Posted by Emily
After Barcelona, it was a trip up to the north of Spain to a little town called San Sebastian. It is a BEAUTIFUL seaside town with a white sand beach, some fun rocks near the water to climb on, lots and lots of GREEN and hills to climb that offered lovely views.
I've decided that I really like the smaller towns of Spain because it's easier to walk around and enjoy the city without feeling any hustle. It's also much easier to get a feel for the people and life there. Since San Sebastian is such a small town, we did a lot of one of the only things there is to do: walk around. The first afternoon was warm and sunny so we spent a lot of time walking on the beach and climbing across the nearby rocks before the tide forced us to retreat. That evening we wandered to the different little bars (that Nicki mentioned) and tried all of their tapas buffets. Very good idea and it was very fun to try all the different little creations. You never quite know what you are going to get!!
The second day was a bit cloudy in the morning and rainy in the afternoon. Luckily, we got our hike to the top of one of the large hills out of the way in the morning. Nothing too exciting to repost on that matter other than the fact that it was nice to out of the city and walking through a green forest type area. When we got to the top there was the lovely view of the city and surrounding hills of course. The afternoon consisted of me getting a wierd sort of sick that seemed like an allergic reaction, although I am not allergic to anything that I know of. There was a large storm at the same time so I didn't miss too much while I was knocked out from the Benadryl I took.
The next day we took off for what Alex described as the "small mountain town" of Oviedo. We had to take two buses to get there and transferred in the town of Bilbao and had 3 hours ro kill before our next bus left. We miracously were able to fit our packs in the lockers at the bus station so stored them there while we walked around the city, most significantly known for the Guggenheim Museum that is there. The structure was designed by the same guy who did the Weisman Art Museum on the U of M campus, so think large, flat stainless steel curves that were probably meant to represent something but the idea is lost on most because of the incredibly abstract design. Nonetheless, it was very impressive and interesting to see.
Then the bus ride to Oviedo and the discovery that it was not the city that Alex through it was. Instead of the small mountain town that we were expecting, we got a city with a population of about 200,000 and too many 14 year olds in short short skirts! It was quite a strange place and we made the decision to leave the next day for a smaller town nearby called Cangas de Onís. This turned out the be EXACTLY the kind of place that we were looking for.
Cangas de Onís IS a sleepy little town surrounded by mountains. To take advantage of this, we took an afternoon bus to another little town nearby called Covadonga. Here we saw the basillica, not too extraordinary except for the fact that it is set right on the edge of a cliff with a stunning backdrop of mountains. After seeing this, we wandered around a bit and found a mountain trail to hike up. And do I mean up!! We had intended to take a low difficulty trail, but since it was a bit difficult to tell where the signs were pointing to, I'm pretty sure that we took the most difficult route. Despite this, it paid off with a beautiful path up the mountain and the eventual discovery of a mountain stream, more fun rocks to climb on and a lovely meadow. So so beautiful. I think it would not be hard for me to live in the mountains and explore!
The next day we spent the afternoon canyoning, which is quite the experience! Everyone starts by suiting up in a full wetsuit (booties, body suit and very tight jacket), rock climbing harness and helemt. And the fun has just begun!! Canyoning is pretty much a combination of wading through rapids, slip 'n' sliding down rocks, jumping off little cliffs into pools of water (don't worry, it's deep water!) and repelling down cliff/waterfalls. SO amazing and SO SO fun. Another thing that I wouldn't mind spending a lot of time doing, that's for sure' Plus, who doesn't love wearing a wet suit??
Then it was off to Toledo, the city where Alex and Nicki both stidied abroad, although during different years. Nicki was there while I was in Senegal and it was strange to see the different worlds that we were existing in! Toldeo is a very old city and, if I am not mistaken, was built in a very confusinf manner to confuse troops if they ever tried to invade. The old city is walled and basically consists of windy cobblestone streets. There are maps but i don't know why people bother because they would be very difficult to follow! I was very lucky to have two very good tour guides so I dod't need to bother with finding my own way.
Again, we spent a lot of time just walking around, seeing a few of the sights, taking the tourist train that is super cheesy but that Nicki loves, and I have to admit, was fun and a very good way to see the city. We ate at all of Nicki's favorite restaurants and I got to hear a lot of remeniscing (?) about the study abroad days. I also learned how to easily identify American girls: spaghetti strap tank tops and sandals. Funny how no one else seems to wear sandals.....
I really enjoyed my time in Toledo and in Spain in general. Yesterday morning I got up at the BEAUTIFUL hour of 5 am to take a train to Madrid, a crowded Metro to the airport (which, by the way is VERY confusing...the airport, not the Metro), a plaine to Budapest and a shuttle from the airport to my hotel in Budapest. And then I took a nap. Wow, lots of transport!!
Friday, April 28, 2006
Toledo At Last!
Posted by Nicki
We have finally made it back to Alex and my “hometown” so to speak…and it´s great. Everything just as I remember, just a little extra construction here and there. We made it in yesterday late afternoon after lots of bus rides from the north of spain. After finding our hostel, we headed straight for Bar La Boveda, one of my favorite places when I used to study here. It´s a little family owned hole in the wall, but has the best sangria and hamburgers in all of spain, as far as I´m concerned.
After a healthy amount of wonderful sangria on the patio, we wandered all over to work off our meal. The weather here is beautiful, it´s great just to enjoy the sun and some warmth. After losing some calories, we went up to the fundacíon, where Alex and I used to study. It´s same as always, although there is a fancy new computer lab on the top floor. We managed to catch the sunset from the top tower, which made for some wonderful photos. Then we headed to Enebros, for my all time Toledo favorite, free tapas with every $1.30 drink purchase. A great way to finish off the night.
Today we took the Zocotren, a cheezy tourist train, but a great way to see all of the city. We also explored the cathedral, one of the most beautiful in all of europe. Lots of stain glass and incredible architechture. After a nice siesta, we also managed to hike the bluffs around the city and get a beautiful view of all of Toledo.
Oh! And before I forget, our time in Cangas finished up well also. Canyoning was awesome, I think it was even a longer course then what I did in switzerland. Lots of rappelling, jumping into pools, sliding down waterfalls, and climbing through the rocks and streams. Alex had the best time of all cannonballing from the highest jump. We all looked extremely good in our head to toe wetsuits as well. ;-)
Emily and I will be parting ways after this for a bit, as she heads with her mom on a tour of budpest, croatia, and other parts of eastern europe. Alex and I are off to Prague on the 30th, and will reunite with em in mid may in vienna.
We have finally made it back to Alex and my “hometown” so to speak…and it´s great. Everything just as I remember, just a little extra construction here and there. We made it in yesterday late afternoon after lots of bus rides from the north of spain. After finding our hostel, we headed straight for Bar La Boveda, one of my favorite places when I used to study here. It´s a little family owned hole in the wall, but has the best sangria and hamburgers in all of spain, as far as I´m concerned.
After a healthy amount of wonderful sangria on the patio, we wandered all over to work off our meal. The weather here is beautiful, it´s great just to enjoy the sun and some warmth. After losing some calories, we went up to the fundacíon, where Alex and I used to study. It´s same as always, although there is a fancy new computer lab on the top floor. We managed to catch the sunset from the top tower, which made for some wonderful photos. Then we headed to Enebros, for my all time Toledo favorite, free tapas with every $1.30 drink purchase. A great way to finish off the night.
Today we took the Zocotren, a cheezy tourist train, but a great way to see all of the city. We also explored the cathedral, one of the most beautiful in all of europe. Lots of stain glass and incredible architechture. After a nice siesta, we also managed to hike the bluffs around the city and get a beautiful view of all of Toledo.
Oh! And before I forget, our time in Cangas finished up well also. Canyoning was awesome, I think it was even a longer course then what I did in switzerland. Lots of rappelling, jumping into pools, sliding down waterfalls, and climbing through the rocks and streams. Alex had the best time of all cannonballing from the highest jump. We all looked extremely good in our head to toe wetsuits as well. ;-)
Emily and I will be parting ways after this for a bit, as she heads with her mom on a tour of budpest, croatia, and other parts of eastern europe. Alex and I are off to Prague on the 30th, and will reunite with em in mid may in vienna.
Sidra, txoili, pinxtos, and Oviedo? Almost, but not quite.
Posted by Nicki
We are now in the far north of Spain, and it´s beautiful. Our time in Barcelona finished up wonderfully. It was very relaxing, involved a few steins, yes munich size steins of sangria, and lots more wonderful architechture. We departed Barcelona for one of my favorite towns in España, San Sebastion.
San Sebastion is a town located in the Basque region of north eastern spain. It´s pretty small in comparison to Barcelona, making it a nice change from the big cities weve been in. Although their separatist campaigns havent been as successful as those in Catalunya, there was still a good presence of the Basque language to be seen, lots of K´s and X´s, as well as the normal graffiti declaring to the tourist, “You are not in France, you are not in Spain, you are in Pais Vasco” (The Basque Country). The first day we got in was beautiful, lots of sun and warm enough for Alex to declare it shirtless weather on the beach. We wandered throughout the city and walked along the small but lovely cresent beach. The beach on either side is surrounded by huge green hills that look out into the ocean, really pretty sight. Luckily this time, unlike the last time I was here, there no was tar from previous oil spills.
After a nap, we decided we were going to partake in the Basque tapas (or pinxtos as it is in Basque) scene, which I didnt get to do last time I visited. It was a blast. Basically all the little bars are set up like tapas buffets. You get a plate and then wander along and pick any tapa you think looks appetizing. Pile them up, then go back for another bite or two or three if you like. Lots of little sandwiches and breads with spreads or fish. Yum. Chase everything down with swigs of txoili, the local fizzy white wine…which literally is poured into a big glass just enough for a swallow or two. We finished up stuffed to the brim and very happy.
The next day was unfortunately rainy and overcast, so our beach bumming plans were abandoned. Instead we hiked up the hills surrounding the beach and enjoyed the gorgeous views of the surrounding countryside.
Then it was off to what Alex described as a sleepy little town in the mountains…or so he thought. Turned out Alex´s memory was slightly off. Sleepy little town turned into city of 200,000…no mountains except for way in the distance. Opps. Apparently it wasn´t oviedo he had been to previously. But we enjoyed ourselves anyhow, finding a great restaurant that served huge plates of food for cheap, and even had cider sangria, which is about some of the best stuff ever.
Sidra! Our time in northern Spain would not be complete without it. It goes for about 2 euro a bottle and is fantastic. It doesnt quite taste like cider in the states, a little more bitter, maybe a bit more like wine. But its the show of pouring that makes it. The waiters uncork the bottles and then pour it from high over their heads into the glasses, enough for one big swallow. Quite a bit ending up on the floor or in the giant pouring buckets in the process. Great fun to watch. We have tried to do this ourselves, however, failing miserably…one sweet waitress gave us a sort of spout, that we have referred to as our training wheels, so we can pour it properly.
We are now in the far north of Spain, and it´s beautiful. Our time in Barcelona finished up wonderfully. It was very relaxing, involved a few steins, yes munich size steins of sangria, and lots more wonderful architechture. We departed Barcelona for one of my favorite towns in España, San Sebastion.
San Sebastion is a town located in the Basque region of north eastern spain. It´s pretty small in comparison to Barcelona, making it a nice change from the big cities weve been in. Although their separatist campaigns havent been as successful as those in Catalunya, there was still a good presence of the Basque language to be seen, lots of K´s and X´s, as well as the normal graffiti declaring to the tourist, “You are not in France, you are not in Spain, you are in Pais Vasco” (The Basque Country). The first day we got in was beautiful, lots of sun and warm enough for Alex to declare it shirtless weather on the beach. We wandered throughout the city and walked along the small but lovely cresent beach. The beach on either side is surrounded by huge green hills that look out into the ocean, really pretty sight. Luckily this time, unlike the last time I was here, there no was tar from previous oil spills.
After a nap, we decided we were going to partake in the Basque tapas (or pinxtos as it is in Basque) scene, which I didnt get to do last time I visited. It was a blast. Basically all the little bars are set up like tapas buffets. You get a plate and then wander along and pick any tapa you think looks appetizing. Pile them up, then go back for another bite or two or three if you like. Lots of little sandwiches and breads with spreads or fish. Yum. Chase everything down with swigs of txoili, the local fizzy white wine…which literally is poured into a big glass just enough for a swallow or two. We finished up stuffed to the brim and very happy.
The next day was unfortunately rainy and overcast, so our beach bumming plans were abandoned. Instead we hiked up the hills surrounding the beach and enjoyed the gorgeous views of the surrounding countryside.
Then it was off to what Alex described as a sleepy little town in the mountains…or so he thought. Turned out Alex´s memory was slightly off. Sleepy little town turned into city of 200,000…no mountains except for way in the distance. Opps. Apparently it wasn´t oviedo he had been to previously. But we enjoyed ourselves anyhow, finding a great restaurant that served huge plates of food for cheap, and even had cider sangria, which is about some of the best stuff ever.
Sidra! Our time in northern Spain would not be complete without it. It goes for about 2 euro a bottle and is fantastic. It doesnt quite taste like cider in the states, a little more bitter, maybe a bit more like wine. But its the show of pouring that makes it. The waiters uncork the bottles and then pour it from high over their heads into the glasses, enough for one big swallow. Quite a bit ending up on the floor or in the giant pouring buckets in the process. Great fun to watch. We have tried to do this ourselves, however, failing miserably…one sweet waitress gave us a sort of spout, that we have referred to as our training wheels, so we can pour it properly.
Guest Blogger: Alex
So a lot of the information I would normally give has been talked about. And as usual myWhat to do but to make a meaningless list of the best sites and interesting details left off about them. So in no particular order, here are the top seven sites we´ve seen, or as from now it will be known, the “Seven Wonders of Spain.”
First has to be Semana Santa in Sevilla. It´s like a KKK demonstration ran into a Brazilian float during Carnival and had a baby named Oktoberfest. We had the amazing fortune to be the only Guirí (or non-Spaniards) in a forty block radius due to hostal location, and made the most of it by finding a bar with uber cheap beer and food. We were sandwiched among the hundreds (thousands?) of Spaniards who pass their tickets down through their families from one generation to the next–very Green Bay Packers.
Second is the view from Park Guell in Barcelona. You climb all the way up this ultra modern park that Antoní Gaudí designed and see this spectacular view of Barcelona and the surrounding hills and mountains.
Third I give the nod to the Alcazar in Sevilla. The gardens go on forever and come about as close as possble to recreating a fairytale. Even with mossy fountains overrun by algae it still looked spectacular.
Fourth would have to be the flamenco show we saw. There were two singers, and a dancer that were terrific. But the guitarist stole the show. I almost proposed to him on the spot. His fingers blurred and wove a melody that needed no accompaniment. He was also the only one who looked relaxed, the other three seeming like they had just realized their mistake of downing an entire bottle of Beno.
Fifth I would give to Valle de Los Caídos. It´s essentially a huge mausoleum dedicated to those who died during the civil war, though it seems only one side (the winner) is actually buried there. Apparently the losers died building the place, which gives it a very sinister feel. Plus Franco is buried there, and I was delighted to see that his grave was barely marked. But it is spectacular in its macabre feel, sort of like something from Lord of the Rings or Jason and the Argonauts.
Six is the street signs in Madrid and the warning signs on the metro. They are ridiculous, but not very funny to describe. I´ll see if I can get the chicas to take some pictures of them for appreciation.
Seven is easily the Sagrada Familia. The inside is like an eerie, tree filled Dr. Suess novel and the outside has façades of distinction. One looks like a melting nativity scene and the other is a cubist impression of the crucifiction. But what other attraction can attract such a crowd without being finished? Or even halfway finished?
I´ll update and change the list as our travels continue as I´m sure that my opinions will on demand from this blog audience. Also, I just learned that some of my above material will be edited for mass consumption. For an unabridged version, I guess you´ll have to ask me in person.
