Spain - 22/10/2006: Part 2 - the goods.

So here it is...the long-awaited, highly-anticipated nun story. There's so much presure built up now I hope I don't disappoint.

As I believe I said before, there was really only one thing I wanted to do while I was in Madrid, and that was to find the cloistered nuns and buy some cookies from them. There's really no need to review what I said last time...so I'll just start where I left off last time.

Just like I promised, we found the correct door rather easily. There a few steps one must go through in order to recieve and enjoy the goodies.


Step 1. Finding the right door and pushing the right button.

Step 2. Once inside the convent, there is a little hallway that leads to the turnstile where the goods are recieved. Behind the turnstile is a nun (this is an assumption, since you can't actually see the person you're interacting with). The idea is to tell her what kind of baked good you want, place the money in the turnstile.


Step 3. The turnstile turns (likey-doo), the money disappears, and the treats appear! (This makes all little boys and Dougs happy)


Step 4. Of course, with cookies in hand, you can't wait until getting back to the hotel or hostel to dig in to the bag. Luckily, the nuns have a nice little bench for people to sit on that's perfect for eating cookies.


Step 5. EAT THE COOKIES!!!!




The trick is to make the bag last for more than one sitting. It's rather difficult, but we manged to get the cookies back to the hostel for everyone else to give them a try. I had talked this place up so much that everyone was pretty excited to try the treats. And they were delicious, and well worth the trouble to find.

I Kissed a Prostitute

It may be a little while before I can finish the Madrid story. But I remember another story from my most recent trip to Casablanca that I think I should tell.

I went to Casa last weekend to get a new external hard drive. During the week prior I had asked several friends to go with me, but they all had other plans, so I had planned on going by myself. After all, I new where I needed to go, I knew of a good hotel, and it couldn't have hurt to have time alone anyway. I just wanted to go for the night. I would get there Friday night, get up early Saturday, find a hard drive, and take the train back to Meknes in the afternoon. Things never go as planne.

First, Rachel's plans changed. She decided she didn't want to spend all weekend away from campus, like she had planned. So she joined me. Two is a good number. She can keep me company. Then, I ran into Justin. He and Christian had planned to spending the weekend in Rabat, but decided they'd rather go to Casa with me. Four is managable. At least we could pair up and I'd be able to get what I needed done. Plus, they planned on staying all weekend, so we wouldn't have to try to organize a departure time. Then I talked to John. He and Cassie had planned on going to Casa and asked if they could tag along. Six people.

We all planned on meeting outside of the cafeteria at 3pm. We were waiting for John and Cassie to show up. Christina was decided to call John to see where they were, but as she went for her phone, John called. He said that he and Cassie would meet at the train station in Meknes. They were going to leave a little later so they could ride with Tyler and Marnie. 8 people. So long nice relaxing day trip to Casablanca.

Don't get me wrong. I LOVE all of these people. They are a lot of fun. But I was looking forward to a nice, quiet, quick trip to Casablanca.

Once we got settled into our hotels in Casa, we decided to find a place to eat. Christina had heard of a good mexican restaurant by the Twin Center that we decided to go to. Once we got there (it was hard to miss as it had a giant neon sign in front that read "MEXICO") I noticed a guy laying face-down on the sidewalk in front of the place. My immediate thought was "Nice. Just like Mexico!" I pointed him out to Tyler, without saying a word. Tyler walked up to him to check on him. He crouched down, nudged the guy, and asked him he was okay. The guy, who was breathing rather heavily replied in a winded tone "Shut-up". We took this as a hint that he didn't to be bother, so we walked up to the restaurant. We were greeted by the owner of the restaurant. We told him about the guy on the ground and HE went over to check on him, as he was obviously concerned about having a situation in front of his establishment. The man leaned down, said a few things, then ran into the building saying "He's Diabetic!".

As it turns out, he wasn't telling Tyler to "Shut-Up", but was saying "Sugar". We stood there knowing what to do when the man emerged from the restaurant with a bowl of sugar and a glass of water. By this time another man had stopped to see what was happening. They sat him up and supported him as he was too weak to sit up by himself. I can honestly say that I have never seen anyone devour a bowl of sugar like that before. The amazing thing is how he began to come alive after he got the sucrose into his system. Tyler, feeling VERY bad for misunderstanding the boy, (by this time we had seen that he was young, no older than 18) was over helping the other men. After a while he was feelng better. But to make sure he was going to be okay, we brought him inside with us so we could keep an eye on him. He sat with us and we bought him a meal.

It turned out he was from Rabat and was in Casa to find a clinic that gave out free medicine to diabetics. I'm not sure if he was homeless or not, but it certainly didn't sound like he had a home or system of support in Rabat. He wasn't able to find the clinic so we helped him finger through a phonebook to find the address. Well, we didn't have any luck finding it, and he decided to just go back to Rabat in the morning. We gave him some money for the bus ride and parted ways after the meal.

We all felt really bad for him, but were pretty helpless. He didn't speak English, and none of us spoke his dialect very well so we were also limited in communicating with him. However, when we left he was looking a lot better, and he took a bottle of sugar water with him to avoid another such episode.

