A series of emails sent to friends from Spain, in November, 2005:
Gibraltor is really cool. It is in the south part of Spàin, and is actually part of Great Britain. For hundreds of years everybody has been fighting over it because it´s right at the entrance of the Mediterranean, and it´s this huge rock that you can see every ship coming and going from there. So Spain is kind of sore about the fact that G.B. still owns it, but G.B´s not going to give it up any time soon.
It´s a huge mountain, and there are all these tunnels carved into it. The military used to hide in there and shoot cannons at ships and stuff. At the entrance of the rock, there are tons and tons of monkeys around. You could let the monkeys sit on your head. I wouldn´t because I just knew there would be pee and poop on their feet. I got lots of pictures of the monkeys, they´re really cute.
In Gibraltor, you have to use British pounds to pay for stuff, and they have those red phone booths, and people speak English. It´s cool. It rained the whole day, so after we toured the rock we went shopping. We had to buy umbrellas. They call them broleys.
When we got here we were so tired from travelling that everything was super hilarious. We were all walking into the lobby and Alason did a little dance for me, and I was laughing because there were people in the lobby that Alason didn´t see, so I said, ¨hey Alason are you going to do a nice little dance for these two ladies?¨ But when she moved to the side I saw it was actually a lady and a man sitting there. I couldn´t stop laughing.
We spent today shopping. Wouldn´t you know that Alason has been finding all kinds of awesome stuff, and I came up bust? It´s not fair. These sizes are all off, and it makes you feel chubby because you have to buy stuff almost 3 or 4 sizes bigger than normal.
I´ll try to write more later. If you want to email me later, use krazykady@hotmail.com
and remember, If I die, I loved you the best.
p.s. I think we´re staying in a retirement community. Everybody´s really OLD and CRABBY.
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
Spain 2
Well, Morrocco was the armpit of the world. Let me tell you, we almost burned the clothes we were wearing.
First of all, the trip was SUPPOSED to take about 2 hours. 1 hour to the port, and 1 hour on the ferry. It was SUPPOSED to be about 18 Euros, or $22. Well when we got there, the shortest ferry was 2 and a half hours and cost 32 Euros per person, each way. So that was $75 per person. Then when we got there, it looked so beautiful from the ferry. We get off, and immediately are whisked away by this guy who looked like a guard. He had a wool trenchcoat and a laminated name badge, and told us that to get back across the ferry on the way home, we would need yellow immigration cards. We had to fill out white ones on the ferry on the way there, so we followed him. But then we realized we were the only people he took aside so we said, no thanks, and left. He was trying to sell us a tour.
So then not a minute later, another dude acosted us and tried to sell us a walking tour for 10 Euros for everybody. We didn´t want to go on any tours. He followed us for a mile. No joke, a whole mile, talking the whole time about his tour. He woudn´t leave us alone even when we completely ignored him. So then we were really stressed out by the time we got off the dock and to the entrance gate to Tangier, Morrocco. Look it up on the internet. Anyways, we just left him there and started walking through the streets. I wish I could describe to you how I felt. I guess I felt hated. There were no women on the street. All the men were staring at me. I didn´t know if it was because we were literally the only white (American/British-looking) people anywhere, or because we were women without our heads covered, or what, but it was so uncomfortable. I wanted to take a picture. But I felt very very uncomfortable so I didn´t. The stores were all next to eachother and we didn´t want to go in them. I took my scarf eventually and wrapped it around my head. That made me feel a lot less stared at, but then I started to feel uncomfortable in a different way, like I didn´t want to offend any body religiously, so I took it off. It´s so hard to describe - it was just awful. That´s when we stumbled into the meat market. The most disgusting place I have ever been to. Ever. Including the worst thing you can even think of. Double the worse part and then triple it. It smelled like you´re imagining right now. There was blood runoff and guts at our feet. All the meat was out in the open and smelled so gross. We hightailed it out of there and walked some more. We ended up in a much better part of town and ate at a - drum roll please - Pizza Hut. Yes, at Pizza Hut. But I was never more happy to see that symbol, that American symbol than I was yesterday. Wow. And the pizza was super good. Amazing. The server put out paper plates in front of us and turned the plates properly so the logo was facing each person.
