Málaga:I'm very fortunate that I have friends who have real jobs and can afford a plane ticket to come visit me. For Holy Week, I had three friends come visit me - Alec, Mal, and Zach. Two more friends were supposed to join us, but unfortunately a snow storm hit hard and they were unable to get a rescheduled flight to Europe, only a refund. :( The first to arrive was Alec. I met him at the train station in Malaga fresh from the airport. I spent the rest of the day and part of the following showing him around the city. We went to the fortress and castle that I went to with my parents when I first arrived. He also went in the cathedral while I sat outside on a bench, ate some nuts, and answered a survey given by a very appreciative university student. We also made a short stop at the beach to read. Just before leaving, we went to the Bull Fighting museum which was hilariously crappy, but fun nonetheless. Next we were off the Seville... Sevilla:When we arrived, it was late and raining. We rested for a hot second and then headed out to one of my favorite place in Seville: La Carbonería. We arrived super early so we got dinner and listened to some Flamenco. The next day we (or rather I) admired the rowers passing under Triana Bridge. And by admired, I mean envied. Then we went to the Seville Cathedral which I believe is the largest Gothic Cathedral in the world, but don't quote me on that. I've been meaning to go forever and now I finally had an excuse to go. Then we were off the Plaza de España. Alec was particularly excited because it was apparently used in the filming of a Star Wars movie. In the plaza we saw some people dancing Flamenco and rented a boat to row around. We met up with Jill and headed to the airport. Then it was goodbye Sevilla, hello Morocco! Morocco:We arrived late at night. The airport shuttle was all arranged through the hostel. I think I emailed them about 6 times reminding them of our flight number and the time arrival. Yet when we left the airport, there was no shuttle. We tried re-entering the airport to buy water but were not allowed. We finally got a hold of them and our shuttle came. We made friends with some exchange students studying abroad in Milan in the shuttle thinking we were all going to be in the same hostel. But halfway through the ride, the driver pulled over and told them all to follow this other guy to their hostel. So sad. When we got to the hostel, we asked to buy water. But they had run out. We paid for the hostel and our tours, realizing we should've taken more money out. We went to bed extremely parched but were luckily slightly distracted from the thirst because Mal and Zach were waiting for us at the hostel! Yay for reunions! We woke up early in the morning for our tour. A man came to pick us up, but not in a car. We walked for about 15 minutes to the main plaza area in Marrakech and there a van picked us up. We also found WATER!! We thought the van full of other people were the people doing the tour with us, but we should've learned from the airport shuttle. Some of us were switched to another van after driving to another part of the city. To be honest with you, we didn't really know what we were going to see. All we knew was we asked for the 2 day tour through the hostel because that's all we had time for. And we knew we were going to ride camels. Little did we know we were going to drive for about 8 hours stopping along the way arriving almost at the border of Algeria. Some pics from the drive: Like I said, we really didn't know what to expect on the tour. So we were pleasantly surprised when we stopped to tour the Kasbah in (what we later learned was a town called) Ait Benhaddou. Many famous films were filmed in the Kasbah including Gladiator and Prince of Persia. Our tour guide was quite difficult to understand but once we caught on that he was conjugating all of his verbs in the first person, everything made a little more sense. While in the Kasbah, we stopped at a store that made these fire drawings. I don't know how else to describe it, so feel free to watch this video showing the guy making a post card using the technique. On the way out of the Kasbah, we stopped to buy scarves because we were told we would need to wear a scarf or shirt for the camel ride since it would be very dusty in the desert and during the ride. Definitely a selling tactic, but I was ok with getting a souvenir from the trip. After the tour we ate lunch in the town. I ordered couscous which was different than any other couscous I'd every eaten. The veggies were really big instead of chopped up in the grain. It was ok, but I wouldn't get it again. Then we were back on the bus and still headed towards to Algeria border. It was time to get a nap in for most of us. I don't know what the name of this town is, but we were so excited to be driving through it because we hadn't seen civilization for hours and knew we were in the desert and the drive had to be over soon. The long ride finally came to end and we got what we had been waiting for...THE CAMELS!!! We tied our scarves around our heads and mouth like we were taught back in the Kasbah to protect us from the sandy air. Turns out I'm a scarf tying expert. Then we were led through the Zagora Desert on camels all tied together and led by some really young Berber boys. I was at the end of the pack, and I named my camel Kevin. He was a little slow to keep up, but Kevin and I grew quite found of each other during our short interaction together. Some quick notes about camel riding:
After a very scenic and fun camel ride naming all of our camels, we arrived at our campsite for the night and enjoyed (really strong, but luckily sweet Moroccan) tea, Moroccan bread, and some tajine. BIG fan of Moroccan food. Big fan. Then we chatted and got to know everyone, looked at the stars, listened to Berber men play the drums and dance with a bunch of us foreigners, and turned in for the night. Please enjoy my excessively crappy photography skills below. We had an early morning and had more Moroccan bread, tea (unfortunately not sweet this time), and hard boiled eggs. Then it was back to the camels and back to the van. Once we were back in the car, we were brought to what can only be described as a carpet and trinket store in which the obvious purpose was to sell us foreigners carpets and trinkets. Then we piled back in the van and made our way to Ouarzazate which is another city in which a bunch of films are made apparently. We piled back into the van (again) and eventually made it back to Marrakesh. Interesting story: We dropped one of our fellow travelers off in Ouarzazate because he was doing a 3 day tour instead of a 2 day tour. This traveler happened to be from Barcelona and it was super interesting listening to his opinions about Catalonia independence. Living in Andalusia has probably made me biased and very much pro Spanish unity (in my mind, it's like New York saying they don't want to be a part of the US because they do a lot more economically for the country than Mississippi...although that's a grossly simplified version and the issue is much deeper rooted and more complicated than that). But this guy was very much pro independence. While I agree with him in that Catalans have every right to free speech and that the Spanish government did not react well to what was happening or listen very well to the concerns of its citizens, I don't think it is a good idea for them to succeed from Spain, and he was all about Catalan secession. Fun story: We got to chat with a bilingual family which was in our tour group. The dad was from the UK and the mom from Spain. My inner linguist was freaking out at how easily the kids were switching between Spanish and English and my inner teacher was freaking out at how well the kids were behaved. Seriously. Best behaved kids I've ever encountered in my life! If I could guarantee that my kids would turn out like that, I wouldn't be as concerned about having them in the future. Anywhoooo...It's always interesting to see how bilingual families make communication work. The parents each spoke their native language while the kids switched based on which parent they were speaking to. If they were speaking to both, they'd pick. And when the parents spoke to each other, they continued speaking in their respective languages back and forth which was cool to listen to. Super sweet fam who we had the pleasure of speaking with during lunch on our way back to Marrakesh. Funny story: At one point in the car ride I had to pee sooooo badly. We finally stopped on the side of the road for the purpose of snapping some pics. I ran across the road to get away from everyone taking photos so I could pee. Unfortunately everyone thought I was headed across the road to get a different view, and they all ended up following me. When they finally all left, I yanked my pants down and strategically started to pee. Why strategically you may ask? The wind was really gusty and the side of the mountain was just a big pile of rocks. I had placed myself between two rocks, one for each butt cheek, and started to do my thing when the wind suddenly shifted directions. I quickly lifted my leg to avoid peeing on it to the best of my ability. The wind continued to shift back and forth as I lifted one leg than the other and (mostly) avoiding peeing on myself. When we arrived in Marrakesh, we explored a little bit and went to grab some dinner. falafel...yum! Here's some more crappy photos for you to enjoy. The next morning we spent exploring Marrakesh some more before our flight to Barcelona. We walked around, got henna tattoos at a place owned by this American lady who went to Morocco on vacation, never went back home, and