Spain - 21/10/2006

MADRID


Brittany and I got to Madrid around 10am that morning. This was our first sign of true Western civilization for almost two months. We got a cab to the hostel we were staying at (Hostel Ole)


There we met up with the rest of our party (Kendra, Natalie, and Rachel. They had already been there for a full day, since they took the non-adventurist route, (aka wussies) and flew into Mardid Saturday morning. We sent out to explore Madrid. The first order of business was to get food. Kenrda went off on her own while the rest of us got some good old fashioned American cuisine, i.e. KFC and Burger King, AND I got to eat a donut for the first time since I left the U.S. (mmmmmmmmm).
(The gals)

After lunch, Rachel, Natalie, Kendra, Brittany and I went to the Museo Nacional Del Prado to get out fill of culture. The museum was beautiful and we spent about an hour there. I don't have any photos due to the fact that we weren't allowed to pictures from the inside, and it was raining pretty hard on the outside. After the Mueso Del Prado we walked to another museum, which was closed.

(Outside the closed museum figuring out what to do next)

We had time to kill, but had plans on going to a bull fight later that evening. So we killed time by shopping and visiting the Plaza Mayor. Plaza Mayor is a huge plaza constructed in the 1600's which held "open market, jousting, and public hanging". As far as I know, there is no longet public hangings in the plaza, but there are quite a few shops and artists around the plaza, and apparently, when the weather is nice, the plaza is filled with tables and chairs occupied by people enjoying the sun, food, and drinks. However, when we were in Spain it was chilly, cloudy, and rainy. So the plaza was virtually dead.
(The archway in the middle of the picture is one of several portals into the Plaza)
(Plaza Mayor)
(Plaza Mayor)

After the Plaza, we set off to the bullfight. We were pretty excited to see this event, and had purchased our tickets online prior to the show. We on the metro (subway), got lost, found two nice little old ladies to help us, got back on the metro, got to the arena, and found out the bullfight had been canceled due to the weather. We were pretty upset. There wasn't another fight scheduled for the remainder of our time in Madrid, so we got refunds and found the nearest pub to drink our sorrows away.
(The lines for refunds in front of the arena)

That night, we had plans to partake in a "Pub Crawl" from Madride. The Crawl included: 3 Mad-guides, 4 Mad-bars, 4 Mad-free shots, 1 free admission to a Mad-dance club, and a night to remember forever. The guides were Gary (an Irish lad), Fernando (a mexican lothario) and Isabella (not really her name, but for some reason I can't remember it-a Spanish dame of unspeakable cuteness). I won't go into details since they aren't of any great consequence, but we did have fun. We met at the "Bear" in one of the plazas, and went on the pub crawl with some other Americans from the Boston-area, who were on break from their university in Scottland, and a few random locals.

(Natalie, Rachel, Brittany, Kendra)

(The Mad-Guides)

The final bar on the crawl was a salsa club, which Brittany, Natalie, and I didn't make it to. After the third bar we had had enough of the Madridian night-life and decided to call it a night. However, Kendra and Rachel went to the club, and aside from Fernando trying to make-out with them, they had a good time also.

P.S. Kendra DID get me to dance, albeit for a very brief moment. Don't worry, no one got hurt.

Spain - 20/10/2006

O Espania! How I love thee.
I don't even know where to start. the begining it typically a good place, but it's so bland compared to the rest of the week. Of course I am tainted by having the actual experience and most of you have no idea what I've been doing for the past 9 days, so it's only fair to get you caught up. So here it, the begining:

No trip is worth the time if one doesn't encounter obstacles and problems along the way. These normal occurances make the good times so much better and help one to keep perspective. We encountered a few problems. Some small, some big, but none were impossible to overcome.

20/10/2006 - The trip began slowly. I got done with class at 1pm and went to my dorm to pack. I never pack before the day of travel. The orginal plan was for Brittany and I to go it alone, but we picked up Peter and Christoph along the way. We met up at the cafeteria around 3:30 and took off. We had to switch trains in Sidi Kacem (which will come into play again later, so remember that name) and had some time to kill while waiting for the train which continues on to Tangier.
Here's us...waiting for the train to show up.
Peter showing Brittany some love.

We got to Tangier around 11pm and found a room for the night. The hotel we stayed at was called the Hotel Gibraltor, which was more of a Hostel than a Hotel.

This is the man who ran the hostel that night. I can't remember his name, but he was really nice...much like most Moroccans.
Here is a view of Tangier from our balcony the next morning.

I went to bed early, but Peter, Christoph (aka "Germany"), and Brittany went out to see if they could find food and beer. From what I gathered, they were able to find food, but didn't have any luck with the beer, which could have something to with the fact that they were in a Muslim country, looking for beer, during Ramadan.

The next day we went to the ferries. Brittany, Germany and I took the same ferry to Algeceras and Peter got on a ferry to Tarifa.
Tangier

This is also where we encounter our first problem. None of us had eaten, and I hadn't had any food since the previous afternoon. We simply figured that we would get food on the ferry. Luckily there was a cafe on the ferry. Un-luckily they didn't take Dirhams...of which we had plenty, and only took Euros, of which Germany had 6. We were so hungry and disappointed but Germany was gracious enough to share his wealth. So, after much discussion we made a decision to spend our precious euros as wisely as possible:
3 beers = 6 Euros...perfect! (Brittany packed the crackers before we left Ifrane)
Germany caught doing some air-guitar.

