Don't even ask me where K was sitting in this taxi! I swear it was the smallest car I'd ever seen, we couldn't even close all of the doors.
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Yah, this is really how we travel!
Don't even ask me where K was sitting in this taxi! I swear it was the smallest car I'd ever seen, we couldn't even close all of the doors.
Rabat and Meknes
Thru the narrow alleyways we finally came to the beach, fun to watch the surfers. Also, K out to dinner with dad in her Moroccan dress. Later she was thrilled to eat at McD's- her first Happy Meal. Of course she loved her prize too.
FES
Fes was actually a really cool city to see, we enjoyed our tour of the medina (see photo) mostly because it was a Fri. and it was pretty dead. I would have hated to push the stroller down those narrow paths crowded with people and donkeys. Also a pic of J and K overlooking the old city. The other shot is of the tannery. This was one of the most amazing things I've ever seen (and smelled) in my life! Morocco is known for their leather so you can see how they make the leather and dye it. Try and picture this at 100 degrees outside. It sure gave me a new appreciation for that leather purse...
A typical Moroccan meal...
There we are eating our dinner out of the tanjine pots for the millionth time. You can see the before and after shot!
Leaving Morocco
The first pic is from our hotel room in Tangiers, Morocco. That's Spain visable across the Straight. The next is us aboard the ferry with Tangiers in the background.
Gibralter- it really is a HUGE rock!
You can see a shot of us posing in front of the rock. Also the monkeys! We were all crazy about the monkeys! Can you see the baby monkey (what's the proper term for this?) sitting in it's mother's lap? It was hilarious- it kept playing peek-a-boo with us and sticking it's tongue out at us.
The Mosque/Cathedral in Cordoba
Interesting to see what happens when they combine the two v. different places into one place!
Our little flamingo girl in Seville
I can never resist buying K these little "native" outfits and this dress was my favorite of all. One day she'll probably accuse me of forcing her to wear a bunch of crap but while she's young enough not to resist, how can I? Also, a family shot in front of the ginormous Cathedral in Seville. Christopher Columbus is said to be buried inside but we forgot to find his tomb, oh well.
Eating out in Spain- Yummy!
The food in Spain was great, our family favorite being the seafood paella and the tapas. We have to hand it to K, she'll try anything!
Casablanca, not quite the romantic place I was hoping for...
A shot of the BAM (Big A.. Mosque as J calls it) it was HUGE, also really fun to be caught in traffic there when it lets out (not). A pic of us having lunch with our friends and trying a variety of Moroccan appetizers, none too appetizing.
Marrakech- what an experience that was!
K and I waiting to board the hopelessly late and hot train bound for Marakesh. Also, one of the snake charmers at the "square"- they were always coming up to us trying to get us to take a photo with one of their snakes. I literally had to scream to get them to leave us alone- we do not like snakes one bit! J drinking the fresh sqeezed OJ that was sooo good and finally, a shot of all the people coming into the square. The later it was the busier it got.
Fun in Tunis
The first pic is of us at the WW2 American cemetary in Carthage. We try to visit these whenever we can and pay our respects and this is the only American cemetary in N. Africa. We thoroughly enjoyed our tour! The second is of us and our friend in front of the Medina in Tunis. The third is my friend and I in front of the famous "photo op" door in Sidi Bou Said. There are dozens of cool doors like this one around the town. The last picture is our view at lunch there- beautful, but can you tell we were all hot and sweaty?
Warning: not for the vegetarians out there!
I just HAD to post a couple of pics so you'd get the real idea of what living over here is like. The first one is of the roadside butcher shops in Tunisia. The bull's head is from a medina in Morocco and the goat's head stew was from Marrakech- I hear it's a real treat but can't confirm that myself.
Our mildly OCD child!
The ONLY thing K wanted to do on this trip was wash her hands. She constantly asked for the soap- I think all together she spent 10 hours in the bathroom turning the water off and on.... gotta love a toddler! This gave us a nice opportunity to relax too, that is until we realized she was flooding the bathroom.
Fun in Sousse!
Us at the hotel pool, An overview shot of the Medina (the best one anywhere because it actually smelled good- thanks to the roasted almonds), and K sitting pretty on some ancient stone I'm sure.
Bon Voyage, leaving the Tunis Airport!
It's no wonder we were majorly overweight! At least they were nice and didn't charge us. They also asked the (sleeping) woman in the seat next to us to move to another seat so K could have her own seat (which we had not paid for), can you imagine that happening on a US airline?!?
Home Sweet Home: The Third and Final Chapter!
Let’s see, where did I leave off last time? We departed Tunis with our friends, caravanning down to Kairouan. It was nice to see the Tunisian countryside along the way. Two things surprised us, the first was the number of butcher shops they had along the roadsides. Mostly sheep about to be slaughtered or the dead ones hanging. We even saw a small camel about to be butchered. In a 2-hour drive, we must have passed 20 of these shops along the road. I guess you could say fresh meat is plentiful in Tunisia! The other thing was the number of red peppers hanging to dry out. At some points, the scenery was all red from the peppers. They use the peppers to make their national dish- Harissa. It’s a spicy chili paste topped with tuna that you dip bread into, too hot for my taste buds though. Incidentally, they put tuna on just about everything here.
We arrived in Kairouan and our first stop was to check out the Mosque. It’s supposed to be one of the holiest sites in Islam. We did a quick walk thru while the kiddos played (it looked like every other mosque to me) and then a guide told us he could help us find a place to eat lunch. So we walked and walked (it was boiling out) and finally he brought us to this small kitchen restaurant where they prepared the food in front of us and we all tried not to watch. After about 2 hours (slow service is the name of the game here) we finally left, somewhat full- they served the standards of couscous and omelets but we are getting tired of those two meals so we weren’t overly impressed. We’ve actually found the whole dining out experience here to be pretty poor, after 3 weeks of eating out constantly I think we’ve only had a couple of good meals. We should be losing weight! The seafood in Tunisia is okay but only if you don’t mind eating your fish while it looks you in the eye!
After lunch, we decided to do a little carpet shopping since this was the place in Tunisia to do it. We had fun and when it came down to the purchasing, we all ended up with a traditional Berber rug. I’m pretty sure it was the AC that actually won us over; we were in no hurry to leave that showroom. Kicked ourselves later for paying too much but it was a great experience nonetheless. Who knows if the rug will ever work in our home one day (not like I could purchase it for a particular location) but I hope it does, it will always remind me of our shopping adventure. You really have to bargain hard, J and I always play good cop/bad cop. Guess who gets to be the bad cop?
Afterwards, we said goodbye to our friends and departed for Sfax. We got to the hotel pretty worn out and were over the moon to find that they had given us a large suite, finally some space for all of us to spread out in! The room was amazing, rose peddles all over, enormous fruit basket, treats. We should have been on our honeymoon or something. If we had that experience everywhere traveling would be a lot more fun : ) We spent the next morning walking around the Medina which was very untouristy. Personally, I prefer touristy because that means there might be something I want to buy. Untouristy means vegetables, carcasses, underwear, cleaning tools and traditional garments for sale. Not my thing! The only interesting thing was seeing the Berber women doing their shopping, they were dressed in the most fascinating and colorful way. Layers of bright fabrics tied around them (I don’t know how they stand it in the heat). Very National Geographic looking. The other thing I noticed was that there weren’t any people begging for money. I have gotten so used to seeing that in most of the poor mid-east countries we visit but not Tunisia. J informed me that they had graduated from USAID and you could certainly tell the difference. The rest of the day we did nothing, there was nothing else to do there! I guess it was nice to have a day off but if you ever visit Tunisia skip Sfax.
We departed the following day for Sousse with a stop in El Jem on the way. El Jem has an incredible Roman Coliseum, which was the third largest back in the day. It’s still very well preserved and had some fun tunnels that you could walk thru under it. We imagined that’s where they kept the lions during the gladiator fights! In Sousse, we found our hotel and chilled. Sousse is to Europeans what Cancun is to Americans. Miles and miles of beachfront resorts filled with Europeans and Russians. This also meant the dress code for the town was much more relaxed which was nice! People-watching kept us entertained, lots of speedos (etc.) in the “holidaymaker” wardrobe. The odd thing to us is how so many of the girls go topless, up until the age of 13 or so they just wear bottoms. You would never see that in the States would you? That night we headed into their Medina, the touristy kind which I enjoy and shopped some more.
Our last day in Tunis was nice. The morning started off by meeting our friends (who had driven down from Tunis to meet us) at a market in Sousse. We had run out of money the night before and needed to find an ATM before doing any shopping. Well, long story short it took us 10 different ATM’s to finally find one that worked! We drove around everywhere trying to find one but they were all off-line. It made us a little nervous that we were gonna be broke but Finally one worked. Then, 5minutes into the market, J got pickpocketed! Thankfully, they only got the equivalent of $20 but he was pretty ticked. The market was packed full of people so it wasn’t a wonder that someone could pull it off. We chalked it up to one of the joys of traveling, it happens to everyone eventually. Then we spent the afternoon playing at the pool with our pals. K spent hours in the water and loved every minute of it while the boys rode a banana boat in the Sea. That evening we finally found a restaurant we could enjoy- a Saloon! Felt like I was in Arizona for a couple of hours. That may have been the highlight of the trip for us. More shopping followed which meant more of J complaining that I was never going to get everything home with us. I showed him though, carried all of my new pottery on my back and didn’t break a thing : ) Christmas presents anyone?
We arrived late last night after a delayed flight (that was just par for the course since every flight and every train ride of the trip was delayed). We are so thankful to be home safely with no drama. It was a great trip with enough memories to fill a lifetime. We’re supposed to go to Damascus later this week for a couple of nights but it feels so nice to be back that I’m undecided on joining J. Right now, we’re attempting to put K to bed now at a decent time, she kept yelling “Daddy” for a while (he’s the softy, smart girl) and then she resorted to “Jesus”! Repeatedly. Too cute! Before I sign off and add the bazillion photos from our trip (for the grandparents of course!) I wanted to let my fellow bloggers know the web address to turn their blogs into memory books. See, I’m not doing all of this for nothing! http://www.blurb.com/create/book/blogbook
We arrived in Kairouan and our first stop was to check out the Mosque. It’s supposed to be one of the holiest sites in Islam. We did a quick walk thru while the kiddos played (it looked like every other mosque to me) and then a guide told us he could help us find a place to eat lunch. So we walked and walked (it was boiling out) and finally he brought us to this small kitchen restaurant where they prepared the food in front of us and we all tried not to watch. After about 2 hours (slow service is the name of the game here) we finally left, somewhat full- they served the standards of couscous and omelets but we are getting tired of those two meals so we weren’t overly impressed. We’ve actually found the whole dining out experience here to be pretty poor, after 3 weeks of eating out constantly I think we’ve only had a couple of good meals. We should be losing weight! The seafood in Tunisia is okay but only if you don’t mind eating your fish while it looks you in the eye!
After lunch, we decided to do a little carpet shopping since this was the place in Tunisia to do it. We had fun and when it came down to the purchasing, we all ended up with a traditional Berber rug. I’m pretty sure it was the AC that actually won us over; we were in no hurry to leave that showroom. Kicked ourselves later for paying too much but it was a great experience nonetheless. Who knows if the rug will ever work in our home one day (not like I could purchase it for a particular location) but I hope it does, it will always remind me of our shopping adventure. You really have to bargain hard, J and I always play good cop/bad cop. Guess who gets to be the bad cop?
Afterwards, we said goodbye to our friends and departed for Sfax. We got to the hotel pretty worn out and were over the moon to find that they had given us a large suite, finally some space for all of us to spread out in! The room was amazing, rose peddles all over, enormous fruit basket, treats. We should have been on our honeymoon or something. If we had that experience everywhere traveling would be a lot more fun : ) We spent the next morning walking around the Medina which was very untouristy. Personally, I prefer touristy because that means there might be something I want to buy. Untouristy means vegetables, carcasses, underwear, cleaning tools and traditional garments for sale. Not my thing! The only interesting thing was seeing the Berber women doing their shopping, they were dressed in the most fascinating and colorful way. Layers of bright fabrics tied around them (I don’t know how they stand it in the heat). Very National Geographic looking. The other thing I noticed was that there weren’t any people begging for money. I have gotten so used to seeing that in most of the poor mid-east countries we visit but not Tunisia. J informed me that they had graduated from USAID and you could certainly tell the difference. The rest of the day we did nothing, there was nothing else to do there! I guess it was nice to have a day off but if you ever visit Tunisia skip Sfax.
We departed the following day for Sousse with a stop in El Jem on the way. El Jem has an incredible Roman Coliseum, which was the third largest back in the day. It’s still very well preserved and had some fun tunnels that you could walk thru under it. We imagined that’s where they kept the lions during the gladiator fights! In Sousse, we found our hotel and chilled. Sousse is to Europeans what Cancun is to Americans. Miles and miles of beachfront resorts filled with Europeans and Russians. This also meant the dress code for the town was much more relaxed which was nice! People-watching kept us entertained, lots of speedos (etc.) in the “holidaymaker” wardrobe. The odd thing to us is how so many of the girls go topless, up until the age of 13 or so they just wear bottoms. You would never see that in the States would you? That night we headed into their Medina, the touristy kind which I enjoy and shopped some more.
Our last day in Tunis was nice. The morning started off by meeting our friends (who had driven down from Tunis to meet us) at a market in Sousse. We had run out of money the night before and needed to find an ATM before doing any shopping. Well, long story short it took us 10 different ATM’s to finally find one that worked! We drove around everywhere trying to find one but they were all off-line. It made us a little nervous that we were gonna be broke but Finally one worked. Then, 5minutes into the market, J got pickpocketed! Thankfully, they only got the equivalent of $20 but he was pretty ticked. The market was packed full of people so it wasn’t a wonder that someone could pull it off. We chalked it up to one of the joys of traveling, it happens to everyone eventually. Then we spent the afternoon playing at the pool with our pals. K spent hours in the water and loved every minute of it while the boys rode a banana boat in the Sea. That evening we finally found a restaurant we could enjoy- a Saloon! Felt like I was in Arizona for a couple of hours. That may have been the highlight of the trip for us. More shopping followed which meant more of J complaining that I was never going to get everything home with us. I showed him though, carried all of my new pottery on my back and didn’t break a thing : ) Christmas presents anyone?
We arrived late last night after a delayed flight (that was just par for the course since every flight and every train ride of the trip was delayed). We are so thankful to be home safely with no drama. It was a great trip with enough memories to fill a lifetime. We’re supposed to go to Damascus later this week for a couple of nights but it feels so nice to be back that I’m undecided on joining J. Right now, we’re attempting to put K to bed now at a decent time, she kept yelling “Daddy” for a while (he’s the softy, smart girl) and then she resorted to “Jesus”! Repeatedly. Too cute! Before I sign off and add the bazillion photos from our trip (for the grandparents of course!) I wanted to let my fellow bloggers know the web address to turn their blogs into memory books. See, I’m not doing all of this for nothing! http://www.blurb.com/create/book/blogbook
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
Cheers from Tunis- 17 days into our travels!
Yes, we’re still at this, have only come close to killing each other : ) usually those times happen when searching for a hotel in a huge city with no map! K will have quite the vocabulary built up soon. I’ve got a lot to recap about but hope to add a few photos soon too. It’s been great having an Internet connection at some of our hotels, made us feel a little more connected to the world. Guess we missed Obama’s big trip to Jordan so that was a bummer! Would have enjoyed being in that crowd. And a shout out to all the new babies born this month, it has been such a joy seeing their little faces in emails. I am so happy for you all!
We’ve spent the past three days in Tunis after leaving Morocco and Spain. What can I say about Tunis? For starters, I’d move here in a second! What a beautiful Mediterranean country. We have a great view of the Sea and we love all of the green and palm trees since we don’t see that often. Our friends here have been amazing hosts, we’ve shopped a lot (the best pottery and souvenirs are here), visited the American Cemetery from WW2, the Roman ruins of Carthage (a suburb of Tunis), and a little town called Sidi Bou Said, where all of the buildings are white with blue doors and windows. Couldn’t be more scenic, reminds me of a Greek island and the landscape is straight out of Hawaii. What I like about the Govt. here is that women have more rights and freedom in Tunisia than in any other Mid-Eastern Country. I even got to go “sleeveless” today, yippee!
Before arriving here, we had a whirlwind tour of Morocco and Southern Spain. We loved Spain but have to admit I was a little disappointed in Morocco. Maybe my expectations were too high I’m not sure. Nothing really stood out to me and it was the first place where we really got sick of the food- we hit McD’s 3x which was a first for us, we’ve only been one other time in the entire Mid East, but we were desperate for something that wasn’t cooked in a Tanjine Pot! (And now that I own seven pots I don’t want to use them, so much for my Moroccan themed dinner party plans, LOL) Let me digress a bit and for those of you with nothing better to do read on- otherwise wait for the photos : )
I think my last blog left off with us in Fez, Morocco ready to head over to Spain. We left Fez for Tangiers (Morocco) the port city to cross the Straight of Gibraltar. This was one of the longest days I’ve ever had, for some reason neither of us really looked at our map and we ended up taking the slowest road possible. It was a beautiful ride but after 6 hours (with a toddler!) in the car, we didn’t care anymore. I must have sang the Old McDonald 200x because we didn’t have any tapes for the car. Finally we made it to our hotel in Tangiers which had a lovely ocean view only it was the biggest party night ever (not sure why) and the horns and sirens were blaring into the wee hours. K woke us up at 2am saying “Beep-Beep” non-stop, that’s how bad it was.
We survived the rough night and boarded our ferry for Spain the next day. Since we were taking our car over, we figured it would be a real pain but it turned out to be easy and after 45 min., we were in Europe (hooray for Europe!). Our first stop was Gibraltar. We didn’t know what to expect from the big rock but it was bigger than we imagined. We had so much fun, since its part of the UK; they charged everything in British pounds, which made it a pricey afternoon, but worth it! We drove our SUV along the TINY roads towards the top of the rock (a feat in itself, Go J!) The coolest part was seeing the Monkeys. They have all of these wild monkeys that play around, when one jumped out of nowhere onto our car it scared the heck out of us! A lot of them were carrying their babies too. So cute. They also had a bunch of tunnels dug into the rock that you could explore.
After leaving Gibraltar, we had a long drive to Granada, Spain our first night’s stop. This would not have been such a terrible drive had it not been for one of the worst traffic standstills we’ve ever experienced. We ended up sitting in traffic on the Interstate (or Spain’s version of) for well over an hour, it was miserable. Cars were overheating everywhere and we had no idea what the problem was until finally we came to the accident (minor fender bender!) It wasn’t as bad as my 6+-hour traffic jam in DC but it felt pretty bad given that we had such long days- K wanted nothing to do with the car and we couldn’t blame her. We crashed at the hotel, finally arriving around 10 I think.
The next day was better; we spent the morning touring the Alhambra Palace, which was beautiful and very ornate with gorgeous gardens to walk around. A scary thing happened though as we were walking on one of the top floors which sat on a cliff. There was a fence around it but when J and I stopped to take a picture (no more than 15 sec.) I turned and saw K on the other side of the fence- I swear two more steps and she would have fallen! Wow- we could only thank the angels for that one! Just goes to show with a toddler you cannot turn your head for a mere second!
We spent the afternoon driving to Cordoba, which was beautiful; the tallest mountain range in Spain was in the background. We also experienced rain for the first time in months- it’s been so long since we’ve seen rain I couldn’t even tell you the last time. We arrived to find that our hotel was in the middle of the old town and all the roads around it were so narrow that even with the side mirrors pulled in we were practically scraping the walls! I held my breath the entire way, thankfully J is the most amazing navigator and found it without too much of a prob (which was pretty remarkable given there were no road signs). We stayed across the street from the former Mosque, now Cathedral. It was a great location for seeing the city (truly a walking city since the roads are too narrow to drive- that we learned the hard way!) The Cathedral was beautiful too. Cordoba is an awesome place to spend a few nights, if only we had more time!
The next day we left for Seville to spend two nights there. Another hotel that you couldn’t actually drive to- too narrow of streets so we had to pull our luggage thru the pedestrian paths to find it. It felt like quite an adventure at the time. We spent two days just walking around, shopping, eating (Tapas!) and drinking Sangria’s by the liter (hey- we couldn’t drive anywhere!) J and I daydreamt about visiting Spain without children or at least with older children. As much fun as K can be to travel with, dinner that starts at 10pm is just a little late for her, and she definitely forces us to travel at a much slower pace, stopping at every step for at least 5 min. so she can practice going up and down. At least the siestas fit in nicely with her nap times though. One night I got to attend a Flamingo show at our hotel (alone- a lovely feeling since none of us had really been alone in days). The Flamingo dancing was amazing- I’ll never forget it that’s for sure, and not something one should attempt at home.
There are so many things I love about Spain; the culture, the food, the natural beauty, the neatness of it all (I’m sure I only noticed that on this trip because I came from the Mid East!) etc… it’s got to be one of my favorite countries. We came up with our list of things we love about Spain: you can drink the water, get to wear shorts, Spanish is a lot easier than Arabic and my favorite of all, SANGRIAS! The only thing we didn’t love was the price! I just can’t believe how expensive Europe has gotten, esp. since this trip was on our dollar and not the governments (we went to Spain for our summer vacation). The Euro rate really stinks and it was good we only spent 4 nights there. The price of gas, water and just about everything else doubled what we were paying in Morocco.
