/albums/ll32/natalia_en_espana/IMGP4202.jpg
I then shifted my camera to the side, to take a quick picture of the busy street nearby, teeming with Moroccans:
http://i284.photobucket.com/albums/ll32/natalia_en_espana/IMGP4203.jpg
After our photos, our guide then lead us into the old part of the city. And when I mean old, I mean like-stepping-back-a-thousand-years-old. I was blown off my feet at the sheer sight of the city: to compare, I would say imagine watching a National Geographic segment into 3rd world Muslim world. And I felt like that the whole time-the only difference was, I was living it!
http://i284.photobucket.com/albums/ll32/natalia_en_espana/IMGP4206.jpg
http://i284.photobucket.com/albums/ll32/natalia_en_espana/IMGP4207.jpg
http://i284.photobucket.com/albums/ll32/natalia_en_espana/IMGP4208.jpg
Small alleyways leading into twisting turns, children darting left and right, the hum of music I couldn`t understand in the background, chickens and pidgeons in crates, fruit on display, fish being cut in the market... I could go on for hours describing it. Everywhere you could look there was something completely different- dirty buildings and beautiful mosques stood side by side, whilst head-covered women did their daily shopping and haggling. I felt out of place in this world untouched by time- only some coloring books and coca-cola advertisments made me feel this busting city was in the year 2008.
We then made our way through several narrow streets to venture to an opened area. This was the town`s local tannery- and my thoughts flew back to an even earlier time:
http://i284.photobucket.com/albums/ll32/natalia_en_espana/IMGP4210.jpg
http://i284.photobucket.com/albums/ll32/natalia_en_espana/IMGP4211.jpg
The smell made my skin crawl a bit, but we quickly passed through the muddy area. Men were in the watery filled holes, curing the leather that floated in the liquid goo. Drying leather hung everywhere from the buildings, tightening in the afternoon sun. Our tour guide led us up leather-covered stairs to look down at the leather curing area, and then to look to our right to see what appeared to be an abandoned graveyard, with a fantastic view of part of the old city behind it:
http://i284.photobucket.com/albums/ll32/natalia_en_espana/IMGP4212.jpg
http://i284.photobucket.com/albums/ll32/natalia_en_espana/IMGP4214.jpg
We then hurried down the leather steps to continue our tour of the city.
The next place we were lead to was a rug shop. Scott`s sister joked with us on the way that the worst thing that could happen to you in Morocco was to get ¨rugged¨. We all laughed at that, Jamie sighing as he had done this many times before when visiting Morocco. The group entered in the rug shop, the owner greeting us and leading us through the store and up a set of stairs to a to the roof of the building, so that we could get some fantastic snapshots of the city below via rooftop:
http://i284.photobucket.com/albums/ll32/natalia_en_espana/IMGP4218.jpg
http://i284.photobucket.com/albums/ll32/natalia_en_espana/IMGP4219.jpg
We were then lead back down into the building, and found ourselves seated on a long couch in a rug infested room, and informed tea was being made for us. I definately had the feeling this was a popular tourist visit, but all the same was impressed by the room itself:
http://i284.photobucket.com/albums/ll32/natalia_en_espana/IMGP4221.jpg
http://i284.photobucket.com/albums/ll32/natalia_en_espana/IMGP4221.jpg
The shop owner told us that this was all being paid for by the government of Morocco, and we were to enjoy ourselves. We cast glances at each other, but listened attentaviely. He explained that he was going to talk about different rugs and how they were made. He put down before us at least 30 different rugs on top of each other, with help from his assistant:
http://i284.photobucket.com/albums/ll32/natalia_en_espana/IMGP4222.jpg
We heard about handmade and styles, types and sizes, all spoken in broken English. After listening, we then were informed that we were going to go through the rugs again, but this time to say if we were interested in more information about them. The words to use were ´Wataf´ and ´La´ -the first expressing interest in the rug, the other saying no. Stephanie, Jamie, a couple in our group, and Zach gave the shop owner Wataf for different rugs, while the rest of us were content with our Las. Tea was then served, as the interested party went downstairs to haggle with the shop owner for rugs, as we sipped on our mint teas:
http://i284.photobucket.com/albums/ll32/natalia_en_espana/IMGP4224.jpg
The others finally came upstairs, the couple, Stephanie, and Jamie had got rugged-while Zach came back empty handed. They had to haggle for their rugs, as in Morocco, nothing is ever at a set price! A Moroccan will say 100 Euros, you`ll say 10- both parties going up and down until a price is met. Happy with their purchases, and of course a tip to the shopkeeper, and we were back on our way to explore more of Tetouan.
Next, we visited a nearby pharamcy, and long benches gave us more indication this was also a popular tourist destination. We were then greeted by the pharmacy store owner, and seated down quickly.
http://i284.photobucket.com/albums/ll32/natalia_en_espana/IMGP4226.jpg
http://i284.photobucket.com/albums/ll32/natalia_en_espana/IMGP4228.jpg
The pharmacist then explained to us several different remedies and elixirs used to help Moroccans when they felt under the weather, or for various other ailments-from flower oils to pills to help with colds and fever. I kept thinking, `What about Aspirin?` most of the lecture, but was interrupted in my thoughts when the pharmacist assistant then gestured to me. Apparently, he was going to give me a medicinal neck massage- after my initial discomfort, it turned out to loosen a lot of my neck muscles. Another guy in our group and Stephanie went ahead and got a back massage afterwards, but I was content with my neck loosening. All the same, a tip was expected, and we then ventured back outside.
We mentioned that we were a bit hungry, so our tour guide then lead us to a nice restaurant to have a typical Moroccan meal. However, the entire lunch was going to cost us 10 Euros a piece, and several members of our group voiced no`s to paying for the pricey meal. We ultimately decided to leave the restaurant, and find some cheaper food on our own.
We then found an ATM to withdraw Dirhams, the currency of Morocco, so we would be able to buy lunch and items later on. After withdrawing money, we decided to head back to the hotel and release our tour guide. As always, a tip was expected, and we tipped him with Euros and sent him on his way.
Jamie then lead us to a small restaurant, and we had Moroccan burgers, sanwhiches, and fries all around. I was too hungry to be concerned with the food, but a quick inspection revealed all was cooked and well. We ate our lunch, the total price very cheap with dirhams!
Then, Jamie suggested we all break into small groups and explore our own seperate ways- as for him, he had to go find an internet cafe to cancel his Moroccan visa, as he had lost it earlier on the bus from Malàga. Several of us headed to the hotel, where we took a quick siesta for the afternoon. During part of my siesta, I watched a small spider hop across the room in a rather peculiar fashion. I then dubbed it the ´Deadly African Jumping Spider´to make the small bug a little more exciting- the name becoming the ongoing joke of the entire trip.
About an two hours later, Jamie returned and gathered us all together, to discuss the plans for the evening. We ultimately decided to explore the city a bit more, and find some dinner for the evening. Our group then treaded out into the cool evening breeze of Morocco, the combined air from the ocean breeze and the wind from the farther Sahara desert made the clouds fly by, much akin to a hurricane. We walked down the cobblestone French quarter back into the old part of town, getting used to the stares we received at being foreigners.
http://i284.photobucket.com/albums/ll32/natalia_en_espana/IMGP4230.jpg
I then saw two women walk past covered in burqas- but these ones didn´t even have eye slits. It was definately different!
We walked through the busy throng of people through different alleyways, stopping in to look at several stores and a phone store for Scott`s sister to buy a SIM card. All the way, we were greeted by `Holas`from the local children- the Spanish influence here was hard to miss, and we always cheerfully replied `Hola` back-sometimes recieving phrases as `Que tal?` or `Como se llama?`They were very eager to practice Spanish with us, as we walked through the many streets!
We finally decided on another restaurant, where we were lead upstairs to enjoy small soups and meat dishes all around. The soup was delicious, and a bottle water definately made my dry mouth happy.
http://i284.photobucket.com/albums/ll32/natalia_en_espana/IMGP4231.jpg
Only the soups were given silverware- a hunk of break was used to grab the meat off their dishes, as Scott and his sister soon discovered. Two tables of Moroccan families eyed us in interest as we enjoyed our night meal, and sooner than later we finally were stepping back into the Moroccan night air. We then headed back to the hotel to rest for the next morning, the first day in Morocco being an ultimate success.
(NOTE: I have stopped here for now, as to give you the reader a bit time to read these posts, and for me to relax my fingers from typing! Ill post the last chapter of the Morocco adventure tommorrow, so stay tuned!)
We finally had made it into Morocco- after all the previous day`s near misses, it had all worked out! I could breath a sigh of relief by then-but that was to be replaced by intakes of astonished gasps, as 5 minutes out of the port of entry the world began to dramatically shift. Cars became fewer, and houses soon begin to transform more into older dwellings. I was amazed how quickly we began to really enter Morocco- I had assumed that Morocco really began in the middle of the country. Not so- it begins a mere 5 minutes by car.
We drove for about a half an hour to finally reach Tetouan. The city was a maze of old buildings compacted in, and a few cars indicated that we were still in a city that had roads-we had come into the more modernized part of town, leftover from French colonization. We then pulled up in front of our hotel, and quickly paid the drivers our share of euros for the trip. Then, our tour guide led us into the hotel, where we were quickly shown some rooms.