First has to be Semana Santa in Sevilla. It´s like a KKK demonstration ran into a Brazilian float during Carnival and had a baby named Oktoberfest. We had the amazing fortune to be the only Guirí (or non-Spaniards) in a forty block radius due to hostal location, and made the most of it by finding a bar with uber cheap beer and food. We were sandwiched among the hundreds (thousands?) of Spaniards who pass their tickets down through their families from one generation to the next–very Green Bay Packers.
Second is the view from Park Guell in Barcelona. You climb all the way up this ultra modern park that Antoní Gaudí designed and see this spectacular view of Barcelona and the surrounding hills and mountains.
Third I give the nod to the Alcazar in Sevilla. The gardens go on forever and come about as close as possble to recreating a fairytale. Even with mossy fountains overrun by algae it still looked spectacular.
Fourth would have to be the flamenco show we saw. There were two singers, and a dancer that were terrific. But the guitarist stole the show. I almost proposed to him on the spot. His fingers blurred and wove a melody that needed no accompaniment. He was also the only one who looked relaxed, the other three seeming like they had just realized their mistake of downing an entire bottle of Beno.
Fifth I would give to Valle de Los Caídos. It´s essentially a huge mausoleum dedicated to those who died during the civil war, though it seems only one side (the winner) is actually buried there. Apparently the losers died building the place, which gives it a very sinister feel. Plus Franco is buried there, and I was delighted to see that his grave was barely marked. But it is spectacular in its macabre feel, sort of like something from Lord of the Rings or Jason and the Argonauts.
Six is the street signs in Madrid and the warning signs on the metro. They are ridiculous, but not very funny to describe. I´ll see if I can get the chicas to take some pictures of them for appreciation.
Seven is easily the Sagrada Familia. The inside is like an eerie, tree filled Dr. Suess novel and the outside has façades of distinction. One looks like a melting nativity scene and the other is a cubist impression of the crucifiction. But what other attraction can attract such a crowd without being finished? Or even halfway finished?
I´ll update and change the list as our travels continue as I´m sure that my opinions will on demand from this blog audience. Also, I just learned that some of my above material will be edited for mass consumption. For an unabridged version, I guess you´ll have to ask me in person.
How Gaudí
Posted by Emily
Hello from Budapest! But more on that later. I'm behind on my posting because everytime we go to a cyber café it seems that I always have many emails to right and Nicki just sails on ahead of me with her posts.
Going back to Barcelona....
It's a very beautiful city and we spent most of our time walking around and looking at the various architecture of the famous Spanish architect Gaudí. The first structre we visted was the cathedral Sagrada Familia (Sacred Family I believe). It's HUGE and is not completed. If the website I just consulted is correct, construction began in 1882. It's not scheduled to be finished until 2050. If that gives you any idea of the scale and detail of the place. I wish I had my photos with me to post because it's very hard to describe! One side is very surreal (if I can even use that word to describe stone carvings...) with lots of curvy shapes. Alex aptly described it as looking like it was melting. The other side, which is a bit disputed because, if I remember correctly, Gaudí did not design himself, is cubist and depicts different religion scenes such as Christ on the cross and a nativity scene. The inside of the church is very unfinished, with lots of scafolding everywhere. There are many beautiful stained glass windows, mosaic tiles and columns that look kind of like trees in the way that they branch out near the ceiling. It's all very stunning.
Later that day we ventured to an apartment building built by him but I can't remember the name at the moment. Again, I wish I had pictures because I don't really know how to decribe what we saw!! There are many curved balconies, iron work and irridescent color washes on the outside of the building. I'll try to post pictures later because I'm not really doing it justice....
We also spent an afternoon exploring Park Guell, a large park designed by Gaudí. if any of you have ever been to Solera in Minneapolis, many of the mosaica mimic his style. There is a large mosaic tiled lizard fountain, a hall of columns with many circular mosaics on the ceiling (looking through this area was made even better by the fact that there was a violinist playing in the enclosure and the acoustics are surprisingly good). Another highlight is the long curving mosaic bench that we had lunch on. Finally, we walked to the top of one of the hills in the park and got an amazing panaramic view of Barcelona.
Another thing that made Barcelona a great time was the fact that we got (free!!) lodgin with a Spanish friend of Alex. He has a large apartment near downtown and we were very lucky to have such a great location, a hospitable host, a washing machine and a nice break from staying in hostels. Sometimes it's just nice to be in a home. Not to mention, it really helped the budget!!
Hello from Budapest! But more on that later. I'm behind on my posting because everytime we go to a cyber café it seems that I always have many emails to right and Nicki just sails on ahead of me with her posts.
Going back to Barcelona....
It's a very beautiful city and we spent most of our time walking around and looking at the various architecture of the famous Spanish architect Gaudí. The first structre we visted was the cathedral Sagrada Familia (Sacred Family I believe). It's HUGE and is not completed. If the website I just consulted is correct, construction began in 1882. It's not scheduled to be finished until 2050. If that gives you any idea of the scale and detail of the place. I wish I had my photos with me to post because it's very hard to describe! One side is very surreal (if I can even use that word to describe stone carvings...) with lots of curvy shapes. Alex aptly described it as looking like it was melting. The other side, which is a bit disputed because, if I remember correctly, Gaudí did not design himself, is cubist and depicts different religion scenes such as Christ on the cross and a nativity scene. The inside of the church is very unfinished, with lots of scafolding everywhere. There are many beautiful stained glass windows, mosaic tiles and columns that look kind of like trees in the way that they branch out near the ceiling. It's all very stunning.
Later that day we ventured to an apartment building built by him but I can't remember the name at the moment. Again, I wish I had pictures because I don't really know how to decribe what we saw!! There are many curved balconies, iron work and irridescent color washes on the outside of the building. I'll try to post pictures later because I'm not really doing it justice....
We also spent an afternoon exploring Park Guell, a large park designed by Gaudí. if any of you have ever been to Solera in Minneapolis, many of the mosaica mimic his style. There is a large mosaic tiled lizard fountain, a hall of columns with many circular mosaics on the ceiling (looking through this area was made even better by the fact that there was a violinist playing in the enclosure and the acoustics are surprisingly good). Another highlight is the long curving mosaic bench that we had lunch on. Finally, we walked to the top of one of the hills in the park and got an amazing panaramic view of Barcelona.
Another thing that made Barcelona a great time was the fact that we got (free!!) lodgin with a Spanish friend of Alex. He has a large apartment near downtown and we were very lucky to have such a great location, a hospitable host, a washing machine and a nice break from staying in hostels. Sometimes it's just nice to be in a home. Not to mention, it really helped the budget!!
Wednesday, April 19, 2006
Eighties Fashion Explosion…and fun in Sevilla and Barcelona.
Posted by Nicki
That´s right folks, the eighties are back! Weve calculated that since it takes about two years for fashion to get from Europe to the states, you´ll be enjoying what weve been seeing in about 2008. Apparently Spanish fashion has decided that mullets are the new hip hair cut. And seriously, I havent seen so many mullets in quite some time. Weve also managed to spot lots of fun tapered leg jeans, off the shoulder shirts, converse, and other exciting styles.
Allrighty, seriously though, we had a blast in Sevilla. I saw a bunch of cool stuff I didnt get the chance to see last time I was there, and it was great. We also managed to find the fun tapas bar I ate at before, and enjoyed some tasty food and wine. In fact, we managed to spend one entire afternoon just tapas bar hopping enjoying lots of sangria and the fantastic people watching. We also strolled through Plaza de España, great architechture and took a picture in front of the Toledo bench. We also saw the catedral and the alcazar, neither of which I had seen before. The cathedral was beautiful, and we hiked up to the top tower for great fews of Sevilla. The alcazar had wonderful gardens and beautiful archways and tilings, similiar to that which we saw in Morocco. We also walked along the riverfront, and had a great time just enjoying the warm weather and the sunshine, as it had been pretty chilly in madrid.
