Feeling Blue in Chefchaouen

     The third city that we visited in Morocco was Chefchaouen, the blue city. The reason for its name is not because everyone is depressed, but because many of the buildings are painted with a blue dye (who would have guessed?). Now its been awhile since we were there so the details on what we really did are a little fuzzy, so bear with me. I do know that for the first few hours we walked around looking for the ruins of a Spanish church that was modeled after a mosque. We asked countless natives, in three different languages even, and still couldn't find it. We eventually gave up and went to look for some dinner. On our way to dinner we were asked almost 10 times if we wanted to buy some weed. We found out later that Chef is known for its plethora of weed fields just beyond the city limits and that although it is still illegal, no one really gets in trouble.
     After dinner we went up to the terrace of our hostel to take in a view of the city at night. In the far distance we could hear bottles breaking, screaming, and police sirens. Eventually the noise moved in our direction, until we could hear it directly below our terrace in the alleyways. We could see men running and shouting. They would also occasionally pick up rocks and throw them at the walls, which made us a little nervous because it bordered on violence that we in no way wanted to be a witness or victim of.
     The next day we asked the man at the front desk of our hostel where the ruins of the Spanish church was and he knew exactly what we were talking about. We realized it was the building perched in the middle of one of the mountains that we had been looking at since we arrived. After the blood drained from our flushed cheeks we began our thirty minute hike. We ate a hearty breakfast (bread and jam) on the steps of the church with the best view of our little blue city.
      At noon a taxi driver came to pick us up for the next leg of our journey that was the most unplanned section of all. We knew we had to get to Tanger, take a ferry to Tarifa, and then get to Sevilla by night fall. Our taxi ride took two hours and we were going about 150 kpm the entire time. I really believe that listening to Moroccan music and swerving to not hit other cars on a small mountainous road really gave me a feel for the culture.
      We got to Tanger and were immediately ushered into a small booth to buy tickets for the boat. We filled out our forms and then went through security (more like put our bags on the x-ray machine while no one was even observing). We made it onto the boat with two minutes left to spare. Everything was going our way until we got to Tarifa. We had planned on making a bus to Sevilla, but we got lost on the way to the stop and missed the last one by 20 minutes. Thankfully everyone was flexible and not too upset that we would have to just find a hostel for the night and camp out in Tarifa. We found one quickly and then went and ate sandwiches on the beach as the sun set on the Mediterranean. Best sunset of my 20 years on this planet, so can't be too upset about our traveling misfortune. We sat at a bar for an hour and then went to bed early so that we would have plenty of energy for Sevilla in the morning.

      

Feud in Fez

   Our second stop in our little Moroccan adventure was the city of Fez. We left for Fez in incredibly early and were prepared for our four hour ride with snacks, ipods, french books, and our journals. After hour three I saw a sign that said that we were 190 km from Marrakesh and 360 km from Fez. At that moment I realized that what the man meant by '4' hours was more like 10 and the mood changed fairly quickly among us four friends. Rationing of the snacks became necessary and ipod battery life became a scarcity. Can't complain about getting a feel for the countryside of Morocco though.
     When we finally got to Fez we were hungry and crabby, both wonderful attributes to have when traveling with others. After 35 minutes of aimlessly searching for our hostel, we finally came across our little 'oasis.' We were greeted with open arms at the door and swiftly put our belongings in upstairs. We found a restaurant in one of our travel books located fairly near our resting joint and enjoyed a great dinner consisting of camel burgers, hummus, and other unidentified flying objects. There was also a Moroccan band that played for us and got everyone dancing in the restaurant.
      We went back to our hostel after finishing dinner and then prepared for our next adventure into the city to find dessert friends. When we stepped outside the man guarding the door begged us not to leave. After a few minutes of awkward language translations we realized that on Feb. 20th Moroccans are allowed to voice their opinions about the government without consequence. In the past few years it had never been a problem, but because of what was going on in Libya and Egypt, it might not be safe for us Americans. He described to us what could happen-- including being slapped to even getting mugged or stabbed. Because my addiction to chocolate couldn't be quenched we ran our quickly to find some and then returned within only ten minutes. It was only 8 pm by then so we had to think of something to do. My first natural idea was to cut my hair, obvious right? So Natalie borrowed some scissors and got to cutting. Five inches shorter, I'm a new woman. We left early the next morning to get to Chefchauoen and that concludes our experience in Fez, Morocco.

