Back from Morocco

Sorry, I've gotten a little behind on my blog posting! Turns out there are not very many places in Morocco where you can get wifi (contrary to what most hotel and hostel websites claim), and since I returned to the UK it's been incredibly busy. So, for a quick catch up:

One more photo of Chefchaouen:

From Chefchaouen I hopped on a bus to Fez, one of the four Imperial Cities of Morocco. The Fez medina is absolutely crazy, except for on Fridays (the day I arrived, of course) when everyone is at the mosque and then goes home to make couscous with their families. At full pace, the medina is overwhelming, with shops and stalls lining the tiny streets selling everything from traditional Moroccan slippers emblazoned with the LV logo, skinned animal heads, black olive soap, leather poufs, nougat candies, etc... Everywhere you walk little boys shout at you that whichever way you're walking is "closed" and that instead you should follow them to the tanneries. There are hundreds of little twisting and turning streets that lead off to dead end alleyways or bustling squares, so even with a map it can be quite difficult to find your way around. It's definitely an experience, and quite different from any place I've been before!
One of the gates to enter the medina of Fez:

 Dates for sale:

The most common mode of transport in the Fez medina:



The Fez tanneries:

Lamps for sale in Metalworkers' Square:

From Fez I took a train to Meknes, another one of the Imperial Cities, and caught a taxi (this time wise enough to buy myself 2 places) to the little town of Moulay Idriss. Moulay Idriss is not a tourist destination - I think the reason most people go there is because it's so close to the Roman ruins at Volubilis - but this quiet little town turned out to be one of my favorite places in Morocco. There's not too much going on, but after the energy and business of Fez, a more peaceful and less touristy few days were just what I needed. One of my favorite experiences of the entire trip was going to the local hammam (public bath) in Moulay Idriss, where I was scrubbed down very vigorously by the bath attendant and tried to chat with the local women using sign language. I also loved going to the ruins at Volubilis. I adore ruins in general, and I ended up visiting these ones twice, on the afternoon I arrived and then again the next morning! It was relatively uncrowded, especially when I went in the late afternoon, with a few tour groups that went through very rapidly and then pretty much no one else besides the local cowherd, grazing the cows among the less excavated parts of the ruins.

The town of Moulay Idriss:




Volubilis:










One of the ancient floor mosaics:




View from the ruins:




Another ancient mosaic:









Sunset at Volubilis:




After a lovely two days in Moulay Idriss, I took a taxi back to Meknes where I caught the Marrakech Express, which isn't actually named the "Marrakech Express" and which definitely isn't very express. Marrakech is an extremely vibrant city, especially around the Place D'Jemaa El-Fna. The square is full of women offering henna, snake charmers, storytellers, men with monkeys on leashes, dancers, rows of giant carts selling fresh squeezed orange juice or dates, and stalls selling couscous or fried fish or giant pots of snails. Especially at night, this is the place to be in Marrakech. I took a few photos, but nothing can really convey the experience.




I found this video which gives a little bit of an idea what it's like there. The only thing I didn't see that's in the video is the human pyramid type thing, but I did see this instead:




Doesn't look too exciting, but those things on the left side of the table are dentures and that large pile of small white things is human teeth!

While in Marrakech I also visited the Bahia Palace, which looks strikingly similar to the Alhambra in Granada (just smaller and without so many reflecting pools and gardens) and another Alhambra-lookalike, the Ali Ben Youssef Medersa, a Quranic school founded in the 14th century.












Finally, over a month after I left London, I hopped on an easyjet flight from Marrakech back to the UK. Since I got back to London, I've gone through Orientation with API, International Student Orientation at UCL, and New Student Orientation through my department. I'm all moved in, finally (long story!), and working on getting myself registered for the classes I want to take. Classes start next week and I'm really looking forward to getting settled in to a routine! More to come soon about UCL and life as a real London student.

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Photos

I'm putting up more photos from my travels on picasa (I created a new album separate from the picasa album I have for London):

https://picasaweb.google.com/106757080141228507860/RogerMJonesTraveling

(London and blog photos are still at: https://picasaweb.google.com/106757080141228507860/RogerMJonesJournal?authkey=Gv1sRgCOTjjfvTuLTNXw)

Enjoy!