Plaza de España
Plaza de España
View of Sevilla from cathedral
Cathedral of Sevilla
Courtyard of cathedral
Flamenco dancer
Then it was on to Barcelona. The 14 hour bus ride it took to get here was surprisngly not as bad as I thought it would be, and we made it in around 7 in the morning. Oscar, a friend of a friend of Alexs was there to pick us up, and has been gracious enough to allow us to stay at his apartment, right in central barcelona. Its been awesome. Especially to have some homecooked food, clean clothes (we did laundry in an actual washing machine! this was HUGE), and get to speak more spanish. Oscar also gave us some great insight into barcelona and how the politics of Spain have been changing. There is a ton more Catalon (language of Catalunya region) here then I remember before, it seems to even overpower Spanish. In fact, Oscar said the schools now only teach 3 hours of spanish a week, the instruction is mainly in Catalan.
So far, the city has been great. I am actually enjoying it a lot more then I did on previous trips. We saw the sagrada familia, the huge gaudi cathedral…theyre actually getting work done on it! Although its still far from finished. We also saw another of gaudis apartment buildings, park guill, olympic park, and wandered down las ramblas. ps. gaudi is a famous architect from barcelona.
I dont have too much time left, but well be in Barcelona for the next few days, and then were moving up to San Sebastion. Also! Oscar was nice enough to burn my photos onto a cd, so hopefully I will be able to have those up for you all to see soon! Yay!
That´s right folks, the eighties are back! Weve calculated that since it takes about two years for fashion to get from Europe to the states, you´ll be enjoying what weve been seeing in about 2008. Apparently Spanish fashion has decided that mullets are the new hip hair cut. And seriously, I havent seen so many mullets in quite some time. Weve also managed to spot lots of fun tapered leg jeans, off the shoulder shirts, converse, and other exciting styles.
Allrighty, seriously though, we had a blast in Sevilla. I saw a bunch of cool stuff I didnt get the chance to see last time I was there, and it was great. We also managed to find the fun tapas bar I ate at before, and enjoyed some tasty food and wine. In fact, we managed to spend one entire afternoon just tapas bar hopping enjoying lots of sangria and the fantastic people watching. We also strolled through Plaza de España, great architechture and took a picture in front of the Toledo bench. We also saw the catedral and the alcazar, neither of which I had seen before. The cathedral was beautiful, and we hiked up to the top tower for great fews of Sevilla. The alcazar had wonderful gardens and beautiful archways and tilings, similiar to that which we saw in Morocco. We also walked along the riverfront, and had a great time just enjoying the warm weather and the sunshine, as it had been pretty chilly in madrid.
Plaza de España
Plaza de España
View of Sevilla from cathedral
Cathedral of Sevilla
Courtyard of cathedral
Flamenco dancerThen it was on to Barcelona. The 14 hour bus ride it took to get here was surprisngly not as bad as I thought it would be, and we made it in around 7 in the morning. Oscar, a friend of a friend of Alexs was there to pick us up, and has been gracious enough to allow us to stay at his apartment, right in central barcelona. Its been awesome. Especially to have some homecooked food, clean clothes (we did laundry in an actual washing machine! this was HUGE), and get to speak more spanish. Oscar also gave us some great insight into barcelona and how the politics of Spain have been changing. There is a ton more Catalon (language of Catalunya region) here then I remember before, it seems to even overpower Spanish. In fact, Oscar said the schools now only teach 3 hours of spanish a week, the instruction is mainly in Catalan.
So far, the city has been great. I am actually enjoying it a lot more then I did on previous trips. We saw the sagrada familia, the huge gaudi cathedral…theyre actually getting work done on it! Although its still far from finished. We also saw another of gaudis apartment buildings, park guill, olympic park, and wandered down las ramblas. ps. gaudi is a famous architect from barcelona.
I dont have too much time left, but well be in Barcelona for the next few days, and then were moving up to San Sebastion. Also! Oscar was nice enough to burn my photos onto a cd, so hopefully I will be able to have those up for you all to see soon! Yay!
Semana Santa
Posted by Nicki
Hey all! I hear the weather is getting nice in Minneapolis, so I hope you all are getting a chance to enjoy some sunshine!
Things on our trip are going very well. Our time in Sevilla for the semana santa festival was great, it was definitely very interesting to see. Thanks to Jeff for recommending it. Although our ride to seville was not the most comfortable, and we had to wait all day to get a hostel room so we could sleep, but once we got there, all was good. Our hostel was right on the main procession route, so we basically got a free pass to see all the festivities, the only draw back was the drums beating at 4am.
For those who are unaware, Semana Santa is basically a week long celebration of the Easter holiday that occurs throughout Spain, however the largest of all these celebration occurs in Sevilla. Now, neither Emily, Alex, nor myself are anything close to Catholic, but seeing how huge this event was was definitely quite an incredible sight. The processions go on throughout the whole week, day and night, on thursday they go on literally all night long. The consist mainly of people, young and old, walking through the streets in hooded cloaks (think KKK type outfits in all different colors) carrying 3 or 4 foot long solid wax candles. The candles pass by so many times that in the morning all the streets are coated with a thick covering of wax in a variety of colors. Young children have a great time running up the cloaked figures asking for a bit of wax to add to huge balls. In addition, huge floats are carried by men marching underneath, they represent various catholic easter scenes and are covered in flowers and rows and rows of candles. Our hostel concierge guy told us that people make a prayer to their church, and then if their prayers are answered, they walk in the festival processions the following year, the bigger the prayer, the bigger the duty they take up, from walking to carrying the floats.
Chairs set up for processions
Wax drippings from candles
I have never seen anything quite like semana santa, so I was for sure glad that we had the opportunity. I felt like it was a definite cultural experience for all of us.
Hey all! I hear the weather is getting nice in Minneapolis, so I hope you all are getting a chance to enjoy some sunshine!
Things on our trip are going very well. Our time in Sevilla for the semana santa festival was great, it was definitely very interesting to see. Thanks to Jeff for recommending it. Although our ride to seville was not the most comfortable, and we had to wait all day to get a hostel room so we could sleep, but once we got there, all was good. Our hostel was right on the main procession route, so we basically got a free pass to see all the festivities, the only draw back was the drums beating at 4am.
For those who are unaware, Semana Santa is basically a week long celebration of the Easter holiday that occurs throughout Spain, however the largest of all these celebration occurs in Sevilla. Now, neither Emily, Alex, nor myself are anything close to Catholic, but seeing how huge this event was was definitely quite an incredible sight. The processions go on throughout the whole week, day and night, on thursday they go on literally all night long. The consist mainly of people, young and old, walking through the streets in hooded cloaks (think KKK type outfits in all different colors) carrying 3 or 4 foot long solid wax candles. The candles pass by so many times that in the morning all the streets are coated with a thick covering of wax in a variety of colors. Young children have a great time running up the cloaked figures asking for a bit of wax to add to huge balls. In addition, huge floats are carried by men marching underneath, they represent various catholic easter scenes and are covered in flowers and rows and rows of candles. Our hostel concierge guy told us that people make a prayer to their church, and then if their prayers are answered, they walk in the festival processions the following year, the bigger the prayer, the bigger the duty they take up, from walking to carrying the floats.
Chairs set up for processions
Wax drippings from candlesI have never seen anything quite like semana santa, so I was for sure glad that we had the opportunity. I felt like it was a definite cultural experience for all of us.
¡España!
Posted by Nicki
Hey all, I hope you are all doing well. We have finally made it to Spain, YAY! Our time in Morocco finished up well, but Em and I were certainly excited to change things up a bit…mainly we were quite excited to no longer get harrassed as we walked down the street.
Our last couple days in Morocco werent super eventful, we hightailed it out of El Jadida, and then spent a day in Rabat, which was actually pretty nice. The city itself reminded me of Madrid, and there were some cool things to see. We explored some roman ruins that overlooked some beautiful countryside. They were also chock full of enourmous stork nests! I have never seen so many storks…I actually dont know if Ive ever seen one, but here there were tons. There was also a masoleum and some beautiful views of the sea. It unfortunately also showcased the annoying men we´d been having trouble with, as no more then fifty feet from the mosque some middle aged man, walking with his wife, still insisted hitting on us as we walked past…Seriously!
All in all though, Morocco is an incredibly beautiful country, and Im so glad I had the chance to see it.