After eating, we wanted to go to Rick's Cafe (from the movie "Casablanca"). I had been there on my previous trip to Casa and was okay with going again. It's a nice place, and my only criteria for the night was to find Bailey's and Cubans, which Rick's had. But when we got to Rick's, it was closed. So, I suggested going to the Hyatt, which is the other place I was sure had Bailey's and Cubans. It was closed too. Lame. Apparantly this particular city with the population of over 3million shuts down after midnight.

Rachel remembered a club down the street that was open late the last time she was in Casa. We followed her a couple of blocks to a loud night club with large-ish bouncers at the front door. I was sure I wasn't going to get in, but we walked right passed them and into the dark club. We found a booth to sit at and were greeted by an old Spaniard. I asked him is they had Bailey's and Cuban Cigars. He said "yes", or the equivalent to, and left. He came back with a full, unopened bottle of Bailey's and asked me for 850dirhams (approximately $100). I nearly shat myself. He then showed us a "menu" (a printed piece of paper with prices on it) which confirmed that price of the entire bottle of the liqour. Upon reviewing the sheet, we found that a beer was 80dirhams (about $10) and the rest of the drinks following suit. I than asked him about the cigar. I can't recall the exact price, but it was also ridiculous.

For some reason John felt compelled to order a $10 beer. So we sat and waited for it to come. After the man left the table with his order, I noticed a girl standing by our table. I was sitting at the end of the table, leaving myself wide-open to introduction. She leaned over, grabbed my hand as if to shake it, and kissed both of my cheeks. This is custom in Morocco and is the equivalent to a hand-shake in American culture. She then proceeded to do the same with everyone at the table. She didn't say a word, but just kind of looked at me. Tyler then noticed that she was showing off her stomach. She was a prostitute. I kissed a prostitute.

The situation was pretty awkward. I feel more so for her than for any of us, as we were just able to ignore her, which we did. She eventually left, found a more accomodating young chap, and proceeded to make-out with him. Well, John finished his over-priced beer and we left. The night was over. We all walked back to the hotel, went to our rooms, and went to sleep.

The next day, after much looking, I found an external hard drive, and Rachel and I left Casablanca by 5pm, and I kissed a prostitute.

Spain - 22/10/2006. Part 1.

The details of the trip are already starting to get a little hazy. It's been over a week since I got back and almost two weeks since I was in Madrid. Here's what I remember:

We didn't have much time to recover from the "Mad-Ride" the next morning. We had to be out of our hostel by 11pm. This meant not only waking up early (or, what felt early since we didn't get back to the hostel until after 4am) but also lugging my enormous suitcase through the city again. I'm not sure if I mentioned this earlier, but before we left I had a "brilliant" idea. Since Brittany and I were going to sticking together for the duration of the trip, and all I had for luggage were my giant suitcases, I decided that Brittany could just share one of mine, therefore we aren't dragging two suitcases, two backpacks, and other random bags around Spain. Where my plan failed was in the fact that my suitcase would be FULL with stuff, enough for two people for one hole week plus whatever we happened to purchase, and of course I would be the one carrying it the whole time.

We had a little difficulty finding the next hostel we were to be staying at. We didn't have an address, only that it was 100 meters from the metro. One of many things it didn't say was that the metro stop was in the middle of the city and there were several hostels within 100 meters. It also didn't help that it wasn't visible from the metro, as we had to walk 100 meters down the street, take a left, then walk another half block to find it. Oh, it was raining also.

Once we found our hostel, everyone decided to go out. I, however, wanted to stay in for the night and get some reading done. Much to the displeasure of everyone else, I did just that.

The next day I set out to find the ONE thing I wanted to see while in Madrid. There is a convent in the Plaza del Conde de Miranda that I had heard about. The convent (if I remember correctly it was the Convento De Monte Cristo) houses cloistered nuns who well baked goods for raise money. It is hard to find, but once you do find it It's supposed to be worth the search.
So the next morning I set out by myself with a map in hand to find the convent.

It took a while, but I finally found the right door, with a little help from a local bag-lady. Giddy with anticipation, I pushed the button to get let in...and nothing happened. The little bag-lady urged me to push it again, and I did. Again, nothing happened. Another lady who was passing by suggested that they wouldn't let me in since they were having mass. I then noticed the sign that I had previously overlooked which said that they were effectively closed between 1pm and 4pm for services. It was 1:20. So I decided this was a good time to do some more wondering.

I worked my way back to the hostel where I found Kendra. She had been out on her own as well and returned from a disappointing trip to a museum that was also closed. I told her that I had found the convent and we decided to go out together to see some more sights and eventually end up back at the convent.

We set off to the Plaza Real which is home to an emaculate cathedral and the royal palace. We first went to the cathedral and were very impressed by the lay-out and decoration. Unfortunately my camera battery decided to die, so I wasn't able to get too many pictures, but I did manage to squeeze out a few:







I always feel so bad because my words and photos can never sufficiently show how amazing these places are. They are so big, breath-taking, and awe-inspiring. But this is what I have to work with so it will have to suffice until you yourselves can come see these amazing accomplishments in architechture and history.

After we left the Plaza Real, Kendra and I set to find the nuns again, Having been there once already we were able to find it easily. This time, we got in...

...to be continued...