Essaouira - A little slice of home in Northern Africa

So, our first day in Marrakech was interesting to say the least.  We walked down to Djemaa El-Fna or the market and watched the street performers.  Not even 10 minutes from our hotel, we got approached by a guy carrying a cobra offering to put in on our necks for a picture.  We didn’t partake I’m sorry to say.  But there were monkeys and snakes and henna tattoo ladies and fortune tellers and lord knows what else all lining the market.  All offering their services to anyone that walked by.  We got lost in the souks and made it back to the hotel alive.  

So for the second day, we weren’t exactly sure what we were going to do.  But we saw some things in the book and we thought we should head out to see what we could find.  We walked out the door after breakfast and made our way down the street.  It’s quite amazing of how much of a bustling city it is with people going every which way. 

In the lobby they served us breakfast, two different croissants, a piece of something similar to a pound cake and some Moroccan version of a crepe.  It’s really tasty.  They have great coffee, and of course tea.  We were looking at our map trying to figure out what to do and see, when the guy at the table next to us asked to see the map.  Sure I said, and handed it to him.  His eyes instantly lit up and he said with a very strong accent, “You speak English?  Can I join you?”  We kind of looked at each other and said, “Sure go ahead.”  Turns out he is from Algeria, and is an English teacher there.  He has never been to the US, but loves everything about it, and hopes that one day he will get to make it.  He was so excited to sit and talk with native English speakers that he could hardly contain himself.  He also probably knew more about Obama and American Policy than either of us. He was asking us all about living in the US, while we were asking him about Algeria and different words to speak in Arabic.  So a little lesson (mind you this isn’t the way they are spelled, just the way it sounds to us): Shukran means thank you.  Min Fudlik means Please.  Wahead – one Zooj – two, Theleta – Three, arlbaa – four, hamsa – five, sitta- six, sabaa- seven, themenyah – eight, szurge – nine, asha – ten.  We never really thought to figure out how to say hello and good bye since everywhere we went we were greeted with Bonjour and Arivour. We exchanged contact info, and Mustafa (our new friend) made it abundantly clear that if we ever wanted to travel to Algeria, we have a place to stay.  And he asked if I had a dollar, so I gave one to him, and you would think that I had given him $1,000.  He was thrilled to have a US dollar.  He gave us an Algerian 50 cent piece and he left since he was about to leave on his flight to Casa Blanca for an English teachers summit.

We walked about a half a mile down the road stepping over street vendors and grabbing a bottle of water on the way.  Then we get closer to where we need to be and end up in a huge intersection and we just look for someone that looks like a tourist and follow them.  Soon we pop out the back of another market and see a sign for the Badii Palace.  We walked up got our tickets and walked in.  It’s a palace for the Sultan from a long time ago.  They had pools everywhere and there was some sort of scaffolding that was in the middle for concerts or what not.  So we wandered about the palace for a while.  Exploring the various caverns and things.  There were hallways that lead down below were servant lived and courtyards all over the place.  They all had sky lights that allowed light in so that you could see where you were going.

Then we walked up the stairs to the top of the palace and you could see over the top of all the city.  Funny that everywhere you look there are satellite dishes on the roofs for TV. 

We then left the palace and headed back to the main intersection we ended up in earlier.  There was a big red bus, and those of you that live in tourist areas know.  The big red tourist bus you can hop on and off all day.  So we decided to get on just so we could get our bearings.  As we’re on the bus we are listening to the tour and learning various things about the city and its origins.  It’s a very old city, from about 1000 AD, with people in the area long before that.  But it has now become a very vibrant and modern city. 

We took the bus out to the newer area of Marrakech and decided to transfer onto the other bus that took you around the modern part.  As we rode we saw shopping malls and large apartment complexes.  It has a completely different feel from the medina where we are staying.

We even drove way out of the city and by a bunch of guys offering camel rides right on the out skirts of the city. 

On our way back to the transfer station, we  decided to visit Jardin Majorelle.  We stopped in for lunch and a very trendy boutique juice and wrap shop on the street, which was very tasty.  We walked into the garden and it was beautiful and peaceful.  Quite a contrast to the hustle of the streets right outside the gate.