We boarded the ferry back to Morocco quite bummed; it was so nice to be out an Islamic country for a few days. We arrived in Tangiers with enough time to walk around their Medina (dirty!) and have dinner (stray cats in the restaurant). The next morning we had a long drive south to Casablanca, we got lost trying to find our hotel and ended up at their mosque right as Friday prayers were let out. Suddenly about 25,000 men came rushing out of the Mosque and onto the streets, it was quite a sight! I couldn’t help but hope that they had just heard a “friendly” sermon that day (it’s the third largest Mosque in the world). Later we met some friends who had just moved to Morocco the week before so it was nice to catch up with them over dinner.
The next day we boarded a train and headed on a three ½-hour train ride to Marrakesh. It was a packed train and I was thankful that I made J splurge on the 1st class seats which we later learned were the only seats with air condition (just barely). Then we found our hotel, relaxed until evening because it was too hot to go outside and then headed for the town square. Marrakesh is famous for its Djemaa el Fna square and all of the crazy stuff that happens there.
Seeing the square was the sole reason for our little jaunt down there. It was pretty entertaining. Acrobats, snake handlers, storytellers, fortune readers, boxing matches, tattoo artists, etc. etc. all congregate in this one place (with thousands of other people). Surrounded by food vendors selling delicious things like goat head stew. See the photo on that one! The best thing is there are about 20 venders selling fresh squeezed OJ. That’s what I liked best about the whole country, fresh OJ was plentiful, cheap and delicious (although we did purchase our own plastic cups because they reuse their glass ones without washing them well). We walked around and later took a long carriage ride around the city. K was in awe of it all, the horses , monkeys, snakes, rooster shows etc. I’m sure it’s the most entertaining sight any of us will have for a long time. (BTW, her favorite word is camel- lucky kid could ride one everyday if she wanted, they’re everywhere here!)
The next day we decided to spend the morning crashed at the hotel pool before we took the train back up to Casablanca in the afternoon. K woke us up with what sounded like croup the night before so it had been a rough evening but thankfully, she was much better in the AM. Unfortunately, for us, this time the train’s AC did not work in 1st class and we spent the entire trip a sweaty mess. (Oh, did I forget to mention, the AC in our hotel room didn’t work either! Marrakesh is not far from the W. Sahara desert if that tells you how HOT it was there) When we finally made it to Casa and an AC room we spent the rest of the night relishing in it, I refused to leave. I didn’t end up seeing much of Casa but don’t feel like I missed much- despite the romantic sounding name the town did not live up to it.
We prepared to leave for Tunisia early the next morning. 2 weeks into our trip, we weren’t as exhausted as I expected us to be at this point but we were anxious to leave Morocco. Marrakesh and Fez were worth the trip but the other places didn’t match in flavor. Tunisia’s been great since we arrived, another French speaking country so we’re a little lost in translation but at least the food is better. For lunch, we had tuna and cheese crepes and strawberry juice, truly a first time for everything! We head out tomorrow for four days of sightseeing down south.
Overall, it’s been a great adventure but we’re getting a little tired and I’m finding myself opting to stay in the hotel and play with K while J sightsees. Mosques, Medinas, Mosaics… once you’ve seen one you’ve seen them all, LOL. Poor K, she’s probably stayed in more hotels on this trip than I did in my first 10 yrs of life! How she sleeps with all the changes is beyond me. And we are still mostly healthy at this point so I’m relieved (and J thanks his Cipro for that!) It will be great to get back home though, I might even enjoy cooking again- something very American!
We’ve spent the past three days in Tunis after leaving Morocco and Spain. What can I say about Tunis? For starters, I’d move here in a second! What a beautiful Mediterranean country. We have a great view of the Sea and we love all of the green and palm trees since we don’t see that often. Our friends here have been amazing hosts, we’ve shopped a lot (the best pottery and souvenirs are here), visited the American Cemetery from WW2, the Roman ruins of Carthage (a suburb of Tunis), and a little town called Sidi Bou Said, where all of the buildings are white with blue doors and windows. Couldn’t be more scenic, reminds me of a Greek island and the landscape is straight out of Hawaii. What I like about the Govt. here is that women have more rights and freedom in Tunisia than in any other Mid-Eastern Country. I even got to go “sleeveless” today, yippee!
Before arriving here, we had a whirlwind tour of Morocco and Southern Spain. We loved Spain but have to admit I was a little disappointed in Morocco. Maybe my expectations were too high I’m not sure. Nothing really stood out to me and it was the first place where we really got sick of the food- we hit McD’s 3x which was a first for us, we’ve only been one other time in the entire Mid East, but we were desperate for something that wasn’t cooked in a Tanjine Pot! (And now that I own seven pots I don’t want to use them, so much for my Moroccan themed dinner party plans, LOL) Let me digress a bit and for those of you with nothing better to do read on- otherwise wait for the photos : )
I think my last blog left off with us in Fez, Morocco ready to head over to Spain. We left Fez for Tangiers (Morocco) the port city to cross the Straight of Gibraltar. This was one of the longest days I’ve ever had, for some reason neither of us really looked at our map and we ended up taking the slowest road possible. It was a beautiful ride but after 6 hours (with a toddler!) in the car, we didn’t care anymore. I must have sang the Old McDonald 200x because we didn’t have any tapes for the car. Finally we made it to our hotel in Tangiers which had a lovely ocean view only it was the biggest party night ever (not sure why) and the horns and sirens were blaring into the wee hours. K woke us up at 2am saying “Beep-Beep” non-stop, that’s how bad it was.