   

300,000 Camels

     Because Sporocco was 10 days long, I can't write a full blog post about it. So to make sure no one dies of boredom while reading this I'm going to shorten it to one city per post---to the five of you who actually care. ha. But back to business though, the first city on this sporoccan adventure was Marrakech and we stayed there for two days. After the scariest cab ride of my life, and actually hitting someone without stopping, we arrived at our hostel. This was the first hostel that any of us have ever stayed at and were slightly skeptical about it. When we walked into the front entry we were very surprised to find colorful mosaic tiling covering the floors and walls. We also had our own room for the first night and mint tea whenever we desired. Oh anddddd we had a terrace with sun chairs and great views of the Atlas Mountains. We took to exploring the city by first getting some moroccan food. We stepped out of our comfort zones a little by ordering tajines and random jams with bread. Then we did some site seeing at the Palais Bahia and walked around. After a few hours we got dinner and then walked around the main square that was filled with snake charmers, dried fruit sellers, monkeys, and entertainers. Everyone wanted us to pay attention to them because they thought that because we are white that we would have money. Little did they know of our status as students. One man actually put a monkey on one of my friend's head (unwillingly) and then demanded he pay for it. Finally, we went on a carriage ride around the city and got to see the rich area with the casino. We ended our night at around 10 because there isn't much of a night life.
     Our second day we got up early and ate breakfast on the terrace. Then we walked to the square again and had the best fresh squeezed orange juice for 4 MAD (50 cents). We went shopping in the souks to find great deals and souvenirs for our friends and families at home. We made it to the epicerie and saw huge piles of saffron, cumin and many other unidentified spices on every corner. When we went back to our hostel we met our new roomate who was from Germany. He was a little awkward, but we befriended him so that he would feel really bad if he tried to steal our stuff. We went to dinner in the square at these tents that are set up at night and ate in a picnic like fashion. We had skewers with every kind of meat, couscous, and mint tea. We went home after dinner and went straight to bed. We had a cab come and pick us up at around 5 the next morning and departed for Fez.

     Marrakech was great and one of the best cities that we visited the whole trip, buttttt there the constant cat calls were enough to drive any girl, espcecially blonde, crazy. They would yell "hey spice girls," "Shakira," or "fish and chips" on the reg.  If they were feeling a little more brash they would yell out and, pardon my french, "I fuck you" or "I eat you." They also offered our only male companion camels for us girls. I got up to 300,000 camels, no big. The first few times it was funny, but by the end of our visit to Morocco we were ready to be around quieter men. Can't complain too much though, the 70 and 80 degree weather were wonderful, especially after all the rain in Paris.

Spring Break 2011! No Beaches and Margaritas Though?