It even gave Sarah ideas for her own garden.  She is going to paint her flower pots bright multi-colors because she likes the look so much.

We jump back on the bus and return back to the medina.  On our way back up to the room, we asked Moona, the girl working the front desk of our hotel, where we should go to dinner and she steered us towards a place on the main square of Djemaa El-Fna.  We wandered our way over to the restaurant and walked up stairs for a table over-looking the plaza.  Another tajine, this one had chicken onions and lemon in it.  Rather tasty I must say.  This was also the first time we heard the Islamic prayers that happen 5 times each day.  They are broadcast over the loud speakers over the entire city, and some people stop what they are doing to pray for a couple minutes, while the rest of the city continues on around them.  It’s a little scary to hear the first time.  Not understanding Arabic, it sounds a little like an air raid siren, and it’s just kind of blaring everywhere you go.  It doesn’t last too long, but it’s definitely enough to remind you that we aren’t in LA. 

Everywhere we go, they serve you mint tea.  It’s really really good.  And it’s funny because Sarah doesn’t like tea at all, but she started to love this mint tea. And she’s officially decided to start growing mint and making mint tea at home.  But of course you can’t make mint tea in just any tea pot, so into the maze of a market we go.  We found some vendors that had the pots, walk in and start the bargaining process.  This is another thing that we’re really not that good at or super comfortable with, but make do, and feel reasonable about the prices we got on our stuff.  I’m sure we could have done better, but I guess if we’re comfortable, then that’s all you can really ask. 

So then we fight the crowd back to our hotel for the evening, and talk to Moona about booking a trip to Essaouira, a place that Sarah has wanted to go since we started talking about going to Morocco.  Back into bed for the evening, we’ve got an early morning the next day.

Up at 7AM to get ready and grab breakfast before our trek to the coast.  Just sitting in the lobby, our guide walks in and just kind of points at us and says, “Essaouira?” we nod and follow him out the door.  Cross the intersection and there’s just a van sitting there, he opens the door and we hop in.  There wasn’t really much talking about it.  So our trip started with some more folks piling in the van, just like we did when we showed up. 

Our favorite companion, happened to be this wacky Italian guy sitting next to us.  He must have been in his 60’s, and had long grey hair that was frazzled all over the place.  He looks kind of like a Robin Williams character.  He kept trying to open the window in the van and couldn’t get it to work, so he would ask the driver to open it for him.  We drove for a little while and had to stop for gas, and Italiano Robin (we’ll call  him that from now on) proceeded to lean completely out the window and try to open the sliding door from the inside, while reaching for the outside handle, I don’t know exactly how he planned on opening the door while hanging out of the window, but sure.  Then he threw a fit about the AC.  “Air Condition” “Air Condition” (in a heavy Italian accent)  So the driver turns on the AC full blast, and all the sudden it’s freezing in the van.  So everyone started pointing the vents at him and he got cold and closed all the vents.  Oh, and I have to mention his socks were on inside out. He was quite a character, and his wife or girlfriend or whoever was pretty cool.

The country side in Morocco is vastly different from anything I have ever seen.  It’s very barren but not in a Arizona/Utah kind of way.

Oh and they have goats in their trees.

I guess the shepherd gets his goats to climb up in the tree for tourists to take pictures of on their 2.5 hour drive to the ocean. 

Finally we cross over the mountain and coming down, you can tell we are getting closer to the water, it’s been slowly getting greener and greener the entire way.  Our van driver pulls over in the middle of the city, says to meet him back there in 4 hours.  So we’re on our own to explore this new place.  It was really nice to be in a beach town, it was kind of comfortable.  There was a great marina with all the fishing boats that come in from their day to sell their fish.  And there were seagulls everywhere looking for a hand out. 