It was a lot better than I expected it would be, but the hotel guide informed us the rooms we wanted would be 5 Euros, instead of the 3 Euros promised. He quickly told us that there were 3 Euro rooms, but we were willing to pay the 2 extra Euros for the rooms we had. We quickly set down our backpacks and bags, and locked them away in the room. I took a quick snapshot of the window of the room, to give an idea what our neighboring building looked like:
http://i284.photobucket.com/albums/ll32/natalia_en_espana/IMGP4201.jpg
We all assembled together, and with our tour guide ever leading us, we finally headed out to explore the city of Tetouan. It wasn`t long until we crossed into the pre-French part of town, and it was just as fast the feeling of being a pink elephant amongst grey ones- women were dressed in headscarves and long pants and shirts, and we even saw a women dressed in a burqa-we could only see her eyes peering from the black hood. Needless to say, our shirts and jeans screamed foreigners.
We first stopped in front of a large building- our tour guide telling us this was where the King and Queen of Morocco paid visit when they came to Teouan. It was a pretty impressive building!
http://i284.photobucket.com/albums/ll32/natalia_en_espana/IMGP4202.jpg
I then shifted my camera to the side, to take a quick picture of the busy street nearby, teeming with Moroccans:
http://i284.photobucket.com/albums/ll32/natalia_en_espana/IMGP4203.jpg
After our photos, our guide then lead us into the old part of the city. And when I mean old, I mean like-stepping-back-a-thousand-years-old. I was blown off my feet at the sheer sight of the city: to compare, I would say imagine watching a National Geographic segment into 3rd world Muslim world. And I felt like that the whole time-the only difference was, I was living it!
http://i284.photobucket.com/albums/ll32/natalia_en_espana/IMGP4206.jpg
http://i284.photobucket.com/albums/ll32/natalia_en_espana/IMGP4207.jpg
http://i284.photobucket.com/albums/ll32/natalia_en_espana/IMGP4208.jpg
Small alleyways leading into twisting turns, children darting left and right, the hum of music I couldn`t understand in the background, chickens and pidgeons in crates, fruit on display, fish being cut in the market... I could go on for hours describing it. Everywhere you could look there was something completely different- dirty buildings and beautiful mosques stood side by side, whilst head-covered women did their daily shopping and haggling. I felt out of place in this world untouched by time- only some coloring books and coca-cola advertisments made me feel this busting city was in the year 2008.
We then made our way through several narrow streets to venture to an opened area. This was the town`s local tannery- and my thoughts flew back to an even earlier time:
http://i284.photobucket.com/albums/ll32/natalia_en_espana/IMGP4210.jpg
http://i284.photobucket.com/albums/ll32/natalia_en_espana/IMGP4211.jpg
The smell made my skin crawl a bit, but we quickly passed through the muddy area. Men were in the watery filled holes, curing the leather that floated in the liquid goo. Drying leather hung everywhere from the buildings, tightening in the afternoon sun. Our tour guide led us up leather-covered stairs to look down at the leather curing area, and then to look to our right to see what appeared to be an abandoned graveyard, with a fantastic view of part of the old city behind it:
http://i284.photobucket.com/albums/ll32/natalia_en_espana/IMGP4212.jpg
http://i284.photobucket.com/albums/ll32/natalia_en_espana/IMGP4214.jpg
We then hurried down the leather steps to continue our tour of the city.
The next place we were lead to was a rug shop. Scott`s sister joked with us on the way that the worst thing that could happen to you in Morocco was to get ¨rugged¨. We all laughed at that, Jamie sighing as he had done this many times before when visiting Morocco. The group entered in the rug shop, the owner greeting us and leading us through the store and up a set of stairs to a to the roof of the building, so that we could get some fantastic snapshots of the city below via rooftop:
http://i284.photobucket.com/albums/ll32/natalia_en_espana/IMGP4218.jpg
http://i284.photobucket.com/albums/ll32/natalia_en_espana/IMGP4219.jpg
We were then lead back down into the building, and found ourselves seated on a long couch in a rug infested room, and informed tea was being made for us. I definately had the feeling this was a popular tourist visit, but all the same was impressed by the room itself:
http://i284.photobucket.com/albums/ll32/natalia_en_espana/IMGP4221.jpg
http://i284.photobucket.com/albums/ll32/natalia_en_espana/IMGP4221.jpg
The shop owner told us that this was all being paid for by the government of Morocco, and we were to enjoy ourselves. We cast glances at each other, but listened attentaviely. He explained that he was going to talk about different rugs and how they were made. He put down before us at least 30 different rugs on top of each other, with help from his assistant:
http://i284.photobucket.com/albums/ll32/natalia_en_espana/IMGP4222.jpg
We heard about handmade and styles, types and sizes, all spoken in broken English. After listening, we then were informed that we were going to go through the rugs again, but this time to say if we were interested in more information about them. The words to use were ´Wataf´ and ´La´ -the first expressing interest in the rug, the other saying no. Stephanie, Jamie, a couple in our group, and Zach gave the shop owner Wataf for different rugs, while the rest of us were content with our Las. Tea was then served, as the interested party went downstairs to haggle with the shop owner for rugs, as we sipped on our mint teas:
http://i284.photobucket.com/albums/ll32/natalia_en_espana/IMGP4224.jpg
The others finally came upstairs, the couple, Stephanie, and Jamie had got rugged-while Zach came back empty handed. They had to haggle for their rugs, as in Morocco, nothing is ever at a set price! A Moroccan will say 100 Euros, you`ll say 10- both parties going up and down until a price is met. Happy with their purchases, and of course a tip to the shopkeeper, and we were back on our way to explore more of Tetouan.
Next, we visited a nearby pharamcy, and long benches gave us more indication this was also a popular tourist destination. We were then greeted by the pharmacy store owner, and seated down quickly.
http://i284.photobucket.com/albums/ll32/natalia_en_espana/IMGP4226.jpg
http://i284.photobucket.com/albums/ll32/natalia_en_espana/IMGP4228.jpg
The pharmacist then explained to us several different remedies and elixirs used to help Moroccans when they felt under the weather, or for various other ailments-from flower oils to pills to help with colds and fever. I kept thinking, `What about Aspirin?` most of the lecture, but was interrupted in my thoughts when the pharmacist assistant then gestured to me. Apparently, he was going to give me a medicinal neck massage- after my initial discomfort, it turned out to loosen a lot of my neck muscles. Another guy in our group and Stephanie went ahead and got a back massage afterwards, but I was content with my neck loosening. All the same, a tip was expected, and we then ventured back outside.
We mentioned that we were a bit hungry, so our tour guide then lead us to a nice restaurant to have a typical Moroccan meal. However, the entire lunch was going to cost us 10 Euros a piece, and several members of our group voiced no`s to paying for the pricey meal. We ultimately decided to leave the restaurant, and find some cheaper food on our own.
We then found an ATM to withdraw Dirhams, the currency of Morocco, so we would be able to buy lunch and items later on. After withdrawing money, we decided to head back to the hotel and release our tour guide. As always, a tip was expected, and we tipped him with Euros and sent him on his way.
Jamie then lead us to a small restaurant, and we had Moroccan burgers, sanwhiches, and fries all around. I was too hungry to be concerned with the food, but a quick inspection revealed all was cooked and well. We ate our lunch, the total price very cheap with dirhams!
Then, Jamie suggested we all break into small groups and explore our own seperate ways- as for him, he had to go find an internet cafe to cancel his Moroccan visa, as he had lost it earlier on the bus from Malàga. Several of us headed to the hotel, where we took a quick siesta for the afternoon. During part of my siesta, I watched a small spider hop across the room in a rather peculiar fashion. I then dubbed it the ´Deadly African Jumping Spider´to make the small bug a little more exciting- the name becoming the ongoing joke of the entire trip.
About an two hours later, Jamie returned and gathered us all together, to discuss the plans for the evening. We ultimately decided to explore the city a bit more, and find some dinner for the evening. Our group then treaded out into the cool evening breeze of Morocco, the combined air from the ocean breeze and the wind from the farther Sahara desert made the clouds fly by, much akin to a hurricane. We walked down the cobblestone French quarter back into the old part of town, getting used to the stares we received at being foreigners.
http://i284.photobucket.com/albums/ll32/natalia_en_espana/IMGP4230.jpg
I then saw two women walk past covered in burqas- but these ones didn´t even have eye slits. It was definately different!
We walked through the busy throng of people through different alleyways, stopping in to look at several stores and a phone store for Scott`s sister to buy a SIM card. All the way, we were greeted by `Holas`from the local children- the Spanish influence here was hard to miss, and we always cheerfully replied `Hola` back-sometimes recieving phrases as `Que tal?` or `Como se llama?`They were very eager to practice Spanish with us, as we walked through the many streets!
We finally decided on another restaurant, where we were lead upstairs to enjoy small soups and meat dishes all around. The soup was delicious, and a bottle water definately made my dry mouth happy.
http://i284.photobucket.com/albums/ll32/natalia_en_espana/IMGP4231.jpg
Only the soups were given silverware- a hunk of break was used to grab the meat off their dishes, as Scott and his sister soon discovered. Two tables of Moroccan families eyed us in interest as we enjoyed our night meal, and sooner than later we finally were stepping back into the Moroccan night air. We then headed back to the hotel to rest for the next morning, the first day in Morocco being an ultimate success.
(NOTE: I have stopped here for now, as to give you the reader a bit time to read these posts, and for me to relax my fingers from typing! Ill post the last chapter of the Morocco adventure tommorrow, so stay tuned!)
The Màlaga and Morocco Adventure! Part 1!
It was a tad difficult to finally fall asleep Thursday night, so I spent an hour or so packing and repacking, and finally fell asleep. We started off Friday morning wide awake and anticipating the weekends adventures, first going to my morning class. As I wasn`t the only one planning to make their way into Morocco that weekend, the class was dismally empty with only three students that came. I stayed in class for two hours myself, but I bade my teacher a quick adios to head home to pack a bit more and prepare for my 3 oclock bus to Màlaga, Spain.
