ok, photos are up, check em out....and here's the info on my 2 weeks in Africa!

http://picasaweb.google.com/shoey21

So, Morocco, whatta trip. It was great. I’ll try and remember everything and do it day by day but first, some things I noticed. For example: cats. There are cats everywhere!!! I’m trying to think of an animal or thing that we have in the states that I can compare it to….but I’m at a loss…simply picture cats running around like they owned the world….and that about sums it up. Also, I didn’t get a picture of this, which I should have….but there are only men in restaurants and cafés. Seriously….every table is full (especially when a soccer game is on) with men. And when I walk in, they all turn and look at me. Especially in Tanger, when we went out to a bar one night….i felt like an animal on display in the zoo. But none of them were inappropriate or anything, just all turned and looked. Also, the ONE bar in Tanger was almost the only bar we found. Since the Muslims don’t drink, it doesn’t make sence to have bars. However, we went to one in Tanger and also one in a hotel in Marrakeck. In addition,

the toilets:

toi·let (toilt)

um...in morocco....hole in the ground

toilet paper

yea, that was a fun experience in Tanger for the first time wiping my own butt. But I feel closer to my body than ever before. and you bet that whenever we went to a restaurant with normal toilets (i say normal loosely) and toilet paper, i stole the paper for next time!

Also, not many people speak Spanish in morocco. So my Spanish didn’t do me any good. But David speaks French, and that saved us.

Day 1 and Day 2-Traveling in Spain and Tanger

Ok, after packing and buying a camera and food, we’re ready to go. Dave and I catch a taxi to the train station and take the train to Madrid. It’s a short ride, about 4 hours or so and we pass the time playing card games and talking. Then in Madrid, we looked at the list of trains we could take to the south. And there was only one, leaving in 30 minutes from the other station. So it wasn’t hard to decide where to go from there. So we took the metro to the other station and hopped on a train to Algeciras, Spain. However, the train was packed and the guy gave us tickets in two different compartments. And mine was CROWED, full of people. And I’m not going to spend 9 hours in an overnight train trying to sleep while sitting next to 5 other strangers. So we took a room with 6 empty beds and crashed there. When the ticket collector came, we just paid the different for our own private room. And the 9 hours went pretty fast. But it’s amazing how there is no time in the little rooms. The door blocks out sound and the yellow, consistent light from the halogen makes it seem more like a prison cell, but without time passing. But finally we arrive around 9:30 in the morning and walk 10 minutes or so to the ferry station. The ferry ride lasts about 2 and a half hours and it’s sooooo sunny and nice out and absolutely beautiful. It’s a wonderful feeling being between 2 continents with the sun shining. Then we arrived into Tanger and there was a bunch of men asking if we needed taxis or blah blah but we walked from the station to the main square 10 minutes away and asked for where our hostel was. It was nice enough and cheap enough (about 4 euros a person a night) and then we set out to explore the city. It was a big industrial, port city. And not very nice. And this was the first time that I encountered the bars full of men. It was weird to see and I definitely felt a lot of eyes on me as we were walking down the street. Then we ate dinner at a nice looking restaurant. We ate spaghetti, sorry to say we didn’t’ get traditional Moroccan food yet. Then we consulted our lovely guide book (which we never went anywhere without) and found a bar called “dean’s bar”> apparently a lot of famous people had gone there, but we weren’t impressed. We had a beer or two, played some cards and went back to the hostel. However, in the bar, David got hit on by a really drunk Moroccan. It was quite funny for me, because I thought something like that was going to happen to me. Then we head back to the hostel early-ish. Around 11:00pm. And as it was my first night in a strange country, I was a little intimidated to be walking at night through alleys back to the hostel but luckily I was with David, otherwise there is no way I’d go out after dark, being a women in a macho country. But the hostel was cheap (about 5 euros and so was the food, about 5E a person)

Day 3-Xauxen

            After having breakfast, we take a bus for the next city on our list: Xauxen, a city in the mountains. This city was my favorite. It was so beautiful! Kinda touristy and so there was always people asking us if we wanted to buy drugs or pushing us to go into their restaurant to eat. But it was calmer and better than Tanger. The food was delicious. Couscous and tagine are the two main dishes. Tagine is like couscous but mainly only veggies and/or meat without the couscous. The walls of the town were painted blue with a special paint to keep flies away. It was sooooo pretty.

Day 4 and Day 5-Fes

            Today, we tried to go to Rabat, but the bus never came. So we took one to Fes. This morning there was a parade in Xauxen for the king. He was in town. People waited and lined the streets for HOURS just to get a glimpse…and after 2 hours of waiting (which we didn’t want to do, we only wanted to get to our hostel to grab our bags and leave the town, but we couldn’t cross the street because of the barriers!) he drove by at about 60mph and I tried to at least take a pic but I only got a pic of the front of his car. Yea, not that thrilling. The people here are really patriotic. They all had flags and pictures of him, etc etc.

            I liked Fes. It too was touristy but also traditional. The market here was HUGE and like a labyrinth. I wouldn’t want to be stuck in it after dark. But we wandered the market for about 6 hours.

Day 6-Casablanca

            An industrial city. I wasn’t impressed at all. We went and saw a huge masque, which was cool and extremely impressive. And we went on top of a cathedral on the roof. Something you couldn’t do in Europe or the states. In the market there, I ate 2 snails. Disgusting, actually tasted like mushrooms, but the idea of it was disgusting. The snail looked like it was trying to escape from it’s shell.

Day 7 and Day 8-Essoquira

             Beautiful fishing town. This and Xauxen were my favorites. Sooooo great with gorgeous sunsets. A calm town, more or less. We met some Australians here (actually we met them on the bus that broke down for 2 hours on our way to the town. Besides the bus never really being on time they were pretty much reliable)

Day 9-Marrakech

            A modern city. The most European I’d say. I liked it. It was good size and the people weren’t really pushy at all. There was a film festival going on so the main square was hopping and full of people. And there was a really cool market in the middle with about 50 different stands of food. All of which had the exact same thing. But just the same….We met up with 2 more of our friends, Victor and Carlos this day and spent all day seeing EVERYTHING we could possibly see. Victor and Carlos were really excited and wanted to see EVERYTHING. So we saw markets and museums and bath places and gardens…and basically it was a lot of walking. here's a pic of the main square with all the people and the film festival

Day 10-Zagora and desert

            Took the overnight bus to Zagora. The city on the outskirts of the desert. David knew a girl whose boyfriend was a tourguide into the desert. So we go the hookup. It was nice. Once in Zagora, we washed and changed and ate and talked to the tour guide Akmen….and that night we took an hour long jeep ride into the desert to a camp of the Barberes. It was a circular setup of tents but the 5 of us were the only ones there for the night (I say 5 because we met an English guy on the bus that trailed along with us). The silence was incredible and was loud…if that makes sence. The sand was soooo soft and beautiful and it was a full moon the second night. And there were so many stars. That night was had AMAZING food, I was surprised. And played cards and talked.

Day 11 and Day 12-desert

            Riding camels. What an experience. They are really high up there. I felt like I was riding a dinosaur. Actually, they reminded me of dinosaurs. We all named our camels and wanted to race them. But the camels had another idea. Basically,….walk walk walk…..Mine was called Charles Bradley Goodwin III but the Barberes (the nomads of the desert and our guides) called him Bu-tar. Close enough.

            At night in the desert we played games in the sand dunes and had races and there was a full moon the second night. SOoooo huge and beautiful. Basically after watching the sunset (which was the 2^nd best thing I’d ever seen in my life) the moon rose on the other side of the desert behind us about 5 minutes later. And it was just as big as the sun!

            The next day was our last day in the desert and we went to an oasis and while the barberes were making lunch we played in the sand and make sculptures and 2 little cities and had a ‘war’. Yes we found it was possible to entertain ourselves without TV. While this was going on, The barbers made bread. It was awesome. They put stones in tight circle and lit a fire over it. Then when the stones were hot enough, they brushed the fire off and put the dough on. Then they lit another fire of straw and put that on the bread. Then they put sand on that to keep the heat in. then lit another fire on top of that. 50 minutes later, we had the best bread I’d ever had in my life! I was simply amazing. And by the end of the trip, we barely even notices the sand we were eating with our meals. But I was seriously impressed at the quality of food we were eating in the dessert. That day was probably one of the top 2 meals I’d ever had in my life!!

            And then Carlos and I walked on the dying, hot coals left over from lunch. No intelligent reason, except to say that we walked on hot coals while in Africa. It didn’t hurt all that bad but I still have a couple marks on the bottom of my feet.

            Then that night we continued back to the first camp of tent with the Barberes and sand songs and chants and tried to race the last 50 meters…basically us encouraging our camels with ‘anda anda’ and them still just walking along. But it was really nice to get OFF the camels. It’s not all that uncomfortable but my legs were sore after 2 days straight of 6 hours more or less.

Day 13-traveling

            Boy was I ever tired today. And in a horrible mood. Just tired and had a headache and basically I wasn’t all that nice to be around. So the boys gave me the front seat of the taxi while the 4 of them crowded in the back. And these taxis were not big. They were freakin tiny. They were supposed to seat 7 but I have no idea how that was supposed to happen. This night was got back into Marrakech and showered and continued on to Rabat.

Day 14-Rabat

            The capital of Morocco. Not bad. A bigger city. We explored and went to a ‘Hamman’. A bath they have. Basically you get scrubbed down by someone for 30minutes or so and they wash your hair. But it was amazing how much dirt we carry on our bodies. So I felt very clean after that and especially after being in the desert for 3 days. Afterwards, I got surrounded by 5 women while I was changing and they were trying to talk to me in French,….after I told them, in French, I don’t speak French. But they wanted to find a way to communicate and figure ‘something’ out about me. I don’t know what they were trying to tell me. Something about ‘visa’ and ‘ telephone’ and they eventually gave me the phone number of the place and one of the girls tried to kiss me, and that’s when I left….trying not to run….jeeeese….

Day 15-traveling

            We continued onto Tanger and took the ferry across to Algeciras. On the ferryride we were watching the water when I thought I saw a spout of water from a whale. However when I told the guys they didn’t see it. But not wanting to be proving wrong, I INSISTED I saw it. And then David said he saw one, then carlos too…then we saw about 8 whales swimming together, migrating south. Then 10 seconds later, another group. And this continued for a minute or two. We saw about 35 whales in total. It was the most amazing beautiful thing I’d ever seen in my life!!!! (remember the sunset and moonrise was number 2^nd). Then there wasn’t a bus to Madrid so we took one to Sevilla to see what we could take there. Sevilla was a great city. I would love to go back and I think I will during spring break (easter). There’s supposed to be a festival there. Then we took a bus from there to Madrid. And got in around 1am. The boys stayed because they wanted to go out dancing. I, instead, took the 1:30am home to Pamplona and arrived at 6:30am into Pamplona on Sunday. After traveling, almost straight since Friday night. I was tired. Slept all day Sunday and not here I am!