Fishermen mending their nets

The medina in Essaouira is quite a bit smaller than the one in Marrakech, and the people are about 100x less pushy.  So it’s nice to be able to walk and look at the stuff without being hassled the entire time.  Looks like someone found something she liked:

Sick of the shopping we walked out of the medina and were looking to eat at a seafood market.  We walked past the vendors and every one of them came up to us, “You eat fish here.  Good Price”.  And we could hardly pass.  We looked at each other and instantly knew where we wanted to go. 

We headed onto the path along the ocean.  It’s beautiful and peaceful and not super packed.  The water looked rather inviting so we popped off our shoes and walked into the water.  The sand was very fine and powdery but not really white.  The water was a little chilly and it was windy, but we were in the ocean in Africa, it’s kind of surreal to think about it like that.  

Further down the boardwalk we entered a little restaurant for lunch.  Sat down at a table right in the front ordered lunch and a beer and just relaxed. No one to harass you.  You would think we were in a Corona commercial, except it was Casa Blanca Beer, but still. 

Three guys strolled up in front of the tables, and started playing a song.  Two had these strange guitar type instruments and the other had a metal dish on his head.  He was clanging the dish while the other guys played and they danced around.  And then passed a hat for contributions for the show.  Sarah has pictures of this be sure to check those out.

It came time to leave, so we walked back to our meet up spot.  And back into the van on our way back to Marrakech.  We weren’t in Essaouira very long, but long enough to know that is definitely a place that we would like to return.  It was beautiful and peaceful.  It even felt a little like home, with the guys running surf lessons from the shack right next to where we had lunch.  The seafood market and fish places right on the water made me feel a little like I was home in Maryland.  But it’s a beautiful town, the white washed building with waves splashing onto them.  The bright blue boats everywhere, fishermen mending their nets.  It just had a very distinct charm.

Oh and there are crazy Italians.  Italiano Robin hopped in the bus next to us and we glanced over to see him looking at the pictures they took while they were wondering around the city.  Of course he had pictures on himself in a very skimpy bathing suit wandering around on the sand.  I wouldn’t expect anything less. 

Sarah decided to try to be part of a Coca-Cola Commercial during one of our pit stops.

Back to Marrakech, back to see Moona and talk to her about booking a trek to the desert to ride some camels into the Sahara.  We talked to her, found out that we were going to be picked up at 7AM the next morning.  And headed out to grab a bite to eat.  It’s amazing, the very first day we got to town, we went out and were so intimidated by the goings on outside our hotel.  At this point, it became just a course of everyday life.  We know not to make eye contact with beggars, and avoid everyone with their hand out.  We also know that you don’t acknowledge the guys yelling at you to come into their shops.  Even when they try to get your attention by yelling something distinctive about you.  I don’t know if “skinhead” is something that they feel is derogatory or not, I know I have a bald head, but I mean… wow.  As we progressed through the square, we made it to an alley and took it to find the restaurant that we saw we should try.  Again, walking through an alley in the dark was almost becoming second nature, where the first day, we were lost in broad day light.  We found the place and it was very different from the first places we had tried.  This one was a lot more like something you would see in Santa Monica.  Very trendy, and it even had avocado salad among other things.  I, of course, had another tajine and back for an even earlier night. 

One day I hope to say that I've seen the world...

One day I hope to say that I've seen the world, but that day is not here yet.  However, over the past couple years, I have developed a profound desire to travel, to see things I’ve never seen before and  go places I’ve never been before.  The world has infinite experiences so why not take advantage of whats out there.  Why not experience some unknowns, whether it be a foreign land or culture, food or drink or even activity.  As I sit here, already having accomplished a 3 hour flight to Dallas (plus a 4 hour layover) and now 3 hours into our next flight to Madrid (still 7 hours to go), I’ve had a lot of time to reflect on life: past, present and future.  Its amazing when you give yourself time to think, how everything starts to take on a new perspective.  It’s been 8 months since my last blog post (and I must apologize that I never finished it, but I will) and a lot of life has happened.  Days have come and gone, some busy, some stressful, some boring, others pretty fun but despite the ebb and flow of everyday life, Ray and I continue share in our desire to travel. Thankfully we had a great excuse this time, since two good friends of ours decided to have their wedding in Spain.  Just like last time how the Penn State game put us in Dublin, Ireland August 30, now we couldn't wait to be in Cordoba, Spain in the beginning of June.  From their, our pre-trip plan took many shapes before we settled on a preliminary game plan.  As of now, we are planning on putting around Morocco, Spain and Portugal for the next month.  Some of it is planned, some is being left up to chance. I can not even begin to explain how excited I am to be able to do this again.  Oh and of course we have our travel sidekick, Pepe to partake in all the craziness along the way.  