     Finally unpacked my bag from London (only two weeks later...) and started packing up my bag for a 10 day trip across Morocco, Spain, and France. I knew I was going to have to pack somewhat light because I will have to carry it everywhere. It also has to be under 20 kilograms in order to be considered carryon. For all of you who have travelled with me, you know that my packing skills are fairly limited because I always bring more than I will ever need. Not this trip.  No, this trip's packing requires finese and thought.  New phrase penned for this trip so that we don't kill eachother is 'Noco,' or No Complaining. So that's what I'm going to do about this baggage sitch--Noco.
      Can't remember if I explained what this trip exactly consists of yet, but if all goes as planned we will be flying into Marrakech, which is in Morocco (which is in Africa). We will stay there for three days riding camels and trying not to die. We will then take a bus (we think at least) to Fes, a city suggested to us by many visiters of Morocco, for one day. Then Chefchaouen for another night. The next day is a full travel day. We will bus it up to Tanger and then take a ferry across the Straight of Gibralter to Spain. Upon arriving in Spain, we will immediately take a bus or train to Seville and then crash for the night at our hostel. We will take a plane to Valencia two days later and stay there for the night. In the morning we will take another train to Barcelona and hang out for 4 days. Then fly back on Monday morning to Paris so that we can make our class at 1:30 pm. Sounds like a lot of traveling... We only have one goal: don't get taken.
       Throughout this whole traveling-to-six-different-cities-in-ten-days-fiasco we will hopefully have our eyes opened to new cultures and ways of life and plenty of sun and camels. I also hope to like the people that I'm traveling with after this. We decided that noone may leave the group, especially in Morocco for safety reasons, which will only make this harder to stay sane. So here's to 3 hours of sleep and the craziest spring break I've ever been on.

How Low Can You Go?

     After how amazing yesterday and today have been, its hard to imagine the mood I was previously in. They warned us at orientation that we would go through a few phases throughout our trip abroad. The first phase was euphoria and then there would be this anger and then again happiness (hopefully).  I thought, as always, that I would be an exception to the rule. I, like many of my roommates, began to resent Paris because of the lack of English being spoken and unfamiliar atmosphere. You might think "well duh" because I'm in a French speaking country and this isn't Madison or Minneapolis so obviously it will feel differently. The worst part is, we all feel guilty for feeling like this. Here we are given this amazing opportunity to travel throughout Europe and we were all feeling upset that we were missing out on our great lives back in the states. But now, the feeling is only a slight annoyance and the third phase is on its way.
     Yesterday was great because 1. the weather was absolutely amazing (sundresses and flip flops) and 2. because we were all feeling adventurous. We got off onto Isle St. Louis and enjoyed the weather for an hour before hunger took over. We all grabbed a panini and sat down on the boardwalk of the Seine. We ventured over to Notre Dame and then to Pont Neuf to enjoy more views of the Seine in this summer-esque weather. We all got separated somehow, but ended up meeting one another in the courtyard of the Louvre oddly enough. Our next destination was the Sacre Coeur, which although we've seen it multiple times, the view never gets old. It was across town, but we weren't about to use another metro ticket because the weather was, I'm going to say it again, AMAZING sorry Midwest friends. We watched the sunset behind Paris and then took off for a nap, after stopping for crepes obviously.
   Today, to our dismay, the weather in Paris decided to behave like London's. We were still in the mood to venture out though so we took off to see what Rivoli held for us. We saw a great chocolate shop so we stopped and all bought a macaroon. I'm glad we were adventurous and tried them, but I still don't understand their appeal, not my favorite dessert I will say. After grabbing an espresso to avoid the rain, we ran into BHV, one of Paris's largest retailers and lost ourselves somewhere in the 6 floors of pure bliss. Finally we escaped and took off to find "the best ice cream in Paris" because all our diets consisted of this weekend was sweets apparently. We found it, but only after 2 hours of lollygagging around the Marais and Isle St. Louis.
     This weekend ended up being great, especially with this black cloud hanging over our apartment. It was great to get out and see more of Paris, nothing to complain about on this end!

     

