SPAIN barcelona (bon nadal!)
yay for holiday time with family! this was going to be my first christmas alone so i was kind of sad and unsure of what i should do. all that changed when my parents and bro decided to come here! they arrived christmas morning and i have to say it was one of the best presents ever! my mom also brought me some things i desperately needed…like costco-size teriyaki sauce and japanese mayonnaise. i don’t know how i survived without these things. seriously though. my roommates were also home for the holidays, so until they came home my family got to stay in our flat! this was really nice because we were actually together the whole time.
in the short time we had, we tried doing most of the touristy things here in barca. i must say it was an exhausting week of walking. the sagrada família, casa batlló, la pedrera, park güell, dancing fountain show of plaza españa, montjuic, picasso museum, walking up and down la rambla, and the macba…whew. i think we all had our favorite, and where my favorite was the “flamenco y opera” show (at palau de la musica), my dad’s was the joan miró museum. paul actually said, “this is the best day of my life!” i told him if that is the case, i don’t think he has had a very good one. haha…
thanks for visiting me guys! i love you!
MOROCCO chefchaouen
we decided to forgo the more well-known cities of marrakesh and casablanca and head over to the town of chefchaouen. to get there, we had two options: hire a taxi or wait a few hours for the next bus. we decided on the taxi…but it was a crappy feeling trying to negotiate a price knowing full well we were getting ripped off. it turned out to be a pretty good decision since we got there in about two hours…but still.
chefchaouen, although small, has its share of things to offer. it is surrounded by mountains for endless hiking…and the streets, walls, and buildings are all whitewashed shades of blue and white! but just like fes, it is still touristy-with vendors calling you into their store and restaurants trying to get you to come in. some of these people even spoke japanese! and because it is so chill, i liked chefchaouen much more than fes.
a couple of days were spent hiking around the nearby mountainside, and it was great because i haven’t felt so tired in a while! the first hike was amazing because we didn’t have a path to follow but created our own. we scaled big boulders and walked through thick bushes shoulder-high…and then at the top ate pomegranates and morrocan bread with “laughing cow” cheese. mmm. of course, the view was exhilarating as we were so high we could see dozens of rolling hills and the town where we started. i think we hiked for about six hours that day!
MOROCCO fes
fes turned out to be an unexpected cultural stop as we got to know a local family and spend some time with them! we were using the internet when a local guy (hatim) and chris hit it off talking about futbol, and hatim soon invited us upstairs to eat cuscus with his family. we got introduced to his family and then waited for his mother to prepare our meal! they didn’t have a kitchen table to eat at, but something like a coffee table in front of sofas which aligned the walls. it was pretty amazing since these were multi-purpose sofas, as they were also used for lounging and sleeping. although they had a vacant unit upstairs, they didn’t use it and i could see that family was very important since they seemed to do everything together and time seemed to center around its members. what a change from the states where most people have their own room and want of privacy!
hatim’s little sister halima wanted to show us around, and once day she invited us to the hamam. when i heard that it is something like a turkish bath, i imaged hot thermal pools and relaxing massages. . .just like the one in hungary. so it was quite a surprise when we got to a sauna-type thing with people scrubbing themselves in a steamy room with warm water. dirty water with dead skin was not exactly being flushed away to the two drain piped in the middle of the big room, so it kind of pooled around everyone. sick. the scrubby thing they use is amazing in that it scrubs all the dead skin away, but just by thinking about it i am getting itchy. atleast we survived and it was quite an experience!
MOROCCO fes
i love the feeling of my first steps on a new continent! even after a long journey, these steps re-energize me as i look forward to the days ahead on foreign soil. this was especially true for morocco because it is my first muslim country. so stepping off the ferry onto the dock was, well…exhilarating. especially since it was a trip and a half to get to morocco! i don´t know why but i thought it was going to be far more efficient than this! we took a coach from sevilla to algeciras (which took about two and a half hours) and then another coach (a half hour or so)to tarifa, and FINALLY a ferry (another half hour of so) across the straight of gibralter to tangier, morocco. whew! it also took longer at each stop since we tried asking around for the cheapest deal…too bad all the companies more or less charged the same price!
tangier, being a port town is really busy with traffic and people bustling about. the very first thing i noticed was the lack of women. all the cafes and restaurants were pretty full with customers, but with male customers. there were enough women walking wherever they had to go, but none sitting down enjoying the night. i didn´t feel threatened at all and i don´t think sue did either, but it was definitely a surprise.
chris had been to morocco last year and warned us of the moroccan transport system, so we should have been ready for our almost six hour coach ride from tangier to fes. (the guy at the ticket counter said about two) we even stopped for some sandwiches around hour four, and i knew then it was going to be atleast two more hours. and at last, after one in the morning, we arrived in fes.
we got lucky with a patient taxi driver who drove us around the new city looking for cheap hotels. most were charging too much or were full at this time of night, so we headed over by the medina and found a place at the main gate for only 150 dirhams a night! (roughly 5 euros a person!) the location could not have been better, and we settled in for the night ready to start our morocco journey!
SPAIN sevilla (champions league!)
sevilla sevilla sevilla!!!! that is how one of the songs start for sevilla fc…and the only words i remember. haha. what a memorable event! we went to the sevilla-arsenal champions league game one night, and it was especially exciting because arsenal has been top-ranked recently and sevilla was at home. we tailgated on the way and outside the stadium (a good attempt anyway) with a couple of locals who, like other europeans i have met, asked us if any of us had msn messenger. i swear every european person i have met is obsessed and is appalled when i don´t have it. i also don´t see what we would talk about after meeting for 15 minutes. hmm maybe one day.
the tickets were bought at the front window but our seats were scattered, and at a packed game it was going to be impossible to sit together. nonetheless, we tried…in some prime rows behind the goal! i think these seats were for season-ticket holders since the people knew these were not our seats…they said we could still sit there if no one came, and we thought we got away with it until the real seat-holders arrived after the game started. haha sad.
i can not compare the incredible atmosphere of the sevilla crowd because i have never been to anything so passionate. only to say that the fans are truly loyal and the sport and players so respected. i thought the barça crowd was amazing, but it does not ever compare to the sevilla crowd! to top it off, sevilla played really well and won 3-1!
SPAIN sevilla (free tapas with drink!)
off to sevilla we go! to start our trip, suesan, chris and i flew over using vueling air…for thirty euros and only one and a half hours! so much more convenient than a train. i had high expectations because spaniards even recommend going to sevilla, and i was not let down! if i had been here before settling in barca, i am sure i woulda stayed. i love it! streets lined with orange trees (like the namesake), the gothic cathedral which reminded me of milano’s, and the plaza españa? AMAZINGLY GORGEOUS! the tile work was especially beautiful with the sun shining on it, and it is my favorite “plaza españa” thus far (ok i have only seen two…but still).
we couchsurfed with some people, and as always it was great to talk to locals and get their perspective on the city they live in! but going out for tapas with tina (one of the hosts), her friends, and other couchsurfers was cool because i met people doing similar things. oooh ya and i can not believe how cheap everything in sevilla is! i had no idea barça was so expensive until i got here…and paid only 50 cents for a beer (cruz campo-the local brew) and free tapas with drink. i need to move here stat! haha.