For me, I am most excited about: traveling by camel across the Sahara desert in Morocco, surrounding myself amidst the beautiful flower-lined buildings in Cordoba and driving along the southern coast of Portugal.   But most of all, I am just elated to be traveling again. 

“We travel not to escape life, but for life not to escape us.”

MMMMMMM....Marrakech - Day 1

So let's start with day 1, 5:30AM Hermosa Beach, CA.  Wake up and catch a cab to LAX.  FLy to Dallas.  Sit and wait three hours, they're having rain storms.  We sure could use some of that in California.  We sit and waste some time eating BBQ and walking around, knowing we are going to be sitting for quite a while.  Turns out our flight was delayed about 45 minutes due to the weather.  So we take off... 9 hours and 45 minutes later we land in Madrid.  We're gonna be here 4 total times in the next month, so I hope we are comfortable.  We found a place that serves Iberico ham flatbreads for breakfast.  So we jumped right on that.  We missed it so much and it's sooo tasty.  Customs took it from us when we tried to bring some back last time, I think we learned our lesson.  It's now 9 AM local time.  Neither of us have slept very much at all.  We're just waiting another 2 hours in Madrid waiting for our flight to Marrakech.  We board that plane for another 2 hour flight.  I ended up dozing off some but woke up just in time to see the desert that we were flying into.  It's kind of crazy. 

We land and have to walk off the plane onto the runway and it's HOT.  Then into the airport and through customs.  We get our passports stamped and walk out into the heat.  First things first.  You can't get Moroccan Dirhams at any currency exhcange.  It's a closed (?) currency, so it's not traded outside the country.  You have to get currency in the country and it's actually illegal to leave with any.  So SHHHHH!! and it's about 10 - 1 dirham to dollars.

So we walk outside and walk over to the cab line.  We get mobbed by a bunch of cab drivers.  This is not exactly what I was looking for first thing in a new country after about 23 hours with minimal sleep.  So we just pick one, he throws our bags into his trunk and we tell him where we're going.  He says it will be 250 ($25) which seems reasonable enough, that's what it cost us to get to LAX.  So sure.... Drive us to our place.  So we're driving through the city, out of the airport and out to a big wall.  Marrakech is interesting in that the city is divided into two parts, the Medina or old part and the Geuliz or the newer trendier European part.  Our cab driver drives through a gate in the wall, and lets us out on the street.  He says, I can't drive to your hotel.  You have to walk up that street and it will be on your left.  Mind you this is in broken English, with a French and Arabic accent.  They speak French and Arabic in Morocco, huh.

So, we walk to our hotel, and walk in the door.  It's pretty crazy.  A riad is an old palace and they have now been converted to BnB's all over town.  It's pretty beautiful on the inside.

 Looking down on the courtyard in the center of the Riad

 The light outside our door

 Hallway leading to our room

Hallway leading to our room

So we check in.  She sits us down that the table in the lobby (where the blue pool is above) and proceeds to pour us some mint tea.  Very Very tasty.  And tells us that you need to bargain with everyone because they will try to rip you off.  Any cab ride in the city should be less than 40 drm.  Oops... ripped off already, oh well.  So she walked us up to our room.  Turned on the computer and noticed it's 6:30AM PST, good lord we've been traveling for almost 25 total hours.  We unpacked everything and decided to go for a walk down to the main square, Djemaa El-Fna.  Which I guess means square of death, since they used to do executions there many years ago, now it's just a crazy mess of street performers and vendors that sell anything and everything you could possibly imagine.  So we walked around there a little, but were tired so we went upstairs to see the fray beginning to build from above.  There was an "obligatory consumption" to sit at a table upstairs.  What would you like to drink?  