For now though, ESPAÑA! I´m SO excited to be back in my old stomping grounds. Its great to actually be able to understand whats going on again, read menus and ask for directions and such. We started our trip in Madrid, and Alex has also joined our little party, which I am very excited about. We had a decent time in the capital, but things were a little more hectic then I would have liked. Lots of running errands and trying to figure out the next leg of our trip, standing in lines to buy tickets and finding out tickets arent available and such. Apparently Semana Santa makes things insanely more diffficult. We are now not going to make it to Granada for now and are taking a 14 hour bus ride to Barcelona, barf.
But the good in Madrid, excellent tapas, sangria, and shopping! I am no longer the good backpacker I was with only 4 shirts and two pairs of pants…shoot. H&M kind of did me in. I just couldnt resist. I also loved being in the bustle of the city again, and all the beautiful buildings. We also made a trip out to El Escorial and Valle de Los Caidos, some wonderful monuments out in the more mountain countryside.
At the moment we are in Sevilla, and Ive had about 3 hours of sleep on an overnight bus, we are waiting for our hostel room to be ready, so if the post isnt the best, my apologies. But just from walking around this moring, sevilla is way more awesome then I remember, and I am really excited to see the sights I missed out before. And we are here for the big semana santa festival, and from the looks of the preparations, its going to be a pretty huge deal to see. For now, its time to try and get some more sleep. We have till friday here and then off to Barcelona.
Hey all, I hope you are all doing well. We have finally made it to Spain, YAY! Our time in Morocco finished up well, but Em and I were certainly excited to change things up a bit…mainly we were quite excited to no longer get harrassed as we walked down the street.
Our last couple days in Morocco werent super eventful, we hightailed it out of El Jadida, and then spent a day in Rabat, which was actually pretty nice. The city itself reminded me of Madrid, and there were some cool things to see. We explored some roman ruins that overlooked some beautiful countryside. They were also chock full of enourmous stork nests! I have never seen so many storks…I actually dont know if Ive ever seen one, but here there were tons. There was also a masoleum and some beautiful views of the sea. It unfortunately also showcased the annoying men we´d been having trouble with, as no more then fifty feet from the mosque some middle aged man, walking with his wife, still insisted hitting on us as we walked past…Seriously!
All in all though, Morocco is an incredibly beautiful country, and Im so glad I had the chance to see it.
For now though, ESPAÑA! I´m SO excited to be back in my old stomping grounds. Its great to actually be able to understand whats going on again, read menus and ask for directions and such. We started our trip in Madrid, and Alex has also joined our little party, which I am very excited about. We had a decent time in the capital, but things were a little more hectic then I would have liked. Lots of running errands and trying to figure out the next leg of our trip, standing in lines to buy tickets and finding out tickets arent available and such. Apparently Semana Santa makes things insanely more diffficult. We are now not going to make it to Granada for now and are taking a 14 hour bus ride to Barcelona, barf.
But the good in Madrid, excellent tapas, sangria, and shopping! I am no longer the good backpacker I was with only 4 shirts and two pairs of pants…shoot. H&M kind of did me in. I just couldnt resist. I also loved being in the bustle of the city again, and all the beautiful buildings. We also made a trip out to El Escorial and Valle de Los Caidos, some wonderful monuments out in the more mountain countryside.
At the moment we are in Sevilla, and Ive had about 3 hours of sleep on an overnight bus, we are waiting for our hostel room to be ready, so if the post isnt the best, my apologies. But just from walking around this moring, sevilla is way more awesome then I remember, and I am really excited to see the sights I missed out before. And we are here for the big semana santa festival, and from the looks of the preparations, its going to be a pretty huge deal to see. For now, its time to try and get some more sleep. We have till friday here and then off to Barcelona.
Tuesday, April 18, 2006
España
Posted by Emily
Hello again!
I'm finally back after my disappeance into Spain. We haven't had quite as much down time here so I haven't been frequenting the cyber cafes as much.
We left for Madrid on April 8, and let me tell you, we were none too sad to see Morocco go because he had become quite fatigued with the men harassing us in the streets. They are not afraid to stare, comment, whistle or generally make you feel uncomfortable. Not very much respect for women so that make us happy to leave, which is quite unfortunate really.
We arrived at the airport in Madrid in the afternoon and had quite a time finding the Metro. They had apparently built a whole new portion of the airport since Nicki had last been there and we had to take a shuttle bus to the old part of the airport to get on the Metro. This doesn't sound too complicated but somehow we managed to walk the wrong way several times before actually making it to the bus and to the old airport, which was actually about a 15 minute ride away. Once we found the Metro, we had an obstacle course to get to our hostel, including several train transfers, long stairways and crowded cars, all while lugging our lovely, HEAVY packs. After much sweating and silently cursing ourselves for having too much stuff, we made it to our hostel (4 flights up and no elevator). It was quite cute and like living in an apartment because the people who run it live in one portion of it.
Madrid is a lovely city with beautiful architecture everywhere. Even without visiting any formal sites you can see incredibly intricate and interesting buildings. We unfortunatly had a lot of errand type things to do there, like mail a huge box of my crap home from the post office and try to figure out a bunch of stuff for the next part of our journey down to Sevilla for the week before Easter. That was quite a fiansco because Semana Santa (holy week) in Sevilla is one of the largest Easter celebrations in Europe and since so many people go there for that week, we had some issues with transportation and bookings.
Other than the boring details of organizing our travels, we had quite a lot of fun. We visited the Reina Sophia, a large, very famous art museum where Picasso's Guernica is housed. It depicts the bombing of the city of Guernica, Spain during World War II. It's a very powerful painting to see in person because it's probably about 7 feet high and 16 feet long (his largest work). There are several other Picasso works and also many Dali paintings, which I find quite creepy but very interesting to look at.
One of the only other formal sites we saw was Parque Retiro, a huge park in the urban expanse of Madrid with a little lake with row boats, many many trees and various grassy alcoves. It's a very nice excape from the busy streets.
We spent a lot of time just walking around the city and seeing the previously mentioned arcitecture, shopping, eating lots of tapas (small plates of Spanish food, kind of like ordering a bunch of appetizers) and drinking sangria, which is SO tasty and made much better here than anywhere in the States seems to manage.
In contrast to Senegal and Morocco, I am struck by how comfortable life is here and how much disposable income there is. We can drink the tap water, take hot showers (provided that the water heater isn't overloaded) and not worry about getting sick from the foods that we eat. I wasn't even in the "developing" world for all that long and I still realize how lucky we are just because of the resources at our immediate disposal, of which money is perhaps the most important. And boy do the Europeans have it made in that way because the dollar is way down! I think it is safe to say that Americans are losing their spot as the "richest". Silly €uro.
Hello again!
I'm finally back after my disappeance into Spain. We haven't had quite as much down time here so I haven't been frequenting the cyber cafes as much.
We left for Madrid on April 8, and let me tell you, we were none too sad to see Morocco go because he had become quite fatigued with the men harassing us in the streets. They are not afraid to stare, comment, whistle or generally make you feel uncomfortable. Not very much respect for women so that make us happy to leave, which is quite unfortunate really.
We arrived at the airport in Madrid in the afternoon and had quite a time finding the Metro. They had apparently built a whole new portion of the airport since Nicki had last been there and we had to take a shuttle bus to the old part of the airport to get on the Metro. This doesn't sound too complicated but somehow we managed to walk the wrong way several times before actually making it to the bus and to the old airport, which was actually about a 15 minute ride away. Once we found the Metro, we had an obstacle course to get to our hostel, including several train transfers, long stairways and crowded cars, all while lugging our lovely, HEAVY packs. After much sweating and silently cursing ourselves for having too much stuff, we made it to our hostel (4 flights up and no elevator). It was quite cute and like living in an apartment because the people who run it live in one portion of it.
Madrid is a lovely city with beautiful architecture everywhere. Even without visiting any formal sites you can see incredibly intricate and interesting buildings. We unfortunatly had a lot of errand type things to do there, like mail a huge box of my crap home from the post office and try to figure out a bunch of stuff for the next part of our journey down to Sevilla for the week before Easter. That was quite a fiansco because Semana Santa (holy week) in Sevilla is one of the largest Easter celebrations in Europe and since so many people go there for that week, we had some issues with transportation and bookings.
