12/21/09 - Day 5

It’s our first day in Fez (we arrived yesterday night). I like it a lot better during the day –it is visually stimulating…a lot going on everywhere!

Five things from today:

1. The call to prayer is played from a minoret 5 times a day from multiple mosques…it’s something I’m not used to hearing at 5am. I guess when 99% of your population is the same religion, it’s easy to make this a part of everyone's day.

2. Alex has come to the realization that his luggage is gone; we went to look for replacement items. Since the medina is essentially one giant market we found mostly what he was looking for. He bought some levis…he tried them on in our room and came to the conclusion that they were women’s jeans. Have you seen The Office episode when Michael accidently buys the women’s suit…it reminded me of that.

3. We went to check out the water clock (built in 1357 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dar_al-Magana) but found out it’s not running because “the only person who knew how to fix it, died.” Even though it wasn't working, the structure was still there so at least we got to see part of it.

4. Today we walked through the “farmers market” section of the medina. I think one of the most unusual things I saw was a bushel of goat hooves.
a. We also saw goat hair shoes for sale…they were sweet.
b. There were chickens and cats hanging out together in a souk.
i.I mentioned before that a lot of cats are running around the medina. We found out last night why there are so many cats around…we unfortunately ran into a dead rat the size of a kitten.

5. I needed to use the restroom in the restaurant where we ate dinner. I found out that you have to walk past two urinals in order to get to the women’s restroom. They were in use when I had to walk by.

a. Everywhere we’ve gone to eat we get appetizers while we’re waiting for our food. So far we’ve had olives (chili & lemon), popcorn, potato chips, chick peas in a spicy sauce, peanuts and pistachios.

12/20/09 – Day 4

Today was pretty uneventful…we finally met John and Caroline at a café near the Casablanca train station and exchanged traveling stories. John and Caroline found their luggage, but still no luggage for Alex. We rode a crowded train for about 3.5 hours from Casablanca to Fez. When we got to Fez all 5 of us crammed into a taxi and headed to the Medina (an old part of Fez that was built between 800 and 1200 AD and is surrounded by a wall...I feel like I’m in the Aladdin cartoon when we walk around the city :-).

Five interesting things I saw today:
1. While on the train ride from Casablanca to Fez we saw a lot of countryside scenery. We notices a lot of the vegetation was similar to what we have in San Diego: Eucalyptus, bougainvillea, palm trees, tamarisk along the water, etc. Something that did catch us off guard while gazing out the window was the guy dropping a duce (defecating, pooping, number 2) –he was wearing a bright red sweater so it wasn’t hard to miss him.

2. We showed up to Fez with no plans or ideas of where we wanted to stay. We read that everything is a negotiation and a lot of people will offer your their assistance for a dirham (1 dirham = about $7.78). When we arrived to the gates of the medina we were asked if we had reservations or needed somewhere to stay. We checked out a few places and decided on Pension Kawtar; a family run house/hotel. We all are staying in one large room with an attached bathroom which is also one room…shower is right next to the toilet and sink…no curtain. It’s like a slumber party every night! The room is costing us about $10 each a night.

3. I missed this one, but John said that he saw some guy walking past us talking on his cell phone while picking his nose with his pinky…all with the same hand.

4. So whoever “invented” the Snuggie should not take any credit for being original. A lot of the locals wear Snuggies or what we have renamed them to be “Jedi Robes.” Women wear bedazaled robes and the men wear brown, black and sometimes white robes.

5. We met a friend of Pete’s (Khaled)who he traveled with around Morocco prior to meeting us. Khaled has been in Fez for a few days and was able to share some tips and places to check out. He’s an ADHD Lebanese Australian who is really entertaining to listen to.

First Report on Trip

12/17/09 - Day 1
We decided to stay up all night (12/16/09) to make sure we were extra tired for the flight over the pond ... and .... We are so tired. We have a 4 hour layover in Newark International airport ... we're hanging out trying not to fall asleep and giggle every time Ganin (ja-nine-a) is paged for "a very important message." We're also flipping through our guidebooks that Alex's brother got us for Christmas-learning how to say "get away from me" in Arabic, the books keep mentioning that it's a good phrase to know! Anywho, we meet John and Caroline at the Lisbon airport @ 8:00 am and take off to Casablanca at 2:00 pm arriving at 3:30 pm. John and Caroline took a flight from Seattle to New York to Paris then to Lisbon. CAN NOT WAIT to try the food in Morocco-sounds like they are all about the spices! Looking forward to the whole experience ... Can not wait to check out the markets ... Wish I Had a bigger suitcase! Adios my friends! M'a ssalama