I headed home and soon began to pack a couple of more items I hadn`t thrown in the night before, such as a shirt from the week`s laundry and my bathing suit. Our host mom had nicely packed us sandwiches to eat on the trip, and I was very grateful to have that quick lunch before I headed out. 1 òclock rolled by, and I idly cast glances at my wristwatch, waiting for Stephanie to come.
At 1:30 PM, Stephanie walked in our room. I rose immediately to greet her, and to ask when we wanted to depart. She said she wanted to take a quick shower before we left, so I sat back down to recheck my things. Stephanie showered, but afterwars she had to pack a couple of things in another bag she was going to bring, so she began to hastily throw things in. 2òclock hit, and I was becoming a bit antsy myself, and we finally left at 2:15 PM.
We hurried down the road, myself becoming more worried by the minute, but Stephanie was pretty calm the whole time. We finally caught a bus at 2:27 PM. (You know I must have been watching my clock because I have all these times memorized!)
Our bus was pretty full, and we did make several stops. Me and Stephanie looked at each other, each mentally thinking the worst, and we eventually had to discuss what we would do if we missed the bus. The outlook was turning grimmer as the clock struck 2:45, and we were only a bit more than halfway there. The clock then turned to 2:50, and I was mentally planning what to do from there.
But suddenly at 2:51 PM, the station appeared in sight! We hastily grabbed our things, and at exactly 2:56 PM we tore off that bus like bats from hell. Scurrying across traffic and bolting into the bus station, we flew through the terminal. We looked at our tickets, and read number 6 station. We saw a bus, and breathed a sigh of relief. We had made it... or so we thought.
Rushing to the bus, we waited in front of it, ready to board. But a call to our right showed Scott and Zach, Scott`s friend from Hong Kong, waving us to another bus, that was preparing to soon leave. We walked over in confusion- the ticket clearly read station 6, and they were in front of station 11. The decision came down to go with the number printed on the ticket- so we walked to station 6.
We waited in line, casting hasty glances between the buses, as Zach reached the bus driver. He checked our tickets, shaking his head and informing us the bus was at....station 11.
In horror, we turned to see the station 11 bus beginning to rev up. Once again the Granada gang was running to make it in time. We luckily flagged down the driver before the bus pulled all the way out, and with a scolding in Spanish, we hastily found seats. Needless to say, I spent most of that trip counting my blessings!
Two and a half hours later, and several stops finally found our way into the Andalucìan city of Màlaga. Getting off the bus, Scott told us that we wouldn`t be meeting up with his sister and the group until that evening, so we were to head down to enjoy the beach. The question came up.. where was the beach? Scott retrived his Mapquest map, but it only gave the name of main streets, and for the first 15 minutes we walked in the wrong direction. But with the help of a friendly local, and my Floridian intuition of following the breeze, we walked ourselves to the ocean. We then found the neaby road on the map, and walked several long streets to finally make it to the gorgeous looking beach of Màlaga.
We all made a strange group on the beach, wearing jeans and t-shirts, but a trip to a public bathroom (Which..was a public bathroom, to say the least) had us fitting in with the beachgoing crowd. Maybe not so much as several women on the beach, which to our astonishment, were going topless. I remembered hearing somewhere, (most likely my travel-going parents) that in Europe going to the beach topless was quite the normal, so we assured ourselves this wasn`t a nude beach!
We finally found a nice spot, spread out Scott`s blanket (he was the only one who had one) and we decided to jump into the Mediterranean Sea!
http://i284.photobucket.com/albums/ll32/natalia_en_espana/IMGP4196.jpg
http://i284.photobucket.com/albums/ll32/natalia_en_espana/IMGP4197.jpg
http://i284.photobucket.com/albums/ll32/natalia_en_espana/IMGP4198.jpg
Our jaunt in the water wasn`t for very long- it was icy cold! Me and Stephanie stayed in the longest, (go girls!) but not for much longer- the beach was right next to the local port, and the water reflected that, with grime and debris and perhaps a bit of oil. We clambered from the water to enjoy relaxing on the beach, and getting a bit of a tan. I enjoyed about an hour a so of relxation, until the water began to creep up and splash my shoes. Then, we decided to head to meet up with Scott`s sister.
We walked the way we came, Scott remembering more and more, as he had been there for two weeks before coming to Granada. We walked past a beautiful park, which the equivalent that comes to mind is a bigger and grander Central Park:
http://i284.photobucket.com/albums/ll32/natalia_en_espana/IMGP4199.jpg
Also, as we walked along the long main road to the city buses, I saw an old ship resting in the port. As my dad is a big nautical history fan, I took this picture for him to see it:
http://i284.photobucket.com/albums/ll32/natalia_en_espana/IMGP4200.jpg
We finally made it to the bus station with no worries, and hopped on the 21 bus enroute to Scott`s home. Our bus trip wasn`t short- Scott`s sister lived on the other side of town, so it took a good 30 minutes until we arrived at our destination. We walked off the bus as we approached the markoff point at Burger King, and a short uphill stroll found us at the right apartments. Scott`s sister came out to greet us, as well as her husband and two other friends who were coming with us to Morocco. The group in Màlaga besides one of our members were all from the United States, but all of them were missionaries living in Spain. The boys were going to stay with group members, but me and Stephanie got to donate 15 Euros to stay in a very nice apartment. We then put down our things, and met up with the group for dinner.
We then all headed out for a bit of a walk to find a tapas resturant, and soon we were chatting and munching on the different varities for dinner, as the cool ocean breeze made the night very pleasant. I then found out from the others that while the Granada gang was only going for Saturday and Sunday, the others were all staying down in Morocco an extra week- but with school still in session, we could only stay for the weekend. We talked about our plan to visit the city of Chechouan, Morocco, and the time we had to meet for the bus was 6 AM to catch the 6:30 AM bus. Finally, we walked back to the apartment complex and me and Stephanie headed to our rented room to retire for the night.
The next morning, I felt a small push of a foot on my side, (I was sleeping on the floor-bed) and Stephanie stood over me in the dim of the morning`s light. I eyed my watch. 6 AM.
I shot out of bed, Stephanie taking a step back to avoid my hasty rise to my feet. She had been up at 5:30 AM to take a morning shower (I took one the night before to save time) and said no one had stopped by to come get us. We were confused- had the time changed, had no one got up.. or had they gone off without us? We both came to the conclusion the best thing to do was to wait and see. I began changing and packing, Stephanie the same.
6:15 AM, and a rap on our door. Scott stood outside, telling us to grab our things and head downstairs. We quickly snatched them and hustled down to be amongst our group members. Apparently, only one person`s alarm had gone off, and they had gone to the meeting point at Burger King. Finding nobody there, they walked back and roused the rest- needless to say, another late start!
But our luck was still with us- an older couple that lived in the complex took the missionary van and drove us to the bus station. We pulled in at 6:30 AM, and again we had mucho suerte (much luck!) - the bus didn`t leave till 6:45 AM. We bought our tickets, and jumped on the bus, finally on our way to Morocco.
We reached the town of Algecìras at about 9 AM, and then walked several streets down to the port. Jamie, our Canadian ¨tour guide¨ (he had lived in Morocco for several months, and spoke excellent Moroccoan Arabic\Spanish) lead us inside the port of departure, and then went to negotiate with the boat agents for a good price to get to Ceuta. We had originally planned to go to the port town of Tanger, Morocco, but Jamie had made some Moroccoan friends on our bus, and they told him the faster way was to go through the Spanish colony of Ceuta.
Jamie finally struck a deal with one of the boat agents, and we got a good price for our group size of 9 people-22 Euros a piece. We all pooled in our share, and quickly hastened to hop on the 10:30 boat trip. Thus, not an hour later we finally stepped into Africa-but we weren`t in Morocco yet! We were still in Spanish territory, but as we grabbed a bus ride to the border, we wouldn`t be for much longer.
The bus stopped a few yards from the border, and a large port of entry loomed ahead, a large red flag with the green outline of a star lazily flapping in the breeze. We stepped off the bus, and walked several yards until we met a Moroccoan man holding out passport papers. He gave us all sheets, and Jamie tipped him a Euro- as we were to later realize that any help in Morocco isn`t free, a tip is always expected!
After filling out our many papers, we finally set out to cross the border. We had a bit of a mixup at first- we didn`t have stamps, so we had to go back and all get our passports stamped. Zach, our traveling companion from Hong Kong, ran into a bit of trouble with his passport, as the confusion was to whether it was real passport or not- as Hong Kong is a part of China, but it has its own set of government and passports. Finally we all got stamped, and we passed from Spain into the Arabic world of Morocco.
While we were getting our passports stamped, Jamie had acquired a friend in the form of an official Moroccan travel guide. The government of Morocco hires Moroccans that can speak several languages to act as waiting tour guides to foreigners that come into the country. After an enquiry to whether or not this guy was actually the real thing, Jamie told us that Moroccoans that try to fake being an official get sent directly to jail- that definately cleared up our worries!
Our Moroccoan guide talked to Jamie for a bit, and then Jamie approached us with a new idea. The guide suggested that he knew of a cheap hotel in Tetouan, and that we could overnight there and head to Chechouan in the morning. We all agreed that sounded like a good idea, and we all boarded into two taxis (for our large group- and it was bit jammed!), our tour guide coming with us. We then pulled out of the port of entry, the territory of Spain soon heading into the distance.
Finally, we were on our way into Morocco!
(These posts are long, so to break them up a bit I have divided the Morocco entry into parts. The next part will be the above post!)
I headed home and soon began to pack a couple of more items I hadn`t thrown in the night before, such as a shirt from the week`s laundry and my bathing suit. Our host mom had nicely packed us sandwiches to eat on the trip, and I was very grateful to have that quick lunch before I headed out. 1 òclock rolled by, and I idly cast glances at my wristwatch, waiting for Stephanie to come.