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Spain and Morocco

Hello from Morocco! Monday night I arrived in Chefchaouen from Granada, via bus, bus, ferry, bus, bus, bus, grand taxi (aka a normal sized American taxi that in Morocco carries 7 people), petit taxi (aka a slightly larger than SmartCar-sized vehicle that drives around town for 15 dirhams, or about $2) and another petit taxi. It was a pretty awful day of travel but now I am in Morocco and I've loved it here in Chefchaouen (also called just Chaouen) so far.

To go back in time a little bit: Madrid was nice, especially the parks, plazas, and the cheap tapas places. I did a bike tour (which is a really fantastic way to see a city - wish I'd done one in Amsterdam as well!), visited the Palacio Real, wandered around the Plaza Mayor and the Puerto del Sol, and visited the Reina Sofia museum (free for students) where there was, among many other things, art by Picasso and a really interesting exhibit by a Japanese artist who's now living voluntarily in a mental hospital. I had a great time seeing two friends from UM and exploring the city with them.












From Madrid I flew (cheaper than the train!) to Barcelona. I did another bike tour and met some really interesting people (including a neuroscientist from Germany and a Danish photography student) and saw some of the wild buildings designed by Gaudi. I spent a lot of time at the beach and the parks (one of which has an amazing fountain designed for a World Expo in the early 1900s) as it was so so hot, especially on my second day! I had lunch one day at the food market (just off Las Ramblas) which was incredibly fun to walk around, full of stalls selling seafood and candy and animal heads and pretty much everything you could possibly want (or not want) to eat. Barcelona had especially good anchovies - available at almost any restaurant or sold a la carte in seafood places, and very tasty!

Fountain in the park in Barcelona:





The Sagrada Familia church, designed by Gaudi (construction started in 1883 and is ongoing today, with plans to finish by 2026):





Meat for sale at La Boqueria food market:






After 2 days in Barcelona I flew to Granada, which I absolutely loved! The hostel I stayed at (Oasis) was fantastic. Besides nice rooms and low rates, they offered several walking tours, a paella night, cheap drinks and a wonderful roof terrace. And the city of Granada was great! It was pretty laid back, easy to walk around and set against the beautiful backdrop of the Sierra Nevada mountains and the Alhambra. I only stayed 3 days and definitely wish I'd stayed longer. One of the walking tours went through the Albayzin, or the old Moorish Quarter, which is made up of tiny little white alleys (there are only three roads in this part of the city that allow cars) up quite a steep hill. We also got to go inside one of the cave houses that are popular in the city. One night we went to a flamenco show in a tiny little cave room, and every night we enjoyed copious amounts of tapas (which come free with very drink). By the time I got to Granada I had definitely adjusted to "Spanish time", eating dinner at 10 or 11 and popping around to tons of tapas bars, though I never made it to one of the clubs that only open at 3am. I met tons of new friends, and of my 6-person dorm, 4 of us (me, 2 Kiwi guys and a guy from the UK) turned out to be engineers living in London! Small world.

The Albayzin:





Some street art from the walking tour (it's a staircase):





The tiny streets of the Albayzin:






The Alhambra was definitely one of the highlights of my time in Granada. I did both the day tour (you buy a ticket for a 6-hour slot either in the morning or afternoon) and went back at 10:30pm to see the Nasrid Palaces lit up at night. It's truly an amazing place - it looks like a large fortress from the outside, but the interior is intricately and beautifully decorated with tiles and carvings and the complex is full of pools and arched gates. There are two sets of gardens inside as well, and both are spectacular. I'd love to post about 200 photos from the few hours I spent there (it was that amazing!) but I'll keep it to just a few.
















































And now I'm in Morocco! The day of travel to get here was really tough but the old medina of Chefchaouen is just unreal; so beautiful and completely foreign. It's almost entirely whitewashed with highlights of blue - some of the alleys are blinding when you walk down them in the sunlight. The main plaza is leafy (very welcome in the hot, sunny afternoons) and has great views of the old Kasbah. The streets of the medina vary from deserted to packed with little shops, selling food or dyes or pottery, with tons of little shops filled with earthenware tangines and leather poufs and metal lanterns.
























The place I'm staying at, about 15 minutes walk from the medina, has a lovely roof terrace where I'm sitting right now, listening to roosters and goats and watching the sun set behind the hills. I just got back from an incredible hike to "God's Bridge", a naturally formed bridge/gorge about 45 minutes outside Chaouen. Went swimming in the gorge at the end and managed not to get my camera too wet during the hike!

