NYC
First stop NYC-- After navigating the city train system we
met our friend, Marie, from Ireland but now lives in NY. We grabbed a quick
bite to eat, and then Marie took us on a quick NY tour! We walked through
Central Park, Rockerfeller Center, Madison Square Gardens, St. Patrick’s
Cathedral and Times Square.
A few trains and a plane later, we had landed in Lisbon,
Portugal. We checked into our hotel then wandered down cobblestone streets to
find a suggested local restaurant. We then hopped on the double decker tour bus
to get a lay of the land. Off to bed early thanks to jet lag!
Day two started with a quick trip to the mall for some
shopping! We also toured Belem Tower and had the famous Belem cakes at the
pastry shop. Also toured The Monument to the Discoveries, took the elevator to
the top and enjoyed the view. We had a bean bag lunch then took the ferry over
to Almada to visit the Cristo Rei Statue, which was inspired by the Christ the
Redeemer statue in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Train to Faro. We stayed in Old Town and had a beautiful
view of the Marina. First day of summer concert right outside our hotel. We
drank beer and hung with the locals (although we couldn’t understand them or
the music).
The next morning, we had scheduled to meet a surf instructor
for lessons. After some confusion on directions we were late and missed him, so
enjoyed the morning walk on the beach. After we got back to the hotel, we took
a ferry that brought us to “the Beach of Shells”. The island was eco-friendly
and had only one restaurant. We ate lunch, went for a walk and relaxed on the
beach… when in Rome (or Portugal) right?? :) Dinner that night was on the streets of Faro. And Portugal vs Spain world cup
game was on… Portugal won and the streets went crazy! Dancing, singing, hanging
out of cars, waving the Portugal flag, etc. On the way back to the hotel we
noticed the celebratory victory party in the streets with beer, music, dancing,
etc. We had a good time hanging and dancing with the locals.
5am came too soon the next morning. We took a taxi to a bus
to a taxi to get to our hotel in the city center of Seville. We strolled the
beautiful town of Seville (mostly because we were lost and no one spoke
English). We went to a Flamenco show that evening and had a great time. After
the show, we had some wine and cheese at an outside cafe. We were talking about
how difficult of a time we were having finding people that spoke English, when
we hear a familiar language from the table next to us… A nice couple from
Illinois! We ended up pulling our tables together and sharing many more bottles
of wine with them and had a great time hearing about their travels.
We had another early morning starting with a taxi to the bus
station (although due to the language barrier he brought us to the TRAIN
station). After finding someone that could help communicate with our driver we
were on the right track (after an hour or so detour). Because of the detour we
missed our original bus, we had to wait for the second bus to Algeciras, Spain,
in turn missing our 1:00 ferry to Morocco and had to wait for the next ferry
several hours later. The 3-hour long ferry ride was long! We had just gotten
off of a 4-hour bus ride. We had no idea what was going on the whole time on
the ferry so just sat and looked out the window until we finally saw the
northern coast of Africa! When the ferry docked in Tangier we got off with the
rest of the people, but later noticed we never got our passports stamped and
that guy had already left for the day, so we were stuck on the ferry until they
found him… luckily he wasn’t far and came back to stamp our passports (mind you
he wasn’t in the best of mood when he saw three confused Americans). But we got
it stamped and was able to take the shuttle to customs where our driver for the
week Yousef, was there to meet us and we both actually gave a loud sign and
Julie jumped for joy! It was starting to get dark but we still had an hour
drive ahead of us to Chefchouen, Morocco, situated in the Rif mountains. We enjoyed
a chicken tagine dinner at a local restaurant then called it a night after a
VERY long day!
We awoke to a beautiful view of the ‘blue’ city! We ate breakfast on the terrace (eggs, crepes, olives, jelly, coffee, mint tea). After breakfast, we explored the city on foot. Chefchaouen is covered in all shades of blue paint. You’ll find blue spreading across the streets, the walls, and even inside the homes on nearly every street and alleyway. It’s not hard to figure out why Chefchaouen is often called “The Blue Pearl of Morocco.”
After we left to visit the ancient Roman ruins of Volubilis.
Built in a fertile agricultural area, it was developed from the 3rd century BC
onwards. It grew rapidly under Roman rule from the 1st century AD onwards and
expanded to cover about 100 acres. The city gained a number of major public
buildings in the 2nd century, including a basilica, temple and triumphal arch.
Its prosperity, which was derived principally from olive growing, prompted the
construction of many fine town-houses with large mosaic floors. The town fell
to local tribes around 285 and was never retaken by Rome because of its
remoteness and indefensibility on the south-western border of the Roman
Empire.