Sure, that looks tasty... I'll have that.  There's not really any booze around, so soda will have to do.  The market down stairs start to assemble.  And we can hear the drum beats of the dancers starting to come into the square.  

We walked through the market a little, and got lost in the Souks, or little market stalls down the alleys.  Everywhere you turn there are people hassling you to buy something, and it got pretty overwhelming pretty quick, since we were so exhausted.  we had dealt with about as much as we could.  We went back and just had dinner at our riad.  Tajine is one of my new favorite foods.  It's just a way of cooking, but it's pretty fantastic, and I'm sure we'll have plenty more.  So that's it for now.  We're sure to have plenty more adventures in this city, not really sure what to make of it quite yet.  But it sure is beautiful to watch the sunset over the main Mosque in town.

So, tomorrow we're going to go around the city here, then we're taking a day trip to a small beach town named Essaouira, and then we're going on a camel trek out into the Sahara to camp for a night.  It should be interesting.  I can tell you so far this is like no place I have ever been before....

Back at it again...

Well, if you couldn't tell from the last posts, we're at it again.  I was actually writing those posts on the plane as we set out on our second trip over the course of a year.  Crazy to think.  We've been traveling almost 3 months out of the last year.  This time, it works out almost the same way.  We were lucky enough to be invited to a wedding of some friends of ours in Spain, and also some friends in Maryland.  They happen to be about a month apart, so we figured, what the hell?  Let's do it all over again.  So, we're going to travel some of the places we missed last time.  Cover some ground that we were hoping to hit but missed.  It's really great to have this opportunity and you can be certain we are thankful for every minute of it and want to make the most of it.

Last time we started and went through most of northern Europe, Ireland, Scotland, England, Netherlands, Germany, etc etc.  You can see the older posts in the archives.  We ended up in Barcelona, and absolutely loved it.  So we're super excited to go through the rest of Spain.  But we are going to start in Morocco, travel back to Spain, rent a car and just drive through Spain and Portugal.  No real plans other than be at the wedding in Cordoba on June 6.  Other than that, we'll see what happens.   So here goes.. Join us again.  We'll try to keep it entertaining....

6 Weeks - 10 Countries - Tons of Towns and Cities - Priceless Adventure

So, thus ends this epic journey that we did around Europe.  Six weeks is quite a while to be living out of a carryon.  We traveled all over the place, saw a lot of things, met a lot of great people.  We even made a pit stop on the way back through Annapolis to attend a wedding of two really close friends.  What a great experience.  You know something that really struck me while we were venturing around.  It didn’t really matter where we were, the small towns in Ireland, or Prague, or Italy, or Amsterdam, everyone was pretty much the same.  People are very friendly and welcoming as long as you are respectful and welcoming yourself.  It’s funny, no matter where we were, you saw families playing in the parks, kids laughing, young people shuffling off to school, people getting a snack on their lunch break, folks going out to the club with the hopes of not going home alone.  It oddly reminds you of home, but is different enough to make sure you aren’t completely comfortable.  It’s really quite remarkable how similar we all are, yet how different.  

You know what else really struck me, and I’m sure struck Sarah as well.  We went 6 weeks living out of a carryon.  It’s amazing how resourceful you become.  And for the entire 6 week trip, we had about 2 weeks of it planned, the rest we just kind of rolled with it and figured it out as we went.  And only with a few mishaps.  Really, it’s a great way to travel, it leaves you the flexibility to go where you want, and change course if you find something better or more interesting.  

Anyway, enough with the philosophical stuff.  What did I really enjoy the most?  How about the top 5 things that we did over the course of 6 weeks, across 10 countries, and multiple cities, villages and towns? 

5) Barcelona – What an awesome place!  Very fun, and very beautiful.  The people and food are great.  But Italy wasn’t really our cup of tea, but I was really worried that we were getting to the end of our trip and we were just worn out.  Then we showed up to Barcelona and we loved it.  So I guess it speaks for itself. 