Anyways, after that we decided to take a little walk and try to make our way back to the ferry, since we did NOT want to miss it. Our ferry was supposed to leave at 9:30pm...
to be continued.
First of all, the trip was SUPPOSED to take about 2 hours. 1 hour to the port, and 1 hour on the ferry. It was SUPPOSED to be about 18 Euros, or $22. Well when we got there, the shortest ferry was 2 and a half hours and cost 32 Euros per person, each way. So that was $75 per person. Then when we got there, it looked so beautiful from the ferry. We get off, and immediately are whisked away by this guy who looked like a guard. He had a wool trenchcoat and a laminated name badge, and told us that to get back across the ferry on the way home, we would need yellow immigration cards. We had to fill out white ones on the ferry on the way there, so we followed him. But then we realized we were the only people he took aside so we said, no thanks, and left. He was trying to sell us a tour.
So then not a minute later, another dude acosted us and tried to sell us a walking tour for 10 Euros for everybody. We didn´t want to go on any tours. He followed us for a mile. No joke, a whole mile, talking the whole time about his tour. He woudn´t leave us alone even when we completely ignored him. So then we were really stressed out by the time we got off the dock and to the entrance gate to Tangier, Morrocco. Look it up on the internet. Anyways, we just left him there and started walking through the streets. I wish I could describe to you how I felt. I guess I felt hated. There were no women on the street. All the men were staring at me. I didn´t know if it was because we were literally the only white (American/British-looking) people anywhere, or because we were women without our heads covered, or what, but it was so uncomfortable. I wanted to take a picture. But I felt very very uncomfortable so I didn´t. The stores were all next to eachother and we didn´t want to go in them. I took my scarf eventually and wrapped it around my head. That made me feel a lot less stared at, but then I started to feel uncomfortable in a different way, like I didn´t want to offend any body religiously, so I took it off. It´s so hard to describe - it was just awful. That´s when we stumbled into the meat market. The most disgusting place I have ever been to. Ever. Including the worst thing you can even think of. Double the worse part and then triple it. It smelled like you´re imagining right now. There was blood runoff and guts at our feet. All the meat was out in the open and smelled so gross. We hightailed it out of there and walked some more. We ended up in a much better part of town and ate at a - drum roll please - Pizza Hut. Yes, at Pizza Hut. But I was never more happy to see that symbol, that American symbol than I was yesterday. Wow. And the pizza was super good. Amazing. The server put out paper plates in front of us and turned the plates properly so the logo was facing each person.
Anyways, after that we decided to take a little walk and try to make our way back to the ferry, since we did NOT want to miss it. Our ferry was supposed to leave at 9:30pm...
to be continued.
Spain 3
...So the last ferry was supposed to leave at 9:30. We had originally planned on getting on that ferry. We figured it would be perfect since we got to Morroco at 4:10 pm. Well once we realized how much we absolutely didn´t want to be there, we went back to the port to attempt to get on an earlier ferry. Well, nobody in Morroco speaks English or Spanish, and we of course do not speak Arabic, so we were afraid that we would be too confused to communicate what we wanted. We saw a man with the jacket of our ferry company´s name on it. We flagged him over and he was so helpful and got us some yellow immigration cards (for free) and we filled them out. He was acting like we should really hurry, so we filled out the cards lickety split and got our passport stamped (for the third time, once on the ferry on the way, once at the port when we got there, and then now). So here we are, running like so fast, down this long long dock trying to get on this boat. Only the boat doesn´t have the name of the original company on it. It says something totally different. The man taking tickets has a handful of ripped tickets that look nothing like ours. We basically got on the boat, and shoved our tickets in his face and kept walking. We felt so lucky to be on that boat. This was around 7pm. I´m a little confused, because Morroco was behind Spain by one hour, so forgive my confusion about the times. So we get on the boat, and there is not one available seat. Every single seat on the boat is occupied by a Morrocan person, picking their nose and not having showered for 8 months. That´s how it smelled anyways. Alason and I sat outside for a while, knowing it would get much too cold. We decided to get a cabin. It was 50 Euros, or $62, but we only had like $27. The woman took it. This cabin had 4 tiny bunkbeds with filthy sheets and filthy pillowcases. And a filthy wool blanket.