Next stop, Fes- After the long ride to Fes, Julie decided to
relax and go to bed early (smart), but Mary and Holly thought It would be fun
to go explore the Fez medina by themselves! They got lost in the winding
un-named streets in the medina, hesitant to follow any locals down a dark alley
back to the riad, they called on Julie to save the day! Julie had to go ask the
nice young man that worked at the riad for help finding her sisters. After
several minutes of them giving us clues as to where they were we found them
pretty far from our riad sitting on the street corner terrified. We woke up to
another big breakfast at the riad, we left to explore the Fes median with
Yousef, our guide. The people were so nice to us and loved the fair skinned
Americans… They could sure dish out some complements. Youself thought we may be
offended by them however we enjoyed it while it lasted. We even offered camels
for marriage. Julie getting the largest offer of 5,000 camels. We visited a rug
shop and after a lot of negotiating Mary walked away with a beautiful rug and
got a deal… free reverse side! J
We visited a pottery/mosaic manufacturing company, textile company that died
the silk/wool/cotton and made scarfs, then a tannery (armed with a mint leaf
each to fight off the smell). The hides were soaked in pigeon poop and
limestone to easily remove the hair, then died and manufactured into purses,
shoes, chairs, etc. Later that afternoon we decided to enjoy an authentic haam
(Moroccan bath). Let’s just say we were fully thrown into the experience. For a
culture that mandates to cover so much of your skin, they sure didn’t have the
same rules for within the haam! We became one with Morocco that day, like it or
not, right Holly! :) We
then went for smoothies and dessert at Youself house and got to meet more of
his family.
After a very long drive from Fes, we finally made it to the
Sahara! We met up with our guide that would drive us out to our tent in the
desert. We were able to get a close look on how the nomads lived. After a nice
cup of hot mint tea (in the 100+ degree weather… haven’t these people heard of
iced tea??) we were able to hop on the camels for a sunset ride into the
Sahara! With the help of our guides we rode for about an hour. We stopped for a
brief while and were able to run up one of the dunes and enjoy the scenery for
a while. We were then hit by a sand storm! At first, we thought it was no big
deal until we realized that with all the sand it was pretty difficult to
breath! Our guide huddled around us and wrapped us in their garments to protect
us. After the storm, we went “Berber skiing” with our guides (being pulled down
the dunes while sitting on a blanket). We then rode to our tent.
This was not exactly the tent we had envisioned. This ‘tent’
had three bedrooms, with full size beds, a dining room, large open sitting area
and bathroom (with toilet/sink/shower, with little water pressure, but who’s
complaining?), OK, so we weren’t roughing it! J
We went back to the main tent for dinner due to the sandstorm then our guide
took us on a moonlit walk in the desert. We woke up super early to walk back up
the dunes to see the sun rise! BEAUTIFUL!! After the sun rise we went back to
our tent and had a full breakfast waiting on us…
After our 4x4 drive out of the desert we stopped at a fossil
shop where they make tables and souvenirs out of fossils and took a quick tour.
Yousef took us off the beaten path to visit a friend of his
that lives in a Kasbah. We got to visit with a nice man named Dachir and he
gave us a tour of his house and the Kasbah so we could experience the real
Morocco. He pulled up water from a well inside their main living area for us to
cool soak our hands and feet to cool off…
On our drive to our next stop we passed through the
beautiful Todra Gorge.
Our next stop on the way to Marrakesh was in a quiet town of
Ouarzazate which was owned by a nice French couple... which means
they offered WINE!!! :) And Holly's salad came with FRESH fish! Lol
Continuing onward to Marrakesh and through the High Atlas
Mountains we stopped to tour Atlas Film studio. Films such as Gladiator, Jewel
of the Nile, The Mummy, Babel, etc. were filmed. Holly was not feeling well so
Mary and Julie took the tour while Holly slept in the van.
We also toured Ait Ben Haddou which is a beautiful backdrop
for a lot of movies filmed in Morocco. It was HOT, but we climbed every
last step!
After making it to Marrakesh late we decided to spend our
first day relaxing on the beach of Essaouira! On the way there we passed
a tree full of goats... yes, a tree full of goats! These goats climb the
Argan tree to eat the fruit. We also got the opportunity to stop by
an Argan Oil co-op and help make the oil. The beach was nice and
windy...
The next several days in Marrakeash were spent shopping and
hanging out at Jemaa el Fna market.