We survived the rough night and boarded our ferry for Spain the next day. Since we were taking our car over, we figured it would be a real pain but it turned out to be easy and after 45 min., we were in Europe (hooray for Europe!). Our first stop was Gibraltar. We didn’t know what to expect from the big rock but it was bigger than we imagined. We had so much fun, since its part of the UK; they charged everything in British pounds, which made it a pricey afternoon, but worth it! We drove our SUV along the TINY roads towards the top of the rock (a feat in itself, Go J!) The coolest part was seeing the Monkeys. They have all of these wild monkeys that play around, when one jumped out of nowhere onto our car it scared the heck out of us! A lot of them were carrying their babies too. So cute. They also had a bunch of tunnels dug into the rock that you could explore.
After leaving Gibraltar, we had a long drive to Granada, Spain our first night’s stop. This would not have been such a terrible drive had it not been for one of the worst traffic standstills we’ve ever experienced. We ended up sitting in traffic on the Interstate (or Spain’s version of) for well over an hour, it was miserable. Cars were overheating everywhere and we had no idea what the problem was until finally we came to the accident (minor fender bender!) It wasn’t as bad as my 6+-hour traffic jam in DC but it felt pretty bad given that we had such long days- K wanted nothing to do with the car and we couldn’t blame her. We crashed at the hotel, finally arriving around 10 I think.
The next day was better; we spent the morning touring the Alhambra Palace, which was beautiful and very ornate with gorgeous gardens to walk around. A scary thing happened though as we were walking on one of the top floors which sat on a cliff. There was a fence around it but when J and I stopped to take a picture (no more than 15 sec.) I turned and saw K on the other side of the fence- I swear two more steps and she would have fallen! Wow- we could only thank the angels for that one! Just goes to show with a toddler you cannot turn your head for a mere second!
We spent the afternoon driving to Cordoba, which was beautiful; the tallest mountain range in Spain was in the background. We also experienced rain for the first time in months- it’s been so long since we’ve seen rain I couldn’t even tell you the last time. We arrived to find that our hotel was in the middle of the old town and all the roads around it were so narrow that even with the side mirrors pulled in we were practically scraping the walls! I held my breath the entire way, thankfully J is the most amazing navigator and found it without too much of a prob (which was pretty remarkable given there were no road signs). We stayed across the street from the former Mosque, now Cathedral. It was a great location for seeing the city (truly a walking city since the roads are too narrow to drive- that we learned the hard way!) The Cathedral was beautiful too. Cordoba is an awesome place to spend a few nights, if only we had more time!
The next day we left for Seville to spend two nights there. Another hotel that you couldn’t actually drive to- too narrow of streets so we had to pull our luggage thru the pedestrian paths to find it. It felt like quite an adventure at the time. We spent two days just walking around, shopping, eating (Tapas!) and drinking Sangria’s by the liter (hey- we couldn’t drive anywhere!) J and I daydreamt about visiting Spain without children or at least with older children. As much fun as K can be to travel with, dinner that starts at 10pm is just a little late for her, and she definitely forces us to travel at a much slower pace, stopping at every step for at least 5 min. so she can practice going up and down. At least the siestas fit in nicely with her nap times though. One night I got to attend a Flamingo show at our hotel (alone- a lovely feeling since none of us had really been alone in days). The Flamingo dancing was amazing- I’ll never forget it that’s for sure, and not something one should attempt at home.
There are so many things I love about Spain; the culture, the food, the natural beauty, the neatness of it all (I’m sure I only noticed that on this trip because I came from the Mid East!) etc… it’s got to be one of my favorite countries. We came up with our list of things we love about Spain: you can drink the water, get to wear shorts, Spanish is a lot easier than Arabic and my favorite of all, SANGRIAS! The only thing we didn’t love was the price! I just can’t believe how expensive Europe has gotten, esp. since this trip was on our dollar and not the governments (we went to Spain for our summer vacation). The Euro rate really stinks and it was good we only spent 4 nights there. The price of gas, water and just about everything else doubled what we were paying in Morocco.
We boarded the ferry back to Morocco quite bummed; it was so nice to be out an Islamic country for a few days. We arrived in Tangiers with enough time to walk around their Medina (dirty!) and have dinner (stray cats in the restaurant). The next morning we had a long drive south to Casablanca, we got lost trying to find our hotel and ended up at their mosque right as Friday prayers were let out. Suddenly about 25,000 men came rushing out of the Mosque and onto the streets, it was quite a sight! I couldn’t help but hope that they had just heard a “friendly” sermon that day (it’s the third largest Mosque in the world). Later we met some friends who had just moved to Morocco the week before so it was nice to catch up with them over dinner.
The next day we boarded a train and headed on a three ½-hour train ride to Marrakesh. It was a packed train and I was thankful that I made J splurge on the 1st class seats which we later learned were the only seats with air condition (just barely). Then we found our hotel, relaxed until evening because it was too hot to go outside and then headed for the town square. Marrakesh is famous for its Djemaa el Fna square and all of the crazy stuff that happens there.