Shop Till Ya Drop... or Run Out of $$$

      When we finally woke up, Grace and I decided that Friday was THE day for shopping. We showered and ate breakfast, and then did some intense stretching to get through the crowds. We grabbed our power drink, Starbucks, and headed on our way to Oxford Circus.
     The first store that we stopped at was Primark, which was really cheap and so large it was actually kind of scary. I told Grace that we should have a meeting spot in case we got separated because our phones wouldn't connect for some reason. She didn't think it was necessary, but I did, so we agreed on the front entrance. After an hour of shopping on the first floor we got separated and the front entrance got some use. We both had many items to try on so we got into the 75 person dressing room line (not exaggerated). I got done trying everything on and waited outside the dressing room for Grace to come out. The first ten minutes waiting went by fairly fast because I figured that she probably just had a few more items than I did. Then another ten minutes went by and I began to get a little annoyed. After another ten minutes I walked over to our meeting spot and looked around, no Grace. I went back to the waiting rooms and waited another ten minutes. Because I have the patience of a five year old I went up to another level, figuring she would probably be in the shoe area, no dice. Went back downstairs and yet still no Grace. After an hour of waiting and walking around I returned to the entrance where Grace was waiting outside with two full bags from the store. Glad we had a meeting spot or I would probably still be lost in London.
      We had a great lunch and then continued on our journey to cover every store on Oxford Street. It was incredibly difficult, but somehow we did it. We travelled home and took a breather, our workout was finally done. I honestly can't even remember what we did the rest of the night because so much happened on Saturday and Sunday that Friday seems like only a distant memory at this point.

London: Land of Bland Food? No. HP? Yes.

      This past weekend my roommates and I decided to take a little adventure to London. While the trip was only four days long, we have plenty of memories and much less money to show otherwise. The trip started off pretty smoothly with leaving for the train station at 6 am. This is the earliest we have had to get up so far on this trip so it was kind of a struggle. We made it to the station with plenty of time, but getting our tickets and passports stamped didn't go as smoothly. I had left my credit card that I bought my ticket with at the apartment and also the piece of paper that had all of my trip information on it as well. They were able to find it after a few minutes, but warned me that it would not be acceptable next time. Oops. We left that office and then tried to travel through the gates to have our passports stamped, which should be an easy task because we weren't leaving the EU right? No. We didn't have the address of my friend's house that we were staying at and apparently they really don't like that. One of us got yelled at by one of the officers and we realized that this might deter us from ever actually getting to London. They then interrogated us all to see what our purpose would be in London and why on earth we would have come to Paris to go to school. I really didn't think it was that confusing of a reason...
      When we loaded the train we found out that one companion would be in a different car and we would have to meet up at the station when we finally reached the mother land. My other roommate and I boarded the train and quickly fell asleep without a problem. When we reached London, we got off to see our other roommate with a bottle of champagne and 10 British pounds. Turns out she sat next to two older ladies who ended up chatting her ear off and giving her a job and these presents. Good to a be a talker isn't it?
      We then set off to find my roommate for next year, Grace, the one we were staying with, and get some food. We took a detour and found platform 9 3/4 where a hoard of kids were taking pictures, we couldn't resist though and took part as well. Harry Potter terms were being thrown around left and right as we had finally reached the dwelling of one of our all time favorite characters.
      After leaving the station we quickly found the restaurant that we would be meeting Grace at. We had a round of cider beer because we were in London and why not, we didn't have a schedule right? My friend finally arrived and we sat down and had lunch, shephards pie to be exact. I had always sort of presumed that English food would be incredibly bland, but to my astonishment it was one of the best meals I have had in Europe so far. When lunch was over Grace had to go back to work so she gave us her key and directions to her place. We left satisfied and ready to take on London as foreigners. Obviously we got lost and had to ask for directions multiple times, but it was okay because they all speak English!
      We slept for an hour and then took off on another adventure to see the London Bridge. This was probably the best site that we saw the entire trip, couldn't fully explain the reasoning behind it because I'm still not even sure why, but it was pretty awe inspiring to see. Again, the food at dinner was awesome and we all enjoyed the atmosphere.
      We went out later that night and found a pretty cheap bar. While it was nice to see drinks under 3 (Euro, Dollars, Pounds, etc.) the bar was full of obnoxious Americans who were just looking to get plastered and make fools of themselves. While this may be okay in Madison, it was too weird to deal with in Europe. We left at 1 am and fell asleep as soon as our heads hit the pillows couches. 
      

1 day down, 3 to go...