The ferry ride was amazing. My whole experience here being one of many firsts (flying, seeing the ocean, leaving the continent, etc...) it is only appropriate that this be the first time that I ride a boat of this size across the first sea I've ever crossed into Spain (a country and continent that I have never visited). I spent a lot of time on the deck watching the deep blue water and the many frieghter ships in the strait. I honestly cannot describe what it felt like to be on that boat.
After about an hour, we got to Algeceras


Once in Algeceras, Germany got on a bus to Portugal and Brittany and I found a cab to the train station. This is where we encounter problem #2.

I am a little better than Brittany when speaking the Arabic language. This is only due to the fact that I have had one more year of the language than she has. She took 3 or 4 years of French in high school, and I took a year or two of Spanish. We figured that between the between the two of us, we should be able to muster up enough foreign languages to get about anywhere. We were wrong. First of all, our combined skills in French and Arabic did absolutely no good in Spain. Second of all, you'd be amazed at how many people in Spain DON'T speak English. Third, I suck at Spanish. We waltzed up to the ticket counter to get tickets to Madrid, which was easy enough. The man at the counter understood the word "Madrid", and due to the fact that we were in a train station he was able to assume that we wanted tickets for a train to Madrid. We were able to understand what he said as well: "9:45, Madrid 9:15", which we took to mean that the train left Algeceras at 9:45 that night, and go to Madrid at 9:15 the next morning. However, the time was only 4pm and we didn't feel like waiting 5 hours. We tried to find out if we could catch an earlier train, or a train "rapido" (rapid train). He knew that we wouldn't understand the reasoning, so he simply shook his head and said "no". Meanwhile, a French who was going the same direction as us was trying to tell us something in French, which is also when Brittany realized that she had forgotten almost all the French she had learned in high school.

We came to terms with the fact that we weren't going anywhere until 9:45 that night, and decided to get settled in. We found a locker to put our bag in and figured we'd go out to see the town. Before we left though, I went outside of the station and found an "official" looking man ("official" because he was wearing a neon yellow vest with a word similar to the english word "security" on the back), and attempted to get more travel information from him. He spoke a little more english, and was more than happy to tell us why we couldn't catch an earlier train, or a train "rapido". He said: "Yes, there is a rapid train, but there's one problem". He had my full attention. He decided that body language told the story better, put his arm out in front of him, with his fingers together and his hand perpendicular to the ground, moved it forward a few inches as if it is a moving train, and then flopped his hand over so his palm was parallel to the ground. I immediately knew what he was telling me...the train crashed, and there was no way we were going to be able to get on that train tonight, or anyday soon. He was also able to tell me that we had to take a bus to a town two hours away from Algeceras, and take a train the rest of the night to Madrid. With this information, Brittany and I decided it would be best to get a meal, maybe a couple of cervesas, and do a little exploring. So, we did.

We made our way back to the train station, boarded the bus that was waiting for us outside the depot, and left Algeceras. We sat in the back and had some great conversation. We got to the town we were going to. We boarded the train around 11pm, found our car, and slept until Madrid.

Casablanca

Casablance is a great city. It is not my favorite, but it is great. I have some good stories from the trip, many of which I plan on posting for you all to read. But I am not ready to get into them just yet. First, some pictures:















Casablance is a great city. It is not my favorite, but it is great. I have some good stories from the trip, many of which I plan on posting for you all to read. But I am not ready to get into them just yet. First, some pictures:

Sefrou

My anthropology class requires that the students form groups and to an "antropological" study in the town of Sefrou. We went to Sefrou this last Saturday to do this study. My group, made of Soumaya, Ali, and myself, chose to a study on the importance of education in Morocco, and chose elementary school children as parents of children in school as the participants of our study. IN order to conduct this study, we were allowed to visit children in the classroom setting and interview them. We visted two different classes: a fifth grade and a sixth grade class. The study was a lot of fun. I don't speak that well yet, so I didn't get to interview the children, but while Ali and Soumaya were questioning the kids, I sat in the front of the classroom taking picture and attempting to hold a conversation with a few of the kids. There's something rather humbling about talking to a child who can communicate better than myself, a 27 years old college student.
We had a lot of fun. I wasn't looking forward to the trip, but found myself enjoying almost every moment of it (the van ride sucked...big time. Let's just say that the people of Morocco are smaller than your typical American, especially one as sizable as me.)
The kids were great and really liked having us there. I could tell that they hadn't seen too many Americans, as all of them couldn't take their eyes off me. They were very polite, curious, and mishievous, especailly when their teacher wasn't looking.

We walked to the medina to find some adult subjects to talk to. While we there I was accosted on two different occasions. First, while Soumaya and Ali were talking to a lady with a child just outside the medina, an old man came up to me and just looked at me. Being the polite young chap that I am, I said "Salaam" and shook his hand. He took my hand, and would't let go. So I continued to talk, telling him that I am American and I study in Ifrane. Soumaya saw me talking to him and came over to explain more what we were doing there. They started talking, and after a bit she had to lead me away. Apparently he was telling her how much he likes me.
The second instance happened a little deeper in the Medina. We ran into some other students from our class and we stood talking about how things we going with our studies. Out of nowhere, a little, old, toothless lady came up to me and starting talking and hugging me. She would hug me, let go, say something, and hug me again. Soumaya and some of the other students told me she kept saying "God bless you."

After we got back to the meeting spot, I told my instructor of the of the experience. That on two serpate occassions with two different peple, I was admired and loved by complete strangers. He mentioned that it was probably because of the fact that the Peace Corps sends people to Sefrou a lot. I told him it was definately my natural lure and North Dakot charm. What can I say? People just love me!

Here's some pictures: