After a few short weeks at home, I was off to my next trip: Marrakech, Morocco. I had traveled to Morocco while I was studying abroad in Spain and loved it. I was itching to return. My first trip to Morocco was like nothing I had ever seen before. Since then I’ve been exposed to much more of the world, but I was still anxious and eager to get back.
Last Friday, after a short delay, our plane took off heading south. I could not wait for the warm weather, relatively speaking. It pains me to admit that I’ve turned into a Spaniard. (Only when it comes to weather, though. Don’t worry!) It’s been in the upper 50s/low 60s and I’m still walking around in my winter coat with a scarf on. Marrakech’s forecast was a bit warmer, so I was excited. Nonetheless, I still wore my heavy jacket and scarf the whole time I was there. We saw a fair amount of British tourists and even some Americans, all of whom were wearing shorts and tank tops. Looks like I missed the boat on that one. After a year here I’m not sure how I’m going to go back to the frigid U.S. temperatures. Hopefully my blood will thicken once more.
When we landed at the airport there was a gentleman holding a sign with our hotel (or Riad’s) name on it. I was very glad he waited out our delay. It was a quick ride to the hotel. The hotel was located towards the outside of the medina, which make it easy to access by car. The driver parked as close as he could to the hotel and led us on foot through small, windy alleys to the hotel. We checked in and were delighted to see our room. Fortunately, all four of us were able to stay in one room. I looked around the hotel and I think we lucked out. Our room was certainly the biggest, and it also looked like the nicest. After dropping our bags off it was time to explore the city!
Medinas in Morocco are known for being particularly challenging to navigate, so we made sure to ask the hotel for the map. Minor detail, they didn’t have one. (Side note: what kind of hotel doesn’t have a map?!) The guy told us to check back the next day. We weren’t going to let that stop us, so we were off, sans map. While he couldn’t give us a map, he did manage to lead us to the main square, Djemaa el Fna. I had been warned, or cautioned rather, by several people about the square and I couldn’t wait to see if what I’d heard was true. Our first visit proved them right. With snake charmers, men with monkeys, henna artists, fresh squeezed orange juice and dried fruit stands galore this place was truly a whole new world. One of the first things we saw was an Asian man performing martial arts. There was a crowd gathered around of both tourists and locals, so I decided to join. I tried to snap a quick picture without being seen. No such luck. A man came up to me demanding money. I pretended not to speak any of the languages he was harassing me in. I only had to keep it up for a few steps until he left me alone.
From the main square we wondered into the souks. I enjoy taking everything in and found it to be a little overwhelming. The vibrant colors, smells and sounds were fascinating. Last time I went to Morocco I decided that when I have a family and settle down I’m going to have a Moroccan styled home. Returning to Morocco for a second time only solidified those plans—as did all of my purchases! Most of the souk is organized by category. It’s easy to find 20 lantern dealers right next to one another with dried fruit dealers across the way. One square was filled with spice dealers.
It is part of their culture to bargain (my favorite…) We had been warned that the price you pay should be around half of their original asking price. That means when they quote you 400 dirhams your counter offer should be around 100. If you stick around and chat with the vendor you’re much more likely to get your way. The trick is walking out very slowly until they give you a final and more reasonable price.
I decided I didn’t want to buy anything the first day, so my task was scouting out the vendors. After exploring for several hours we parked our tuchuses in a café on the main square for some tea. My family has been going to a delicious Moroccan restaurant in Chicago for years. It was there that I first discovered Moroccan mint tea. Needless to say, it was a staple on the trip. After tea we walked through the souks a little longer and then through the square. It morphs into an entirely new attraction between morning and night. In the morning it’s filled with the snake charmers, men chasing tourists with monkeys, orange juice vendors and ladies screaming at you asking if you want henna. At night it’s that, but on steroids. Luckily, the snake charmers and monkeys disappear, but out come fortune tellers, more ladies yelling at you about henna, vendors setting up shop on the ground, more orange juice and dried fruit vendors and a plethora of street food pop-up stands. The sight and smells were delectable! The disheartening part is all of the beggars and little kids running up to you trying to sell Kleenex. I’ve never seen anything quite like it before. I felt like I was in an episode of Anthony Bourdain’s No Reservations, which happens to be a favorite of mine.
We worked up quite an appetite walking around. Our various guidebooks and printouts recommended one restaurant in particular, so we ventured inside. I was a little worried considering there wasn’t a soul in sight. The host directed us up to the terrace with a beautiful view of the square. As we climbed the stairs, we heard voices, which helped calm my nerves. Upon finally reaching the top (3 stories later) we were greeted by a quaint dining room with open windows facing the square and a flood of tourists. We were right at home. The menu was god’s gift to starving American tourists. We each ordered Morocco’s famous harira, which is a tomato and lentil soup. It was delicious. For our main course we ordered couscous. I ended up with a chicken couscous with raisins, garbanzo beans and onions. I could live a very happy life in Morocco. After stuffing ourselves silly we needed to wash it down with some more tea. This time we tried a new tea and strayed from our old standby of the mint tea. In addition to all of the vendors previously mentioned at night booths pop up serving tea. I have no clue what flavor we sampled, but it was delicious and strong enough to put hair on your chest. Tells you something about Moroccan women. I kid, I kid. After downing my glass I was ready to hit the hay, so we walked back to the hotel.
The next morning we were pleasantly surprised with the most amazing breakfast we’d ever eaten. (I hope you’re catching on to the trend here. Good thing we spent most of the trip on our feet walking around! But in all honesty, to me one of the most important parts of learning about a new culture is the food, so why not indulge? Yes, I am an Elman.) Breakfast started out with fresh squeezed orange juice and mint tea. Then they brought out the homemade orange and date jams alongside some homemade honey. Natural yogurt, fruit and a selection of homemade breads came next. It was heavenly. We enjoyed our breakfast up on the roof of the hotel under a traditional style Berber tent. Our breakfast lasted a little longer than planned and it didn’t leave us a ton of time before our cooking class. We decided to walk to the square to catch the morning attractions. I still can’t decide if that was a mistake…
While in the square if you stare at something for too long or take any pictures the tourist hungry men will come up to you and demand money. We made the mistake of hanging around a little too long by the snakes. One of the men saw Briana took and photo and it was downhill from there. He insisted she come closer to take more pictures of and with the snakes. That’s how they try to lure you in. She agreed and walked closer to a group of snakes slithering of the floor. Julia went too to help her take pictures. Jan and I stayed behind to watch. A man carrying a snake walked up to us and tried to start a conversation. At first we were quiet, not wanting to play into his tricks. I don’t know what I was thinking, but against my better judgment I shook his hand. He wouldn’t let go and then he began the rub the snake on the back of my hand saying, “isn’t it smooth?” I replied yes and begged him to let go, but to no avail. Then he started to wrap the snake around my neck as I was backing up in utter fear and practically yelling please don’t! Again, to no avail. He quickly had the snake around my neck and was using it as leverage. He was telling Jan to take a picture. She kept saying she didn’t have her camera and I thought it was just to get out of paying. So then I started yelling at her to take a picture, too. I wanted the damn thing off my neck. Turns out she really had left her camera at the hotel. The man began to demand money and I told him Briana had all of my money. He removed the snake and followed me to her. She had several coins in her hands, maybe equivalent to 1 euro. They try and separate you so you get nervous and pay them the big bucks. We instinctively tried to get back together. I was not about to open my wallet when he wrapped a snake around me while begging him not to. “Give me bills,” they demanded, “are you British? I want pounds.” Luckily I stuck to my previous statement saying Briana had all of my money and she wasn’t about to open her wallet. The managed to get some money out of Julia, but we all quickly ran away before we lost too much.
Our cooking class helped ease my mind and forget about our resent unpleasant experience in the square. Our instructor, who happened to be the hotel chef, didn’t speak any English, so the one employee at the hotel who did served as our translator. We made tagine chicken with onions, apricots, prunes and dates. They also showed us how to make the mint tea. It had about a pound of sugar—no wonder it’s so good! The cooking lesson was more like a cooking demonstration. We didn’t do much, or anything really, but we watched our instructor. We got to enjoy the fruits of her labor an hour and 15 minutes later in the Berber tent.
After lunch we were off to find the hammam. A hamman is a traditional Morocco bath. There was one we had read about online and we were determined to find it…even if we didn’t have a map. We looked up directions on Briana’s phone, walked all the way across town and couldn’t find it. On our way we did pass the main mosque and minaret. The Giralda in Sevilla is actually modeled after this minaret, so it was cool to see. With “nothing” else to do we continued our shopping and walked through the souks. Our first purchase was teapots. Jan, Briana and I each bought one. Now that I know how to make the mint tea I thought I might as well buy a teapot! It took us awhile to negotiate, but we ended up getting him down to about 12 euros. Goodness knows if it will actually work. Some of the teapots were just decorative, but he swore the ones we purchased can be used. I may wait until I get back to the States to try mine out. I have a feeling the Chicago Fire Department is a little faster than the Sevilla one.
Our next purchase was spices. Briana and I bought a traditional spice (whose name is escaping me) and a lemon ginger spice. We have yet to use them, but they are certainly smelling up our kitchen! The guy helping us at the spice store opened virtually every spice and tea they had to let us smell them. It was an overwhelming task, but fun nonetheless. After making our purchases we dropped them off at the hotel to lighten the load. We were also determined to find this hammam so we asked the front desk for directions. The guy tried to explain it to us, but without a map we were lost. To be honest, we probably would have been lost even with a map. Marrakech is confusing! He was very nice and offered to take us to the hammam himself. We walked over to find out everything was booked! Not a surprise considering it’s the most popular hammam for tourists and only a day in advance. I left feeling incredibly disappointed. Luckily, the guy from the hotel brought us to another hammam, this one was closer to the hotel, too. They had space, so we made a reservation for the following day.
With a little kick in our steps we ventured back to the main square, determined to find lanterns. We stopped in one store and quickly became friends with Reda. Boy was he a salesman! Jan bought a traditional Berber rug and Briana and I walked out (about an hour and a half later!) with lanterns. Not only was he quite the salesman, but he was quite the talker. I suppose those two do seem to go together hand in hand. I was very happy to finally find a lamp I was happy with. There are tons around, but I was unable to find one to my liking. It was getting late and we still hadn’t had dinner. Reda brought us to a restaurant and we decided it was too expensive so we turned it down. He insisted on bringing us to another place, and he probably got a commission for his work. He promised us it would be cheaper, which it wasn’t, and that there would be a belly dancing show. We were tired and it was close to the hotel so we caved and decided to eat there. Unfortunately, the belly dancing show ended as soon as we sat down. It was another enjoyable meal, but we were all very tired and ready to get back to the hotel.
The next morning we were greeted with another fabulous breakfast. We slept in a little bit because we had our hammam scheduled at 11:00am. The hammam was just a short walk from the hotel. I had read several reviews of Moroccan hammams online, but I really had no idea what to expect. Jan, Briana and I signed up for the hammam and massages. Julia opted out of the hammam and just went for the massage. I’m not sure how this place compares to a typically hammam. I asked the English-speaking guy at the hotel if we could go to a traditional one and he told us we couldn’t because we wouldn’t have known what to do. That being the case, the touristy one was just fine. We went into a small room that resembled a steam shower. We each took turns lying down on a marble slab while a woman scrubbed us down with various soaps, brushes and the like. It was a really interesting process and my skin both looked and felt great afterward! The massage was nice, but it was pretty clear these women had little to no clue what they were doing. I wasn’t too upset though. We would have paid triple the price in the States or Europe for what we got in Morocco.
After our relaxing morning we went to the main square to grab a bite to eat and some more OJ. From our OJ stop we walked to the palace. It cost only 1 euro to get in. If they had kept the place up it would have been absolutely beautiful. It’s the same style as La Alhambra and Reales Alcazares if you’ve ever been there. It’s a shame they haven’t even tried to keep it up. It was dirty and falling apart. We walked through pretty fast and afterward it was time for some more shopping! At this point in time I was getting very low on funds. I had only transferred a relatively small amount of euros thinking it would be enough. Not being able to pay for the hammam with a credit card set me over. This meant that my bartering skills were brought to a new level. I bought two beautifully beaded pillowcases that I can’t wait to use when I get home. I had tucked some money away for dinner and was fresh out of cash after buying the pillow cases, so that was it for me, despite the fact that I wanted to buy everything in every store we went to. I guess when it comes times to settle into my own home I’ll just have to go back to Morocco to decorate.
Later that night came the hard task of packing. Ryanair is notorious for not letting customers get through with even slightly oversized bags and to make matters worse I’m pretty sure their carry on requirements are smaller than all the other airlines. I guess that’s how they get you. We were not going to allow that to happen. This involved some serious brainstorming. It started with wearing our lanterns as hats. That clearly wasn’t going to fly (no pun intended.) Then my favorite idea was putting my teapot open and upside-down on my head with a scarf covering it. It might have resembled a traditional African headdress, however I do not know how well that would go over with my American passport. I also tried wrapping my camera in a scarf once at the airport, however the nice British women next to us told me it looked “dodgy.” Jan was already wearing ALL of her clothes and Briana all of her scarves and several shirts. Packing that night was a very enjoyable experience that I will never forget.
The next morning we indulged in our last breakfast at the hotel, hung around for a little and then took a cab to the airport. Thank god all mighty we all made it onto the plane without any trouble. Ryanair is so unpredictable, but somehow we managed to squeeze through. I was sad to say goodbye to Marrakech after such a wonderful trip, but I’m confident I’ll be back some day—I’m going to have to buy all the furniture for my house.
Hasta pronto,
Raquel
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
Sunday, February 13, 2011
Monday, January 31, 2011
Walk like an Egyptian
Walk like an Egyptian
Seeing the pyramids in Egypt had been a lifelong dream of mine. Briana and I started looking into the possibility of going to Egypt months ago. My host mom, Antonia, recommended a travel agency that she used for other travel throughout Europe and the Middle East. We decided to bite the bullet and sign up. We got what I think was a very reasonable deal considering all of the flying we did. We intended to sign up for a group tour to help bring the costs down.
Our flight left from Madrid, which made getting to Cairo a very full day of travel. We left our house early in the morning to catch the Ave (the high speed train) to Madrid. Once we arrived in Madrid we hopped on the metro to head to the airport. Once we got to the airport and were sitting by our gate we began guessing who else would be in our tour group. Since a Spanish travel agency organized the trip we were able to limit our guesses to Spaniards. The flight to Cairo was a little longer than I was expecting. We were in one of those huge planes with two aisles. On the plane we started to talk to the guy sitting next to us. At first his nationality was a mystery. When we boarded the plane he was speaking Spanish and he’d speak with the flight attendants in broken English. I think we must have started talking with him in English and then he suddenly lost the accent. Very puzzled, we finally asked where he was from. We were surprised to find out he was from Canada. We never did learn his name. He gave us some advice and for the rest of the trip we just referred to him as Canada.
After finally getting into Egypt we had to stop to purchase visas and exchange our money. The visa cost $15. It’s a really cool sticker that goes in your passport. It quickly gained rank, and now it’s my favorite page in my passport. After going through customs we met Emad, the representative from the travel agency. He walked with us to get our luggage and we asked if he needed to wait for the other people on our trip. He informed us that it was just the two of us. It was hard to understand his broken English and Spanish to begin with and on top of that he would practically whisper. It left us very lost and confused for the majority of the trip. Emad helped us pick up our bag and we met our driver and the 15-passenger van waiting for us outside. The whole time we just kept thinking that we couldn’t be the only ones on this “group tour!” From the airport we were driven to our hotel, which was conveniently on the other side of Cairo. To avoid traffic, mind you it was about 11pm, we took the ring road, which goes all the way around the city. I caught my first glance of the pyramids and was very happy to arrive at the hotel after our full day of traveling.