To be continued...
To be continued...
Spain 4
...So we were happy to have the cabin, but also scared to sit anywhere. And then a cockroach ran by Alason´s foot. That was the last straw. It was one of those situations where you just knew that you could cry any moment, but you end up laughing out loud. Keri, I´m glad you weren´t there.
When we were walking down the street in Tangier, I leaned over to Alason and said, ¨I have the feeling the worst part of our day hasn´t happened yet.¨ And I was right.
So our boat is sitting at the dock, not moving forever. Finally it starts going and we leave. We joke that our last 9:30 ferry probably would get to Spain before us. Then after the 2 1/2 hours, we get to the bay of Algeciras, where we are supposed to get off the boat, and after maybe 20 minutes, we realized we weren´t moving at all. Keep in mind, we are standing in our cabin. I just wasn´t willing to touch those beds. At all. We stood almost the whole way. There wasn´t even a safe place to sit. Ew.
Ok, so long story short, (too late) our ferry sat in that bay for an hour. Which totally sucked. Then it was finally time to get off the boat. So we went into this area where everybody was in line to get off the boat. They all had suitcases and luggage, like in the airport. So there were hundreds of people crowded around a 3 foot opening where the door was supposed to open. We stood there for about 30 minutes. No exaggerations here. People were pushing and shoving. We were at the very back of the crowd. We found a short cut to the front of the line and we took it. I felt guilty, but I also had to get off that boat! We had no luggage. We should have been able to negotiate our way out the door quickly. Wrong. We were pushed and pushed and shoved and everybody was screaming at eachother. I thought for sure when the door opened somebody would be smooshed to death. Like at a soccer game.
Finally we got out of the boat. Two little girls pushed into us so bad, we had to push back. Then we got off the boat, and ran and ran and budged in front of whole families. We were crazy to get out of there. We were almost first in line at the passport area. And I got my fourth stamp there. I paid $150 for 4 stamps in my passport, 2 hours in Morroco, and 8 hours on a dirty gross ferry.
I think in hindsight, we only got to really see the area right near the harbor. Tangier is probably a very lovely city, with lovely people. We just didn´t plan it properly and ended up having a really bad impression of everything. Our hotel offers a day trip to Morroco with camel riding, etc. That would have been the ticket. I´m just such a snob about tours, and prefer to explore things on my own. I will reconsider next time before I do it where I don´t speak the language. We are on our way home, I´ll probably finish the journal once we get home. We had an awesome Thursday and Friday, I´ll tell you all about it later.
When we were walking down the street in Tangier, I leaned over to Alason and said, ¨I have the feeling the worst part of our day hasn´t happened yet.¨ And I was right.
So our boat is sitting at the dock, not moving forever. Finally it starts going and we leave. We joke that our last 9:30 ferry probably would get to Spain before us. Then after the 2 1/2 hours, we get to the bay of Algeciras, where we are supposed to get off the boat, and after maybe 20 minutes, we realized we weren´t moving at all. Keep in mind, we are standing in our cabin. I just wasn´t willing to touch those beds. At all. We stood almost the whole way. There wasn´t even a safe place to sit. Ew.
Ok, so long story short, (too late) our ferry sat in that bay for an hour. Which totally sucked. Then it was finally time to get off the boat. So we went into this area where everybody was in line to get off the boat. They all had suitcases and luggage, like in the airport. So there were hundreds of people crowded around a 3 foot opening where the door was supposed to open. We stood there for about 30 minutes. No exaggerations here. People were pushing and shoving. We were at the very back of the crowd. We found a short cut to the front of the line and we took it. I felt guilty, but I also had to get off that boat! We had no luggage. We should have been able to negotiate our way out the door quickly. Wrong. We were pushed and pushed and shoved and everybody was screaming at eachother. I thought for sure when the door opened somebody would be smooshed to death. Like at a soccer game.
Finally we got out of the boat. Two little girls pushed into us so bad, we had to push back. Then we got off the boat, and ran and ran and budged in front of whole families. We were crazy to get out of there. We were almost first in line at the passport area. And I got my fourth stamp there. I paid $150 for 4 stamps in my passport, 2 hours in Morroco, and 8 hours on a dirty gross ferry.