Seeing the square was the sole reason for our little jaunt down there. It was pretty entertaining. Acrobats, snake handlers, storytellers, fortune readers, boxing matches, tattoo artists, etc. etc. all congregate in this one place (with thousands of other people). Surrounded by food vendors selling delicious things like goat head stew. See the photo on that one! The best thing is there are about 20 venders selling fresh squeezed OJ. That’s what I liked best about the whole country, fresh OJ was plentiful, cheap and delicious (although we did purchase our own plastic cups because they reuse their glass ones without washing them well). We walked around and later took a long carriage ride around the city. K was in awe of it all, the horses , monkeys, snakes, rooster shows etc. I’m sure it’s the most entertaining sight any of us will have for a long time. (BTW, her favorite word is camel- lucky kid could ride one everyday if she wanted, they’re everywhere here!)
The next day we decided to spend the morning crashed at the hotel pool before we took the train back up to Casablanca in the afternoon. K woke us up with what sounded like croup the night before so it had been a rough evening but thankfully, she was much better in the AM. Unfortunately, for us, this time the train’s AC did not work in 1st class and we spent the entire trip a sweaty mess. (Oh, did I forget to mention, the AC in our hotel room didn’t work either! Marrakesh is not far from the W. Sahara desert if that tells you how HOT it was there) When we finally made it to Casa and an AC room we spent the rest of the night relishing in it, I refused to leave. I didn’t end up seeing much of Casa but don’t feel like I missed much- despite the romantic sounding name the town did not live up to it.
We prepared to leave for Tunisia early the next morning. 2 weeks into our trip, we weren’t as exhausted as I expected us to be at this point but we were anxious to leave Morocco. Marrakesh and Fez were worth the trip but the other places didn’t match in flavor. Tunisia’s been great since we arrived, another French speaking country so we’re a little lost in translation but at least the food is better. For lunch, we had tuna and cheese crepes and strawberry juice, truly a first time for everything! We head out tomorrow for four days of sightseeing down south.
Overall, it’s been a great adventure but we’re getting a little tired and I’m finding myself opting to stay in the hotel and play with K while J sightsees. Mosques, Medinas, Mosaics… once you’ve seen one you’ve seen them all, LOL. Poor K, she’s probably stayed in more hotels on this trip than I did in my first 10 yrs of life! How she sleeps with all the changes is beyond me. And we are still mostly healthy at this point so I’m relieved (and J thanks his Cipro for that!) It will be great to get back home though, I might even enjoy cooking again- something very American!
Friday, July 11, 2008
5 Days into our journey!
Greetings everyone or Bon Jour! We are now in Fes, Morocco and getting used to everything being in French (even the Arabic is French :) We had a heck of time trying to order lunch the other day and got to play my favorite game of "just pick something and be surprised!" The trip has gone well- a couple of really long days but we are trying to relax when we can. The first day flying to Tunis was long but we enjoyed visiting with our friends for several hours that evening, they have only lived there a few weeks now so we were their first visitors. Then the next day was really long- we flew to Casablanca, Morocco and then had to catch a train up to Rabat. This was another 2 hours and the worst part was trying to change trains with ALL of our luggage (we try to pack light but it's just impossible to do with a carseat and jog strollar!) Boy did we wish for an elevator at that moment! Then we could barely fit everything in the taxi- the hatch was up the entire ride. It was either laugh or cry at the end of that day! :)
Our two nights in Rabat were nice, we enjoyed visiting with a family we knew from CA. They adopted twin babies a couple of months ago and it was wonderful to meet their darling girls! Definitely put Morocco on my adoption scope- 6 mos. from start to finish, 6 month old girls and very inexspensive... girls are actually more dificult to adopt in Morocco because rumor has it, people adopt them to be servant girls. Doesn't that just make you want to take home 10? I'm telling you, these were the most precious little ones!
Yesterday we drove from Rabat to Fes with a stop in Meknes along the way. The driving is pretty easy compared to some places we've been, the only downside is they have cops everywhere so you can only go 60mph which feels very slow on these empty roads. We have been amazed at how nice and cool the weather is (Tunis was boiling). The landscape in places is also beautiful, rolling hills filled with Olive trees. Morocco is a great mix of the Mid East, Europe and Africa all rolled into one. We've enjoyed the food so far, Couscous and Tajine pots filled with veggies and meat. This place is all about leather and pottery though, as a huge pottery lover it is going to be hard to control myself- J already promised me we could ship some things home but I just hope they don't all break. If you want a Tanjine pot tell me soon- they are everywhere here and quite a bit cheaper than those fancy cooking stores. We had a tour guide lead us thru the Medina today (walled city home to 200,000 people) it was a real labyrinth and I started to feel claustophic at times wandering down those narrow passage ways with no idea how to get out of the maze. J and I are medina'd out! I did get a great shot of a decapitated cows head hanging from the meat counter but the smells- I just can't take them anymore! Our tour guide said he gave Hillary Clinton and Ronald Reagon their tours of Fes but we're not sure we belive him :)
Tomorrow we are heading to Tangiers and then we ferry over to Spain the following day. We are looking forward to sightseeing that is not in the Mid East if you know what I mean (please no Medinas!) Thanks everyone for your good wishes and prayers! We'll update again when we can... Au Revoir (the only other french word I know ;)
Our two nights in Rabat were nice, we enjoyed visiting with a family we knew from CA. They adopted twin babies a couple of months ago and it was wonderful to meet their darling girls! Definitely put Morocco on my adoption scope- 6 mos. from start to finish, 6 month old girls and very inexspensive... girls are actually more dificult to adopt in Morocco because rumor has it, people adopt them to be servant girls. Doesn't that just make you want to take home 10? I'm telling you, these were the most precious little ones!