When we signed up we were told that the guides were only Spanish speaking, so we were prepared to listen, or doze off. Since it was just the two of us we were very lucky and everyone they hired to be our guide spoke English. Wednesday morning Emad and our awesome tour guide Andrew picked us up in the hotel. In a typically confusing fashion (please note this on going trend) we literally dropped Emad off somewhere on the side of the road. He just said, “ Ok, see you later!” and got out of the car. We didn’t dwell on it too much because we were headed to the pyramids! I can now officially cross it off my list of things to do before I die. (Side note: this has been a very successful four months. I’ve been able to cross off two items and still plan on crossing off several more!)
The pyramids were mind-blowing. While we were there I was thinking back to fourth grade, which was the first time we learned about ancient Egypt. It was great to see these amazing structures in person after being fascinated about them for so many years. In case your ancient Egyptian history is escaping you, the pyramids were constructed by the Pharaohs to serve as their burial grounds. The construction began as soon as a Pharaoh began his rule. Sadly, virtually all of the pyramids and tombs were looted. After walking around the pyramids we drove to a site a little further out to get some great photos of the pyramids. While there we couldn’t resist the temptation to go on a camel ride.
This was rip off number one of the trip. We quickly got used to being taken advantage of in Egypt. For virtually everything there is a tourist price and then a price for Egyptians. You can clearly guess what category we fell into—and boy did we fall had. We asked our guide how much the camel rides cost and he told us it depended, but that he’d set a price before we got on. He spoke with the camel owner in Arabic before we got on and we assumed it was to set a price. Nope. When we got back the camel owner said, “ok, 450 Egyptian pounds.” That’s the equivalent to about $90. My jaw dropped. The night before Briana and I had had a discussion about how bartering makes me uncomfortable. It brings me back to an unpleasant experience I had as a child on some Caribbean island where I was yelled at and shooed away from attempting to barter with a street vendor. Briana reassured me that she had fine-tuned bartering skills. Sadly, they didn’t make an appearance at this event. I looked at her panicked, but she wasn’t able to say anything. We were so confused because we thought our guide had set a price and we didn’t know if the 450 Egyptian pounds was negotiable. (Word to the wise: everything is negotiable in Egypt.) At this point in time I also didn’t really understand how bartering worked. Us Americans are too worried about offending people. All in all, we were royally ripped off. Our camel ride ended up costing about $35 a piece. While it was an absurdly expensive camel ride, I’m really glad we did it and now I have some amazing memories and photos! From the camel ride we got back in the van and drove to the Sphinx, another really cool sight.
After our ludicrously expensive camel ride and the trip to the Sphinx we went to a papyrus factory to see how it’s made. It was interesting, but definitely a tourist trap. With our little camel excursion in recent history we were feeling slightly vulnerable, so we didn’t buy anything and grabbed our purses for dear life. We returned to the hotel for lunch. It was a delicious buffet with hummus and other sauces galore. After lunch we decided to sit out by the pool. We sat shivering for about an hour and I was even using my towel as a blanket to keep me warm. Briana and I turned to each other and decided it probably made sense to go inside. We ventured to our hotel room and ended up taking a three hour-long nap. Woops. Luckily the hotel had some good movie channels, so we were able to watch some quality American movies. It helped pass the time since the hotel was so far out of the city and we couldn’t explore Cairo. A cab would have cost $50 each way and there was absolutely nothing in our area to do.
The next day we woke up early, had breakfast at the hotel and met Emad in the lobby. We were off to the Egyptian Museum. It was interesting, but at a certain time once you’ve seen one ancient Egyptian artifact, you’ve seen them all. The coolest thing we saw there was Tutankhamen’s burial sarcophagus and mask. In 1922, Howard Carter accidentally discovered Tutankhamen’s tomb, which had never been looted. If I remember correctly, this was the only tomb to be discovered which wasn’t looted. The most important items found in his tomb are in the Egyptian Museum. It was really neat being able to see his burial mask after having seen pictures of it for years.
After the museum we drove to Old Cairo to see the old churches and synagogue. When we entered our driver and Andrew needed to talk with the Tourism Police, who are absolutely everywhere and appear to do absolutely nothing. We heard Andrew tell the officer we were from Spain. After we got through I asked why he had said that. He said that if he told him we were American the guard would have asked a lot of questions like where we were coming from, where we were going, etc. This part of town was really interesting. We visited two churches, one of which was Orthodox and I don’t remember what the other was. They were built with traditional Islamic architecture, so it was humorous to see a church built in that style. The synagogue is no longer used. Andrew told us that during biblical times the Nile used to run all the way up to the back of the temple. In fact, he said that was where Moses was found. Whether you believe that to be true or not I thought it was interesting because it fell under the category of hearing about one thing for years and then being able to see it.
From Old Cairo we drove to the Citadel. It’s up on a hill/mountain and it has great views looking down on the city. There are several mosques there, one of which Mohammed Ali (no, not the boxer) built. I had seen pictures of it from a friend’s trip, so I was glad I made it there. It has hundreds of hanging lights and it’s just a pretty place. After visiting the Citadel we went to lunch. I was expecting Egyptian food to be more Middle Eastern and was surprised when it just seemed like a hodge-podge of everything. It ranged from pasta to soup to chicken. I was expecting it to be a little more “exotic.”
Right down the block from lunch was a perfume store. Supposedly Egypt is famous for perfumes, or essences, as they call them. They claim not to add anything to the fragrances. They had tons of different scents. After smelling a few, the man helping us asked if we wanted to hear the prices in Egyptian pounds or dollars. We said Egyptian pounds because that was the currency we had, but that it made sense for him to tell us in dollars as well so we’d know the price in a currency we were familiar with. As he was going through the prices Briana and I were in awe! No way could it be that cheap, we thought to ourselves. We decided on getting the smallest bottles. It came in a package of four and with a burner. We thought we were paying 100 Egyptian pounds, or about $20. We walked up to the register to pay after they had already packaged everything and saw the guy had American money on the table. That’s when it hit us. It wasn’t 100 Egyptian pounds, but $100. Either way, I’m really glad I got it, but I definitely wasn’t expecting it to cost quite as much. So much for trying to travel cheaply. Immediately after realizing our mess up we ran into the bathroom to laugh (or cry.)
Our last stop of the day was at the bazaar, or market. We had been looking particularly forward to it since getting there. I was expecting it to be a little bigger, but it was still interesting. I’ve never been hassled so much in my life!
Special price for you! Spice girls! Will you marry me? We have [fill in the blank knock-off product here] for really cheap. American? You from America?
I tried my best to look straight and avoid the constant questions. The problem was as soon as I saw a booth I liked I’d look in and that’s when the owner started to harass me with countless questions. I realize this might be their way of doing business, but in the end I think it causes them to lose business! Westerners get deterred from this and then just walk away. Our guide, Andrew, pretended to be our Egyptian husband to help us get better prices. As I mentioned, there’s a price for Egyptians and then a tourist price. It was really nice of Andrew to help us get as close as possible to the Egyptian price. For a few of the items we purchased we were able to get them down to 1/3 of the original asking price. Let’s just say I got much more confident with my haggling skills. All in all, I found the bazaar to be a little disappointing. I did, however, end up with two new scarves (surprise, surprise.)
I have never experienced anything like driving through Cairo. If a street is marked with three lanes there will be five cars jammed into it. There are very few stoplights so you have to cross the street cautiously and lane by lane. Also because there are no stoplights you can’t make left-hand turns. That being the case you have to make a right, find a place to turn around and then head back in the direction you originally intended to go. It makes the trip much longer than it should be. I’m not sure which was scarier, driving in the city or on the highways. On the highways people would be trying to run across to get to the other side. Lanes were not obeyed. Our driver drove in the middle of two the majority of time we were in the car. They drivers don’t seem to use their side mirrors because every time you pass someone you have to give a little beep so they don’t come plowing into you. Our driver also flashed his brights like it was his job! I couldn’t get a good handle on when he used them. They seemed to serve as a hey, watch out, don’t move I’m here, what’s up, and virtually any other greeting one would find on the road. Driving there was mass chaos.
The following morning is the perfect example of how I had no clue what was going on 90% of our trip. Emad picked us up at the hotel to take us to the airport. The problem, or funny thing rather, was that I had no clue where we were going. My bag was packed and I had my passport in hand, but it wasn’t until I got my boarding pass that I knew what our next destination was. Again, very representative of our week in Egypt. We were insanely early for our flight and there wasn’t much to do in the domestic terminal. Out of boredom, I managed to pass out for a few hours, also representative of our trip. It was nap central. I even napped twice in one day once. All of a sudden we heard over the loudspeaker last call for our flight. We were really confused since it was still 20 minutes until we were supposed to board. Either way, we ran to our gate to find everyone just sitting there. It wouldn’t be travel if your heart didn’t get to an uncontrollably high speed every once in awhile.
It was a smooth flight to Aswan (turned out that was our destination.) Mohammed from the travel agency picked us up and we were off to the boat. We had to pay a supplemental fee for a nicer boat because supposedly the normal one was full. We were expecting a nice boat, but what we ended up on was out of this world. It was by far the fanciest cruise I’ve ever been on. Mahogany everything with gorgeous granite tiled bathrooms. Another oops. And we thought we were going on a budget group trip. Mohammed told us what our schedule would be. While we were touring Cairo with our guide Andrew we asked him if it made sense for us to sign up for the trip to Abu Simbel. He said yes, but warned us that we’d have to wake up at 3am. Briana and I thought he was exaggerating and Briana made a very appropriate comment saying that she’d never heard of a tourist attraction that was open 24-hours. Mohammed confirmed our worst fear. We had to leave the boat at 3:00am, so that meant waking up at 2:30am (a time we both consider a reasonable bedtime!) Well, how many times am I going to be in Egypt? Probably only once and on top of that we had already paid for it, so there was no turning back.
After hearing about how early our next morning was we ate dinner and went to bed. 2:30am came before we knew it. Tons of people on the boat were going on the same excursion so they were very nice and packed us breakfast boxes. Our guide told us that everyone had to travel from Aswan to Abu Simbel by caravan and that there were two to three caravans a day. I’m not really sure why, but I assume it’s for safety purposes. Once we got in the car we were all corralled into this one area after being checked by approximately 20 tourism police officers. Then we were finally on our way to Abu Simbel. Thankfully, I was able to sleep for a good portion of the car ride there. We got to Abu Simbel at about 6:30am; right after the sun started to rise. We still never got a good explanation of their opening hours. I think our guide got confused with open and closed because she said it was always closed. Either way, we made it in. It’s escaping me as to which gods this temple was built for. The monument is gargantuan.
To walk back to the parking lot you have to walk through several sections of vendors. I would have liked to look at the stuff, but after being hounded every step I took I quickly lost interest. One guy somehow hooked us into coming into his shop. He wouldn’t let go of my arm, so I really didn’t have a choice. I also didn’t have a choice when he put some strange head wrap on my head. He asked if I wanted to take a picture and fortunately I knew that if I said yes he would then charge me for the photo. I threw the headpiece off and we got the heck out of there. I decided to give one last vendor a try. He was selling these cool wall hangings. While negotiating I was holding one of them in my hand. I decided I didn’t like his price and that I was ready to leave so I tried to hand him the tapestry. He wouldn’t take it because he wanted me to buy it. This continued for far too long and my only option was to put it on the dirty sidewalk, which upset him.
Hey Egyptians, let me give you a piece of advice. If you’re looking for business try being nice to your customers and not harass them.
The drive back to Aswan was scarier than the drive there because I could actually see what was around us—nothing for miles and miles. There weren’t road stops or gas stations or anything really. We did pass one bizarre building, which we thank god stopped in to go to the bathroom. Needless to say, I was very glad when we made it back to Aswan and I don’t think I’ll be taking any more trips through the desert any time soon.
When we got back into town we went to the high dam. I’m not quite sure why it’s a tourist attraction to be honest. It’s just an ordinary dam. If I remember correctly, Russian engineers helped the Egyptians build it. After that mind-blowing attraction we went into town to visit an Egyptian cotton factory. Yet another rip off designed specifically for tourists. We felt like they were trying to pressure us to buy something. It left us wondering if our guide got a cut of our purchases. Everything was overpriced and not even that good so we happily left empty handed. Our last sight in Aswan was going on a short boat ride down the Nile. Our trip included a ride on a felucca, similar to a sailboat. Our guide claimed that the weather wasn’t right (I have a feeling she was lying since there were plenty of other feluccas on the river) and suggested we go on a motorboat instead. We said that would be ok. It was fun to be cruising down the Nile. Neither of us were surprised when the guy who took us out on the boat pulled out five bags of jewelry and tried to sell it to us. Reminder, Egypt=rip off. I was getting nervous about getting back to the ship because we were cutting it awful close and still on the motorboat ride. They ended up pulling up right next to the boat and we ran over right before our scheduled departure.
We sailed for only a few hours because our next stop was just up the river to visit Kom Ombo temple. We met our guide Sara and explored for little while. Yet again, the site was swarmed with vendors trying to sell things. There was even a man sitting on the ground with a cobra charging tourists for photos. We even saw one woman pose with it around her shoulders. I’m going to venture to guess she’s not the sharpest tool in the shed. On the walk back to the boat our guide left us because she said the driver wanted to leave. It made me a little nervous to have to walk through all of the vendors alone. I stopped to buy a pair of earrings at one booth. I agreed on a price with the owner and then after I paid him he said well what about money for my five kids? He kept begging, but I wasn’t budging. Finally, I just decided to leave. I honestly wasn’t trying to be rude, but I kept getting so frustrated every time we tried to buy something. Feeling like you’re being constantly ripped off and that there’s nothing you can do to change it isn’t a fun feeling. I also wasn’t prepared for having to open my wallet every other step. You had to pay to use the bathrooms/leave a tip for the women working there. This was the case in practically every bathroom. Even inside the museums and airports! Then you had to tip the guides, the drivers, the guy who wouldn’t let you carry your suitcase by yourself. Needless to say, it got to be a little excessive. Especially since I really didn’t have a lot of money to spend to begin with! When we disembarked from the boat on the last day two employees from the boat wouldn’t let us carry our bag ourselves and insisted on carrying it to the car. We didn’t have much money left, and only a couple of big bills which we were not willing to use. We gave them all of the change we had. Since we don’t know Arabic we weren’t exactly sure what they said, but Briana saw them looking at the coins in their hands and talking to our guide. We’re pretty certain it was asking for more money! Just be prepared for this if you go to Egypt.
That night dinner was Egyptian themed. Somehow Briana and I didn’t get the memo so we were the only ones that didn’t dress up in traditional garb. Some people got really into it and bought dresses, head pieces—the whole nine yards. There was a photographer taking pictures of each table. We laughed when we saw all of the pictured laying out the next day. We stuck out like sore thumbs since we were the only two not dressed up. Again, remember how confused we were the entire time we were in Egypt.
The next day we arrived in Luxor. We met our guide Moustafa who took us to Luxor Temple. I was very surprised to see that the University of Chicago was a part of the restoration process. The temple was cool, but we were kind of at that point when you’ve seen five ancient Egyptian temples, you’ve seen them all. We explored for a little while and then headed back to the boat. That night on the boat there was a very underwhelming belly dancing show. After the belly dancer this young guy had a performance. It’s kind of hard to explain, but he was wearing this large colorful skirt and turned in circles without stopping for about 15 minutes all the while doing different tricks. It was mesmerizing to watch, but it also made me extremely dizzy. We went to bed right after the show to prepare for our last full day in Egypt.
The next morning our first stop was the Valley of the Kings. That is where Tutankhamen’s tomb was found. There are a total of 62 tombs that have been discovered there. It was really fascinating to see and I wish cameras were been permitted. After the Valley of the Kings we stopped at an alabaster factory. Again one of those places the tour company sets up, they give you their very well rehearsed spiel and then the guide potentially gets a cut of your purchases. We fell for it again and got two beads that we’re going to put on necklaces and bracelets. When in Egypt, right? From the alabaster factory we went to Queen Hatshepsut’s (pronounced hot chicken soup) Tomb. It is a huge monument carved right into the side of the mountain. There are visible caves carved into the surrounding mountainside. Our guide told us that is where the soldiers and workers were buried to help protect and serve the Queen in the afterlife.