4) Edinburgh – I know we had friends here that we stayed with, so that made for a whole different experience.  It was great to see them, but what a cool interesting place.  The history of the city was really fascinating.  Seeing it through the eyes of some locals was fantastic.  Just avoid the deep fried mars bars if at all possible.

3) Munich – I know I know… how can Oktoberfest not be #1??  It was great.  It was such a fun experience and there’s nothing that makes me giggle more than remembering the Germans in their traditional Bavarian dress doing the Macarena.  And the Beer, and the pretzels… WOW!  Awesome!  Great town, and I would love to come back and see it when it’s not completely overrun with drunks, but it sure as hell was a good time.

2) Ireland – I had been to England before.  I was half thinking it would be similar.  But I was drastically wrong.  Yeah, as the lady in the pub in Galway put it, “You don’t come to Ireland for the weather” But the rolling green hills, the people were super friendly.  We had some friends come meet up with us in Dublin.  It also doesn’t hurt that PSU ended up beating UCF for the opening game of the season.  Great place, and it just makes me want to go back to see more of what the Emerald Isle has to offer.  We did so much, and yet there is so much more to see and do. 

And for # 1: Berlin – Odd I know, it’s strange that of all the great places we went Berlin stands out.  Why it was my favorite I can’t quite put my finger on.  I don’t know if it was the way that the history of the place was something that we all lived through.  I don’t know if it was the feeling you get that this city has and will survive anything that is thrown at it.  It gets burned to the ground, bombed to hell, chopped up into pieces and keeps rebuilding bigger and better.  The way that it’s so international without really trying.  It was almost comfortable, to the point of we could actually see ourselves living there.  It’s really strange to feel that way about a city.  There’s such an energy there that you feel like anything is possible.  It’s new and old at the same time.  It’s funny, everyone goes to Paris, or Rome, or London, you don’t ever hear anyone say, “I’m going to Europe to go to Berlin.”  And you know what… I don’t really mind, it’s such a cool place there’s really no reason for everyone to flock there anyway. 

So there it is my favorite places from our trip.  We really wish all of you could have joined us on our adventures.  Hopefully this little video recap will let you feel a little like you were along with us:

Barcelona - Better late than Never!!

Well, here we are… 9 months later.  Unfortunately, I (and Sarah) never finished out the blog from last time.  So, let’s revisit our last leg from our trip, Barcelona.  We’ll start with the trek to Genoa, Christopher Columbus’ birthplace.  We woke up early in the morning in Monterosso, walked our way down to the train and hoped on to head north.  After about a 2 hour train ride, we ended up in the train station in the middle of Genoa.  We had some time to kill so we hit up our last kabob stand that we will see.  We didn’t wander far, but we returned to the train station to get the bus to the airport.  We arrived at the airport, and to our surprise, we’re like 4 hours early for our flight.  I had read the itinerary wrong, thinking the flight left at 6:30, when in reality we only need to be at the airport at 6:30.  So we tried to check in to no avail, we had to return to the desk in 2 hours.  Awesome… where was this time when we were running through Gatwick Airport trying to catch the plane to Amsterdam??  Oh, and you know what made it even better? After an hour or so playing cards and eating airport food, our flight was delayed about two hours, so now we’re in the airport just waiting another 2 hours.  Fun….  Luckily we had half a card deck to entertain ourselves for a while. 

Alright, so now it’s finally come time for us to check in, so we walk over to the desk, and the lady decides to weigh our bags, and they’re over weight.  She won’t let us carry them on.  So now what?  We’ve only got these bags, we aren’t checking anything in, it’s 100 euros to do so.  Well… here we go… pull out all the clothes you can and put them on.  So here we are, the middle of the Genoa airport, pulling out three pairs of pants, six shirts, jackets and everything else we can fit onto our bodies.  Go back to weigh the bags… and we’re under weight, looking like someone from Antarctica in the middle of a hot day in Italy, but we made it through, laughing at each other’s waddle the entire way through security.  They check our bags for weight one more time before we get on the plane and then wedge us into our seats on the cheap flight we booked from Genoa to Barcelona.  Mind you, wedged in is putting it lightly, these seats were close, and the guy in front of me was basically sitting in my lap.  