Yesterday we drove from Rabat to Fes with a stop in Meknes along the way. The driving is pretty easy compared to some places we've been, the only downside is they have cops everywhere so you can only go 60mph which feels very slow on these empty roads. We have been amazed at how nice and cool the weather is (Tunis was boiling). The landscape in places is also beautiful, rolling hills filled with Olive trees. Morocco is a great mix of the Mid East, Europe and Africa all rolled into one. We've enjoyed the food so far, Couscous and Tajine pots filled with veggies and meat. This place is all about leather and pottery though, as a huge pottery lover it is going to be hard to control myself- J already promised me we could ship some things home but I just hope they don't all break. If you want a Tanjine pot tell me soon- they are everywhere here and quite a bit cheaper than those fancy cooking stores. We had a tour guide lead us thru the Medina today (walled city home to 200,000 people) it was a real labyrinth and I started to feel claustophic at times wandering down those narrow passage ways with no idea how to get out of the maze. J and I are medina'd out! I did get a great shot of a decapitated cows head hanging from the meat counter but the smells- I just can't take them anymore! Our tour guide said he gave Hillary Clinton and Ronald Reagon their tours of Fes but we're not sure we belive him :)
Tomorrow we are heading to Tangiers and then we ferry over to Spain the following day. We are looking forward to sightseeing that is not in the Mid East if you know what I mean (please no Medinas!) Thanks everyone for your good wishes and prayers! We'll update again when we can... Au Revoir (the only other french word I know ;)
Friday, July 4, 2008
North Africa and Spain, Here we come!
We have enjoyed our three weeks at home since our return from Syria. We kept busy spending time with friends and swimming at the pool. It's a bummer because several of the great people we've met are leaving us this summer so we'll have to make some new pals yet again. Maybe I need to write a book on making friends since it seems like I continuously have to make new ones! LOL At least it keeps my inbox full, although I am getting v. tired of missing everyone of you!!!! ;) I hate saying goodbye.
I’m surprised that it hasn't been too hot out yet, it's warm but definitely not hot and the evenings are perfect for sitting outside. We had fun watching the final game of the Euro Cup too, the games were huge here and the only way to watch them is outside on the big screen.
This week we depart for the granddaddy of all our trips. If we can survive this one without killing each other (or getting sick!) I'll be relieved! Ha! Please remember us in your prayers; it's going to be a busy three weeks. We are looking forward to seeing some CA friends on the trip and as usual, I plan to eat and shop my way around the globe! As far as N. Africa goes, I'm really looking forward to Tunisia because it's supposed to be gorgeous but as for Morocco, I'm still trying to get the images of Babel (the movie) out of my mind. (Only half kidding here!) Below is our itinerary, 14 stops in all.... I'm sure I'll have much to say when we return at the end of the month.
Wish you all a wonderful July!!!!
Amman to Tunis, Tunisia to Rabat, Morocco to Fes, Morocco to Tangiers, Morocco to Granada, Spain to Cordoba, Spain to Seville, Spain to Tangiers, Morocco to Casablanca, Morocco to Marrakesh, Morocco to Casablanca, Morocco to Tunis, Tunisia to Sfax, Tunisia to Sousse, Tunisia and return to Amman, EXHAUSTED!
I’m surprised that it hasn't been too hot out yet, it's warm but definitely not hot and the evenings are perfect for sitting outside. We had fun watching the final game of the Euro Cup too, the games were huge here and the only way to watch them is outside on the big screen.
This week we depart for the granddaddy of all our trips. If we can survive this one without killing each other (or getting sick!) I'll be relieved! Ha! Please remember us in your prayers; it's going to be a busy three weeks. We are looking forward to seeing some CA friends on the trip and as usual, I plan to eat and shop my way around the globe! As far as N. Africa goes, I'm really looking forward to Tunisia because it's supposed to be gorgeous but as for Morocco, I'm still trying to get the images of Babel (the movie) out of my mind. (Only half kidding here!) Below is our itinerary, 14 stops in all.... I'm sure I'll have much to say when we return at the end of the month.
Wish you all a wonderful July!!!!
Amman to Tunis, Tunisia to Rabat, Morocco to Fes, Morocco to Tangiers, Morocco to Granada, Spain to Cordoba, Spain to Seville, Spain to Tangiers, Morocco to Casablanca, Morocco to Marrakesh, Morocco to Casablanca, Morocco to Tunis, Tunisia to Sfax, Tunisia to Sousse, Tunisia and return to Amman, EXHAUSTED!
Happy 4th of July!
This has always been my favorite day of the year and I miss being home on the 4th so much (DL is THE place to be on the 4th after all- or at least it used to be! :) but, we had a fun day despite missing the fireworks. We spent the morning at a Farmer's Market; they are popular here and remind me a lot of the Monterey Farmer's Markets. This afternoon we attended the Embassy party, lots of people but also lots of fun. You can see from the photo K was not too happy about meeting Uncle Sam and refused to be in his kiddie parade. On the other hand she loved sitting in the Fire truck and playing in the Ambulance. Unfortunately for me, I got to see an ambulance up close and decided that I definitely do not want to find myself in one of these while in Jordan!! It looked like it was out of the 80's!
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