At 1:30 PM, Stephanie walked in our room. I rose immediately to greet her, and to ask when we wanted to depart. She said she wanted to take a quick shower before we left, so I sat back down to recheck my things. Stephanie showered, but afterwars she had to pack a couple of things in another bag she was going to bring, so she began to hastily throw things in. 2òclock hit, and I was becoming a bit antsy myself, and we finally left at 2:15 PM.
We hurried down the road, myself becoming more worried by the minute, but Stephanie was pretty calm the whole time. We finally caught a bus at 2:27 PM. (You know I must have been watching my clock because I have all these times memorized!)
Our bus was pretty full, and we did make several stops. Me and Stephanie looked at each other, each mentally thinking the worst, and we eventually had to discuss what we would do if we missed the bus. The outlook was turning grimmer as the clock struck 2:45, and we were only a bit more than halfway there. The clock then turned to 2:50, and I was mentally planning what to do from there.
But suddenly at 2:51 PM, the station appeared in sight! We hastily grabbed our things, and at exactly 2:56 PM we tore off that bus like bats from hell. Scurrying across traffic and bolting into the bus station, we flew through the terminal. We looked at our tickets, and read number 6 station. We saw a bus, and breathed a sigh of relief. We had made it... or so we thought.
Rushing to the bus, we waited in front of it, ready to board. But a call to our right showed Scott and Zach, Scott`s friend from Hong Kong, waving us to another bus, that was preparing to soon leave. We walked over in confusion- the ticket clearly read station 6, and they were in front of station 11. The decision came down to go with the number printed on the ticket- so we walked to station 6.
We waited in line, casting hasty glances between the buses, as Zach reached the bus driver. He checked our tickets, shaking his head and informing us the bus was at....station 11.
In horror, we turned to see the station 11 bus beginning to rev up. Once again the Granada gang was running to make it in time. We luckily flagged down the driver before the bus pulled all the way out, and with a scolding in Spanish, we hastily found seats. Needless to say, I spent most of that trip counting my blessings!
Two and a half hours later, and several stops finally found our way into the Andalucìan city of Màlaga. Getting off the bus, Scott told us that we wouldn`t be meeting up with his sister and the group until that evening, so we were to head down to enjoy the beach. The question came up.. where was the beach? Scott retrived his Mapquest map, but it only gave the name of main streets, and for the first 15 minutes we walked in the wrong direction. But with the help of a friendly local, and my Floridian intuition of following the breeze, we walked ourselves to the ocean. We then found the neaby road on the map, and walked several long streets to finally make it to the gorgeous looking beach of Màlaga.
We all made a strange group on the beach, wearing jeans and t-shirts, but a trip to a public bathroom (Which..was a public bathroom, to say the least) had us fitting in with the beachgoing crowd. Maybe not so much as several women on the beach, which to our astonishment, were going topless. I remembered hearing somewhere, (most likely my travel-going parents) that in Europe going to the beach topless was quite the normal, so we assured ourselves this wasn`t a nude beach!
We finally found a nice spot, spread out Scott`s blanket (he was the only one who had one) and we decided to jump into the Mediterranean Sea!
http://i284.photobucket.com/albums/ll32/natalia_en_espana/IMGP4196.jpg
http://i284.photobucket.com/albums/ll32/natalia_en_espana/IMGP4197.jpg
http://i284.photobucket.com/albums/ll32/natalia_en_espana/IMGP4198.jpg
Our jaunt in the water wasn`t for very long- it was icy cold! Me and Stephanie stayed in the longest, (go girls!) but not for much longer- the beach was right next to the local port, and the water reflected that, with grime and debris and perhaps a bit of oil. We clambered from the water to enjoy relaxing on the beach, and getting a bit of a tan. I enjoyed about an hour a so of relxation, until the water began to creep up and splash my shoes. Then, we decided to head to meet up with Scott`s sister.
We walked the way we came, Scott remembering more and more, as he had been there for two weeks before coming to Granada. We walked past a beautiful park, which the equivalent that comes to mind is a bigger and grander Central Park:
http://i284.photobucket.com/albums/ll32/natalia_en_espana/IMGP4199.jpg
Also, as we walked along the long main road to the city buses, I saw an old ship resting in the port. As my dad is a big nautical history fan, I took this picture for him to see it:
http://i284.photobucket.com/albums/ll32/natalia_en_espana/IMGP4200.jpg
We finally made it to the bus station with no worries, and hopped on the 21 bus enroute to Scott`s home. Our bus trip wasn`t short- Scott`s sister lived on the other side of town, so it took a good 30 minutes until we arrived at our destination. We walked off the bus as we approached the markoff point at Burger King, and a short uphill stroll found us at the right apartments. Scott`s sister came out to greet us, as well as her husband and two other friends who were coming with us to Morocco. The group in Màlaga besides one of our members were all from the United States, but all of them were missionaries living in Spain. The boys were going to stay with group members, but me and Stephanie got to donate 15 Euros to stay in a very nice apartment. We then put down our things, and met up with the group for dinner.
We then all headed out for a bit of a walk to find a tapas resturant, and soon we were chatting and munching on the different varities for dinner, as the cool ocean breeze made the night very pleasant. I then found out from the others that while the Granada gang was only going for Saturday and Sunday, the others were all staying down in Morocco an extra week- but with school still in session, we could only stay for the weekend. We talked about our plan to visit the city of Chechouan, Morocco, and the time we had to meet for the bus was 6 AM to catch the 6:30 AM bus. Finally, we walked back to the apartment complex and me and Stephanie headed to our rented room to retire for the night.
The next morning, I felt a small push of a foot on my side, (I was sleeping on the floor-bed) and Stephanie stood over me in the dim of the morning`s light. I eyed my watch. 6 AM.
I shot out of bed, Stephanie taking a step back to avoid my hasty rise to my feet. She had been up at 5:30 AM to take a morning shower (I took one the night before to save time) and said no one had stopped by to come get us. We were confused- had the time changed, had no one got up.. or had they gone off without us? We both came to the conclusion the best thing to do was to wait and see. I began changing and packing, Stephanie the same.
6:15 AM, and a rap on our door. Scott stood outside, telling us to grab our things and head downstairs. We quickly snatched them and hustled down to be amongst our group members. Apparently, only one person`s alarm had gone off, and they had gone to the meeting point at Burger King. Finding nobody there, they walked back and roused the rest- needless to say, another late start!
But our luck was still with us- an older couple that lived in the complex took the missionary van and drove us to the bus station. We pulled in at 6:30 AM, and again we had mucho suerte (much luck!) - the bus didn`t leave till 6:45 AM. We bought our tickets, and jumped on the bus, finally on our way to Morocco.
We reached the town of Algecìras at about 9 AM, and then walked several streets down to the port. Jamie, our Canadian ¨tour guide¨ (he had lived in Morocco for several months, and spoke excellent Moroccoan Arabic\Spanish) lead us inside the port of departure, and then went to negotiate with the boat agents for a good price to get to Ceuta. We had originally planned to go to the port town of Tanger, Morocco, but Jamie had made some Moroccoan friends on our bus, and they told him the faster way was to go through the Spanish colony of Ceuta.
Jamie finally struck a deal with one of the boat agents, and we got a good price for our group size of 9 people-22 Euros a piece. We all pooled in our share, and quickly hastened to hop on the 10:30 boat trip. Thus, not an hour later we finally stepped into Africa-but we weren`t in Morocco yet! We were still in Spanish territory, but as we grabbed a bus ride to the border, we wouldn`t be for much longer.
The bus stopped a few yards from the border, and a large port of entry loomed ahead, a large red flag with the green outline of a star lazily flapping in the breeze. We stepped off the bus, and walked several yards until we met a Moroccoan man holding out passport papers. He gave us all sheets, and Jamie tipped him a Euro- as we were to later realize that any help in Morocco isn`t free, a tip is always expected!
After filling out our many papers, we finally set out to cross the border. We had a bit of a mixup at first- we didn`t have stamps, so we had to go back and all get our passports stamped. Zach, our traveling companion from Hong Kong, ran into a bit of trouble with his passport, as the confusion was to whether it was real passport or not- as Hong Kong is a part of China, but it has its own set of government and passports. Finally we all got stamped, and we passed from Spain into the Arabic world of Morocco.
While we were getting our passports stamped, Jamie had acquired a friend in the form of an official Moroccan travel guide. The government of Morocco hires Moroccans that can speak several languages to act as waiting tour guides to foreigners that come into the country. After an enquiry to whether or not this guy was actually the real thing, Jamie told us that Moroccoans that try to fake being an official get sent directly to jail- that definately cleared up our worries!
Our Moroccoan guide talked to Jamie for a bit, and then Jamie approached us with a new idea. The guide suggested that he knew of a cheap hotel in Tetouan, and that we could overnight there and head to Chechouan in the morning. We all agreed that sounded like a good idea, and we all boarded into two taxis (for our large group- and it was bit jammed!), our tour guide coming with us. We then pulled out of the port of entry, the territory of Spain soon heading into the distance.
Finally, we were on our way into Morocco!
(These posts are long, so to break them up a bit I have divided the Morocco entry into parts. The next part will be the above post!)
A night of Fantastic Flamenco!
Hola! Or as they say in Morroccan Arabic... Salam Alekoum! Once again back to blogger, after being computerless for the last 3 days! But you all know what that means.. more for you to read! That´s good, right!?
Yes. Yes it is! :)
So let´s rewind the clock, and go back to Thursday evening.