Other than the boring details of organizing our travels, we had quite a lot of fun. We visited the Reina Sophia, a large, very famous art museum where Picasso's Guernica is housed. It depicts the bombing of the city of Guernica, Spain during World War II. It's a very powerful painting to see in person because it's probably about 7 feet high and 16 feet long (his largest work). There are several other Picasso works and also many Dali paintings, which I find quite creepy but very interesting to look at.
One of the only other formal sites we saw was Parque Retiro, a huge park in the urban expanse of Madrid with a little lake with row boats, many many trees and various grassy alcoves. It's a very nice excape from the busy streets.
We spent a lot of time just walking around the city and seeing the previously mentioned arcitecture, shopping, eating lots of tapas (small plates of Spanish food, kind of like ordering a bunch of appetizers) and drinking sangria, which is SO tasty and made much better here than anywhere in the States seems to manage.
In contrast to Senegal and Morocco, I am struck by how comfortable life is here and how much disposable income there is. We can drink the tap water, take hot showers (provided that the water heater isn't overloaded) and not worry about getting sick from the foods that we eat. I wasn't even in the "developing" world for all that long and I still realize how lucky we are just because of the resources at our immediate disposal, of which money is perhaps the most important. And boy do the Europeans have it made in that way because the dollar is way down! I think it is safe to say that Americans are losing their spot as the "richest". Silly €uro.
Thursday, April 06, 2006
We All Scream For Ice Cream!!
Posted by Nicki
Emily and I have now completed our circle in Morocco and are back in Casablanca. However, this was not the original plan. The original plan was not to get back until tomorrow afternoon after a fun filled two days in the wonderful beach town of El Jadida; or so our guidebooks promised…This, unfortunately was not the case.
We left essouaira early early on Wednesday morning after having a very wonderful time there. The city was charming and peaceful full of lots of great cafes and beautiful ocean views. I was a little sad to leave. But our plan promised fun on the beach in the next town too. We arrived in El Jadida about 5 hours later by bus, and walked down to our hotel. The place was enormous with huge rooms. Very old and kinda creaky, but it seemed nice and we were to pay 3 dollars each a night with a view of the ocean. So far so good. (Little did we know that later at night the hotel would just seem kinda creepy. Emily mentioned today that it kinda seemed like a place for a mystery novel or something.)
Then we went out to look around. The city had a very odd vibe. Hardly any tourists, and certainly no western women. Lots of those cafes I had talked about before that are all men that just stare you up and down as you walk by, ick. We finally found a restaurant that served food and looked decent. But it was not so good. They didnt have half the food on the menu and the food they did have was particularly awful, especially emilys pasta. Who knew you could screw up spagettii?
Em and I decided we deserved some ice cream after a meal like that. We went on a long hard search for some. Announcement: There is NO ice cream in El Jadida. (We did find some really awful stuff, but I refuse to classify it as ice cream) What? Whats a girl to do? We even went to the ice cream shops that had pictures of yummy sundaes all over their signs, nope we were told, no ice cream until june! Boo to them. We went into a grocery store to buy some cookies for later at that point. The grocery was the most awful depressing sight. The shelves looked as if they hadnt been stocked in ages; the lights were pretty much out, and there was no refridgeration. And; Emily discovered later that one of the packages of cookies she had bought had nice little nibble holes on the back! Mice in the grocery! ISH! That about did it and we decided no more El Jadida for us thank you.
The only plus side was the old cistern in the portugese city part of town. Its this old eerie well/resevoir thing. When you go inside it at first glance looks like a large moldy room with a bunch of water on the floor. But then, as you look around, its really pretty cool. It was used in the filming of Othello, and looks extremely shakespearan. Its got all these huge old arches and colomns and because of the one circle letting light in in the middle, they all reflect onto the floor. It creates a really stunning effect with the light, and the pictures I took I think actually may turn out very cool. PS. I am eventually hoping to get you all photos, my camera just doesnt work with these computers yet.
In any case, for now, we are back in Casablanca, have had our fill of delicious ice cream and chocolate crepes, and are very satisfied. We will be taking a day trip to the capital city of rabat tomorrow, and then its on to Spain on saturday! I hope you all are doing well!
Emily and I have now completed our circle in Morocco and are back in Casablanca. However, this was not the original plan. The original plan was not to get back until tomorrow afternoon after a fun filled two days in the wonderful beach town of El Jadida; or so our guidebooks promised…This, unfortunately was not the case.
We left essouaira early early on Wednesday morning after having a very wonderful time there. The city was charming and peaceful full of lots of great cafes and beautiful ocean views. I was a little sad to leave. But our plan promised fun on the beach in the next town too. We arrived in El Jadida about 5 hours later by bus, and walked down to our hotel. The place was enormous with huge rooms. Very old and kinda creaky, but it seemed nice and we were to pay 3 dollars each a night with a view of the ocean. So far so good. (Little did we know that later at night the hotel would just seem kinda creepy. Emily mentioned today that it kinda seemed like a place for a mystery novel or something.)
Then we went out to look around. The city had a very odd vibe. Hardly any tourists, and certainly no western women. Lots of those cafes I had talked about before that are all men that just stare you up and down as you walk by, ick. We finally found a restaurant that served food and looked decent. But it was not so good. They didnt have half the food on the menu and the food they did have was particularly awful, especially emilys pasta. Who knew you could screw up spagettii?
Em and I decided we deserved some ice cream after a meal like that. We went on a long hard search for some. Announcement: There is NO ice cream in El Jadida. (We did find some really awful stuff, but I refuse to classify it as ice cream) What? Whats a girl to do? We even went to the ice cream shops that had pictures of yummy sundaes all over their signs, nope we were told, no ice cream until june! Boo to them. We went into a grocery store to buy some cookies for later at that point. The grocery was the most awful depressing sight. The shelves looked as if they hadnt been stocked in ages; the lights were pretty much out, and there was no refridgeration. And; Emily discovered later that one of the packages of cookies she had bought had nice little nibble holes on the back! Mice in the grocery! ISH! That about did it and we decided no more El Jadida for us thank you.
The only plus side was the old cistern in the portugese city part of town. Its this old eerie well/resevoir thing. When you go inside it at first glance looks like a large moldy room with a bunch of water on the floor. But then, as you look around, its really pretty cool. It was used in the filming of Othello, and looks extremely shakespearan. Its got all these huge old arches and colomns and because of the one circle letting light in in the middle, they all reflect onto the floor. It creates a really stunning effect with the light, and the pictures I took I think actually may turn out very cool. PS. I am eventually hoping to get you all photos, my camera just doesnt work with these computers yet.
In any case, for now, we are back in Casablanca, have had our fill of delicious ice cream and chocolate crepes, and are very satisfied. We will be taking a day trip to the capital city of rabat tomorrow, and then its on to Spain on saturday! I hope you all are doing well!
Essaouira and El Jadida
Posted by Emily
On Monday morning, we left Marrakech and headed to a small beach town called Essaouira. I really really liked Marrakech but after having spent a week there, I was starting to feel restless and wanting to move on to a new place. We arrived at about 11 am and had quite a time finding our hotel! Taxis aren't allowed to come into the medina areas so we were left off at an entrance and told that the hotel was on the left. It definitely wasn't to the left (as if that means anything anyway on a street with all kinds of alleyways and entrances!) and we got conflicting answers from people when we asked them where it was. Finally, after turning off onto a large side street, we found a man who knew where it was and was actually able to show us. Really, for once we wanted to be hustled by someone wanting a tip to give directions and we had no takers! Anyway, the hotel was to the left of the entrance in overall direction only but we did find it. Although it was a little decrepit, it was clean, well located and only 8 dollars a night.
The town overall was very easy to figure out and we spent the afternoon walking around the medina and shops and checking out the beach, which was actually very clean and a very long expanse of white sand. The town had a much more relaxed feel than Marrakech so it was a nice break from all the constant activity that goes on there.