On the way back to the boat we made a very quick stop at the Pillars of Memnon. I really have no clue what their significance is. Needless to say, it was absolutely fascinating. After lunch we had our last stop of the trip at Karnak Temple. I really enjoyed walking around there. It had an insane amount of huge pillars. It was fun to take pictures next to them because we were about 1/6 their size. After exploring the temple for a while we asked Moustafa if we could get henna. He made a couple of phone calls and found out there was a place in the market. We asked how much it would cost and he told us about five euros. When we got there the guy was asking for 25 euros. We bartered him down to about 12, which was still a major rip off. While in the bartering process I asked how long it would stay for. He said 60 days. When Briana was getting hers done I asked the guy doing it how long it would stay on. Suddenly it dropped to only 30 days with a warning that it depends on how your skin reacts to it and that it could be as few as 20 days. My henna wasn’t even close to seeing 20 days. Either way, it was cool while it lasted. I got a design that combined the Egyptian symbols of the key of life and the eye of protection. It was pretty awesome looking. While our henna was drying Moustafa took us to his cousin’s shop that had just opened. There was a fair amount of pressure to purchase something, but at this point in time we had developed a joking relationship with him so we were able to make fun of it. I ended up purchasing a beautiful glass camel perfume bottle to hold the perfume I bought in Cairo. Even though he was pressuring us to purchase something, it only ended up being about $3, so I was happy to get it since it had been something I was looking for.
We had to rush back to the boat to grab our suitcase and head to the airport. The travel agency insisted on us being 2.5-3 hours early for every flight, so you can say we got to know each of the airports well. When we landed in Cairo Emad greeted us and brought us to our driver. The driver only spoke Arabic and Spanish, so we were forced to use our Spanish for the first time. Unfortunately, we were staying at the same hotel out in the boonies so we had a long drive there. The driver yet again insisted that we leave unnecessarily early for our flight back to Madrid the following morning. The hotel was about an hour from the airport and he picked us up FOUR hours before our flight left. I tried my best to beg and plead for a little more sleep, but he insisted. He said there might be traffic (at 6am?) and that it might take us three hours to check in. Yeahhh. He was way off on both. No traffic and it took us about five minutes to check in. The airport didn’t have any seating in the terminals, so we were forced to sit on the cold floor. It was a rough morning that consisted of a nap on the dirty floor (don’t judge.)
We made it back to Madrid without any problems. It took us longer than we had anticipated to go through customs and get our bag. We still had to take the metro to the train station to catch our train back to Sevilla. We literally ran through the airport to the metro station and ran between all of the transfers. We were so lucky that we didn’t have to wait more than three minutes for a train each time. We caught our train back to Sevilla with literally two minutes to spare. Out of breath, sweaty and extremely tired, I was very happy to be seated on the train back to Sevilla.
Seeing the pyramids in Egypt had been a lifelong dream of mine. Briana and I started looking into the possibility of going to Egypt months ago. My host mom, Antonia, recommended a travel agency that she used for other travel throughout Europe and the Middle East. We decided to bite the bullet and sign up. We got what I think was a very reasonable deal considering all of the flying we did. We intended to sign up for a group tour to help bring the costs down.
Our flight left from Madrid, which made getting to Cairo a very full day of travel. We left our house early in the morning to catch the Ave (the high speed train) to Madrid. Once we arrived in Madrid we hopped on the metro to head to the airport. Once we got to the airport and were sitting by our gate we began guessing who else would be in our tour group. Since a Spanish travel agency organized the trip we were able to limit our guesses to Spaniards. The flight to Cairo was a little longer than I was expecting. We were in one of those huge planes with two aisles. On the plane we started to talk to the guy sitting next to us. At first his nationality was a mystery. When we boarded the plane he was speaking Spanish and he’d speak with the flight attendants in broken English. I think we must have started talking with him in English and then he suddenly lost the accent. Very puzzled, we finally asked where he was from. We were surprised to find out he was from Canada. We never did learn his name. He gave us some advice and for the rest of the trip we just referred to him as Canada.
After finally getting into Egypt we had to stop to purchase visas and exchange our money. The visa cost $15. It’s a really cool sticker that goes in your passport. It quickly gained rank, and now it’s my favorite page in my passport. After going through customs we met Emad, the representative from the travel agency. He walked with us to get our luggage and we asked if he needed to wait for the other people on our trip. He informed us that it was just the two of us. It was hard to understand his broken English and Spanish to begin with and on top of that he would practically whisper. It left us very lost and confused for the majority of the trip. Emad helped us pick up our bag and we met our driver and the 15-passenger van waiting for us outside. The whole time we just kept thinking that we couldn’t be the only ones on this “group tour!” From the airport we were driven to our hotel, which was conveniently on the other side of Cairo. To avoid traffic, mind you it was about 11pm, we took the ring road, which goes all the way around the city. I caught my first glance of the pyramids and was very happy to arrive at the hotel after our full day of traveling.
When we signed up we were told that the guides were only Spanish speaking, so we were prepared to listen, or doze off. Since it was just the two of us we were very lucky and everyone they hired to be our guide spoke English. Wednesday morning Emad and our awesome tour guide Andrew picked us up in the hotel. In a typically confusing fashion (please note this on going trend) we literally dropped Emad off somewhere on the side of the road. He just said, “ Ok, see you later!” and got out of the car. We didn’t dwell on it too much because we were headed to the pyramids! I can now officially cross it off my list of things to do before I die. (Side note: this has been a very successful four months. I’ve been able to cross off two items and still plan on crossing off several more!)
The pyramids were mind-blowing. While we were there I was thinking back to fourth grade, which was the first time we learned about ancient Egypt. It was great to see these amazing structures in person after being fascinated about them for so many years. In case your ancient Egyptian history is escaping you, the pyramids were constructed by the Pharaohs to serve as their burial grounds. The construction began as soon as a Pharaoh began his rule. Sadly, virtually all of the pyramids and tombs were looted. After walking around the pyramids we drove to a site a little further out to get some great photos of the pyramids. While there we couldn’t resist the temptation to go on a camel ride.
This was rip off number one of the trip. We quickly got used to being taken advantage of in Egypt. For virtually everything there is a tourist price and then a price for Egyptians. You can clearly guess what category we fell into—and boy did we fall had. We asked our guide how much the camel rides cost and he told us it depended, but that he’d set a price before we got on. He spoke with the camel owner in Arabic before we got on and we assumed it was to set a price. Nope. When we got back the camel owner said, “ok, 450 Egyptian pounds.” That’s the equivalent to about $90. My jaw dropped. The night before Briana and I had had a discussion about how bartering makes me uncomfortable. It brings me back to an unpleasant experience I had as a child on some Caribbean island where I was yelled at and shooed away from attempting to barter with a street vendor. Briana reassured me that she had fine-tuned bartering skills. Sadly, they didn’t make an appearance at this event. I looked at her panicked, but she wasn’t able to say anything. We were so confused because we thought our guide had set a price and we didn’t know if the 450 Egyptian pounds was negotiable. (Word to the wise: everything is negotiable in Egypt.) At this point in time I also didn’t really understand how bartering worked. Us Americans are too worried about offending people. All in all, we were royally ripped off. Our camel ride ended up costing about $35 a piece. While it was an absurdly expensive camel ride, I’m really glad we did it and now I have some amazing memories and photos! From the camel ride we got back in the van and drove to the Sphinx, another really cool sight.
After our ludicrously expensive camel ride and the trip to the Sphinx we went to a papyrus factory to see how it’s made. It was interesting, but definitely a tourist trap. With our little camel excursion in recent history we were feeling slightly vulnerable, so we didn’t buy anything and grabbed our purses for dear life. We returned to the hotel for lunch. It was a delicious buffet with hummus and other sauces galore. After lunch we decided to sit out by the pool. We sat shivering for about an hour and I was even using my towel as a blanket to keep me warm. Briana and I turned to each other and decided it probably made sense to go inside. We ventured to our hotel room and ended up taking a three hour-long nap. Woops. Luckily the hotel had some good movie channels, so we were able to watch some quality American movies. It helped pass the time since the hotel was so far out of the city and we couldn’t explore Cairo. A cab would have cost $50 each way and there was absolutely nothing in our area to do.
The next day we woke up early, had breakfast at the hotel and met Emad in the lobby. We were off to the Egyptian Museum. It was interesting, but at a certain time once you’ve seen one ancient Egyptian artifact, you’ve seen them all. The coolest thing we saw there was Tutankhamen’s burial sarcophagus and mask. In 1922, Howard Carter accidentally discovered Tutankhamen’s tomb, which had never been looted. If I remember correctly, this was the only tomb to be discovered which wasn’t looted. The most important items found in his tomb are in the Egyptian Museum. It was really neat being able to see his burial mask after having seen pictures of it for years.
After the museum we drove to Old Cairo to see the old churches and synagogue. When we entered our driver and Andrew needed to talk with the Tourism Police, who are absolutely everywhere and appear to do absolutely nothing. We heard Andrew tell the officer we were from Spain. After we got through I asked why he had said that. He said that if he told him we were American the guard would have asked a lot of questions like where we were coming from, where we were going, etc. This part of town was really interesting. We visited two churches, one of which was Orthodox and I don’t remember what the other was. They were built with traditional Islamic architecture, so it was humorous to see a church built in that style. The synagogue is no longer used. Andrew told us that during biblical times the Nile used to run all the way up to the back of the temple. In fact, he said that was where Moses was found. Whether you believe that to be true or not I thought it was interesting because it fell under the category of hearing about one thing for years and then being able to see it.
From Old Cairo we drove to the Citadel. It’s up on a hill/mountain and it has great views looking down on the city. There are several mosques there, one of which Mohammed Ali (no, not the boxer) built. I had seen pictures of it from a friend’s trip, so I was glad I made it there. It has hundreds of hanging lights and it’s just a pretty place. After visiting the Citadel we went to lunch. I was expecting Egyptian food to be more Middle Eastern and was surprised when it just seemed like a hodge-podge of everything. It ranged from pasta to soup to chicken. I was expecting it to be a little more “exotic.”
Right down the block from lunch was a perfume store. Supposedly Egypt is famous for perfumes, or essences, as they call them. They claim not to add anything to the fragrances. They had tons of different scents. After smelling a few, the man helping us asked if we wanted to hear the prices in Egyptian pounds or dollars. We said Egyptian pounds because that was the currency we had, but that it made sense for him to tell us in dollars as well so we’d know the price in a currency we were familiar with. As he was going through the prices Briana and I were in awe! No way could it be that cheap, we thought to ourselves. We decided on getting the smallest bottles. It came in a package of four and with a burner. We thought we were paying 100 Egyptian pounds, or about $20. We walked up to the register to pay after they had already packaged everything and saw the guy had American money on the table. That’s when it hit us. It wasn’t 100 Egyptian pounds, but $100. Either way, I’m really glad I got it, but I definitely wasn’t expecting it to cost quite as much. So much for trying to travel cheaply. Immediately after realizing our mess up we ran into the bathroom to laugh (or cry.)
Our last stop of the day was at the bazaar, or market. We had been looking particularly forward to it since getting there. I was expecting it to be a little bigger, but it was still interesting. I’ve never been hassled so much in my life!
Special price for you! Spice girls! Will you marry me? We have [fill in the blank knock-off product here] for really cheap. American? You from America?
I tried my best to look straight and avoid the constant questions. The problem was as soon as I saw a booth I liked I’d look in and that’s when the owner started to harass me with countless questions. I realize this might be their way of doing business, but in the end I think it causes them to lose business! Westerners get deterred from this and then just walk away. Our guide, Andrew, pretended to be our Egyptian husband to help us get better prices. As I mentioned, there’s a price for Egyptians and then a tourist price. It was really nice of Andrew to help us get as close as possible to the Egyptian price. For a few of the items we purchased we were able to get them down to 1/3 of the original asking price. Let’s just say I got much more confident with my haggling skills. All in all, I found the bazaar to be a little disappointing. I did, however, end up with two new scarves (surprise, surprise.)
I have never experienced anything like driving through Cairo. If a street is marked with three lanes there will be five cars jammed into it. There are very few stoplights so you have to cross the street cautiously and lane by lane. Also because there are no stoplights you can’t make left-hand turns. That being the case you have to make a right, find a place to turn around and then head back in the direction you originally intended to go. It makes the trip much longer than it should be. I’m not sure which was scarier, driving in the city or on the highways. On the highways people would be trying to run across to get to the other side. Lanes were not obeyed. Our driver drove in the middle of two the majority of time we were in the car. They drivers don’t seem to use their side mirrors because every time you pass someone you have to give a little beep so they don’t come plowing into you. Our driver also flashed his brights like it was his job! I couldn’t get a good handle on when he used them. They seemed to serve as a hey, watch out, don’t move I’m here, what’s up, and virtually any other greeting one would find on the road. Driving there was mass chaos.
The following morning is the perfect example of how I had no clue what was going on 90% of our trip. Emad picked us up at the hotel to take us to the airport. The problem, or funny thing rather, was that I had no clue where we were going. My bag was packed and I had my passport in hand, but it wasn’t until I got my boarding pass that I knew what our next destination was. Again, very representative of our week in Egypt. We were insanely early for our flight and there wasn’t much to do in the domestic terminal. Out of boredom, I managed to pass out for a few hours, also representative of our trip. It was nap central. I even napped twice in one day once. All of a sudden we heard over the loudspeaker last call for our flight. We were really confused since it was still 20 minutes until we were supposed to board. Either way, we ran to our gate to find everyone just sitting there. It wouldn’t be travel if your heart didn’t get to an uncontrollably high speed every once in awhile.
It was a smooth flight to Aswan (turned out that was our destination.) Mohammed from the travel agency picked us up and we were off to the boat. We had to pay a supplemental fee for a nicer boat because supposedly the normal one was full. We were expecting a nice boat, but what we ended up on was out of this world. It was by far the fanciest cruise I’ve ever been on. Mahogany everything with gorgeous granite tiled bathrooms. Another oops. And we thought we were going on a budget group trip. Mohammed told us what our schedule would be. While we were touring Cairo with our guide Andrew we asked him if it made sense for us to sign up for the trip to Abu Simbel. He said yes, but warned us that we’d have to wake up at 3am. Briana and I thought he was exaggerating and Briana made a very appropriate comment saying that she’d never heard of a tourist attraction that was open 24-hours. Mohammed confirmed our worst fear. We had to leave the boat at 3:00am, so that meant waking up at 2:30am (a time we both consider a reasonable bedtime!) Well, how many times am I going to be in Egypt? Probably only once and on top of that we had already paid for it, so there was no turning back.
After hearing about how early our next morning was we ate dinner and went to bed. 2:30am came before we knew it. Tons of people on the boat were going on the same excursion so they were very nice and packed us breakfast boxes. Our guide told us that everyone had to travel from Aswan to Abu Simbel by caravan and that there were two to three caravans a day. I’m not really sure why, but I assume it’s for safety purposes. Once we got in the car we were all corralled into this one area after being checked by approximately 20 tourism police officers. Then we were finally on our way to Abu Simbel. Thankfully, I was able to sleep for a good portion of the car ride there. We got to Abu Simbel at about 6:30am; right after the sun started to rise. We still never got a good explanation of their opening hours. I think our guide got confused with open and closed because she said it was always closed. Either way, we made it in. It’s escaping me as to which gods this temple was built for. The monument is gargantuan.
To walk back to the parking lot you have to walk through several sections of vendors. I would have liked to look at the stuff, but after being hounded every step I took I quickly lost interest. One guy somehow hooked us into coming into his shop. He wouldn’t let go of my arm, so I really didn’t have a choice. I also didn’t have a choice when he put some strange head wrap on my head. He asked if I wanted to take a picture and fortunately I knew that if I said yes he would then charge me for the photo. I threw the headpiece off and we got the heck out of there. I decided to give one last vendor a try. He was selling these cool wall hangings. While negotiating I was holding one of them in my hand. I decided I didn’t like his price and that I was ready to leave so I tried to hand him the tapestry. He wouldn’t take it because he wanted me to buy it. This continued for far too long and my only option was to put it on the dirty sidewalk, which upset him.
Hey Egyptians, let me give you a piece of advice. If you’re looking for business try being nice to your customers and not harass them.
The drive back to Aswan was scarier than the drive there because I could actually see what was around us—nothing for miles and miles. There weren’t road stops or gas stations or anything really. We did pass one bizarre building, which we thank god stopped in to go to the bathroom. Needless to say, I was very glad when we made it back to Aswan and I don’t think I’ll be taking any more trips through the desert any time soon.
When we got back into town we went to the high dam. I’m not quite sure why it’s a tourist attraction to be honest. It’s just an ordinary dam. If I remember correctly, Russian engineers helped the Egyptians build it. After that mind-blowing attraction we went into town to visit an Egyptian cotton factory. Yet another rip off designed specifically for tourists. We felt like they were trying to pressure us to buy something. It left us wondering if our guide got a cut of our purchases. Everything was overpriced and not even that good so we happily left empty handed. Our last sight in Aswan was going on a short boat ride down the Nile. Our trip included a ride on a felucca, similar to a sailboat. Our guide claimed that the weather wasn’t right (I have a feeling she was lying since there were plenty of other feluccas on the river) and suggested we go on a motorboat instead. We said that would be ok. It was fun to be cruising down the Nile. Neither of us were surprised when the guy who took us out on the boat pulled out five bags of jewelry and tried to sell it to us. Reminder, Egypt=rip off. I was getting nervous about getting back to the ship because we were cutting it awful close and still on the motorboat ride. They ended up pulling up right next to the boat and we ran over right before our scheduled departure.
We sailed for only a few hours because our next stop was just up the river to visit Kom Ombo temple. We met our guide Sara and explored for little while. Yet again, the site was swarmed with vendors trying to sell things. There was even a man sitting on the ground with a cobra charging tourists for photos. We even saw one woman pose with it around her shoulders. I’m going to venture to guess she’s not the sharpest tool in the shed. On the walk back to the boat our guide left us because she said the driver wanted to leave. It made me a little nervous to have to walk through all of the vendors alone. I stopped to buy a pair of earrings at one booth. I agreed on a price with the owner and then after I paid him he said well what about money for my five kids? He kept begging, but I wasn’t budging. Finally, I just decided to leave. I honestly wasn’t trying to be rude, but I kept getting so frustrated every time we tried to buy something. Feeling like you’re being constantly ripped off and that there’s nothing you can do to change it isn’t a fun feeling. I also wasn’t prepared for having to open my wallet every other step. You had to pay to use the bathrooms/leave a tip for the women working there. This was the case in practically every bathroom. Even inside the museums and airports! Then you had to tip the guides, the drivers, the guy who wouldn’t let you carry your suitcase by yourself. Needless to say, it got to be a little excessive. Especially since I really didn’t have a lot of money to spend to begin with! When we disembarked from the boat on the last day two employees from the boat wouldn’t let us carry our bag ourselves and insisted on carrying it to the car. We didn’t have much money left, and only a couple of big bills which we were not willing to use. We gave them all of the change we had. Since we don’t know Arabic we weren’t exactly sure what they said, but Briana saw them looking at the coins in their hands and talking to our guide. We’re pretty certain it was asking for more money! Just be prepared for this if you go to Egypt.
That night dinner was Egyptian themed. Somehow Briana and I didn’t get the memo so we were the only ones that didn’t dress up in traditional garb. Some people got really into it and bought dresses, head pieces—the whole nine yards. There was a photographer taking pictures of each table. We laughed when we saw all of the pictured laying out the next day. We stuck out like sore thumbs since we were the only two not dressed up. Again, remember how confused we were the entire time we were in Egypt.
The next day we arrived in Luxor. We met our guide Moustafa who took us to Luxor Temple. I was very surprised to see that the University of Chicago was a part of the restoration process. The temple was cool, but we were kind of at that point when you’ve seen five ancient Egyptian temples, you’ve seen them all. We explored for a little while and then headed back to the boat. That night on the boat there was a very underwhelming belly dancing show. After the belly dancer this young guy had a performance. It’s kind of hard to explain, but he was wearing this large colorful skirt and turned in circles without stopping for about 15 minutes all the while doing different tricks. It was mesmerizing to watch, but it also made me extremely dizzy. We went to bed right after the show to prepare for our last full day in Egypt.
The next morning our first stop was the Valley of the Kings. That is where Tutankhamen’s tomb was found. There are a total of 62 tombs that have been discovered there. It was really fascinating to see and I wish cameras were been permitted. After the Valley of the Kings we stopped at an alabaster factory. Again one of those places the tour company sets up, they give you their very well rehearsed spiel and then the guide potentially gets a cut of your purchases. We fell for it again and got two beads that we’re going to put on necklaces and bracelets. When in Egypt, right? From the alabaster factory we went to Queen Hatshepsut’s (pronounced hot chicken soup) Tomb. It is a huge monument carved right into the side of the mountain. There are visible caves carved into the surrounding mountainside. Our guide told us that is where the soldiers and workers were buried to help protect and serve the Queen in the afterlife.
On the way back to the boat we made a very quick stop at the Pillars of Memnon. I really have no clue what their significance is. Needless to say, it was absolutely fascinating. After lunch we had our last stop of the trip at Karnak Temple. I really enjoyed walking around there. It had an insane amount of huge pillars. It was fun to take pictures next to them because we were about 1/6 their size. After exploring the temple for a while we asked Moustafa if we could get henna. He made a couple of phone calls and found out there was a place in the market. We asked how much it would cost and he told us about five euros. When we got there the guy was asking for 25 euros. We bartered him down to about 12, which was still a major rip off. While in the bartering process I asked how long it would stay for. He said 60 days. When Briana was getting hers done I asked the guy doing it how long it would stay on. Suddenly it dropped to only 30 days with a warning that it depends on how your skin reacts to it and that it could be as few as 20 days. My henna wasn’t even close to seeing 20 days. Either way, it was cool while it lasted. I got a design that combined the Egyptian symbols of the key of life and the eye of protection. It was pretty awesome looking. While our henna was drying Moustafa took us to his cousin’s shop that had just opened. There was a fair amount of pressure to purchase something, but at this point in time we had developed a joking relationship with him so we were able to make fun of it. I ended up purchasing a beautiful glass camel perfume bottle to hold the perfume I bought in Cairo. Even though he was pressuring us to purchase something, it only ended up being about $3, so I was happy to get it since it had been something I was looking for.
We had to rush back to the boat to grab our suitcase and head to the airport. The travel agency insisted on us being 2.5-3 hours early for every flight, so you can say we got to know each of the airports well. When we landed in Cairo Emad greeted us and brought us to our driver. The driver only spoke Arabic and Spanish, so we were forced to use our Spanish for the first time. Unfortunately, we were staying at the same hotel out in the boonies so we had a long drive there. The driver yet again insisted that we leave unnecessarily early for our flight back to Madrid the following morning. The hotel was about an hour from the airport and he picked us up FOUR hours before our flight left. I tried my best to beg and plead for a little more sleep, but he insisted. He said there might be traffic (at 6am?) and that it might take us three hours to check in. Yeahhh. He was way off on both. No traffic and it took us about five minutes to check in. The airport didn’t have any seating in the terminals, so we were forced to sit on the cold floor. It was a rough morning that consisted of a nap on the dirty floor (don’t judge.)
We made it back to Madrid without any problems. It took us longer than we had anticipated to go through customs and get our bag. We still had to take the metro to the train station to catch our train back to Sevilla. We literally ran through the airport to the metro station and ran between all of the transfers. We were so lucky that we didn’t have to wait more than three minutes for a train each time. We caught our train back to Sevilla with literally two minutes to spare. Out of breath, sweaty and extremely tired, I was very happy to be seated on the train back to Sevilla.
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
Part two winter break: the luck of the Irish!
From Switzerland we were off to our next adventure in Ireland. The flight was slightly delayed, but we weren’t too upset because that meant there was still a flight. We were nervous because many of the other flights on the board were flashing cancelled, but with a little luck, we made it to Dublin.
Day 8: We were just in Dublin for one night the first time around. It was just enough time to rest our heads and gear up for another fun week. Early in the morning we were off to Cork. We quickly found our hotel and learned about a citywide water storage. Supposedly a pipe burst and many establishments throughout the city were effected. The first being our hotel. We were in the process of checking in when they told us that we would not have running water, nor would the toilets or showers function. Needless to say, we got the heck out of there. Luckily, there was another place across the street that had availability—and water! After checking into our second hotel we left to grab some lunch and explore the city. About ¾ of the places we stopped by were closed to the pipe bursting. The ¼ that were open, but weren’t allowing customers to use the bathrooms. We settled on a bagel place. Boy have I missed bagels living here. Ireland’s bagels weren’t even close to as good as home’s, but it was better than nothing. Today I decided I couldn’t live abroad again because I miss bagels too much. I’ve had one in my freezer since getting here, but I’m waiting until I’m absolutely desperate and filled with bagel cravings. Ok, back to Cork. We just walked around town for the rest of the afternoon and early evening. I bought some rain boots. I figured if I was going to find good rain boots somewhere in Europe it would be Ireland. I have yet to try them out, though. Fingers crossed they won’t leak.
While we were walking around we spotted a place that had fish and chips, so we decided we wanted to try it out for dinner. Much to our chagrin, they were out! We still had a decent meal, some good Irish hard cider and fun chats with the bartenders. It was funny, while we were in Cork we asked several people what they recommended doing. Each and every one replied, “drink.” Apparently there isn’t much to do in Cork.
Day 9: This was a very exciting day because I was able to accomplish a lifelong goal of mine—kissing the Blarney stone. I hadn’t heard much about Blarney Castle aside from the stone itself prior to going. Turns out it’s a beautiful piece of land. Our first stop was obviously the castle where we climbed to the top and took turns kissing the infamous Blarney Stone. I even fell for the photo tourist trap and bought the picture they took. I never do that! After exploring the castle and kissing the stone we wandered around the grounds. It’s full of gorgeous walking paths and greenery. After the castle we went into town and got some fish and chips! Long overdue fish and chips, may I add. After lunch we took the bus back into town and hung around at the hotel until dinner. For dinner we tried a really good vegetarian restaurant that came highly recommended. After dinner we headed to a pub to listen to some traditional Irish music. I learned that I’m actually a fan.
Day 10: Onwards to Killarney! The journey continued as we took a train from Cork to Killarney. Killarney’s a relatively small town. Most tourists stay there because it’s a good starting point for the tours of the Ring of Kerry. It’s also home to Killarney National Park. Liza and I spent a good chunk of the afternoon walking around the park. It was brilliant. We went towards the end of the day, so we got to see a beautiful sunset and the lighting was great for photos. On the walk there we even saw a couple posing for wedding photos with their bridal party.
We walked to Ross Castle, which wasn’t open, but pretty nonetheless. We both wished we could have stayed and explored longer, but the setting sun was a bit of an issue. I didn’t really want to be walking back through the forest at night. That night we tried out an Italian restaurant for dinner and followed it up with drinks and live music at the Grand Hotel. A local band was playing and their songs ranged from unpleasant to listen to, to covers they semi-butchered. Either way, it was a lot of fun.
Day 11: We signed up for a tour of the Ring of Kerry through our hotel and another outside company. We boarded the bus at 10:30 and were driven around by a nice Irish fella. He was challenging to understand, so I really tried to focus on what he was saying. It was a nice, big bus and not very full so Liza and I were able to sit in separate rows allowing us both to have window seats for the amazing views. We made several stops along the way to have a better look at the beautiful scenery and for some obligatory photos. We stopped in a teeny, tiny town for lunch…whose name I’m forgetting. I can only imagine how gorgeous the trip must be during the spring and summer months when everything is green and in bloom. Guess I’ll just have to visit again!
After our tour we went to the cutest little teashop called Miss Courtney’s Tearoom for an afternoon tea before heading back to the hotel to get ready for New Years Eve. We didn’t really have any particular plans for NYE, just mingling and bar hopping. We went to this horrible place for dinner where the fish and chips were practically inedible. Things perked up after dinner when we headed to the bar across the street to get our night started. This bar ironically had several Illinois license plates hanging on the walls and a sign about living in Sevilla. I think it was made with me in mind.
I randomly started talking with these women standing next to us. I offered to take a picture for them and we struck up a conversation. There were four women and one guy from Bray Co., just outside of Dublin. They were truly a hilarious and charming group, so we spent the rest of the night with them. And boy, could they drink! They brought drinking to a whole new level. I thought I’d seen it all after going to a Big Ten school, but they put our heavy weights to shame. Not only did they consume a ton of alcohol, but also they didn’t exhibit any signs of being drunk. We spent most of the night at the first bar we went to, but after getting bored there we went across the street to another bar that had some good music playing. We danced the night away while ringing in the New Year. It was a great time and lovely meeting our new Irish friends.
Day 12: I felt absolutely splendid (I hope you can sense the sarcasm) when we woke up early the next morning to catch our train to Dublin. Getting to the hostel was easy because it was the same place we’d spent our first night in Dublin. We dropped off our bags and left to hit up the town. I had really wanted to visit Kilmainham Gaol (the old prison,) so that was our first stop. The tram ride there was as bizarre as bizarre get. The first strange thing was a man sitting on the floor in the middle of the tram, smoking a cigarette and drinking something that resembled cough syrup, but was probably a lot stronger. We were very happy to see him and his lady friend get off the tram. They made sure to make an exit, though. While they were getting off another very strange couple was getting on. The woman exiting the train shared a very passionate and long kiss with the woman getting on the train. We couldn’t really tell if they knew each other. What we could tell was that everyone was cracked out. It seemed to be a general trend in Dublin.
The Gaol was interesting, but lacked a little something since I’m not very familiar with Irish history. It was also freezing inside, which made it hard to concentrate. After that little stop we ran back to the hostel to put on more layers. After we were sufficiently bundled we went to the movies to see Love and Other Drugs. Parts of the film are supposed to be set in Chicago (however it’s not actually Chicago. Last time I checked there was no 7th street. Also, they don’t even use real Chicago street signs. Come on, Hollywood.) Despite the offensive slipups, that any true Chicagoan should notice, I really liked the movie. When I first saw the Chicago skyline flash on the screen I audibly gasped in a very crowed movie theater. Luckily, my tears were a little quieter. (I miss Chicago!)
Day 13: We started our day off with the Sandeman’s walking tour. It was very interesting and we met a couple of nice girls and decided to have lunch with them and the rest of the group. We went to this great pub where the portions could kill. I didn’t even make a dent into my fish and chips (see a pattern here?) and I was starving. After stuffing ourselves silly we wanted to continue the trend with the Guinness Storehouse and Brewery. The storehouse was interesting, but a little boring. It’s something like six or seven stories tall. I mean how much is there to learn about Guinness? Either way, we went through the whole storehouse/museum and enjoyed our free pints on the top floor. Both of us could only muster a few sips. It was my first Guinness and after that lunch there wasn’t much room in my belly. We kindly donated our barely consumed beers to the gentleman sitting next to us. At least someone could enjoy it. On our way back to the hostel we picked up some Thai food for dinner. I needed to do laundry because I was only going to be back in Sevilla for about 13 hours and our lack of a dryer makes doing laundry quickly impossible. I forgot how much I love normal size washing machines and dryers. At first I thought I’d have to do two loads and then I realized I was judging that against the size of my washing machine here…which barely fits two pairs of jeans. Luckily, I still had room to spare. The best part of it all was the dryer. I hugged my clothes upon taking them out until I remembered there were security cameras in there. After remembering that I tried to slyly place them back in my bag…only to go back to my room and continue to hug my clean and very warm clothes. Boy do I take my dryer for granted at home! Do me a favor and give your dryer a little wink or love tap for me. I seriously miss having the ability to dry my clothes quickly and have them shrink back down to a normal size. (As I type my clothes have been drying on the terrace for three days now.)
Day 14: We had to wake up at an ungodly hour to catch the shuttle and make it to the airport for my 7am flight. Saying goodbye to Liza was so difficult. Heading back to Spain (even if it was only for 13 hours) was not what I wanted to be doing at the time.
All in all, our trip to Switzerland and Ireland was all and more that I could have possibly dreamed of. I loved every minute and it was really special to be able to travel just with Liza. I hope we have the opportunity to do it again.
Day 8: We were just in Dublin for one night the first time around. It was just enough time to rest our heads and gear up for another fun week. Early in the morning we were off to Cork. We quickly found our hotel and learned about a citywide water storage. Supposedly a pipe burst and many establishments throughout the city were effected. The first being our hotel. We were in the process of checking in when they told us that we would not have running water, nor would the toilets or showers function. Needless to say, we got the heck out of there. Luckily, there was another place across the street that had availability—and water! After checking into our second hotel we left to grab some lunch and explore the city. About ¾ of the places we stopped by were closed to the pipe bursting. The ¼ that were open, but weren’t allowing customers to use the bathrooms. We settled on a bagel place. Boy have I missed bagels living here. Ireland’s bagels weren’t even close to as good as home’s, but it was better than nothing. Today I decided I couldn’t live abroad again because I miss bagels too much. I’ve had one in my freezer since getting here, but I’m waiting until I’m absolutely desperate and filled with bagel cravings. Ok, back to Cork. We just walked around town for the rest of the afternoon and early evening. I bought some rain boots. I figured if I was going to find good rain boots somewhere in Europe it would be Ireland. I have yet to try them out, though. Fingers crossed they won’t leak.
While we were walking around we spotted a place that had fish and chips, so we decided we wanted to try it out for dinner. Much to our chagrin, they were out! We still had a decent meal, some good Irish hard cider and fun chats with the bartenders. It was funny, while we were in Cork we asked several people what they recommended doing. Each and every one replied, “drink.” Apparently there isn’t much to do in Cork.
Day 9: This was a very exciting day because I was able to accomplish a lifelong goal of mine—kissing the Blarney stone. I hadn’t heard much about Blarney Castle aside from the stone itself prior to going. Turns out it’s a beautiful piece of land. Our first stop was obviously the castle where we climbed to the top and took turns kissing the infamous Blarney Stone. I even fell for the photo tourist trap and bought the picture they took. I never do that! After exploring the castle and kissing the stone we wandered around the grounds. It’s full of gorgeous walking paths and greenery. After the castle we went into town and got some fish and chips! Long overdue fish and chips, may I add. After lunch we took the bus back into town and hung around at the hotel until dinner. For dinner we tried a really good vegetarian restaurant that came highly recommended. After dinner we headed to a pub to listen to some traditional Irish music. I learned that I’m actually a fan.
Day 10: Onwards to Killarney! The journey continued as we took a train from Cork to Killarney. Killarney’s a relatively small town. Most tourists stay there because it’s a good starting point for the tours of the Ring of Kerry. It’s also home to Killarney National Park. Liza and I spent a good chunk of the afternoon walking around the park. It was brilliant. We went towards the end of the day, so we got to see a beautiful sunset and the lighting was great for photos. On the walk there we even saw a couple posing for wedding photos with their bridal party.
We walked to Ross Castle, which wasn’t open, but pretty nonetheless. We both wished we could have stayed and explored longer, but the setting sun was a bit of an issue. I didn’t really want to be walking back through the forest at night. That night we tried out an Italian restaurant for dinner and followed it up with drinks and live music at the Grand Hotel. A local band was playing and their songs ranged from unpleasant to listen to, to covers they semi-butchered. Either way, it was a lot of fun.
Day 11: We signed up for a tour of the Ring of Kerry through our hotel and another outside company. We boarded the bus at 10:30 and were driven around by a nice Irish fella. He was challenging to understand, so I really tried to focus on what he was saying. It was a nice, big bus and not very full so Liza and I were able to sit in separate rows allowing us both to have window seats for the amazing views. We made several stops along the way to have a better look at the beautiful scenery and for some obligatory photos. We stopped in a teeny, tiny town for lunch…whose name I’m forgetting. I can only imagine how gorgeous the trip must be during the spring and summer months when everything is green and in bloom. Guess I’ll just have to visit again!
After our tour we went to the cutest little teashop called Miss Courtney’s Tearoom for an afternoon tea before heading back to the hotel to get ready for New Years Eve. We didn’t really have any particular plans for NYE, just mingling and bar hopping. We went to this horrible place for dinner where the fish and chips were practically inedible. Things perked up after dinner when we headed to the bar across the street to get our night started. This bar ironically had several Illinois license plates hanging on the walls and a sign about living in Sevilla. I think it was made with me in mind.
I randomly started talking with these women standing next to us. I offered to take a picture for them and we struck up a conversation. There were four women and one guy from Bray Co., just outside of Dublin. They were truly a hilarious and charming group, so we spent the rest of the night with them. And boy, could they drink! They brought drinking to a whole new level. I thought I’d seen it all after going to a Big Ten school, but they put our heavy weights to shame. Not only did they consume a ton of alcohol, but also they didn’t exhibit any signs of being drunk. We spent most of the night at the first bar we went to, but after getting bored there we went across the street to another bar that had some good music playing. We danced the night away while ringing in the New Year. It was a great time and lovely meeting our new Irish friends.
Day 12: I felt absolutely splendid (I hope you can sense the sarcasm) when we woke up early the next morning to catch our train to Dublin. Getting to the hostel was easy because it was the same place we’d spent our first night in Dublin. We dropped off our bags and left to hit up the town. I had really wanted to visit Kilmainham Gaol (the old prison,) so that was our first stop. The tram ride there was as bizarre as bizarre get. The first strange thing was a man sitting on the floor in the middle of the tram, smoking a cigarette and drinking something that resembled cough syrup, but was probably a lot stronger. We were very happy to see him and his lady friend get off the tram. They made sure to make an exit, though. While they were getting off another very strange couple was getting on. The woman exiting the train shared a very passionate and long kiss with the woman getting on the train. We couldn’t really tell if they knew each other. What we could tell was that everyone was cracked out. It seemed to be a general trend in Dublin.
The Gaol was interesting, but lacked a little something since I’m not very familiar with Irish history. It was also freezing inside, which made it hard to concentrate. After that little stop we ran back to the hostel to put on more layers. After we were sufficiently bundled we went to the movies to see Love and Other Drugs. Parts of the film are supposed to be set in Chicago (however it’s not actually Chicago. Last time I checked there was no 7th street. Also, they don’t even use real Chicago street signs. Come on, Hollywood.) Despite the offensive slipups, that any true Chicagoan should notice, I really liked the movie. When I first saw the Chicago skyline flash on the screen I audibly gasped in a very crowed movie theater. Luckily, my tears were a little quieter. (I miss Chicago!)
Day 13: We started our day off with the Sandeman’s walking tour. It was very interesting and we met a couple of nice girls and decided to have lunch with them and the rest of the group. We went to this great pub where the portions could kill. I didn’t even make a dent into my fish and chips (see a pattern here?) and I was starving. After stuffing ourselves silly we wanted to continue the trend with the Guinness Storehouse and Brewery. The storehouse was interesting, but a little boring. It’s something like six or seven stories tall. I mean how much is there to learn about Guinness? Either way, we went through the whole storehouse/museum and enjoyed our free pints on the top floor. Both of us could only muster a few sips. It was my first Guinness and after that lunch there wasn’t much room in my belly. We kindly donated our barely consumed beers to the gentleman sitting next to us. At least someone could enjoy it. On our way back to the hostel we picked up some Thai food for dinner. I needed to do laundry because I was only going to be back in Sevilla for about 13 hours and our lack of a dryer makes doing laundry quickly impossible. I forgot how much I love normal size washing machines and dryers. At first I thought I’d have to do two loads and then I realized I was judging that against the size of my washing machine here…which barely fits two pairs of jeans. Luckily, I still had room to spare. The best part of it all was the dryer. I hugged my clothes upon taking them out until I remembered there were security cameras in there. After remembering that I tried to slyly place them back in my bag…only to go back to my room and continue to hug my clean and very warm clothes. Boy do I take my dryer for granted at home! Do me a favor and give your dryer a little wink or love tap for me. I seriously miss having the ability to dry my clothes quickly and have them shrink back down to a normal size. (As I type my clothes have been drying on the terrace for three days now.)
Day 14: We had to wake up at an ungodly hour to catch the shuttle and make it to the airport for my 7am flight. Saying goodbye to Liza was so difficult. Heading back to Spain (even if it was only for 13 hours) was not what I wanted to be doing at the time.
All in all, our trip to Switzerland and Ireland was all and more that I could have possibly dreamed of. I loved every minute and it was really special to be able to travel just with Liza. I hope we have the opportunity to do it again.
Sunday, January 16, 2011
Part one winter break: Switzerland!
To begin, let me just say that this winter break takes the cake. It was by far the best one yet. Very appropriate considering it will probably be my last, unless I decide to go into teaching, which after four months here isn’t very probable. Liza came to Sevilla to kick things off. It was really wonderful having her here. She got to see my apartment and we spent a fair amount of time with my host family, which I also really enjoyed. So here’s part one of three of my winter break.
Day 1: Our adventure began on Tuesday, December 21, 2010. We were off to Geneva, Switzerland! Not without a few kinks beforehand, though. To avoid the ridiculously steep cab fare to the airport I often take the bus. The bus leaves from Santa Justa, the train station, which is conveniently about 10 minutes from my house. Usually, this walk isn’t a problem. Unfortunately, when Liza and I needed to leave it was pouring like I’ve never seen it before. My tiny little umbrella did nothing. My jeans were soaked up to my mid thigh, and my winter coat and every other layer I had on were sopping. Everything on my person looked like it was just removed from the washing machine—without having gone through the spin cycle. Luckily, the Sevilla airport has hand dryers. That being said, I spent the entire time we were there practically naked in front of the hand dryers trying to dry all of my clothes. Certainly a memory I will not forget…nor will the people walking into and by the open bathroom door. Woops! After one smooth flight, one delayed flight and a $16 5-minute rip off cab ride we made it to the hostel. Nothing like going to bed in wet PJs (thank you, rain.)
Day 2: We thought it was necessary to hit up the sights that made Switzerland famous, so we headed out to Gruyeres to see the cheese being made and to Broc to the chocolate factory. We got a little mixed up on the way there and got on the wrong train at our transfer stop and it put us back in the direction we’d come in. That put us an hour back so we missed the cheese demonstration we had planned on seeing and had to wait for the next one. Luckily, our extra time allowed us to explore the small town of Gruyeres. It was exactly what I had pictured a small Swiss town to look like—beautiful, snow covered and absolutely adorable. After our tour around the town, it was time to head back to the cheese factory. We dined in the adjacent restaurant and had our first sampling of fondue…yum! We also got three cheese samples, each one aged to a different amount. It’s amazing how much a couple of months can alter the taste. The cheese demonstration itself was rather boring. I’d like to think we just missed the highlights, but I’m not sure. There was an observation deck looking down on the big vats that were stirring the milk/cheese around. Nonetheless, it was interesting to learn more about the process.
I was so incredibly excited about our next stop. If you know me at all, you know that chocolate=life. Everyone raves about Swiss chocolate so I only assumed this place would be the place for me. It was the Cailler chocolate factory. It involved a strange, but semi interesting historical explanation on the history of chocolate, a description of how it’s made, a conveyer belt showing part of the production process and what I was most excited for…samples! Liza and I decided that we needed to try every sample they had. Bad idea. Horrible idea. First of all, the chocolate was disgusting. Why we continued to sample it, I truly have no idea. I suppose we hoped it would get better the more we ate. I started to take a bite and throw the rest away. I even spit out a few samples. That’s saying a lot for someone who lives for chocolate. Basically, this place was underwhelming and extremely disappointing. We didn’t even buy anything at the gift shop when we left! That bad. Also to leave a bad taste in my mouth was how sick I got. Needless to say, I won’t be sampling any more Cailler chocolate anytime soon.
Day 3: This was our only full day in Geneva. We walked around by the lake, headed to the cathedral and tried to find some famous clock (and failed.) We also trekked up to the International Red Cross museum, which I really enjoyed. One of their exhibits started with ancient texts projected onto several screens from various civilizations, all in different languages. Each text demonstrated the various civilizations’ interest in peace. I thought it was very moving. The rest of the museum was about the history of the Red Cross, interesting, but a little dry. Across the street is the United Nations headquarters. Sadly, they were closed for tours due to the holidays, but we still got to see all of the flags outside. I guess that just means I’ll have to go back one day for the tour. Later that night, we were off to Grindelwald for city number two. The train ride there was a bit of an adventure in itself. Towards the end of the first train to Bern it got really crowded. We were worried about having enough room to get our bags down and run off the train. Luckily, a very nice Swiss gentleman in the army helped us with our bags. With only a few minutes to spare, we had to run through the crowded station at rush hour to make our next train. Finding the hotel in Grindelwald wasn’t too much of a problem considering the town is one long block long.
Day 4: We woke up to snow, which was exciting, but it also made planning our day more challenging. We had planned on going up to the Jungfraujoch, the highest train station in Europe, but it was only recommended to go if there’s good weather because the bad weather hampers the amazing views. Not knowing what to do, we ventured into a ski shop to inquire about some lessons and gear. The gentleman that worked there could not have been nicer. He convinced us to go up to the Jungfraujoch despite the weather and we even put in an order for skis and a lesson for the next day.
The Jungfraujoch was still pretty amazing not being able to see the views. It’s on/part of a glacier, which they’ve turned into ice caves and sculptures. It was great getting lost in there and wandering around aimlessly. We climbed to the plateau and briefly went outside. It was absolutely freezing and the wind was unbearable. We didn’t last too long. It was Christmas Eve so we decided to go for a traditional Swiss dinner. I sampled alper macaroni. It’s macaroni and cheese with some ham mixed in and served with applesauce. Sounds like a bizarre combo, but it was delish! We went to bed early so we’d be well rested for our day of skiing!
Day 5: We woke up very early so we could catch a quick breakfast, put on all our layers for skiing, check out of the hotel and still catch the 8:47am train up the mountain. The train was actually delayed a few minutes, which is a rarity in Switzerland. We met our ski instructor on the train ride up. Ross was relatively new to Grindelwald and hailed from Manchester. Despite being a young guy, he’s taught ski lessons all around the world, most recently at an artificial indoor mountain in Dubai.
The last time I skied was in Steamboat, Colorado 12 years ago. Perhaps going straight to the Swiss Alps was a bit of a mistake. The skiing in Switzerland was much different than what I remember from home. The slopes aren’t tree lined, but rather lined with poles. One side has paint going farther down than the other so you’re supposed to remember which to stay to the left of and which to the right of. I couldn’t remember it for the life of me. The slopes were also noticeably narrower than the slopes at home, too. The level of runs is also different. It goes blue, red and then black in level of difficultly. Another difference is the sheer difficulty level. It’s prohibited by law to alter or bulldoze the runs, unlike the U.S. where they are tailored to the skiers needs.