Thursday evening was magical to say the least. Our last Abroadco trip of the last week, to visit one of the most famous and well-known associations of Spain.. we went to see Flamenco. And it was incredible.
9:30 PM at night- we shuffled out from dinner, the night sky dim against the city`s lights, as we walked to Correos to meet with Inma. (I personally enjoy going out at night and in the morning in Granada- the afternoons here can get pretty hot, so its always nice to walk out in cooler parts of the day. )
We walked up to see Scott already there, and Inma a few minutes behind him. We all greeted Inma in Spanish, and we then turned and immediately made our way north. We were headed to the Sacromonte, which me and Scott had been exploring about two weeks ago, and a week ago in the discoteca. As the way was long, we quickly caught a small bus to travel most of the way there. It was pretty crowded, but we managed to squeeze in!
Finally, the bus dropped us off at a corner, and we walked two streets down to finally reach our destination point. We definately weren`t the only group to think of Flamenco on Thursday, because the place was definately packed!
http://i284.photobucket.com/albums/ll32/natalia_en_espana/IMGP4173.jpg
http://i284.photobucket.com/albums/ll32/natalia_en_espana/IMGP4174.jpg
http://i284.photobucket.com/albums/ll32/natalia_en_espana/IMGP4177.jpg
We already had tickets, so we weren`t worried, but I was definately wondering if everyone else did too!
After a little bit of waiting, (apparently there was some confusion on the establisment`s part of whether we had tickets or not) we hurried into a long, underground cave room that is very traditional of homes in the Sacromonte, to watch the evening`s show. On our right sat a guitar player, a drum player and a singer, and several flamenco dancers. With a suddenly rap of the drum, and a loud vocalization from the singer, the dancers rose to their feet.
http://i284.photobucket.com/albums/ll32/natalia_en_espana/IMGP4178.jpg
They immediately went to the center of the room, and proceeded to begin. Their dance was definately of a different sort when it comes to dancing- they always keep in time to the song, their feet stamping along with the rhythm, which is usually a fast pace on the feet. But their midsection up to the arms remains a slow movement, so it is easy to see why it has been called the most difficult dance in all of the world! After the group of flamenco dancers danced, they then split up into individual turns. I took video of one of the dancers, as you can glimpse into what it really was like that night:
http://s284.photobucket.com/albums/ll32/natalia_en_espana/?action=view¤t=IMGP4181.flv
http://i284.photobucket.com/albums/ll32/natalia_en_espana/IMGP4179.jpg
http://i284.photobucket.com/albums/ll32/natalia_en_espana/IMGP4182.jpg
http://i284.photobucket.com/albums/ll32/natalia_en_espana/IMGP4189.jpg
(more pictures on my photobucket, as always!)
Each of the dancers had their own dance, their own song, their own rhythm. We watched in awe at their hypnotic movements and impossible looking feet patterns. Most of the dancers were women, however two men danced as well, one of them doing a ´relationship´dance with one of the women flamenco dancers. We were served delicious sangria drinks halfway through the show, and the night seemed to become timeless as we watched this old gypsy tradition.
When we reached the end of the night, one of the flamenco dancers came up and started picking tourists from the crowd. She picked several different people, and each one of them tried to mimick in earnest. After she had picked a young man from the opposite side of the room, she walked over, and with Inma`s eager pointing, motioned to Stephanie to follow her. Me and Scott eagerly cheered, and Stephanie rose to the occasion.. and she did very well, using her dress in the same fashion as the Flamenco dancer.
http://i284.photobucket.com/albums/ll32/natalia_en_espana/IMGP4194.jpg
Then the night truly ended with a final dance, and we were soon back on the road walking home. We all began discussing what our new Spain careers were, (mine is going to be a female matador, Scott is going to be a Spanish DJ, and Stephanie our newest Flamenco dancer) We all had a lot of fun, and it definately was reflected in the happy chatter in the cool night air. We soon bid Inma farewell, giving two kisses on each cheek as is custom in Spain, and she bid us farewell, and to take care in our next adventure... MOROCCCO!
(as the Morocco entry is very long, I am going to post it in another entry! Go up and read it, for sure! )
Yes. Yes it is! :)
So let´s rewind the clock, and go back to Thursday evening.
Thursday evening was magical to say the least. Our last Abroadco trip of the last week, to visit one of the most famous and well-known associations of Spain.. we went to see Flamenco. And it was incredible.
9:30 PM at night- we shuffled out from dinner, the night sky dim against the city`s lights, as we walked to Correos to meet with Inma. (I personally enjoy going out at night and in the morning in Granada- the afternoons here can get pretty hot, so its always nice to walk out in cooler parts of the day. )
We walked up to see Scott already there, and Inma a few minutes behind him. We all greeted Inma in Spanish, and we then turned and immediately made our way north. We were headed to the Sacromonte, which me and Scott had been exploring about two weeks ago, and a week ago in the discoteca. As the way was long, we quickly caught a small bus to travel most of the way there. It was pretty crowded, but we managed to squeeze in!
Finally, the bus dropped us off at a corner, and we walked two streets down to finally reach our destination point. We definately weren`t the only group to think of Flamenco on Thursday, because the place was definately packed!
http://i284.photobucket.com/albums/ll32/natalia_en_espana/IMGP4173.jpg
http://i284.photobucket.com/albums/ll32/natalia_en_espana/IMGP4174.jpg
http://i284.photobucket.com/albums/ll32/natalia_en_espana/IMGP4177.jpg
We already had tickets, so we weren`t worried, but I was definately wondering if everyone else did too!
After a little bit of waiting, (apparently there was some confusion on the establisment`s part of whether we had tickets or not) we hurried into a long, underground cave room that is very traditional of homes in the Sacromonte, to watch the evening`s show. On our right sat a guitar player, a drum player and a singer, and several flamenco dancers. With a suddenly rap of the drum, and a loud vocalization from the singer, the dancers rose to their feet.
http://i284.photobucket.com/albums/ll32/natalia_en_espana/IMGP4178.jpg
They immediately went to the center of the room, and proceeded to begin. Their dance was definately of a different sort when it comes to dancing- they always keep in time to the song, their feet stamping along with the rhythm, which is usually a fast pace on the feet. But their midsection up to the arms remains a slow movement, so it is easy to see why it has been called the most difficult dance in all of the world! After the group of flamenco dancers danced, they then split up into individual turns. I took video of one of the dancers, as you can glimpse into what it really was like that night:
http://s284.photobucket.com/albums/ll32/natalia_en_espana/?action=view¤t=IMGP4181.flv
http://i284.photobucket.com/albums/ll32/natalia_en_espana/IMGP4179.jpg
http://i284.photobucket.com/albums/ll32/natalia_en_espana/IMGP4182.jpg
http://i284.photobucket.com/albums/ll32/natalia_en_espana/IMGP4189.jpg
(more pictures on my photobucket, as always!)
Each of the dancers had their own dance, their own song, their own rhythm. We watched in awe at their hypnotic movements and impossible looking feet patterns. Most of the dancers were women, however two men danced as well, one of them doing a ´relationship´dance with one of the women flamenco dancers. We were served delicious sangria drinks halfway through the show, and the night seemed to become timeless as we watched this old gypsy tradition.
When we reached the end of the night, one of the flamenco dancers came up and started picking tourists from the crowd. She picked several different people, and each one of them tried to mimick in earnest. After she had picked a young man from the opposite side of the room, she walked over, and with Inma`s eager pointing, motioned to Stephanie to follow her. Me and Scott eagerly cheered, and Stephanie rose to the occasion.. and she did very well, using her dress in the same fashion as the Flamenco dancer.
http://i284.photobucket.com/albums/ll32/natalia_en_espana/IMGP4194.jpg
Then the night truly ended with a final dance, and we were soon back on the road walking home. We all began discussing what our new Spain careers were, (mine is going to be a female matador, Scott is going to be a Spanish DJ, and Stephanie our newest Flamenco dancer) We all had a lot of fun, and it definately was reflected in the happy chatter in the cool night air. We soon bid Inma farewell, giving two kisses on each cheek as is custom in Spain, and she bid us farewell, and to take care in our next adventure... MOROCCCO!
(as the Morocco entry is very long, I am going to post it in another entry! Go up and read it, for sure! )
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
Adventuring in the Albacìn
Que tal, chicos? After a long blog entry last time, this entry shouldn´t be too bad, I hope!
Starting from.. yesterday evening! For our Granada adventure yesterday, we met at 8:00 PM at Correos, where Inma and Jaime were waiting for us to begin our trip into exploring the Albacin in Granada!
The Albacin Quarter in Granada is famous for being the ´Arab Quarter´. This part of town managed to evade the total change the rest of the city saw in the reconquest of Granada, and it´s old Moorish roots, street side vendors, and seveal tea houses gives a look into what Granada looked like before Catholic Spain torched and took it back from the Moors.
We started the familiar path into the Albacin (As we had been to the earlier part of the Quarter before- the blog concerning the tea house.) but as soon as we arrived we walked past the small array of tea houses and stores, opting instead to climb the long, winding alleway straight into the heart of the Albacin. It was definately a workout for the legs hiking up all those winding stairs!
http://i284.photobucket.com/albums/ll32/natalia_en_espana/IMGP4120.jpg
http://s284.photobucket.com/albums/ll32/natalia_en_espana/?action=view¤t=IMGP4122.jpg
These narrow, winding alleyways made me think we weren´t even in Granada anymore, but somehow a couple hundreds years back in time. I wouldn´t have been the least bit surprised to see a horse tied up in front of a home! The Albacin does have a reputation for being disorientating, and it´s not without truth!