Perhaps one of my favorite experiences there was buying jewelry from a man whose brother had spent 20 years in Senegal and he himself had spent a few months there. He knew a little Wolof so I was happy to have such an unexpected opportunity to speak. Having no money the first time we walked into the shop, we came back later ready to buy. We expected the visit to be quite short, but the man's brother had come by so we talked about Senegal and then kept talking for about 2 hours while they brought us tea and crepes and yogurt. Very funny. We kept trying to tell them that we needed to leave, but like in Senegal, it's hard to get away from people who are being hospitable. It was fun though and very entertaining AND we got good prices on some pretty earrings. You just never know who you are going to meet while traveling!
We spent 2 days in Essaouira and on Wednesday morning, took a bus north along the coast to El Jadida, another little beach town that our guidebook described as being quite lovely. Well, this is one case where the guidebook seems to have let us down!
We found our hotel easily this time and it seemed quite charming during the day, but became quite eerie at night. I was HUGE with large winding staircases, large sitting areas and high ceilings. I think there might only have been one other person staying there. At night, and I'm glad I didn't think of this until later, but it could easily have been a perfect setting for a murder mystery or a real-life game of Clue. It was echoy and shadowy and just plain creepy really. Plus, the guy who works at the desk at the desk at night doesn't look like the most trustworthy of folks. Not that we really thought anything would happen, butwe were happy to have 2 locks on the door.
The town itself was equally as creepy. There seemed to be an abundance of strange men who weren't afraid to yell at us or harass us, especially at night. Two guys in a car actually pulled over by us twice to try to talk to us. Gross. In addition, there was a general lack of good restaurants and I think I had one of my worst lunches ever. Also, there was no ice cream to be found. After having such a horrible meal, we were hoping to at least find some good desert. We found fully 2 ice cream shops that didn't have ice cream, one of which told us that they didn't have ice cream until June. What? Not that food is the biggest deal in the world but it just served to make the entire experience just a little worse.
The highlight of the city was Portuguese quarter that was constructed by the Portuguese in the 16th century I believe. It is an old walled city with guard towers that you can walk up onto for a beautiful view of the ocean. In addition, there is an old cistern (water reservoir?). The water used to be 2 meters deep and buckets would be lowered from the holes in the roof to retrieve it. Now the water is only about 10 cm deep and creates a perfect reverse reflection of the arched ceilings. It is beautiful and has a very eerie, old world feel, but in a good way, not like the hotel. The site was actually used in Orson Welle's Othello, if any of you have ever seen that, during a riot scene. Luckily, we missed a huge crowd of people and had the place to ourselves. Even though there's not much there, it was quite enthralling just to observe the reflections and the light coming in from above. Nicki actually took some really amazing pictures of it.
Now we are back in Casablanca a day earlier than planned because El Jadida creeped us out and we wanted to leave as soon as possible! We are planning to take a day trip to Rabat tomorrow and then Saturday we leave for Spain. I'm very happy to be back in a normal city and to be able to spend our last day here enjoying ourselves instead of feeling uncomfortable.
On Monday morning, we left Marrakech and headed to a small beach town called Essaouira. I really really liked Marrakech but after having spent a week there, I was starting to feel restless and wanting to move on to a new place. We arrived at about 11 am and had quite a time finding our hotel! Taxis aren't allowed to come into the medina areas so we were left off at an entrance and told that the hotel was on the left. It definitely wasn't to the left (as if that means anything anyway on a street with all kinds of alleyways and entrances!) and we got conflicting answers from people when we asked them where it was. Finally, after turning off onto a large side street, we found a man who knew where it was and was actually able to show us. Really, for once we wanted to be hustled by someone wanting a tip to give directions and we had no takers! Anyway, the hotel was to the left of the entrance in overall direction only but we did find it. Although it was a little decrepit, it was clean, well located and only 8 dollars a night.
The town overall was very easy to figure out and we spent the afternoon walking around the medina and shops and checking out the beach, which was actually very clean and a very long expanse of white sand. The town had a much more relaxed feel than Marrakech so it was a nice break from all the constant activity that goes on there.
Perhaps one of my favorite experiences there was buying jewelry from a man whose brother had spent 20 years in Senegal and he himself had spent a few months there. He knew a little Wolof so I was happy to have such an unexpected opportunity to speak. Having no money the first time we walked into the shop, we came back later ready to buy. We expected the visit to be quite short, but the man's brother had come by so we talked about Senegal and then kept talking for about 2 hours while they brought us tea and crepes and yogurt. Very funny. We kept trying to tell them that we needed to leave, but like in Senegal, it's hard to get away from people who are being hospitable. It was fun though and very entertaining AND we got good prices on some pretty earrings. You just never know who you are going to meet while traveling!
We spent 2 days in Essaouira and on Wednesday morning, took a bus north along the coast to El Jadida, another little beach town that our guidebook described as being quite lovely. Well, this is one case where the guidebook seems to have let us down!
We found our hotel easily this time and it seemed quite charming during the day, but became quite eerie at night. I was HUGE with large winding staircases, large sitting areas and high ceilings. I think there might only have been one other person staying there. At night, and I'm glad I didn't think of this until later, but it could easily have been a perfect setting for a murder mystery or a real-life game of Clue. It was echoy and shadowy and just plain creepy really. Plus, the guy who works at the desk at the desk at night doesn't look like the most trustworthy of folks. Not that we really thought anything would happen, butwe were happy to have 2 locks on the door.
The town itself was equally as creepy. There seemed to be an abundance of strange men who weren't afraid to yell at us or harass us, especially at night. Two guys in a car actually pulled over by us twice to try to talk to us. Gross. In addition, there was a general lack of good restaurants and I think I had one of my worst lunches ever. Also, there was no ice cream to be found. After having such a horrible meal, we were hoping to at least find some good desert. We found fully 2 ice cream shops that didn't have ice cream, one of which told us that they didn't have ice cream until June. What? Not that food is the biggest deal in the world but it just served to make the entire experience just a little worse.
The highlight of the city was Portuguese quarter that was constructed by the Portuguese in the 16th century I believe. It is an old walled city with guard towers that you can walk up onto for a beautiful view of the ocean. In addition, there is an old cistern (water reservoir?). The water used to be 2 meters deep and buckets would be lowered from the holes in the roof to retrieve it. Now the water is only about 10 cm deep and creates a perfect reverse reflection of the arched ceilings. It is beautiful and has a very eerie, old world feel, but in a good way, not like the hotel. The site was actually used in Orson Welle's Othello, if any of you have ever seen that, during a riot scene. Luckily, we missed a huge crowd of people and had the place to ourselves. Even though there's not much there, it was quite enthralling just to observe the reflections and the light coming in from above. Nicki actually took some really amazing pictures of it.
Now we are back in Casablanca a day earlier than planned because El Jadida creeped us out and we wanted to leave as soon as possible! We are planning to take a day trip to Rabat tomorrow and then Saturday we leave for Spain. I'm very happy to be back in a normal city and to be able to spend our last day here enjoying ourselves instead of feeling uncomfortable.
Tuesday, April 04, 2006
Waterfalls or Disgusting Tourist Oasis?
Posted by Emily
Not too far from Marrakech, there are some famous waterfalls calls Les Cascades d'Ozed, or something similar. We decided to check these out last Saturday and joined up with the agency we had gone to the desert with for our transport. There were about 14 who went, many of whom were women about our age who appeared to be on spring break, meaning they looked WAY too cute to be traveling (Nicki and I have a wardrobe of about 3 shirts and 3 pants and they are not always that clean!!). Off the subject, one thing that has really surprised me about Morocco is how touristy it is! It's actually quite disappointing. I guess I never appreciated the fact the Senegal keeps out all but the more hard core tourists (or at least the rest of them stay far out of site at Club Med or a tour bus or the like).
Anyway, the ride there was fine. We were a little tired of sitting in buses and driving but the scenery, as always, was beautiful. We arrived at about 11 am and were to leave at 3:30 pm. Turns out that was quite a lot of time to kill!
