December & January Travels

Since my last blog I've traveled to Lisbon & Porto, Portugal; Salamanca, Spain; and Marrakech & Essouira, Morocco.

The adventure began on Christmas Eve, Elliot and I met his parents at the airport in Lisbon.  There we rented a car and spent the week bouncing around Portugal and Spain.

We spent Christmas dinner in a quaint little Portuguese restaurant in Bairro Alto.  Our waitress had just returned from 13 years living in New Jersey.. go figure.  As usual, we met great company and had a lovely time.  Apart from Christmas dinner, we spent our time in Portugal walking until our legs wouldn't move anymore.  Luckily we had fabulous weather for the entire trip.  Everything in Portugal seemed to remind me of home.. the food, the language, people's names.. I really did grow up in little Portugal.  It definitely made me appreciate how lucky I am to have delicious Portuguese food on every corner at home.  After Lisbon we took a 30 minute trip out to Sintra to climb the walls of an old Moorish castle built in the 9th century and visit a 19th century palace.  From the top of both we had panoramic views for miles and miles over the Portuguese countryside and the Atlantic ocean.  

Next we were off to Porto, the 2nd largest city in Portugal.  It's located in the north of the country along the ocean.  Despite how far north it's located, it was quite warm while we were there.  Highlights of this stop include winding through the narrow hilly streets, watching surfers at sunset, and touring a winery of the famous port wine.  Also, we got stuck in an elevator with an operator who didn't speak English, which was slightly terrifying.. but hey it's all about the adventure.
Our 3rd stop was Salamanca, a cute little town about 3 hours north of Badajoz.  Again we encountered beautiful weather as we wound through the streets around Plaza Mayor, making stops at the major cathedrals and monasteries and enjoying the architecture.

After a 2 day break in Badajoz we were off again... but not before getting locked out on my terrace at midnight on New Year's Eve. After watching the "ball drop" in Madrid on TV, we went outside to watch the fireworks that were going off around the city.  Our sliding glass door that never wants to shut properly decides that this will be the night that it shuts, and locks.  Luckily our celebratory bottle of champagne managed to get locked out with us.  We spent nearly an hour trying to pry doors and windows open, but to no avail.  We peered over the edge of the balcony looking for potential helpful passerbys.  Finally as our last resort we started screaming our neighbor's name, and miraculously he was home at 1AM.  We had to throw our keys over to the next building, and our neighbor had to come let us into our own apartment, while we stood outside in sweatpants and slippers looking like idiots.

Okay, so after this event we were off again to beautiful Morocco, which was 3 firsts for me: first time in Africa, first time in a Muslim country, and first time in the Middle East (it counts as the Middle East- consult wikipedia).

The city of Marrakech was actually much bigger than I was expecting.  It's very traditional but pretty touristy with some high end luxury areas.  The city is surrounded on almost all sides by the Atlas mountains.  They're the highest mountains in Morocco.  It was funny to be standing in 80 degree heat and looking up at snow capped mountains just to our east.  Marrakech has a typical desert climate, very hot in the sun but cool in the shade and cold at night.  The two languages of Morocco are Arabic and French, although you are able to communicate with the necessary people in at least broken English.  The more I travel the more I realize that the world truly does speak English.  Everything there was super cheap.  When we converted our money we received a little more than 10 Dirhams to the Euro.  We bought several nice souvenirs and ate many nice meals for only around 10 euro.  

Within the city unregistered motorbikes with choking fumes seem to be the preferred means of transportation, aside from public buses that are always as crowded as the NYC subway at rush hour.  Because of this, the city is permanently covered in a haze of smog, both restricting oxygen to your lungs and restricting your view of the Atlas mountains.  As much as we tried, we had trouble capturing their beauty on camera.  This is the best we could do:

Going along the lines of not being able to breathe, smoking is also still allowed indoors.  Luckily, they outlawed this in Spain before we returned.  Another interesting point is, as this is a Muslim country, alcohol is extremely hard to find, considering the amount of Brits and Americans that are on vacation there.  The restaurants and bars that do serve alcohol only do so behind covered windows and doors.  

Morocco seems to be caught up between traditional and new culture: about half the men wear the tradition jalabas, and cover their heads with a hat.  Many women veil themselves to some degree, mostly the hijab (head scarf).  The other half of Moroccan women wear Western clothing and do not veil or cover their heads.

From all over the city you can hear the call to prayer crackling through loudspeakers 5 times per day.  They had quite different sounds.  Sometimes you were charmed by the melodic sing-songy voice, while other times it sounded like someone was angrily screaming right into your ear.  It doesn't help that I had no idea what they were saying.  On our last day we had the pleasure of watching a huge crowd of men gather in Jemma Fna Square (the main square) to perform their prayer ritual.  This is a video of the afternoon call to prayer being announced from Koutoubia, the main minaret in the city center (sorry it's sideways...blame Elliot)  It's of the less melodic variety:

 

We also took a day trip to Essouira, which is on the coast. It was quite similar to Marrakech, just smaller.  We opted to get out of the Medina markets and onto the beach to enjoy a lovely lunch in the sun.  It was relatively uneventful.. oh right except for almost being stranded there when the buses back to Marrakech were sold out and our flight left the next day.  We figured it out.  

Various other cool stuff and/or advice:

- I walked the entire length of Marrakech

- I saw wild camels roaming through the desert

- There are gas stations called "Afriquia" and "Oilibya" which I thought was pretty cool

- A man tried to buy me from Elliot for 2 camels (I'm pretty sure he was only half kidding)

- The medina of Marrakech is among the most confusing winding narrow alleyways I've ever seen... the markets are like a covered city of their own

- Public bathrooms consist of a hole in the ground.  And you're expected to pay if you want to use them.  

- Bargaining is a sport (one that I don't enjoy).  To get the price you want you must walk away then expect to be followed.

- Moroccan food, especially the spices, is absolutely delicious.  

And yes, I rode a camel.