We started on the bunny hill. After going down that once Ross thought I was ready for the real deal. Our first run was a relatively easy blue and then Ross took us up to a red run. Thank god all mighty it was snowing and visibility was terrible. If I had been able to see what we were going down I’m not sure I would have made it. Ross coached me through it and also lied about the difficulty level, only telling me afterward that that would be the hardest run we’d go on all day. Either way, it was a lot of fun. Since it was Christmas day the mountain was pretty empty. It was just us and a bunch of Asians. I sat out the last run so Liza and Ross could do a more difficult one. I met them in the tepee, which is a bar where the train stops. After saying goodbye to Ross, Liza and I each skied one run separately. I decided to take it easy with some more blues now that my coach was gone, but Liza was ready to take on the hard stuff. After lunch I did one more run and hung around for a little while Liza explored some more runs on her own. At that point in time I was ready to throw in the towel, but Liza convinced me to ski down the mountain. I am so glad she did. It was my favorite part of the day. It was small, empty, tree lined slopes and it was absolutely beautiful. Liza had her camera with her, so we stopped along the way to take plenty of photos. It was truly breathtaking.
After skiing we had to return our gear, grab our belongings from the hotel and book it to the train. We were off to Luzern!
Day 6: We ate breakfast in the hotel and were delighted to see Luzern by day upon stepping outside. It’s a beautiful little town. We walked to the transportation museum, which looked much closer on the map, and in the 20 degree weather seemed much farther to begin with. The museum was interesting, but not necessarily my cup of tea. They broke it up into sections: trains, planes, automobiles and boats. It was any engineers dream. They also had a section, which they called the Planetarium. We were expecting it to be similar to a planetarium at home, but it actually was just one of those large screens on the ceiling with the chairs in circles leaning back to look up at the screen. It was a movie about the history of the earth. The topic combined with the dark room and reclining chairs quickly put me to sleep.
After the transportation museum we “needed” to sample some more chocolate. I think I ate a year’s worth in the one week I was there. From our chocolate stop we walked across the famous wooden bridges. After resting at the hotel it was time for dinner. For our last dinner in Switzerland we wanted a traditional Swiss meal. The woman at the front desk recommended a restaurant called the Fondue House. It was delicious, but so expensive. We knew Switzerland was going to be expensive, but I wasn’t expecting it to be as bad as it was. The Swiss franc and the dollar are one and one, but everything is twice as expensive. For instance, if a coffee in the US costs $3, it would cost 6 Swiss francs, or $6, in Switzerland. It was out-of-this-world expensive.
Day 7: We quickly ate breakfast in the hotel and we were off to the train station to catch our train to Zurich where we spent the day and flew out of later that night. We checked our bags for the day at the train station so we wouldn’t need to lug them around. We walked around Zurich and saw the Marc Chagall stained glass windows. Across the street from that church is the main cathedral. We climbed up to the top to see the gorgeous views of the city.
Finding a place for lunch was beyond challenging. We turned to our guidebooks to try and find a tasty meal. The first place didn’t open until 6pm on Mondays. The second place was disgusting. The third place was closed for the holidays. The fourth place was a 40-minute walk, but we were determined to find a good place to eat. Ready to fall down dead, we discovered this place was also closed. I was ready to shoot both Let’s Go and Lonely Planet at this point. We ended up at this really strange Italian cafeteria/restaurant.
After our disgusting lunch we wanted to end the Switzerland part of our trip on a good note, so we ventured to another chocolate store. Above the store there was a bustling café. We couldn’t find a table, but two very nice Swiss German women offered to share theirs with us. This ended up being one of the highlights of the trip. We learned so much about Switzerland by talking to these women. They told us about some of the differences between French Switzerland and German Switzerland, most of which we were able to discern ourselves. We also talked about the education system and average salaries. No wonder everything is so expensive, average starting salary is over double what it is in the States. The women commented that their schools are struggling and looking for English teachers. Maybe I’ll just relocate there. ☺
After our delicious, but insanely expensive hot chocolates, we headed to the grocery store to pick up some last minute chocolate (surprise!) and then back to the train station to pick up our bags and hop on the train towards the airport. By this point in time our bags were bulging at the seams. A nice guy working at the luggage storage gave us a cart so we could run to the train. We only had about five minutes so we were literally running like mad women through the station, pushing this cart with an insane amount of luggage for two people to catch the train. With about a minute to spare, we jumped on. We got to the airport only to find out our flight to Dublin was delayed, but luckily it wasn’t cancelled. This was in the height of all of the weather problems.
Some side notes about Switzerland: Absolutely everyone speak English and at least one other language aside from their native tongue. It was incredible and very impressive after living in Spain where English isn’t widely spoken. Everyone was fluent in English, too. It’s not like they just knew a few words to get by. I could not believe it. The women we met in the café told us that most movies are in English and have subtitles. I thought this was very interesting, because in Spain all movies are dubbed instead of having subtitles. Also, The standard of living there is extremely high. I would say that 90% of cars were luxury cars. Lastly, the Swiss sure love their dogs. There were dogs everywhere. Even in stores and restaurants! All in all, Switzerland was absolutely amazing. I really enjoyed visiting there.
Day 1: Our adventure began on Tuesday, December 21, 2010. We were off to Geneva, Switzerland! Not without a few kinks beforehand, though. To avoid the ridiculously steep cab fare to the airport I often take the bus. The bus leaves from Santa Justa, the train station, which is conveniently about 10 minutes from my house. Usually, this walk isn’t a problem. Unfortunately, when Liza and I needed to leave it was pouring like I’ve never seen it before. My tiny little umbrella did nothing. My jeans were soaked up to my mid thigh, and my winter coat and every other layer I had on were sopping. Everything on my person looked like it was just removed from the washing machine—without having gone through the spin cycle. Luckily, the Sevilla airport has hand dryers. That being said, I spent the entire time we were there practically naked in front of the hand dryers trying to dry all of my clothes. Certainly a memory I will not forget…nor will the people walking into and by the open bathroom door. Woops! After one smooth flight, one delayed flight and a $16 5-minute rip off cab ride we made it to the hostel. Nothing like going to bed in wet PJs (thank you, rain.)
Day 2: We thought it was necessary to hit up the sights that made Switzerland famous, so we headed out to Gruyeres to see the cheese being made and to Broc to the chocolate factory. We got a little mixed up on the way there and got on the wrong train at our transfer stop and it put us back in the direction we’d come in. That put us an hour back so we missed the cheese demonstration we had planned on seeing and had to wait for the next one. Luckily, our extra time allowed us to explore the small town of Gruyeres. It was exactly what I had pictured a small Swiss town to look like—beautiful, snow covered and absolutely adorable. After our tour around the town, it was time to head back to the cheese factory. We dined in the adjacent restaurant and had our first sampling of fondue…yum! We also got three cheese samples, each one aged to a different amount. It’s amazing how much a couple of months can alter the taste. The cheese demonstration itself was rather boring. I’d like to think we just missed the highlights, but I’m not sure. There was an observation deck looking down on the big vats that were stirring the milk/cheese around. Nonetheless, it was interesting to learn more about the process.
I was so incredibly excited about our next stop. If you know me at all, you know that chocolate=life. Everyone raves about Swiss chocolate so I only assumed this place would be the place for me. It was the Cailler chocolate factory. It involved a strange, but semi interesting historical explanation on the history of chocolate, a description of how it’s made, a conveyer belt showing part of the production process and what I was most excited for…samples! Liza and I decided that we needed to try every sample they had. Bad idea. Horrible idea. First of all, the chocolate was disgusting. Why we continued to sample it, I truly have no idea. I suppose we hoped it would get better the more we ate. I started to take a bite and throw the rest away. I even spit out a few samples. That’s saying a lot for someone who lives for chocolate. Basically, this place was underwhelming and extremely disappointing. We didn’t even buy anything at the gift shop when we left! That bad. Also to leave a bad taste in my mouth was how sick I got. Needless to say, I won’t be sampling any more Cailler chocolate anytime soon.
Day 3: This was our only full day in Geneva. We walked around by the lake, headed to the cathedral and tried to find some famous clock (and failed.) We also trekked up to the International Red Cross museum, which I really enjoyed. One of their exhibits started with ancient texts projected onto several screens from various civilizations, all in different languages. Each text demonstrated the various civilizations’ interest in peace. I thought it was very moving. The rest of the museum was about the history of the Red Cross, interesting, but a little dry. Across the street is the United Nations headquarters. Sadly, they were closed for tours due to the holidays, but we still got to see all of the flags outside. I guess that just means I’ll have to go back one day for the tour. Later that night, we were off to Grindelwald for city number two. The train ride there was a bit of an adventure in itself. Towards the end of the first train to Bern it got really crowded. We were worried about having enough room to get our bags down and run off the train. Luckily, a very nice Swiss gentleman in the army helped us with our bags. With only a few minutes to spare, we had to run through the crowded station at rush hour to make our next train. Finding the hotel in Grindelwald wasn’t too much of a problem considering the town is one long block long.
Day 4: We woke up to snow, which was exciting, but it also made planning our day more challenging. We had planned on going up to the Jungfraujoch, the highest train station in Europe, but it was only recommended to go if there’s good weather because the bad weather hampers the amazing views. Not knowing what to do, we ventured into a ski shop to inquire about some lessons and gear. The gentleman that worked there could not have been nicer. He convinced us to go up to the Jungfraujoch despite the weather and we even put in an order for skis and a lesson for the next day.
The Jungfraujoch was still pretty amazing not being able to see the views. It’s on/part of a glacier, which they’ve turned into ice caves and sculptures. It was great getting lost in there and wandering around aimlessly. We climbed to the plateau and briefly went outside. It was absolutely freezing and the wind was unbearable. We didn’t last too long. It was Christmas Eve so we decided to go for a traditional Swiss dinner. I sampled alper macaroni. It’s macaroni and cheese with some ham mixed in and served with applesauce. Sounds like a bizarre combo, but it was delish! We went to bed early so we’d be well rested for our day of skiing!
Day 5: We woke up very early so we could catch a quick breakfast, put on all our layers for skiing, check out of the hotel and still catch the 8:47am train up the mountain. The train was actually delayed a few minutes, which is a rarity in Switzerland. We met our ski instructor on the train ride up. Ross was relatively new to Grindelwald and hailed from Manchester. Despite being a young guy, he’s taught ski lessons all around the world, most recently at an artificial indoor mountain in Dubai.
The last time I skied was in Steamboat, Colorado 12 years ago. Perhaps going straight to the Swiss Alps was a bit of a mistake. The skiing in Switzerland was much different than what I remember from home. The slopes aren’t tree lined, but rather lined with poles. One side has paint going farther down than the other so you’re supposed to remember which to stay to the left of and which to the right of. I couldn’t remember it for the life of me. The slopes were also noticeably narrower than the slopes at home, too. The level of runs is also different. It goes blue, red and then black in level of difficultly. Another difference is the sheer difficulty level. It’s prohibited by law to alter or bulldoze the runs, unlike the U.S. where they are tailored to the skiers needs.
We started on the bunny hill. After going down that once Ross thought I was ready for the real deal. Our first run was a relatively easy blue and then Ross took us up to a red run. Thank god all mighty it was snowing and visibility was terrible. If I had been able to see what we were going down I’m not sure I would have made it. Ross coached me through it and also lied about the difficulty level, only telling me afterward that that would be the hardest run we’d go on all day. Either way, it was a lot of fun. Since it was Christmas day the mountain was pretty empty. It was just us and a bunch of Asians. I sat out the last run so Liza and Ross could do a more difficult one. I met them in the tepee, which is a bar where the train stops. After saying goodbye to Ross, Liza and I each skied one run separately. I decided to take it easy with some more blues now that my coach was gone, but Liza was ready to take on the hard stuff. After lunch I did one more run and hung around for a little while Liza explored some more runs on her own. At that point in time I was ready to throw in the towel, but Liza convinced me to ski down the mountain. I am so glad she did. It was my favorite part of the day. It was small, empty, tree lined slopes and it was absolutely beautiful. Liza had her camera with her, so we stopped along the way to take plenty of photos. It was truly breathtaking.
After skiing we had to return our gear, grab our belongings from the hotel and book it to the train. We were off to Luzern!
Day 6: We ate breakfast in the hotel and were delighted to see Luzern by day upon stepping outside. It’s a beautiful little town. We walked to the transportation museum, which looked much closer on the map, and in the 20 degree weather seemed much farther to begin with. The museum was interesting, but not necessarily my cup of tea. They broke it up into sections: trains, planes, automobiles and boats. It was any engineers dream. They also had a section, which they called the Planetarium. We were expecting it to be similar to a planetarium at home, but it actually was just one of those large screens on the ceiling with the chairs in circles leaning back to look up at the screen. It was a movie about the history of the earth. The topic combined with the dark room and reclining chairs quickly put me to sleep.
After the transportation museum we “needed” to sample some more chocolate. I think I ate a year’s worth in the one week I was there. From our chocolate stop we walked across the famous wooden bridges. After resting at the hotel it was time for dinner. For our last dinner in Switzerland we wanted a traditional Swiss meal. The woman at the front desk recommended a restaurant called the Fondue House. It was delicious, but so expensive. We knew Switzerland was going to be expensive, but I wasn’t expecting it to be as bad as it was. The Swiss franc and the dollar are one and one, but everything is twice as expensive. For instance, if a coffee in the US costs $3, it would cost 6 Swiss francs, or $6, in Switzerland. It was out-of-this-world expensive.
Day 7: We quickly ate breakfast in the hotel and we were off to the train station to catch our train to Zurich where we spent the day and flew out of later that night. We checked our bags for the day at the train station so we wouldn’t need to lug them around. We walked around Zurich and saw the Marc Chagall stained glass windows. Across the street from that church is the main cathedral. We climbed up to the top to see the gorgeous views of the city.
Finding a place for lunch was beyond challenging. We turned to our guidebooks to try and find a tasty meal. The first place didn’t open until 6pm on Mondays. The second place was disgusting. The third place was closed for the holidays. The fourth place was a 40-minute walk, but we were determined to find a good place to eat. Ready to fall down dead, we discovered this place was also closed. I was ready to shoot both Let’s Go and Lonely Planet at this point. We ended up at this really strange Italian cafeteria/restaurant.
After our disgusting lunch we wanted to end the Switzerland part of our trip on a good note, so we ventured to another chocolate store. Above the store there was a bustling café. We couldn’t find a table, but two very nice Swiss German women offered to share theirs with us. This ended up being one of the highlights of the trip. We learned so much about Switzerland by talking to these women. They told us about some of the differences between French Switzerland and German Switzerland, most of which we were able to discern ourselves. We also talked about the education system and average salaries. No wonder everything is so expensive, average starting salary is over double what it is in the States. The women commented that their schools are struggling and looking for English teachers. Maybe I’ll just relocate there. ☺
After our delicious, but insanely expensive hot chocolates, we headed to the grocery store to pick up some last minute chocolate (surprise!) and then back to the train station to pick up our bags and hop on the train towards the airport. By this point in time our bags were bulging at the seams. A nice guy working at the luggage storage gave us a cart so we could run to the train. We only had about five minutes so we were literally running like mad women through the station, pushing this cart with an insane amount of luggage for two people to catch the train. With about a minute to spare, we jumped on. We got to the airport only to find out our flight to Dublin was delayed, but luckily it wasn’t cancelled. This was in the height of all of the weather problems.
Some side notes about Switzerland: Absolutely everyone speak English and at least one other language aside from their native tongue. It was incredible and very impressive after living in Spain where English isn’t widely spoken. Everyone was fluent in English, too. It’s not like they just knew a few words to get by. I could not believe it. The women we met in the café told us that most movies are in English and have subtitles. I thought this was very interesting, because in Spain all movies are dubbed instead of having subtitles. Also, The standard of living there is extremely high. I would say that 90% of cars were luxury cars. Lastly, the Swiss sure love their dogs. There were dogs everywhere. Even in stores and restaurants! All in all, Switzerland was absolutely amazing. I really enjoyed visiting there.
Monday, December 20, 2010
More on everyday life in Spain
Against my better judgment I went to bed at 3:30am and just woke up at 7:00am. Tons to do before leaving this afternoon with Liza for our European Adventure…including writing this blog! Blogging is one of those things I really enjoy, but never seem to have the time to do. So, here’s my shot at it.
Time has flown since getting back from the UK. I blinked and it was already December 21. This afternoon Liza and I are off to Switzerland and then Ireland. It will be my first time in both countries and I can’t wait.