started her own henna restaurant. Alec also got a photo with a snake charmer who wanted him to pay 200 dirham for it. He knew he'd have to pay, but didn't think it'd be that much. Cool photo, not a fun experience. Then we were back in the airport on our way to Barcelona! Barcelona:We arrived pretty late, so we only went out went out to dinner and went to bed when we got to the hostel. The next morning, we took the train to Montserrat. There we enjoyed some hiking and beautiful views of the city and surrounding mountains. The next day we decided to do one of those "free" walking tours of the city. TMI but...I pooped 3 times before leaving the hostel that morning. We took the metro the the Cathedral. While we were waiting for the tour to start, I started to feel extremely sick. The tour started and I waited for our guide to finish talking about the Cathedral and ditched the group. I headed back to the hostel and slept until mid afternoon. After my nice long nap and several diarrheas later, I decided I was doing well enough to join up with the group again. I headed back to the metro and met up with my friends on our way to Montjuic, the park where the 1992 Olympic Stadium is located. We walked around the park and saw the stadium. As we were walking back from the park, we ran across some sick street performers doing a break dancey thingy. Here, just check out the video... We headed to a market place called la Boquería where everyone (except diarrhea girl) bought empanadas. Then diarrhea girl started to feel diarrhea-y again, so she headed back to the hostel to call it a night. Sadly, our time as a big group had come to an end. The next day Mal and Zach would head for Paris, Jill for Gerona, and Alec and I to Ibiza. IbizaOn the flight over after finding my seat, I immediately grabbed the vomit bag partially as a precautionary measure and partially because there were extra seats on the plane and I wanted the people next to me to MOVE. I told Alec that the first thing we had to do when we got to Ibiza was find a hospital. I had no energy from not eating and was extremely dehydrated. Unfortunately it was siesta time when we landed and were having a hard time finding a hospital that was open that would take my insurance. We actually stumbled upon the tourist information booth and asked them where the nearest open doctor's office/clinic/hospital was. We finally found one and once I was admitted, I insisted that Alec leave as to not waste any of his vacation. But also because once I went back to see the doctor I immediately started crying. When the doctor asked why I was crying, I told him that it was because I was hungry. Now you all know what my real priorities are. They stuck me and got me some fluids. The following is quite literally the ONLY photo I have from my first day in Ibiza. While I was at the hospital, I actually saw a familiar face. I realized it was the guy who checked us in at the hostel. The next day I told him I saw him at the hospital getting his finger stitched back on. What can I say...I'm just really good at bonding with the locals. Our second day in Ibiza, Alec and I decided to rent a scooter to explore the island. We decided to rent only one to share because I didn't want to have to worry about driving in my half conscious, only-eating-dry-bread state. He soon regretted that decision as I dug my fingers into his shoulders like I was hanging on for dear life and screamed in his ear every time he went anywhere near 10 under the speed limit. But the island was BEAUTIFUL, and I hope to get the chance to explore it in the future when I'm not sickly. Alec and I said our goodbyes as I was headed back to Barcelona and he was headed to Madrid. Barcelona (again):Jill and I met back up in Barcelona to see the Sagrada Familia. Waking around the outside of it was about all I was up for, so that was our whole day. Definitely cool looking, but we didn't go in because it was expensive and you had to buy tickets ahead of time. Jill and I flew back to Málaga the next day. Then it was the train to Puente Genil and a taxi back to good ol' Casariche. Despite the diarrhea incident, the trip was a ton of fun. I feel so lucky that my dear old Penn State friends could come visit me we could all explore together. Until next time!
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AuthorI'm Emma. I love food more than anyone will ever understand - specifically cheese, chocolate, bread and pretty much every fat & carb combo you can think of - apple cider donuts, ice cream, the list goes on. Fats and carbs just go so well together. Don't you think? Why is it when I'm tasked to describe myself, I always talk about food? I guess if you want to learn more about me, you'll have to read my posts about my year as a teacher in Spain. Archives
May 2018
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