After walking through the alleyways, we stopped a brief moment to look upon some very large, Moorish influenced houses. These houses were apparently the homes of the richer families in the Albacin, and peering at the gated archways, one could see why!
http://i284.photobucket.com/albums/ll32/natalia_en_espana/IMGP4099.jpg
After touring the richer houses, we walked not a few feet away to see a small altar embedded in the wall. Jaime explained to us that in older days, people might not just go to the church to repent or pay respects, they could walk over to a nearby altar to accomplish the same holy mission. The one we saw was out of use, but a nice arrangement of flowers inside indicated it wasn´t forgotten.
http://i284.photobucket.com/albums/ll32/natalia_en_espana/IMGP4101.jpg
After walking a bit more through the Albacin, we then came upon the Mirador de San Nicolás, a church with a spectacular view of the Alhambra. Dozens of people littered the outcropping in front of the church, to view what former President Clinton called the most beautiful sight in the world:
http://i284.photobucket.com/albums/ll32/natalia_en_espana/IMGP4108.jpg
http://i284.photobucket.com/albums/ll32/natalia_en_espana/IMGP4103.jpg
http://i284.photobucket.com/albums/ll32/natalia_en_espana/IMGP4105.jpg
http://i284.photobucket.com/albums/ll32/natalia_en_espana/IMGP4114.jpg
http://i284.photobucket.com/albums/ll32/natalia_en_espana/IMGP4115.jpg
(many more on my photobucket!)
After looking upon the magnificient view of the Alhambra, we then walked into the center of the Albacin to have a quick tapas, and we walked over to one of the most popular restaurants in the Albacin. We sat down at an outdoor table, and ordered our drinks, waiting for the snack that always comes with drink orders. Little did we know what the tapas in the Albacin were.. but we we soon found out what they were when they were placed on the table... a delicacy I common associate with the French.. snails!
Yes, snails. You read correctly.
Needless to say, the surprise on our faces at our evening snack was priceless. They are cooked in a delicious sauce, and are perfectly fine to eat, but the look of it did make my stomach do a bit of a flipflop:
(Warning: these pictures are of escargo! (cooked snails) If this will make you queasy, be forewarned!)
http://i284.photobucket.com/albums/ll32/natalia_en_espana/IMGP4125.jpg
However, being Natalie D. West, adventurer, I certaintly couldn´t just say no to eating snails. Scott was of the same mind, and while he went at it with a smile, I couldn´t help but sport a hesitant grin at the camera:
http://i284.photobucket.com/albums/ll32/natalia_en_espana/IMGP4127.jpg
http://i284.photobucket.com/albums/ll32/natalia_en_espana/IMGP4129.jpg
We bravely plucked out the snails from their shells, and munched on the scary looking snack. But as most things that don´t look good at first, they were surprisingly pretty good! We ate another helping of snail, my roommate Stephanie watching in hesitant interest. But she couldn´t be outdone, and with our combined encouragement (and eating one along with her!) she ate one!
http://i284.photobucket.com/albums/ll32/natalia_en_espana/IMGP4134.jpg
We are proud to we are the first group of Americans that have eaten snails with Jaime and Inma! Hurrah for us Abroadco kids!
(the pictures of the snails will end here, but there are more on my photobucket.. look at them if you dare!)
After enjoying snails, and some calamari and honey fried zucinni, we headed back to look upon the Alhambra in the light of the moon. Only about two hours later from our first glance, and the now full moon shining on the Alhambra was gorgeous:
http://i284.photobucket.com/albums/ll32/natalia_en_espana/IMGP4141.jpg
http://i284.photobucket.com/albums/ll32/natalia_en_espana/IMGP4145.jpg
http://i284.photobucket.com/albums/ll32/natalia_en_espana/IMGP4143.jpg
(lots more on my photobucket!)
After watching the Alhambra´s evening glow, we finally made our long walk back to town. A small group of bats darted through the alleyway as we left the old Moorish quarter, as almost if saying farwell to the small group of Spaniards and Americans. It was definately a night to remember, and I´m certain this won´t be my last adventure into the ancient past of Granada.
Starting from.. yesterday evening! For our Granada adventure yesterday, we met at 8:00 PM at Correos, where Inma and Jaime were waiting for us to begin our trip into exploring the Albacin in Granada!
The Albacin Quarter in Granada is famous for being the ´Arab Quarter´. This part of town managed to evade the total change the rest of the city saw in the reconquest of Granada, and it´s old Moorish roots, street side vendors, and seveal tea houses gives a look into what Granada looked like before Catholic Spain torched and took it back from the Moors.
We started the familiar path into the Albacin (As we had been to the earlier part of the Quarter before- the blog concerning the tea house.) but as soon as we arrived we walked past the small array of tea houses and stores, opting instead to climb the long, winding alleway straight into the heart of the Albacin. It was definately a workout for the legs hiking up all those winding stairs!
http://i284.photobucket.com/albums/ll32/natalia_en_espana/IMGP4120.jpg
http://s284.photobucket.com/albums/ll32/natalia_en_espana/?action=view¤t=IMGP4122.jpg
These narrow, winding alleyways made me think we weren´t even in Granada anymore, but somehow a couple hundreds years back in time. I wouldn´t have been the least bit surprised to see a horse tied up in front of a home! The Albacin does have a reputation for being disorientating, and it´s not without truth!
After walking through the alleyways, we stopped a brief moment to look upon some very large, Moorish influenced houses. These houses were apparently the homes of the richer families in the Albacin, and peering at the gated archways, one could see why!
http://i284.photobucket.com/albums/ll32/natalia_en_espana/IMGP4099.jpg
After touring the richer houses, we walked not a few feet away to see a small altar embedded in the wall. Jaime explained to us that in older days, people might not just go to the church to repent or pay respects, they could walk over to a nearby altar to accomplish the same holy mission. The one we saw was out of use, but a nice arrangement of flowers inside indicated it wasn´t forgotten.
http://i284.photobucket.com/albums/ll32/natalia_en_espana/IMGP4101.jpg
After walking a bit more through the Albacin, we then came upon the Mirador de San Nicolás, a church with a spectacular view of the Alhambra. Dozens of people littered the outcropping in front of the church, to view what former President Clinton called the most beautiful sight in the world:
http://i284.photobucket.com/albums/ll32/natalia_en_espana/IMGP4108.jpg
http://i284.photobucket.com/albums/ll32/natalia_en_espana/IMGP4103.jpg
http://i284.photobucket.com/albums/ll32/natalia_en_espana/IMGP4105.jpg
http://i284.photobucket.com/albums/ll32/natalia_en_espana/IMGP4114.jpg
http://i284.photobucket.com/albums/ll32/natalia_en_espana/IMGP4115.jpg
(many more on my photobucket!)
After looking upon the magnificient view of the Alhambra, we then walked into the center of the Albacin to have a quick tapas, and we walked over to one of the most popular restaurants in the Albacin. We sat down at an outdoor table, and ordered our drinks, waiting for the snack that always comes with drink orders. Little did we know what the tapas in the Albacin were.. but we we soon found out what they were when they were placed on the table... a delicacy I common associate with the French.. snails!
Yes, snails. You read correctly.
Needless to say, the surprise on our faces at our evening snack was priceless. They are cooked in a delicious sauce, and are perfectly fine to eat, but the look of it did make my stomach do a bit of a flipflop:
(Warning: these pictures are of escargo! (cooked snails) If this will make you queasy, be forewarned!)
http://i284.photobucket.com/albums/ll32/natalia_en_espana/IMGP4125.jpg
However, being Natalie D. West, adventurer, I certaintly couldn´t just say no to eating snails. Scott was of the same mind, and while he went at it with a smile, I couldn´t help but sport a hesitant grin at the camera:
http://i284.photobucket.com/albums/ll32/natalia_en_espana/IMGP4127.jpg
http://i284.photobucket.com/albums/ll32/natalia_en_espana/IMGP4129.jpg
We bravely plucked out the snails from their shells, and munched on the scary looking snack. But as most things that don´t look good at first, they were surprisingly pretty good! We ate another helping of snail, my roommate Stephanie watching in hesitant interest. But she couldn´t be outdone, and with our combined encouragement (and eating one along with her!) she ate one!
http://i284.photobucket.com/albums/ll32/natalia_en_espana/IMGP4134.jpg
We are proud to we are the first group of Americans that have eaten snails with Jaime and Inma! Hurrah for us Abroadco kids!
(the pictures of the snails will end here, but there are more on my photobucket.. look at them if you dare!)
After enjoying snails, and some calamari and honey fried zucinni, we headed back to look upon the Alhambra in the light of the moon. Only about two hours later from our first glance, and the now full moon shining on the Alhambra was gorgeous:
http://i284.photobucket.com/albums/ll32/natalia_en_espana/IMGP4141.jpg
http://i284.photobucket.com/albums/ll32/natalia_en_espana/IMGP4145.jpg
http://i284.photobucket.com/albums/ll32/natalia_en_espana/IMGP4143.jpg
(lots more on my photobucket!)
After watching the Alhambra´s evening glow, we finally made our long walk back to town. A small group of bats darted through the alleyway as we left the old Moorish quarter, as almost if saying farwell to the small group of Spaniards and Americans. It was definately a night to remember, and I´m certain this won´t be my last adventure into the ancient past of Granada.
Monday, June 16, 2008
Dancing, daytrips, and the Alhambra, oh my!
Buenos Tardes, amigos! After a really super fun weekend, I’m back and ready to update with lots of new things that I’ve been doing! So I’ll waste no time, and rewind back to Friday afternoon!
Friday afternoon, Scott and I went walking down to once again explore a bit more of southeast Granada, and find the discoteca that we were unable to find last week. With a bit more direction, we successfully found it’s location under an hour - a bit improvement over last time! After triumphing that, we once again headed over to the huge Walmart/Mall center… also known as Carrefour. We shopped around, buying myself a cd of my new favorite Spanish band, Amaral. I highly recommend logging into Youtube and watching one of their videos. They’re awesome!