I’ve been meaning to tell the world about Macarena. She’s the butcher at our ghetto grocery store, Día. She doesn’t wear latex gloves and it really grosses me out. She also doesn’t have separate knives to cut all of the various disgusting meats. One cleaver and bare hands touch everything. I have to look away when she cuts our weekly order of chicken breasts. I’ve never been a fan of raw meat; seeing it and touching it has always grossed me out, but Macarena brings it to a new level. Doesn’t Spain have their own version of the FDA? Please, hija, put on some gloves. Oh yeah, the worst is getting your meat stained change back from her. Ewww.
Last week I had the opportunity to meet with David, the director of the program I went on the very first time I studied abroad in Spain in high school. It was great to see him, but our coffee was both sad and helpful. David’s been living in Sevilla for 13 years and expressed the same sentiments that I’ve shared about living here. In general, Spaniards are particularly accepting of others. He thought that was the case because most of them were born in Sevilla, went to school with the same kids for high school and then college, and then still live here. He said that even with his good Spanish friends he’s still considered “the American.” None of this was comforting to hear and I know I can’t change Sevillanos, but at the same time I was glad this wasn’t something that was just happening to me. At times it feels like being here has more ups than downs, but then I just have to remind myself of all of the absolutely amazing traveling it’s permitting me to do. That in itself is a reason to stay here.
Which reminds me, I don’t know if I ever mention the little paycheck issue I’m facing. Technically my contract is through the Junta de Andalucia, the local government. I’ve been lead to believe that the school I work committed to being able to pay me until March when the Junta will then reimburse them with the money. When I got my November paycheck my school told me they no longer had any money to pay me or the other American girl teaching at my school. The principal’s advice was to go down to the school board and protest. Thanks for your help? I’m not sure how far that is going to get me. I contacted my program who was great and dealt with it immediately. This time the principal told us we need to be patient. Easy for him to say when he’s being paid. I guess I’ll have to wait and see what is going to happen when I get back. I might be on a plane back home earlier than anticipated…
Last week at school one of my 4th grade classes was conjugating (or attempting to conjugate) the verb to be on the board. They were having quite a difficult time. I laughed out loud when they got to third person plural—we are. One kid starting singing, “We Are the World,” by Michael Jackson. Thanks Mikey for helping teach my students English!
The highlight of my week last week was meeting Eva. She’s five and a quarter and from Britain. One of the teachers brought her into the teachers’ lounge looking for me to translate. She was bawling because she didn’t have Huggie, her little cow figurine that she always hugs. I helped her draw a picture of him so she could remember him until the end of the day when her Mom came to pick her up. She said her mom’s teaching English here and that they’re here for the year, but only eight more sleeps until she gets to go back to Britain for the holidays. This girl was so cute! It was nice to feel like I was actually doing something to help. Most of the time the Spanish kids just look at me with confused faces no matter what language I’m speaking.
Another funny experience was school on Thursday. I walked in at 9am like I do all mornings. All of the teachers were gathered around taking shots of anisette. One teacher handed me a glass and I kindly turned it down. Shots at 9am? Maybe if I’m tailgating, but not at school! Another teacher saw me turn it down, walked across the room and insisted I try it because it’s part of their culture. Needless to say my stomach was feeling a little funky for the rest of the day. This was another incident that probably wouldn’t have been ok in the US. For the rest of the day I watched the kids in their Christmas performance. It brought my back to my youth at FWP. It was really cute. Each class performed their own song and then most performed another as a grade. Some songs were in English and others in Spanish. It was a very enjoyable event.
Jose Alberto came home this week for the holidays from studying abroad in France. It was great to see him. I just wish he were here this year! I was really glad to hear that he seems to be enjoying his program. Study abroad is such a special experience.
Well, I’ve got a ton to do before I go to school and then leave so I better be off. I’m sure I’ll have tons to update when I get back from this crazy adventure.
Hasta pronto,
Raquel
Time has flown since getting back from the UK. I blinked and it was already December 21. This afternoon Liza and I are off to Switzerland and then Ireland. It will be my first time in both countries and I can’t wait.
I’ve been meaning to tell the world about Macarena. She’s the butcher at our ghetto grocery store, Día. She doesn’t wear latex gloves and it really grosses me out. She also doesn’t have separate knives to cut all of the various disgusting meats. One cleaver and bare hands touch everything. I have to look away when she cuts our weekly order of chicken breasts. I’ve never been a fan of raw meat; seeing it and touching it has always grossed me out, but Macarena brings it to a new level. Doesn’t Spain have their own version of the FDA? Please, hija, put on some gloves. Oh yeah, the worst is getting your meat stained change back from her. Ewww.
Last week I had the opportunity to meet with David, the director of the program I went on the very first time I studied abroad in Spain in high school. It was great to see him, but our coffee was both sad and helpful. David’s been living in Sevilla for 13 years and expressed the same sentiments that I’ve shared about living here. In general, Spaniards are particularly accepting of others. He thought that was the case because most of them were born in Sevilla, went to school with the same kids for high school and then college, and then still live here. He said that even with his good Spanish friends he’s still considered “the American.” None of this was comforting to hear and I know I can’t change Sevillanos, but at the same time I was glad this wasn’t something that was just happening to me. At times it feels like being here has more ups than downs, but then I just have to remind myself of all of the absolutely amazing traveling it’s permitting me to do. That in itself is a reason to stay here.
Which reminds me, I don’t know if I ever mention the little paycheck issue I’m facing. Technically my contract is through the Junta de Andalucia, the local government. I’ve been lead to believe that the school I work committed to being able to pay me until March when the Junta will then reimburse them with the money. When I got my November paycheck my school told me they no longer had any money to pay me or the other American girl teaching at my school. The principal’s advice was to go down to the school board and protest. Thanks for your help? I’m not sure how far that is going to get me. I contacted my program who was great and dealt with it immediately. This time the principal told us we need to be patient. Easy for him to say when he’s being paid. I guess I’ll have to wait and see what is going to happen when I get back. I might be on a plane back home earlier than anticipated…
Last week at school one of my 4th grade classes was conjugating (or attempting to conjugate) the verb to be on the board. They were having quite a difficult time. I laughed out loud when they got to third person plural—we are. One kid starting singing, “We Are the World,” by Michael Jackson. Thanks Mikey for helping teach my students English!
The highlight of my week last week was meeting Eva. She’s five and a quarter and from Britain. One of the teachers brought her into the teachers’ lounge looking for me to translate. She was bawling because she didn’t have Huggie, her little cow figurine that she always hugs. I helped her draw a picture of him so she could remember him until the end of the day when her Mom came to pick her up. She said her mom’s teaching English here and that they’re here for the year, but only eight more sleeps until she gets to go back to Britain for the holidays. This girl was so cute! It was nice to feel like I was actually doing something to help. Most of the time the Spanish kids just look at me with confused faces no matter what language I’m speaking.
Another funny experience was school on Thursday. I walked in at 9am like I do all mornings. All of the teachers were gathered around taking shots of anisette. One teacher handed me a glass and I kindly turned it down. Shots at 9am? Maybe if I’m tailgating, but not at school! Another teacher saw me turn it down, walked across the room and insisted I try it because it’s part of their culture. Needless to say my stomach was feeling a little funky for the rest of the day. This was another incident that probably wouldn’t have been ok in the US. For the rest of the day I watched the kids in their Christmas performance. It brought my back to my youth at FWP. It was really cute. Each class performed their own song and then most performed another as a grade. Some songs were in English and others in Spanish. It was a very enjoyable event.
Jose Alberto came home this week for the holidays from studying abroad in France. It was great to see him. I just wish he were here this year! I was really glad to hear that he seems to be enjoying his program. Study abroad is such a special experience.
Well, I’ve got a ton to do before I go to school and then leave so I better be off. I’m sure I’ll have tons to update when I get back from this crazy adventure.
Hasta pronto,
Raquel
Wednesday, December 8, 2010
It's Amazing How Much Fun You Can Have When Everything's Going Terribly Wrong!
Finding a place to start on this blog post is an overwhelming task. Trying to sum up the past two travel weekends in one post is a challenge. Luckily, there isn’t too much to say about Bilbao, so I can keep that short and sweet.
Two weekends ago Briana and I traveled to Bilbao. It’s in Pais Vasco, in northern Spain. I was excited to venture to a new region to observe the differences from southern Spain. Overall, I think it’s fair to say the people seemed a lot nicer. Everyone was very helpful, minus the strange lady working at the hostel. We noticed a lot of regional differences, which seem to mirror the US and our north versus south rivalries and differences. I enjoyed seeing this new part of the country, but I can’t say there was too much to do there. The Saturday we were there we headed off to San Sebastian. It was beautiful, but pouring and quite cold. We went to the aquarium and I really liked that. Bilbao was also a pretty city. We couldn’t figure out why, but a ton seemed to be closed. It was also freezing. Not only had we not anticipated the cold, but also the city just isn’t equipped for it like you’d expect. Our hostel didn’t have heat so we slept in all of the clothes we’d brought. It was a bit of a rude awakening. The highlight of the trip was visiting the Guggenheim. I had wanted to go there for years, so it was great to make that dream happen.
My favorite exhibit was by Richard Serra. He used giant sculptures to interpret time and space. It was an interactive exhibit because you had to walk through it. Here’s an article I found explaining his work: http://www.suite101.com/content/richard-serra-the-matter-of-time-a163590
I was very ready to leave Bilbao, especially because I had this past weekend to look forward to. It was a whirlwind three days at home until I was off yet again—this time to the United Kingdom. On Friday morning Jan, Julia and I met up at Santa Justa (the train station) to catch a train to Malaga. From the train station we took the metro to the airport. A lot of Europeans (namely Brits and Germans) have vacation homes in Malaga so their airport is much more built up than Sevilla’s. In fact, the city in general seems much more built up. It was easy to find the airport so we just needed to hang around for our flight. The flight was rather seamless, minus the children running around and the clash of cultures (Spanish versus English.) Most importantly, we arrived in one piece. I was really excited to land at John Lennon Airport. We were going to Liverpool to learn about the Beatles and it began at the airport. I was also excited to land and be surrounded by English again. This transition to Spain has been much more difficult than I anticipated and much harder than last time. That being said, having a taste of home was beyond needed. Now we just needed to interpret the accent. Wow, there. You’d think they were speaking another language! We couldn’t understand a word the bus driver said. Luckily, we meet this really nice guy who told us about the city and where to get off the bus.
After a little searching we arrived at our awesome hostel. It looked like it had been a home back in the day, so it had a really nice homey feeling. Additionally, the older man who owns the place and checked us in was great. He gave us another list of suggestions for the night. It was pretty late and the three of us were hungry, so we began our quest for fish and chips. The guy on the bus had recommended a place that wasn’t too far so we figured we’d try to find it. It proved more difficult than anticipated. We found the street, but couldn’t find the joint he recommended. I figured, hey, we’re in the English speaking country, why not ask someone for help? Good idea, in theory. I do not know if this is typical for Liverpool, but everyone was hammered. We asked several people for suggestions and didn’t get anything more than a slur for a response. It was kind of late to be looking for a dinner place, but way too early to be as drunk as the entire city of Liverpool was. Nonetheless, it was quite entertaining. We ended up at this Italian restaurant that served fish and chips. Go figure. Italian or British, it was great. We were beyond satisfied and looking forward to our night out on the town.
When we left the hostel, we left instructions for Briana to meet us at the Cavern Club. The hostel owner said he’d put her in a cab to meet up with us. So, from dinner we headed to the Cavern Club. In case you’re not familiar with it, it’s where the Beatles really got their start. There was a great cover band and Strongbow on tap. We were set. We met some pretty crazy cats, but enjoyed the night. After a full day of travel and several hours out we decided to call it a night. We weren’t sure what to do though because Briana never showed up. My piece-of-shit cell phone doesn’t work outside of the country. (I guess I have to make yet another trip to Vodafone.) Jan’s cell was out of battery and Julia couldn’t remember her pin and locked herself out of her phone. With no other choice, we headed back to the hostel. We were both shocked and sadden to hear Briana’s flight had been cancelled! Things had been going so well…(drum roll, please.) The trip must go on, we thought and we planned on meeting her in Edinburgh the next day.
Saturday morning Stevie T, our Beatles tour guide, picked us up at our hostel bright and early. We were all geared up and ready to learn about the Beatles and see some of the sights. We got to see all of the Beatles’ childhood homes, favorite pubs, Penny Lane and Strawberry Field among many other stops. My favorite by far was Strawberry field. Right now it’s just a deserted plot of land. It used to be an orphanage and John would sneak in and play in the yard. Today, it just has a beautiful, red gate and a sign marking where Strawberry field once stood. Despite there not being a physical structure, the place had a magical spirit. It’s hard to describe exactly what it was, but it just felt special.
After the tour we headed to lunch at one of John Lennon’s hangouts, The Philharmonic Dining Room (known at The Phil.) From lunch we needed to head back to the hostel to pick up our bags and begin the trek to Edinburgh. One would think that having a common language would make travel much easier, but when it comes down to it, I think it’s just confusing no matter where you are.
With a bit of luck, we got on train number one with a few minutes to spare. I had a minor freak out when I couldn’t find my passport in the spot I always keep it in. What’s travel without some panic? That quickly subsided when I found my passport in another purse. Phewf. Train number two was great. We were a little surprised to get on the train to see that our seats didn’t exist and were the handicapped area, but we just plopped down somewhere else. The train board said it would be arriving late, both to the station we picked it up at and Glasgow, its final destination. We wanted to go to the bathroom prior to getting off because we didn’t know if we’d have to run to catch the bus. Jan and I headed to the bathroom when we thought we were about 20 minutes away. The majority of the lavatories were broken so we needed to head about 8 cars down.
For all of the stops there had first been a warning when we were approaching the station and then another saying arriving at the station. While I was outside waiting for Jan I saw a bunch of people getting up. I was nervous, but kept reminding myself they had never said now approaching, so we must have time, right? Wrong. I head the conductor over the speaker saying now arriving at Carlisle. Oh shit. I was pounding on the bathroom door to get Jan’s attention. Since a bunch of people were getting off everyone was standing in the aisle. We were still 8 cars away from all of our things and Julia. Again it was nice to be able to just yell out in English. Excuse me! Excuse me! We yelled the whole way. We might have plowed through a couple old ladies, but I’m sure it was nothing more than minor scrapes or bruises. We made it just in time!
The third leg of the trip, the bus ride, continued to get more confusing. Both England and Scotland were experiencing unprecedented snow for this time of year so things were shutting down left and right. Luckily, the bus was still headed to Edinburgh. We were even luckier that it wasn’t going to make any stops along the way due to the weather. The bizarre part of the trip is that we were the only people on the bus. Additionally, I could only understand every third word the bus driver said and at one point we questioned whether or not he’d been hitting the sauce. We arrived in Edinburgh and in record time. This bus driver was flying. I’ve never been prone to motion sickness, but I had to keep my ipod on and my eyes closed the entire ride. This guy wanted to get to Edinburgh even more than we did. A cab ride later we found the hostel and were ready to go to bed!
Sunday morning my bagel prayers were answered. We found this adorable little café called Chocolate Soup. My two loves in life: bagels and chocolate, however we saved the chocolate part for another time. After being reunited with my carb filled friend we were off to see the sights. Last time when I was in Europe I heard about these free tours and went on a couple of them in various cities. They’re in large European cities and at the end they just ask that you tip the guide whatever you think the tour was worth. They’re great, so we were anxious to go on the Edinburgh tour. Our guide, Alan, was a riot. The tour was great, but it was freezing out and our lack of winter boots made the tour feel a little longer than necessary. Apparently, my wallabys aren’t meant for snow. My mom sent me a package two weeks ago, but Thanksgiving combined with several Spanish holidays and the slow Spanish mail system to begin with leaves it MIA. Hopefully the package containing my winter boots and long underwear will make it here before I head off to Switzerland! I’m not comforted by the thought of having to buy snow boots here. Jan bought a pair of rain boots on Thursday for the trip and the first time she wore them, Friday, they already leaked. Soo, after our tour with Alan we went to lunch and did some shopping. Similar to home, the UK is blessed with pharmacies! We spent a long time in one buying some basics we can’t find here. Delightful.