God's Bridge in Akchour:





On the rocks underneath the natural bridge:





View at dusk from the rooftop terrace of the B&B:






Well, that was quite the blog post - 4 cities in 12 days and so much to say! Sorry for the tons of photos - it's so hard to choose. I'm finishing up my Moroccan mint tea and am about to head off to dinner in the medina (I'm quite hungry for couscous after the hike!) so au revoir for now. I'll try to get in a few more posts before I head back to London on the 15th. Only 1 more week of traveling!

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Location:R412,Chefchaouen,Morocco

The Netherlands

A week ago today I wrote my last post in the airport. It feels like so much longer than one week! I arrived in Amsterdam bright and early (6:30am) on Tuesday morning. The city was incredibly quiet and peaceful (it was very early in the morning!) and the exit I took out of the train station led me to a beautiful, serene canal instead of the more touristy Damrak street. It was a lot busier at other times during the few days I was there, especially on the more touristy streets and in the Red Light district, but a lot of the streets maintained that quiet and pleasant feeling (especially smaller canal streets like "de negen straatjes", or "the nine little streets"). While in Amsterdam, I visited the Rijksmuseum (a museum with a variety of Dutch items, from Rembrants and Vermeers to Delft tulip vases and beautiful old dollhouses), FOAM (a photography museum), and Rembrandt's House. I spent a lot of time just walking along the canals - the architecture of the houses is so pretty and the canals are just beautiful.





I had great food while in the Netherlands, apparently the Dutch take their sandwiches very seriously and even at small little cafes I found delicious things to eat (like goat cheese and sautéd bell peppers on farmers's bread with mango chutney, rocket and almond slivers). Restaurant de Belhamel (which Anne told me means "Rascals" in Dutch) was my favorite, with this lovely view:


I had a great time staying with my friend Anne and her fiancé. I've only known Anne since the beginning of July and we were only in London together for 3 weeks, but we (along with Betty, a girl from Austria) had a great time exploring London, trying out new restaurants together, and planning Anne's proposal, which she did on the London Eye the weekend after our class ended. So we became much closer than most people after only three weeks! Their house was wonderful and only a 2 minute walk from the Amsterdam Muiderpoort train station, from which it is only a 5-minute ride to Amsterdam Centraal. I took the train a lot while staying with them and was very proud when I figured out the Dutch words for express vs local trains - "Sprinter" trains are of course the fastest while "Sneltrein" means it goes more slowly (like a snail? Dutch is full of English cognates) - only to find out from Anne that it's the exact opposite! Anne was also extremely helpful in correcting my atrocious pronunciation of Dutch (the only phrase I really got down was "dank je vel", or "thank you very much") but everyone in the Netherlands spoke almost perfect English, so except for picking the slower trains, everything went very well. Except the one time I tried to buy wet wipes (always very useful for traveling) and found out from Anne that I had purchased "wet toilet paper" - who knew such a thing existed?

On Thursday I took the train out to Delft and then Leiden. Delft (where the blue/white pottery originally came from) is a picturesque old town with 2 large churches, the Old Church and the New Church ("new" being a relative term, as the church was built between 1396 - 1496). You can climb the 365 steps up an extremely small spiral staircase in the tower of the New Church (which I did) and walk around the top of the tower 109 meters above the main square (which I did not do).


Luckily there were a few levels before the very top, so I got to enjoy some spectacular views of Delft and the surrounding areas.





I also visited the Old Church, which was lovely inside, but didn't climb up that tower as it leans over 2m from the vertical.




I hopped on the train to Leiden in the afternoon and enjoyed seeing my first Dutch windmill and views of the town from a ruined circular fort called the Burcht. Had dinner on a lovely canal boat terrace with some delicious Old Amsterdam cheese for dessert and an amazing sunset.












I flew out of Amsterdam on Saturday morning after a truly wonderful 4 days in the Netherlands. I am in Madrid now, enjoying the sunshine, stately Spanish architecture (some of it reminds me of home!) and cheap wine (I stopped in a grocery store and bought M&Ms for €2.25 and a liter of wine for €0.55). I'll write more about Spain soon - I'm off now to have tapas with two friends I played water polo with at Michigan.

Up next on my itinerary: Barcelona, Granada, Tangier, Chefchaouen, Fes, Meknes (+ Moulay Idriss and Volubilis) and Marrakech before I head beck to London to start Orientation for UCL!

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