We were dropped off at the top of the falls. We discovered this when we hiked over the edge of the cliff and looked over to find a very steep drop off! As we have discovered from previous excursions, just follow the tourist shops to wherever you want to go! This was the most intense line of tourist shops and restaurants that I have ever seen and was really quite depressing. All the way down the hill (it's a long ways down) are shop after shop an restaurant after restaurant. A few beggars and children selling herbs to try to make a little money. It was very obvious how this tourist attraction had ruined the entire area and had taken them from whatever they used to do to make a living, so catering to tourists and becoming dependent on them. It kind of soured the whole experience for me. So did the THRONGS of people.
However, the thing that dampened the experience for me the most has to be the girl who fell off the waterfall. I didn't see it happen, but apparently a tourist, about my age, fell from the top of the waterfall (the cliff with the steep drop off that I mentioned before). As we were walking down to the bottom of the falls, we turned around to see 3 men in the falls. I couldn't figure out what they were doing at first and I thought maybe they were just dumb tourists who were going to jump down to the next level of the falls. Then I realized that it looked like they were wrapping a body. Later I found out that the woman had fallen and 3 local guys had jumped into the water, wrapped her body in a blanket and gotten her out of the water. I'm fairly certain that she didn't survive, and even if she had still been alive after the fall, as Nicki pointed out, there was no facilities anywhere NEAR there to deal with such a trauma. Very scary and made me uneasy for the rest of the day.
Eventually we hiked out past the major tourist area along a path to the other side of the falls. There were still a few tourist restaurants and camping sites but no where near as bad as the initial area we had gone through. There were quite a few Moroccan families gathered there to have lunch for the afternoon. We found a shady spot under a tree to sit and relax to kill the time before it was time to leave. Overall, it was a very beautiful place to visit, it was just disgusting to see the impact of the tourism (I forgot to mention this before but there are monkeys native to the area that have become tame and eat food that tourists give them, despite the signs that say "don't feed the monkeys and don't interact with them because it changes their natural behavior. That was also very sad to see. People can be SO stupid and it makes me SO mad!!)and upsetting to know that someone had fallen off the waterfall.
Not too far from Marrakech, there are some famous waterfalls calls Les Cascades d'Ozed, or something similar. We decided to check these out last Saturday and joined up with the agency we had gone to the desert with for our transport. There were about 14 who went, many of whom were women about our age who appeared to be on spring break, meaning they looked WAY too cute to be traveling (Nicki and I have a wardrobe of about 3 shirts and 3 pants and they are not always that clean!!). Off the subject, one thing that has really surprised me about Morocco is how touristy it is! It's actually quite disappointing. I guess I never appreciated the fact the Senegal keeps out all but the more hard core tourists (or at least the rest of them stay far out of site at Club Med or a tour bus or the like).
Anyway, the ride there was fine. We were a little tired of sitting in buses and driving but the scenery, as always, was beautiful. We arrived at about 11 am and were to leave at 3:30 pm. Turns out that was quite a lot of time to kill!
We were dropped off at the top of the falls. We discovered this when we hiked over the edge of the cliff and looked over to find a very steep drop off! As we have discovered from previous excursions, just follow the tourist shops to wherever you want to go! This was the most intense line of tourist shops and restaurants that I have ever seen and was really quite depressing. All the way down the hill (it's a long ways down) are shop after shop an restaurant after restaurant. A few beggars and children selling herbs to try to make a little money. It was very obvious how this tourist attraction had ruined the entire area and had taken them from whatever they used to do to make a living, so catering to tourists and becoming dependent on them. It kind of soured the whole experience for me. So did the THRONGS of people.
However, the thing that dampened the experience for me the most has to be the girl who fell off the waterfall. I didn't see it happen, but apparently a tourist, about my age, fell from the top of the waterfall (the cliff with the steep drop off that I mentioned before). As we were walking down to the bottom of the falls, we turned around to see 3 men in the falls. I couldn't figure out what they were doing at first and I thought maybe they were just dumb tourists who were going to jump down to the next level of the falls. Then I realized that it looked like they were wrapping a body. Later I found out that the woman had fallen and 3 local guys had jumped into the water, wrapped her body in a blanket and gotten her out of the water. I'm fairly certain that she didn't survive, and even if she had still been alive after the fall, as Nicki pointed out, there was no facilities anywhere NEAR there to deal with such a trauma. Very scary and made me uneasy for the rest of the day.
Eventually we hiked out past the major tourist area along a path to the other side of the falls. There were still a few tourist restaurants and camping sites but no where near as bad as the initial area we had gone through. There were quite a few Moroccan families gathered there to have lunch for the afternoon. We found a shady spot under a tree to sit and relax to kill the time before it was time to leave. Overall, it was a very beautiful place to visit, it was just disgusting to see the impact of the tourism (I forgot to mention this before but there are monkeys native to the area that have become tame and eat food that tourists give them, despite the signs that say "don't feed the monkeys and don't interact with them because it changes their natural behavior. That was also very sad to see. People can be SO stupid and it makes me SO mad!!)and upsetting to know that someone had fallen off the waterfall.
Fatima Couscous, or The Story of the Head Scarves
Posted by Emily
First, here are a couple of announcements: I dyed my hair to blend in a little more. I have learned that blonde hair can attract a lot of unwanted attention!! Also, I'm going to Berkeley in the fall!
Now, the story of our head scarves.
Every night in the square near we were staying large crowds of people gather to watch the street performers, eat at the food stalls, heckle foreign women and who knows what else. The first night we went out there we didn't stay very long because of the unwanted harassment and touching. Gross. So we decided that we should try to wear head scares to see if that would help, since men aren't even supposed to make direct eye contact with women wearing head scarves.
We put our head scarves on right outside the hotel. We had originally put them on inside but then felt ridiculous walking by all the other tourists, so decided to take them off and put them back on OUTSIDE. Walking down the street, through the medina and out the square was an exciting adventure because all the shop owners recognized us and our disguise didn't help at all but instead got s MORE harassment and the name "Fatima Couscous". Fatima is a common Muslim name and couscous, as your probably know, is a common Moroccan dish. So they were making fun of us. Upon entering the square, we took the scarves off!!
We went to eat at the mass of food stalls that are set up every evening. Most of them serve similar foods, like couscous, tajines, skewers, salad, etc. However, as your walk through the aisles and past the various stalls, the workers try to hustle you in. We chose one close to the outside and ate quite a lot of food for about 8 dollars. The men working seem to love their jobs and are always joking around, making for a very fun atmosphere.
After dinner, we ventured out into the street performer's area and put our head scarves BACK on. This time they were very useful and did result in men leaving us alone and averting their eyes much more quickly. YAY! Our efforts were at least somewhat a success!!
First, here are a couple of announcements: I dyed my hair to blend in a little more. I have learned that blonde hair can attract a lot of unwanted attention!! Also, I'm going to Berkeley in the fall!
Now, the story of our head scarves.
Every night in the square near we were staying large crowds of people gather to watch the street performers, eat at the food stalls, heckle foreign women and who knows what else. The first night we went out there we didn't stay very long because of the unwanted harassment and touching. Gross. So we decided that we should try to wear head scares to see if that would help, since men aren't even supposed to make direct eye contact with women wearing head scarves.
We put our head scarves on right outside the hotel. We had originally put them on inside but then felt ridiculous walking by all the other tourists, so decided to take them off and put them back on OUTSIDE. Walking down the street, through the medina and out the square was an exciting adventure because all the shop owners recognized us and our disguise didn't help at all but instead got s MORE harassment and the name "Fatima Couscous". Fatima is a common Muslim name and couscous, as your probably know, is a common Moroccan dish. So they were making fun of us. Upon entering the square, we took the scarves off!!
We went to eat at the mass of food stalls that are set up every evening. Most of them serve similar foods, like couscous, tajines, skewers, salad, etc. However, as your walk through the aisles and past the various stalls, the workers try to hustle you in. We chose one close to the outside and ate quite a lot of food for about 8 dollars. The men working seem to love their jobs and are always joking around, making for a very fun atmosphere.
After dinner, we ventured out into the street performer's area and put our head scarves BACK on. This time they were very useful and did result in men leaving us alone and averting their eyes much more quickly. YAY! Our efforts were at least somewhat a success!!
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