After venturing to Carrefour, we then headed to the Center of Modern Languages to check our messages and such, and then we both headed our separate ways for the night- Scott was a bit tired from the week, and wanted to go to bed, but I headed home to get dressed for the evening!
Friday night me, my roommate Stephanie, my classmate Robert and his girlfriend from England, (after watching the futbol game of the night…Hurrah Holland!) went out to explore Granada’s nightlife! Much akin to New York, Granada is the place that never sleeps- resturants, cafes, tapas bars, everything is up and running, and the city is packed! We all met at about 10:00 PM and got to immerse ourselves in a typical Spanish Friday night- walking around, enjoying the cool night breeze… until the discoteca opens, of course.
A discoteca is pretty much what we would call a club in the United States, but here it has almost a reverent tone for it- you mention the ‘D’ word to a Spaniard, and they’ll instantly tell you where their favorite one is to be found. We went to a discoteca called Camboria, that was way out in the Sacromonte. The cool thing about this dance club was that, like most of the buildings in the Sacromonte quarter, the underground part was a cave! The dancing was to be found aboveground, as we were early to visit at 2 AM in the morning.
However, my most favorite part was that offered an unmatchable view of the Alhambra at night. I was very unhappy I didn’t bring my camera, but the view was spectacular. We danced, we laughed, and we had a lot of fun hanging out in the cool night breeze of Southern Spain. Stephanie and I retired early at 4 AM, where more people were showing up at that time, but for us, it was super late! We took a taxi home and slipped back into bed after a fun filled night out in Granada.
The next day we took the opportunity to sleep in, as a long night out on Granada had us beyond exhausted! We didn’t wake up until 2 in the afternoon, and our host family had gone to visit relatives, so we took the opportunity to go visit a Chinese restaurant a block away for lunch. Chinese food is a bit different here in Spain than in the United States, and me and Stephanie figured, (as Stephanie is bilingual in both Spanish/Chinese, and studied abroad there) that the more east you get, the more authentic the food becomes. It was interesting in not Spanish food for a change, but still nothing like back home. 6 Euros was all it cost, so not a bad deal either!
After eating out, we then walked down to the nearby mall, that is very close to our home. It’s definitely not Boca Raton Town center, but I liked it’s small shops atmosphere, without finding an Express, Claire’s, or Auntie Em’s in sight. We walked up and down the three levels of the mall, mostly window browsing as we went during siesta time. After touring the different shops and eyeing the mall’s discoteca and movie theater, we then walked down to a nearby cyber café and surfed the ‘net for about an hour. Soon dinner time rolled around, and we headed home to grab a quick cena.
After dinner, we were wide awaked and wanting to walk around a bit, so we called up Scott and suggested simply just walking around Granada. We then all met up at the post office, and walked to each of our houses so we knew how to get there. Then, we finally found a park bench and sat and talked about ourselves for about 2 hours, ranging from topics such as favorite books to childhood video games. At about 1 AM we called it a night, and headed home for bed. For the next day was our trip to the world famous, Granada representative… the Moorish castle of the Alhambra!
http://s284.photobucket.com/albums/ll32/natalia_en_espana/
(Link to all of the pictures on my photobucket, again not in order due to computer mixing them up, but reading along with this entry will help you along!)
The morning of the Alhambra started off with a late get up at 9 AM, which I didn´t mind at all. Me and Stephanie munched on a quick breakfast, and met Inma at Correos at 11:20 AM. From Correos, we then walked way down the main street from correos, and after a bit of walking, turned up an inclined road to a large, gated opening. We walked through the large doors, and found ourselves in the most beautiful forest park! Trees were everywhere that the eye could see, and even in the wooden depths we saw ruins of ancient Moorish castles. But as we walked further and further through the forest, we saw ahead of us a great, red castle-like building peering out from the trees... the entrance to the great Alhambra.
In the shade in front of the Alhambra, we met up with the University Tour group, and Inma bid us farewell from there. We then waited a mere 5 minutes until a large group of students showed up on the city bus, and grouped all together, we followed our profesora up to the large entrance, and entered inside the famous castle.
We then walked through shaded tunnels, Moorish inscriptions littering all the entryways and passages. It was difficult not to imagine living in this building day to day- what had me most concerned was the fairly new addition of a railing... how did the Moors not fall down those twisting, narrow staircases? Definately a question on my mind.
We then walked out to a large courtyard of sorts, where the profesora explained the military faction of the Alhambra lived in this part. Lots of ridges of stone, perhaps where a soldier might rest or practice amongst others, or prepare himself to do battle with the soon to be conquering Christians.
We then walked up a large bastille, climbing dozens of stairs to reach the top.. the view was magnificient. All of Granada was sprawled below, and everywhere you turned the city´s rich history and modern day buidings all came together in a stunning display. Looking out farther than the city below, you could stare for hours at the looming Sierra Nevadas, or simply gaze to the large Moorish wall nearby, protecting Granada from ancient invaders. I was blown away by the sight, and lots of pictures in my photobucket albulm reflect that!
After viewing from on high, we walked down and back towards the center of the Alhambra, to then tour the more recent additions to the Alhambra, of the construction Ferdinand, Isabella, and other Spanish royals added on to the already great palace. A room for visits was the first on the tour, followed by grand ceilings with latin words inscribed in stone. However, not all of the Moorish rooms had been redone, more often than not, they were simply refurbished and kept the same. However, a more modern refurbishing was seen when we walked to the court of the Lions, a famous room in the Alhambra. Disappointingly, the lion statues were nowhere to be seen, instead a large plastic tent. Apparently the lions were taken out to be restored, and they won´t be back until 2010. Well... now I know when to plan my return trip!
After visiting the Catholic refurbishing and the Moorish center, we walked outside of the Alhambra´s interior to view a magnificient stretch of miles of gardens. Our profesora informed us that the Moors´s heaven consisted of gardens and green everywhere. Also in heaven was to be found four rivers, the two of which were milk and water, the other two wine and honey. This was reflected in the many fountains we saw, where little canals from 4 directions lead straight into the fountain. It is easy to see why the Alhambra has been called ´Heaven on Earth´- to the anicent Moorish rulers, the Alhambra was a reflection of paradise! We toured the gardens for the last hour, and towards the end, we were up high enough to take pictures of the stretch of the palace. Make sure to visit my photobucket and see!
After visiting the Alhambra, me and Stephanie walked through the large city park before the Alhambra’s entrance, and enjoyed sandwiches our host mom prepared for us. After a quick dining, we walked back to the city and browsed some souvenir shops that littered the cobblestone streets. After peering into all the nearby ones we could find, we headed back home to take an afternoon siesta after the long winding walk through the Alhambra!
After taking a siesta for the afternoon, I was re-energized to go out an explore some more. Even though there wasn’t a bullfight going on, I really wanted to go see Granada’s bullring, and also explore the western part of Granada, as I’ve been pretty east-centered from my homestay and school. So I grabbed my new purse, my fan, and my trusted map, and off I went!
I walked along the long road of calle Ronda, and enjoyed seeing a part of Granada unfamiliar from my daily day to day walks. I saw all different shop windows, despite the fact practically all of them were closed for Sunday. It was definitely not as hot out as early morning, so the light breeze gave my fan a vacation in my purse. After navigating down several streets, I then toured some outdoor shops alongside the busy road. It was really neat in the fact that all of the shops were centered around different countries. Wares from Africa, India, Jamaica, Russia, and others were to be found, so I saw all sorts of neat items from around the world- that was definitely a highlight!
After browsing, I finally walked all the way up to the Plaza de Toros. My camera was full of Alhambra pictures, so I couldn’t snap any, but the first thing that came to mind when I saw the bullring was "Is this a Roman colloseum?" I could definitely see how bullfighting descended from Roman gladiators, as it was very Roman-esque. It was closed, but different resturants and bars were operating out of it, so I walked around and enjoyed seeing all their activity. One gated doorway was slightly ajar, so I saw a bit of inside the ring. I definitely hope July has a bullfight, because for some strange reason, I think it would be awesome to watch!
After circling the bullring, I then took the main road to the center of the city, where I stopped in a popular ice cream store, and ordered myself a tasty combination of pineapple and chocolate ice cream. Yum yum! After munching the tasty cold treat, I headed home for an 8:45 dinner of pork with salad and tasty slices of bread. At 9:30 PM I got a call from my folks, where I was able to wish my dad a happy Father’s Day, and catch up on their life and mine. After enjoying an hour long conversation, I went to prepare myself for Monday morning, and write up on my blog! But, with the internet working slow, I was unable to both post my pictures and write up, so I only got my photobucket up and running. Que mala suerte!
Yesterday afternoon us Abroadco students went on a mission to locate the Bus station in Granada. We did find it after a lot of walking and exploring, but we didn´t get lost! The bus station was big enough that we could see it a road down, and venturing inside, we purchased tickets for Friday. The reason? This weekend we are going to Morocco! I am totally excited!
We will be leaving Friday afternoon to bus over to the city of Malaga, where Scott’s sister and her husband live, and it will be all of us Abroadco kids, one of Scott’s friends from class, Scott’s sister and a friend of theirs who’s been living several months in Morocco. We’ll ferry over Saturday morning, spend all of Saturday in Morocco as well as Sunday, and then bus back to Granada that Sunday evening! I am totally psyched, but of course, next week’s blog will cover all of that.
