If only we were from the Dora the Explorer generation we would understand so much more. But no, I watched Sesame Street and got a shorter attention span instead. I know you haven't heard from me in a while. Internet has been unreliable (and still is, I am writing this offline on the hope that I can get the connection to last long enough to post) and when we did have internet I didn't feel like writing. So let me sum up Morocco for you. It had some magic moments but in between was a whole lot of hassle. Marrakech was worth the hassle, Fes was not. By our last night in Fes we were completely exhausted with the entire country and wanted to just get to Spain. But Marrakech (after a few difficulties) was great. We wandered all over the medina, got sufficiently lost, found our way back again, ate ice cream, got attacked with henna, and watched some snake charming. The next day we visited the palaces and the saadian tombs (which were cool, the first one literally) and watched the square fill up with people from a terrace restaurant. It was lovely overall.
Then we headed to Fes on an overnight bus. Our hostel offered a walking tour of the medina and convinced us that a tour was necessary because you would get completely lost on your own. You would, but the tour turned out to be less amazing than it had been made out as. Bits were really interesting but it also included a lot of trying to sell us stuff. Why they thought people paying €10 a night for accommodation would be buying carpets for $3000 I don't know. But they tried very hard to convince us anyway. And it turned out the medina was so labyrinthine that any time we wanted to go somewhere we had to walk out to the main roads and around the outside. Also, there were a lot more creepy people. I'm fairly certain someone called me breakfast. So we abandoned Fes and Morocco. We stayed one night in Tangier (that was quite a bit better anyway but we only stayed about 12 hours). The waiter at our restaurant asked us where we were from and when we said New Zealand he said "Oh, Irish!" And when we tried to explain that it was sort of the other side of the world he told us he liked scottish whiskey.
But then we left Morocco and, after a very bumpy ferry ride with some not so pleasant background noise, arrived in Spain.
It's fantastic already. We are currently staying in Sevilla which is a beautiful little city. No creepy people staring or following us, clean, open, colourful. It is very hot. They still do the siesta here and since it is currently sitting around 35 and it's October you can understand why. But it is more of a dry heat than it was in some of the other places so if we stick to the shade it's fairly manageable. And there is a lot of shade. This is clearly a city that has had hundreds of years of experience of dealing with heat. I wouldn't want to visit in summer though. But other than the weather this is the first place we have seen that I could imagine living in. We have passed some buildings and said imagine living there. It really is a lovely place. And there are so many shoe shops. I don't know how they can all survive they're just everywhere. Catie is hoping to convince me to go shopping this afternoon. I might have been away from it for long enough to consider it.
So now you're somewhat caught up. I think I didn't go into a while lot of detail but oh well. Maybe next time. We are planning to have 4 whole days in Madrid so might have more time then. And hopefully more reliable internet. Now I have to see if I can connect long enough to post this.
Then we headed to Fes on an overnight bus. Our hostel offered a walking tour of the medina and convinced us that a tour was necessary because you would get completely lost on your own. You would, but the tour turned out to be less amazing than it had been made out as. Bits were really interesting but it also included a lot of trying to sell us stuff. Why they thought people paying €10 a night for accommodation would be buying carpets for $3000 I don't know. But they tried very hard to convince us anyway. And it turned out the medina was so labyrinthine that any time we wanted to go somewhere we had to walk out to the main roads and around the outside. Also, there were a lot more creepy people. I'm fairly certain someone called me breakfast. So we abandoned Fes and Morocco. We stayed one night in Tangier (that was quite a bit better anyway but we only stayed about 12 hours). The waiter at our restaurant asked us where we were from and when we said New Zealand he said "Oh, Irish!" And when we tried to explain that it was sort of the other side of the world he told us he liked scottish whiskey.
But then we left Morocco and, after a very bumpy ferry ride with some not so pleasant background noise, arrived in Spain.
It's fantastic already. We are currently staying in Sevilla which is a beautiful little city. No creepy people staring or following us, clean, open, colourful. It is very hot. They still do the siesta here and since it is currently sitting around 35 and it's October you can understand why. But it is more of a dry heat than it was in some of the other places so if we stick to the shade it's fairly manageable. And there is a lot of shade. This is clearly a city that has had hundreds of years of experience of dealing with heat. I wouldn't want to visit in summer though. But other than the weather this is the first place we have seen that I could imagine living in. We have passed some buildings and said imagine living there. It really is a lovely place. And there are so many shoe shops. I don't know how they can all survive they're just everywhere. Catie is hoping to convince me to go shopping this afternoon. I might have been away from it for long enough to consider it.
So now you're somewhat caught up. I think I didn't go into a while lot of detail but oh well. Maybe next time. We are planning to have 4 whole days in Madrid so might have more time then. And hopefully more reliable internet. Now I have to see if I can connect long enough to post this.
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