We land in Barcelona, it’s about 1 AM.  Try to get the train into the city, no dice, it stops running at 11PM.  So cab it is, into the city, exhausted from traveling all day.  Get to our hotel and check in.  Lesson learned, when in Barcelona, the hotels aren’t that expensive so spend a little more, a cheap hotel is just that. Uncomfortable beds, crappy showers, thin walls, etc.

The next morning we walked down stairs to see what our included breakfast was, and it was disgusting, that’s exactly what it was.  So, we left to catch another one of the New Europe walking tours.  That was great.  We learned a lot about the city, Saw the very steps where Christopher Columbus first told the king of Spain of his new found riches in the new world.  We saw the new artsy areas of the city, and ended right near the zoo.  It was really great.  

Something that Sarah still won’t let me live down: Walking around, we keep seeing all these yellow and red stripped flags.  Our tour guide proceeds to tell us that these are the flags of Catalonia.  Apparently she is a big fan of flags, and there is going to be a vote for Catalonian independence.  (How are we always around during these succession votes?) Well, I walked up to her and said, “Don’t worry you’re not weird, I like flags too. But what are all the Catalonian/St george’s cross flags doing around?”  This is the flag of the city of Barcelona.  And to this day, Sarah will still say to me, “I like flags, do you like flags?” in a voice similar to “there’s something about mary” – I like Baseballs.

After the tour we caught the train, which getting around Barcelona was really easy, up to the Sagrada Familia, Gaudi’s most famous work.  A chapel that has been under construction since the 1860’s and is still going.  In fact they just finished closing in the ceiling last May.  Crazy to think, but I guess as far as huge European cathedrals go this is relatively quick.  It’s a beautiful building, very interesting architecture and unbelievably ornate.

We also went to Gaudi’s Park Güell to see his vision of a rich gated community.  It’s pretty cool, look a little like Whoville, but very interesting none the less.  We also went to see one of his famous Apartement buildings that he designed.  We showed up and well, it was being renovated so we at least got to see a printout of what the building looked like.  They covered the scaffolding with a printout of the building.  I guess that’s one way to do it.  That night we had tapas at a very good restaurant and went back to the hotel.  

The next day we woke up and wandered up the street to the market on Las Ramblas, the main street right through the center of town.   The market is fantastic, lots of lovely fruits and vegetables and lots of dead animals.  The ham is to die for, Iberico ham is the best ham in the world, and they serve Iberico “snow cones”.  Very tasty.  

We ventured out to the Olympic village, from the 1992 Olympics.  Funny, we ended up in like 5 Olympic host cities, (London, Berlin, Innsbruk, Munich, Barcelona) and only visited one site of them.  But this one was kind of special, because it’s really the first one that I paid attention to, you know with the Dream Team and all.  So we walked through the Olympic stadium, and the village, saw the torch, it was really pretty neat to walk in those footsteps.  

We went looking to try and get into a restaurant that was suggested to us by a friend from Spain.  Apparently, this restaurant is rather famous, it is run by the guy who started the small plates movement. The place is called Tickets and anyone who is anyone in the restaurant world, knows this place, well anyone but us.  We walked up and asked about a reservation, and the girl looked at us like we had three heads, “When did you book it?  We’re booked up for 3 months.”  Oh, Ooops.  So we went to the bar next door and sat trying to figure out where to go.  While we texted with our Spanish friend back in the states, we were talking to the bartender about where to get a bite to eat.  All along we should have gone into this little dive bar, the bartender works at another place right down the road, that is wide open, and just our luck the owner of the place is sitting at the end of the bar getting a drink before going in for the evening shift.  

We went to dinner with our new found friends and they took care of us, and the food was amazing, and right next to this super expensive swanky place, but way less popular, and probably way better.  The pulpo (octopus) was great!!

After our venture to Barcelona, I was super excited to eventually sometime in the future make a trip back to Spain to see more of the country…