Today’s morning was class again, and always practicing lots of different things! I love class for all the interesting topics we cover, as well as the learning style helps me remember a lot more! Every day we learn something completely different, and more often than not, a question about something in everyday life, (example: the word Vale, which interprets to ‘ok’ or ‘right’ in English) will become a topic of class discussion. Always interesting! Tonight at 8 we are going with Inma to explore a bit in the Albacin quarter of Granada, and it should be as awesome as all the tours I´ve been on so far!
So with that being said, I’ll leave off here, until my next post of my adventurous outings!
Hasta luego!
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
Tasty Tapas, Arab Baths, and Ghost Stories!
Yikes, where have I been! It´s already Friday and not a post in sight! Ayiyiyi! This week has been kind of hectic when being able to publish up on the web, and my post for yesterday was cancelled due to the school´s internet shutting down! Ack! So I have a lot to cover, and much to tell! Let´s see...now where was I from last.. oh!
Tuesday, after publishing my blog entry, me and my two other Abroadco students met up with a classmate of mine, Robert and his girlfriend, who are studying here in Granada as well, but both hail from the not-so-sunny England! Tuesday night was the futbol (soccer) game, and of course at the sports bar we all met at was packed with Spain fans. We watched about half the futbol game, until the point where Spain had the lead on Russia, and cheered amongst the large gathering that had come out to root for Spain, and then we all ventured for tapas at the nearby tapas bar.
Tapas in Granada, which none of us Abroadco students had ever done yet, is when you buy a drink at bar, and with your drink comes a kind of small, free snack that comes with it. The first tapas bar we went to we had Spanish torillas and a meaty version of pizza, and the second one we went to had a large combination of noodles, french fries, and toasted bagels. Yum! We were out for about three or so hours just chatting about our different lives and such. (Example- in England, aluminum is pronounced differently than in the United States- different!)
After getting our dinner from the snacks, we all headed our seperate ways. We came home to learn that Sergio, the oldest son in our homestay family, had broke his thumb, hence why everyone had been gone that afternoon! His arm and hand are all bandaged up, and apparently our host mom had been in the hospital all day with him. Que mala suerte! So it was awesome that we went out for dinner ourselves, since Eloisa had all that going on Wednesday! Ow ow ow!
Wednesday morning was another day at school, where we are learning different tenses and how to use them in sentences. The teaching method is a bit different, and a little harder, but I actually feel I am learning more than in the United States! Every day I learn something I didn´t know in that class, so its always an interesting lecture!
After class, I headed home for lunch and a siesta for the afternoon, then explored more of Granada on my own. Because our next adventure planned wasn´t scheduled until 9:40 PM that evening... to visit the Arab Baths of Granada!
Tuesday, after publishing my blog entry, me and my two other Abroadco students met up with a classmate of mine, Robert and his girlfriend, who are studying here in Granada as well, but both hail from the not-so-sunny England! Tuesday night was the futbol (soccer) game, and of course at the sports bar we all met at was packed with Spain fans. We watched about half the futbol game, until the point where Spain had the lead on Russia, and cheered amongst the large gathering that had come out to root for Spain, and then we all ventured for tapas at the nearby tapas bar.
Tapas in Granada, which none of us Abroadco students had ever done yet, is when you buy a drink at bar, and with your drink comes a kind of small, free snack that comes with it. The first tapas bar we went to we had Spanish torillas and a meaty version of pizza, and the second one we went to had a large combination of noodles, french fries, and toasted bagels. Yum! We were out for about three or so hours just chatting about our different lives and such. (Example- in England, aluminum is pronounced differently than in the United States- different!)
After getting our dinner from the snacks, we all headed our seperate ways. We came home to learn that Sergio, the oldest son in our homestay family, had broke his thumb, hence why everyone had been gone that afternoon! His arm and hand are all bandaged up, and apparently our host mom had been in the hospital all day with him. Que mala suerte! So it was awesome that we went out for dinner ourselves, since Eloisa had all that going on Wednesday! Ow ow ow!
Wednesday morning was another day at school, where we are learning different tenses and how to use them in sentences. The teaching method is a bit different, and a little harder, but I actually feel I am learning more than in the United States! Every day I learn something I didn´t know in that class, so its always an interesting lecture!
After class, I headed home for lunch and a siesta for the afternoon, then explored more of Granada on my own. Because our next adventure planned wasn´t scheduled until 9:40 PM that evening... to visit the Arab Baths of Granada!
The best way to describe the Arab Baths would try to put you in my shoes. We met Inma at 9:40 PM at our rally point, Correos, and from there we walked a short distance down from the mail area to a not so busy part of the city. We made a few turns across cobblestone roads, and laughing at random jokes all the way there, we finally made our way to a sign that read Banos Arbes.. or, Arab Baths!
We walked inside the dimly lit area in the main waiting room, where Inma went to go speak with the receptionist as we lounged around the room:
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We then were informed by the receptionist to go inside the next rooms, change into our bathing suits, and make sure to take a number. We then headed inside the complex, changed, and entered the spa itself.
Cameras were no good in there, so I suggest, for some visuals, a quick search of ´Arab Baths´ might help to understand exactly what they look like. What I can describe was that it was a dimly lit underground room, complete with tiled floors and Arab decor, and everywhere candles lit up the large room. Different sauna pools were scattered throughout the room, and each of these pools were temperatured differently- caliente, (hot) mas caliente, (more hot) and a cold pool. (frio) The water was very enjoyable with the different temperatures, and the point was to simply hop into one and relax oneself for however long, and when it got too hot, a quick jaunt in the coldest pool would cure the heat.
I particularly enjoyed this trip for it´s other highlights, other than the pools- one room in the sauna had a small tea pot, where I once again got to enjoy some delightful Arabian mint tea-my favorite, and also from before we had been given numbers on a wrist tag. This number was for our massage, which I was very happy to receive for 15 minutes. A relaxing night at the spa, with some tea and a massage to boot! Que bueno!
The next day was yet another viaje in the afternoon after class, in which we got to explore a bit more of Granada´s history...and some legends. I had mentioned interest in phantasmas (ghosts) and so on top of getting a history tour, we did get some ghostly tales!
The first ghost story (this one is a bit creepy!) came down a road we walked not far from the main plaza of the city, where a nice looking, glass doored building sat. Apparently, this building in the late 1500s was infamous for rich Spanish woman to commit illegal abortions in the dead of the night. The story goes that every night you could see the women enter in, mostly sneaking in to avoid being caught, and having these illegal abortions, whereas the bodies of the unborn infants littered the rooms. Today it is said the spirits of these unborn children still haunt the place, and is regarded pretty scary by the locals. I didn´t see any evil spirits myself, but the happy little glass doored building. After the tale, we moved on past the Music Department, and ventured back to the old hospital.
With Stephanie here, not only did we get to explore more, we also got a bit of history- the hospital was one of the first to open in the late 1400s in Spain. To understand this, you must understand what it was like back in the days of old- Hospitals weren´t what they are today. Instead, it was believed by everyone in Europe that sickness was a sign God wanted it to happen. For example, if a peasant came down with the Black Plague, he wouldn´t be advised to go seek medical attention. Instead, he would be told to simply take it as it was, as God made everything happen, thus it was a sign He wanted it so.
However, despite this common belief, the rich would have none of that. Instead of lying back and suffering, they would pay lots of money to enjoy a trip to a hot spring or a fake instant cure to make themselves feel better. Thus, up until San Juan de Dios, nobody had thought to change this system.
Juan, as he was simply known before his title, was a man from Granada who simply would not stand by and watch the poor die in the streets. It didn´t agree with him that this was God´s work making people ill and simply fated to die. He then sold all of his wordly possesions and dedicated his life to helping the poor who were sick, as well as the rich- all that were sick were equal in treatment, not simply those who had money. He was given the title ´de Dios´in his lifetime for his movement, and Sainthood a half a century after his death. San Juan is important in that he changed what makes our hospitals what they are today- his example spread all over Europe, and soon hospitals for all of the sick were being established. Thus, in Granada started what becomes our modern hospitals.
After learning that interesting tale, we then walked down the long road named after the Saint, and soon then came upon the University´s front gardens, where a statues of Mary was center to the entire area. I took some snapshots of the garden itself and the surrounding area:
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We then walked up to the building where San Juan spent the last of his days, a hospital turned.. the University of Granada! This was also the main hub of the entire campus, complete with a huge library. We toured inside the old building, and observed different rooms and statues of the university, as well as being on the hunt for the mysterious ghost.. of San Juan!
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We walked around the different rooms and went to this one open area, which mysteriously I didn´t have any pictures of! The room was odd in the fact that there was a specific kind of tree planted around. Inma explained to us that these trees were commonly seen in front of graveyards, and with that information came an eerie silence. At one point I thought I saw something moving in a classroom, but at a closer inspection, there was no one there.... needless to say, maybe our ghost hunt had some success!
After touring the University grounds, we finally walked up to a large bridge that led into an early part of the Albacin. This old passageway had been under restoration, but looked a thing of the past when we walked up to it:
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And Inma then grabbed our attention to the right of the large Moorish passageway, to observe a large building with hundreds of windows:
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The legend of this building wasn´t spooky or sad, but sweet in its own way. The story goes that there was a man who was very in love with a woman, and they were seperated from each other. Because he loved her so, and was always looking out of a window to wait for her, he built 365 windows exactly, (the legend goes) so that each day he could wait for her by a new one. We tried counting them all.. but I´ll just believe there are that many windows!
From there, we ended our historic and ghost-a-rific tour! For the rest of this fin de semana, (weekend) we have Saturday to sleep in, and Sunday to go explore the Granada-famous Moorish castle, the Alahambra! So with that said, I´ll see you all next week, with a lot of pictures of one of the (unofficial) seven wonders of the world!
Adios, amigos!
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