12/18/09 - Day 2
We arrived in the Lisbon airport around 8am and checked our email. John and Caroline's flight from Paris to Lisbon had been canceled and their luggage was lost 're stuck in Paris until Sunday when they'll arrive in Casablanca at 11:00. We camped out in the Lisbon airport for about 6 hours. For lunch we had a mini smoked sausage sandwich and French fries (that you eat with a mini fork). I forgot about the no Mayo and mustard on sandwiches in Europe ... most of the time they just butter the bread. After our lunch we found a set of empty chairs and napped until they called for boarding. We arrived at the Casablanca airport and waited in line at "customs." Seeing all the signs in Arabic was surreal and exciting. After we filled out our "swine flu" informational card we stood and got our passports stamped, then went to pick up Alex's luggage (I carried mine on). Carried The belt that our flight's luggage was no longer moving ... Alex's bags-not there. We spent about 2 hours trying to find out where they could be ... we were finally told to call back before midnight to see if they had located them. We met up with Pete (who was easy to find with bright blonde hair) right out side of baggage claim around 6pm. We took the train from the airport to a train stop, and then took a cab to Hotel Astrid petite. Our hotel is nice and clean and has a lot of ornate details (see pictures). We ventured out to find some dinner ... there were a lot of pizza joints (including Pizza Huts-every-where) ... We could not find any Moroccan restaurants. We ended up finding a place that was pretty good. Anywho, after dinner we went to an "night time establishment" where people were getting annoyed with Alex Because he did not speak Arabic or Ffrench-they assumed he did and thought I was being a jerk by not answering them. More than once they tried talking to Pete and I then looked at Alex with a look of "can you please translate?!" Mostly we've met PS Ffrench-not everyone speaks Arabic.

12/19/09 - Day 3
Alex's luggage is still "lost." John and Caroline are still expected to arrive tomorrow. Today we walked around Casablanca. We saw the "developing" side of town and we saw the "developed side of town" ... Tijuana compared to the Gaslamp. It was an amazing first day in Morocco. Five things I saw in Casablanca that I would not see in San Diego:

1. The 3rd largest mosque in the world
   a. It was beautiful. We were lucky enough to see the inside and out.

2. Some sort of celebration for a toddler
   a. The little boy was riding on a horse down the street with his father (I'm assuming) not diggin 'the ride AT ALL. A small band playing horns and tambourines followed them ... a car following them and honking their horn to the beat of the band.

3. A dead puppy on the sidewalk ... it had been raining all day so ... you get the picture.
   a. Besides the dog on the roof I saw outside my hotel, this is the first dog that I saw ... this place is covered with feral cats.

4. A Barcelona soccer game where I was the only female in the entire joint.
   a. This was a place were men hung out and drank tea or some other hot drink and watched the "football" game. The satellite went out when it started raining really hard, there was no grumbling ... everyone waited patiently until the picture reappeared. They did not serve food here, however, there were street venders (male) that ventured in every so often and sold sweets to the patrons ... they were pretty good ...

5. A little boy looking at Pete in amazement.
a. We were walking through a market and some little boy (probably around 3 was standing next to his mom singing while kicking the side the building. When I saw Pete (tall guy with bright blonde hair) I stopped mid kick and mid song and watched, stunned, while Pete Walker by ... as soon as Pete was out of sight, he continued with his kicking and signing ... I guess he does not see too many blondes walking around the medina?

Here I go!

Ok -The adventure begins! In a few hours we take off to Morocco! The plan is to fly from San Diego (layover in NJ) to Lisbon. We meet John & Caroline in Lisbon then fly down to Casablanca and meet Pete. Then…???? We’ll be in Morocco for a few weeks then head up to Portugal for a week!
My plan is to post a few sentences about our most recent travels, name the 5 most exciting/interesting things I saw for the day/week and post some pictures. I’m going to try and not spend my entire trip Blogging, but want to journal the trip and let you all know what we’ve been up to! Hope you all enjoy your holidays!

The New Blog

One of my New Year's resolutions in 2009 was to start a blog. I’ve decided to use this blog to journal my Christmas Trip and track the progress of one of my 2010 NY's resolutions –no TV in 2010! Why no TV? I’ve decided that I spend way too many hours of my life watching “the tube.” So!Goodbye Hiro,no more “MOVE THAT BUS” or “Pack your knives” or “You may leave the runway.”Will lack of TV hinder my conversations of pop culture, or have I seen enough Family Guy episodes to stay afloat? We’ll see!