I think in hindsight, we only got to really see the area right near the harbor. Tangier is probably a very lovely city, with lovely people. We just didn´t plan it properly and ended up having a really bad impression of everything. Our hotel offers a day trip to Morroco with camel riding, etc. That would have been the ticket. I´m just such a snob about tours, and prefer to explore things on my own. I will reconsider next time before I do it where I don´t speak the language. We are on our way home, I´ll probably finish the journal once we get home. We had an awesome Thursday and Friday, I´ll tell you all about it later.
Spain 5
Another couple items about Morocco. I don't know how to spell it.
Just before we ate at Pizza Hut, I was beginning to get very frustrated because I brought my old garage sale camera that I take my black and white photos with, and because of being scared, hadn't taken any pictures. I just needed to be more bold and ask people if I could take their photo. The Pizza Hut was across the street from this little park area, where I saw two little boys sitting. Alason and I walked over to them and asked to take their picture. They hammed it up for me and I got just that one photo of my whole experience. Just after I took the photo, and older gentleman asked if we spoke English. We said yes, and he waved us over. He explained that in Morocco, the government doesn't care about it's people. That even if you work for many years at the same job, you can be thrown out of your home and forced to sleep on the streets. He said that the people have nothing. Morocco has riches, like the beach and the sun, but the people have nothing. He said they have gold and jewels, but only 1500 people carry all of the wealth and everybody else lives in poverty. His name was Larry. He wasn't asking for money, he just wanted to tell us how horrible the conditions are. He said that he worked for 14 years in Gibraltor and then lost his passport and his home, and now he has nothing. So sad. Josh saw a man talking to us, and ran over from the Pizza Hut and sort of whisked us away from Larry. This world is very sad and crazy. I wish there were something I could do.
So when we got home from Morocco, we all stripped out of the clothes we were wearing and threw our shoes on the balcony of our room. We took showers that night even though we didn't get home until 2am. And by the way, the original ferry, the nicer one, it beat us to Algeciras.
On Thursday, we decided we HAD to have a better day. So we drove up to a little town in the mountains called Rhonda. It was so beautiful. There were several places to stop along the way and take pictures of the amazing views of homes built into the side of the mountain and the ocean in the background. It was awesome. Rhonda is where the bullfight was perfected. The man who first used the red sheet to lure the bull used it at the bull ring in Rhonda. There is a lot of history in that town, and it is built on this huge gorge. So we went shopping for the day and happened upon this bridge, and if you look down, you can see hundreds of feet below you. Hopefully the pictures will do it justice. I had fun using my new camera.
On Friday we went to Malaga and visited the Picasso museum and did more shopping. It was very cool to go to that museum. They have about 155 of his paintings/drawings and did an exhibit of his ceramics. I didn't even know he did pottery. It was pretty cool. We hung out in the town square and listened to several street musicians. This guy walked up to us asking for change, and in Spanish he told us about the car accident he was in. He lifted up his leg and there was this huge piece of metal sticking out. I gasped in horror. Then the waiter shooed him away. It turned my stomach to see this metal sticking out of his skin. And so I kept on eatin that meal. You know me. There was also a one eyed dog that kept on hanging around us and peed on this lady's chair leg. heh heh
I used the bathroom at this restaurant that was totally dirty, but there is this lady outside sitting by a mop and she has a tip jar out. So you have to pay her to go in the bathroom that I doubt she went in all day.
There are lots of mullets in Spain! The kids these days are dying them blonde, and there are striped mullets, I saw a really long tail. And the girls are putting so many layers in their hair, it looks like they have mullets too. It is kind of cute the way they do it, but it wouldn't fly here.
Girls were wearing super high top sneakers with their jeans rolled up or with a pair of cropped pants. We saw some Converse sneakers that were halfway up to this girls' knees. They were cute.
On the last night we were there we ate in a town called Plaza Banus near Marbella, and had the most awesome Italian meal. We were so sad to go home.
I am home right now.
Two funny things that happened today: when we returned the rental car, we hit a cement pole outside the car rental place. It made such a loud noise that the guy came outside. So there was no pretending he didn't do it.
Also, our flight from Malaga to London was delayed due to fog, so we RAN through the London airport to catch our flight to Chicago. Of course our bags didn't make it so we have to have them delivered tomorrow. But we made the flight and I'm glad we did, too because the next flight out of London wasn't until tomorrow, and we would have been stuck for another day. I am so glad to be home!
Just before we ate at Pizza Hut, I was beginning to get very frustrated because I brought my old garage sale camera that I take my black and white photos with, and because of being scared, hadn't taken any pictures. I just needed to be more bold and ask people if I could take their photo. The Pizza Hut was across the street from this little park area, where I saw two little boys sitting. Alason and I walked over to them and asked to take their picture. They hammed it up for me and I got just that one photo of my whole experience. Just after I took the photo, and older gentleman asked if we spoke English. We said yes, and he waved us over. He explained that in Morocco, the government doesn't care about it's people. That even if you work for many years at the same job, you can be thrown out of your home and forced to sleep on the streets. He said that the people have nothing. Morocco has riches, like the beach and the sun, but the people have nothing. He said they have gold and jewels, but only 1500 people carry all of the wealth and everybody else lives in poverty. His name was Larry. He wasn't asking for money, he just wanted to tell us how horrible the conditions are. He said that he worked for 14 years in Gibraltor and then lost his passport and his home, and now he has nothing. So sad. Josh saw a man talking to us, and ran over from the Pizza Hut and sort of whisked us away from Larry. This world is very sad and crazy. I wish there were something I could do.
So when we got home from Morocco, we all stripped out of the clothes we were wearing and threw our shoes on the balcony of our room. We took showers that night even though we didn't get home until 2am. And by the way, the original ferry, the nicer one, it beat us to Algeciras.
On Thursday, we decided we HAD to have a better day. So we drove up to a little town in the mountains called Rhonda. It was so beautiful. There were several places to stop along the way and take pictures of the amazing views of homes built into the side of the mountain and the ocean in the background. It was awesome. Rhonda is where the bullfight was perfected. The man who first used the red sheet to lure the bull used it at the bull ring in Rhonda. There is a lot of history in that town, and it is built on this huge gorge. So we went shopping for the day and happened upon this bridge, and if you look down, you can see hundreds of feet below you. Hopefully the pictures will do it justice. I had fun using my new camera.
On Friday we went to Malaga and visited the Picasso museum and did more shopping. It was very cool to go to that museum. They have about 155 of his paintings/drawings and did an exhibit of his ceramics. I didn't even know he did pottery. It was pretty cool. We hung out in the town square and listened to several street musicians. This guy walked up to us asking for change, and in Spanish he told us about the car accident he was in. He lifted up his leg and there was this huge piece of metal sticking out. I gasped in horror. Then the waiter shooed him away. It turned my stomach to see this metal sticking out of his skin. And so I kept on eatin that meal. You know me. There was also a one eyed dog that kept on hanging around us and peed on this lady's chair leg. heh heh
I used the bathroom at this restaurant that was totally dirty, but there is this lady outside sitting by a mop and she has a tip jar out. So you have to pay her to go in the bathroom that I doubt she went in all day.
There are lots of mullets in Spain! The kids these days are dying them blonde, and there are striped mullets, I saw a really long tail. And the girls are putting so many layers in their hair, it looks like they have mullets too. It is kind of cute the way they do it, but it wouldn't fly here.
Girls were wearing super high top sneakers with their jeans rolled up or with a pair of cropped pants. We saw some Converse sneakers that were halfway up to this girls' knees. They were cute.
On the last night we were there we ate in a town called Plaza Banus near Marbella, and had the most awesome Italian meal. We were so sad to go home.
I am home right now.
Two funny things that happened today: when we returned the rental car, we hit a cement pole outside the car rental place. It made such a loud noise that the guy came outside. So there was no pretending he didn't do it.
Also, our flight from Malaga to London was delayed due to fog, so we RAN through the London airport to catch our flight to Chicago. Of course our bags didn't make it so we have to have them delivered tomorrow. But we made the flight and I'm glad we did, too because the next flight out of London wasn't until tomorrow, and we would have been stuck for another day. I am so glad to be home!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