At this point in time it was still just me, Jan and Julia. Briana still hadn’t arrived. We got more details and it turns out the Spanish Air Traffic Control folks were on strike. She was stuck in Malaga for two days and then finally made it to Edinburgh Sunday night. Oh Spain. We were so bummed that Briana didn’t make it out, but also appreciative that we missed the strike by about 5 hours. It was great finally having the four of us together. We celebrated with Thai food and Italian desserts. And sleep.
Monday morning the snow continued. We were told this was not normal for Edinburgh at this time of year. We had pre-purchased tickets for Edinburgh Castle because they’re cheaper online. Monday morning we headed up the Royal Mile to find that the castle was closed due to weather conditions. Oops! Instead, we did the next best thing: the Scotch Whiskey Experience! It was a history lesson and sampling of the Scottish delicacy. Turns out whiskey isn’t exactly my thing, but we were inside in the heat for a few hours. From there we were to the Elephant House for lunch. It might appear like a nice, little café, but in fact it’s where Harry Potter was born. J.K. Rowling wrote several of the books there. From her seat you could see various inspirations like Hogwarts (a fancy private school) and the rock its sits on (the rock the castle sits on.) Additionally, during our tour with Alan he showed us several graves in a graveyard nearby that had names Rowling used. It was really fun to see.
After lunch we attempted to go to the Scottish National Museum, which was also closed due to weather. What’s the next best thing? Go see the new Harry Potter movie, in the city it was born in. I was so excited to see it in English and without subtitles. So fabulous. After the movie, warming up a bit in the hostel and changing into dry socks we searched the city for an open restaurant. After walking around for a while I stopped some people on the street to see if they had any recommendations. They recommended an Italian restaurant they had just walked out of. It ended up being great.
Tuesday morning we were finally allowed to enter the castle! Success! It was pretty, but at this point in time I kind of feel like once you’ve seen one castle, you’ve seen them all. Nonetheless, I enjoyed it and we got to see firsthand many of the things Alan talked about on our tour. After the castle, lunch and shopping we figured we should probably be on our way to Glasgow due to the terrible weather conditions and Scotland’s questionable snow clearing tactics. We checked out of the hostel, and said goodbye to the crazy people we met. (Cue the Australian woman living in Britain researching some old astronomical clock in Scotland, with a strange obsession about the slave trade and who kept turning the lights ON in the morning to wake us all up when she left the room.)
We set off with our bags for the Edinburgh bus station. Upon our arrival we quickly learned all buses to Glasgow had been cancelled. Here begins a very troubling 24 hours. Next stop, the train station. With some luck we buy 4:30 tickets to Glasgow. We kept looking at the board for a platform and saw the train was delayed until 4:40. Upon checking it again it just read “delayed.” We figured we’d walk out to the train anyway, where we hoped there would be heat. Turns out they reversed the delay and the train left at 4:30 as planned, but they didn’t alert the passengers. At this point a mild frostbite was setting in. We all literally huddled together for warmth and prayed we could get on the next train.
As soon as the platform came up we booked it for the train…us and about 300 Scots. All I remember is looking behind me while running and seeing a stampede. Thank goodness we got on the train! Sadly, there was no heat, so our limbs continued to freeze. We got off the train in Glasgow so happy to be there and just wanting to get to the hotel. We stood in line for the airport bus and were told most city buses had been cancelled. We decided to move to the cab line, but we were about 6th in line and only one cab was coming every ten minutes. Suddenly, we thought we saw an airport bus rush by so we started to run. Thank Jesus. We got on the bus and I asked the bus driver if he had ever head of our hotel. It was called the Lomond Airport Hotel, so I figured the bus driver must have at least heard of it. This was stage one of being concerned when the bus driver said he hadn’t heard of it and said nothing existed under that name. Once we got to the airport we got in a cab to the hotel. We asked the cab driver if he’d heard of the hotel and he replied, “unfortunately.” Stage two of concern. Stage three began as we got closer to the hotel. We passed boarded up factories and we clearly weren’t in the nice part of town. Stage four: panic begins. We pull up to the hotel. There isn’t even a visible sign. The driveway nor the stairs are shoveled. The doorbell is completely sideways and the place looks like it was the set of a horror movie. Entering the place doesn’t help calm my nerves. The rude man helping us says he only has Jan’s reservation. We should have made a run for it then. “Luckily” he had a room available for Julia, Briana and me. We paid, got our keys and went upstairs. Jan opened her door first, yelled and said she couldn’t go in there because it resembled the horror movie The Ring. We open our door to see a twin bed and a double bed.
We decided we would all sleep in there. Upon further examination, we realize one bed doesn’t have sheets, blankets or a pillow. There’s one towel for the three of us to share, a disturbingly funky stain under the bed, the floor in the bathroom literally sinks when stepped on, there are far too many exposed pipes, the toilet doesn’t flush and there is standing water/urine in the bathtub. After some consideration, we decided we could not stay after all. All we wanted was a warm shower and to sleep. This hotel risked our wellbeing. I have never seen a place as foul as this and I have stayed in my fair share of hostels and hotels throughout the world.
After deciding we couldn’t stay there the group kindly picked me as the group representative. I came up with my speech and we all marched downstairs with our bags to demand our money back. We put up a fight, but failed. We asked him to call a cab and he told us it would take an hour. At this point I was so pissed off, scared for my life and delirious that I said we would walk. So out we went, 20 pounds poorer in the shadiest neighborhood by the airport. Earlier in the day I had commented that it would be a successful trip if no one fell. Unfortunately, on our proud walk out of the hotel, Julia bit the dust and hit the ground pretty hard. Due to adrenaline, she said it didn’t hurt that much.
While we were leaving I was immediately reminded of a scene in the movie Eurotrip when they’re dropped off in the middle of nowhere Europe. Go to 1:47-3:25 for a pretty accurate description of how I felt.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JbcH_qYkeTc
We hit a stroke of luck when we saw someone walking towards us. We asked him which way civilization was. He pointed us towards the train and bus station. All buses to the airport were stopped, so we waited yet again in the cab line. This time we were joined by a Scottish teen with a black eye that had consumed a little too much whiskey. He was shouting god knows what at us and we felt a little better once he got in a cab, which the cab driver made him pay in advance due to his questionable state of being. Ten minutes later a cab arrived and we were off to the Ramada at the airport. Thank the lord they had rooms and an open restaurant. We all slept much better knowing we were not going to be killed and after having taken warm showers with no standing water. On the news we heard a very comforting report saying, “This week marks the collapse of Scotland’s infrastructure.” It’s a miracle we made it back here.
After all of this I learned a very good lesson. Go with your gut. Something didn’t seem right about that hotel and we should have never gotten out of the cab. We might have lost 20 pounds each, but in the end we were much happier staying in a safe hotel. If you think I am exaggerating, please look at the reviews on trip advisor.
http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Hotel_Review-g186570-d652593-Reviews-Lomond_Glasgow_Airport_Hotel-Paisley_Renfrewshire_Scotland.html
We made the mistake of looking at this after the fact. Please tell all of your family and friends to never stay at this hotel! I am going to be contacting the Scottish board of health with my concerns. I’m going to try and make this man wish he’d returned our 80 pounds. Sucker.
All in all, it was a wonderful trip. It’s probably the most fun I’ve had since I’ve been here. Now I’m counting down the days until I leave with Liza for my next adventure.
Hasta pronto,
Raquel
Two weekends ago Briana and I traveled to Bilbao. It’s in Pais Vasco, in northern Spain. I was excited to venture to a new region to observe the differences from southern Spain. Overall, I think it’s fair to say the people seemed a lot nicer. Everyone was very helpful, minus the strange lady working at the hostel. We noticed a lot of regional differences, which seem to mirror the US and our north versus south rivalries and differences. I enjoyed seeing this new part of the country, but I can’t say there was too much to do there. The Saturday we were there we headed off to San Sebastian. It was beautiful, but pouring and quite cold. We went to the aquarium and I really liked that. Bilbao was also a pretty city. We couldn’t figure out why, but a ton seemed to be closed. It was also freezing. Not only had we not anticipated the cold, but also the city just isn’t equipped for it like you’d expect. Our hostel didn’t have heat so we slept in all of the clothes we’d brought. It was a bit of a rude awakening. The highlight of the trip was visiting the Guggenheim. I had wanted to go there for years, so it was great to make that dream happen.
My favorite exhibit was by Richard Serra. He used giant sculptures to interpret time and space. It was an interactive exhibit because you had to walk through it. Here’s an article I found explaining his work: http://www.suite101.com/content/richard-serra-the-matter-of-time-a163590
I was very ready to leave Bilbao, especially because I had this past weekend to look forward to. It was a whirlwind three days at home until I was off yet again—this time to the United Kingdom. On Friday morning Jan, Julia and I met up at Santa Justa (the train station) to catch a train to Malaga. From the train station we took the metro to the airport. A lot of Europeans (namely Brits and Germans) have vacation homes in Malaga so their airport is much more built up than Sevilla’s. In fact, the city in general seems much more built up. It was easy to find the airport so we just needed to hang around for our flight. The flight was rather seamless, minus the children running around and the clash of cultures (Spanish versus English.) Most importantly, we arrived in one piece. I was really excited to land at John Lennon Airport. We were going to Liverpool to learn about the Beatles and it began at the airport. I was also excited to land and be surrounded by English again. This transition to Spain has been much more difficult than I anticipated and much harder than last time. That being said, having a taste of home was beyond needed. Now we just needed to interpret the accent. Wow, there. You’d think they were speaking another language! We couldn’t understand a word the bus driver said. Luckily, we meet this really nice guy who told us about the city and where to get off the bus.
After a little searching we arrived at our awesome hostel. It looked like it had been a home back in the day, so it had a really nice homey feeling. Additionally, the older man who owns the place and checked us in was great. He gave us another list of suggestions for the night. It was pretty late and the three of us were hungry, so we began our quest for fish and chips. The guy on the bus had recommended a place that wasn’t too far so we figured we’d try to find it. It proved more difficult than anticipated. We found the street, but couldn’t find the joint he recommended. I figured, hey, we’re in the English speaking country, why not ask someone for help? Good idea, in theory. I do not know if this is typical for Liverpool, but everyone was hammered. We asked several people for suggestions and didn’t get anything more than a slur for a response. It was kind of late to be looking for a dinner place, but way too early to be as drunk as the entire city of Liverpool was. Nonetheless, it was quite entertaining. We ended up at this Italian restaurant that served fish and chips. Go figure. Italian or British, it was great. We were beyond satisfied and looking forward to our night out on the town.
When we left the hostel, we left instructions for Briana to meet us at the Cavern Club. The hostel owner said he’d put her in a cab to meet up with us. So, from dinner we headed to the Cavern Club. In case you’re not familiar with it, it’s where the Beatles really got their start. There was a great cover band and Strongbow on tap. We were set. We met some pretty crazy cats, but enjoyed the night. After a full day of travel and several hours out we decided to call it a night. We weren’t sure what to do though because Briana never showed up. My piece-of-shit cell phone doesn’t work outside of the country. (I guess I have to make yet another trip to Vodafone.) Jan’s cell was out of battery and Julia couldn’t remember her pin and locked herself out of her phone. With no other choice, we headed back to the hostel. We were both shocked and sadden to hear Briana’s flight had been cancelled! Things had been going so well…(drum roll, please.) The trip must go on, we thought and we planned on meeting her in Edinburgh the next day.
Saturday morning Stevie T, our Beatles tour guide, picked us up at our hostel bright and early. We were all geared up and ready to learn about the Beatles and see some of the sights. We got to see all of the Beatles’ childhood homes, favorite pubs, Penny Lane and Strawberry Field among many other stops. My favorite by far was Strawberry field. Right now it’s just a deserted plot of land. It used to be an orphanage and John would sneak in and play in the yard. Today, it just has a beautiful, red gate and a sign marking where Strawberry field once stood. Despite there not being a physical structure, the place had a magical spirit. It’s hard to describe exactly what it was, but it just felt special.
After the tour we headed to lunch at one of John Lennon’s hangouts, The Philharmonic Dining Room (known at The Phil.) From lunch we needed to head back to the hostel to pick up our bags and begin the trek to Edinburgh. One would think that having a common language would make travel much easier, but when it comes down to it, I think it’s just confusing no matter where you are.
With a bit of luck, we got on train number one with a few minutes to spare. I had a minor freak out when I couldn’t find my passport in the spot I always keep it in. What’s travel without some panic? That quickly subsided when I found my passport in another purse. Phewf. Train number two was great. We were a little surprised to get on the train to see that our seats didn’t exist and were the handicapped area, but we just plopped down somewhere else. The train board said it would be arriving late, both to the station we picked it up at and Glasgow, its final destination. We wanted to go to the bathroom prior to getting off because we didn’t know if we’d have to run to catch the bus. Jan and I headed to the bathroom when we thought we were about 20 minutes away. The majority of the lavatories were broken so we needed to head about 8 cars down.
For all of the stops there had first been a warning when we were approaching the station and then another saying arriving at the station. While I was outside waiting for Jan I saw a bunch of people getting up. I was nervous, but kept reminding myself they had never said now approaching, so we must have time, right? Wrong. I head the conductor over the speaker saying now arriving at Carlisle. Oh shit. I was pounding on the bathroom door to get Jan’s attention. Since a bunch of people were getting off everyone was standing in the aisle. We were still 8 cars away from all of our things and Julia. Again it was nice to be able to just yell out in English. Excuse me! Excuse me! We yelled the whole way. We might have plowed through a couple old ladies, but I’m sure it was nothing more than minor scrapes or bruises. We made it just in time!
The third leg of the trip, the bus ride, continued to get more confusing. Both England and Scotland were experiencing unprecedented snow for this time of year so things were shutting down left and right. Luckily, the bus was still headed to Edinburgh. We were even luckier that it wasn’t going to make any stops along the way due to the weather. The bizarre part of the trip is that we were the only people on the bus. Additionally, I could only understand every third word the bus driver said and at one point we questioned whether or not he’d been hitting the sauce. We arrived in Edinburgh and in record time. This bus driver was flying. I’ve never been prone to motion sickness, but I had to keep my ipod on and my eyes closed the entire ride. This guy wanted to get to Edinburgh even more than we did. A cab ride later we found the hostel and were ready to go to bed!
Sunday morning my bagel prayers were answered. We found this adorable little café called Chocolate Soup. My two loves in life: bagels and chocolate, however we saved the chocolate part for another time. After being reunited with my carb filled friend we were off to see the sights. Last time when I was in Europe I heard about these free tours and went on a couple of them in various cities. They’re in large European cities and at the end they just ask that you tip the guide whatever you think the tour was worth. They’re great, so we were anxious to go on the Edinburgh tour. Our guide, Alan, was a riot. The tour was great, but it was freezing out and our lack of winter boots made the tour feel a little longer than necessary. Apparently, my wallabys aren’t meant for snow. My mom sent me a package two weeks ago, but Thanksgiving combined with several Spanish holidays and the slow Spanish mail system to begin with leaves it MIA. Hopefully the package containing my winter boots and long underwear will make it here before I head off to Switzerland! I’m not comforted by the thought of having to buy snow boots here. Jan bought a pair of rain boots on Thursday for the trip and the first time she wore them, Friday, they already leaked. Soo, after our tour with Alan we went to lunch and did some shopping. Similar to home, the UK is blessed with pharmacies! We spent a long time in one buying some basics we can’t find here. Delightful.
At this point in time it was still just me, Jan and Julia. Briana still hadn’t arrived. We got more details and it turns out the Spanish Air Traffic Control folks were on strike. She was stuck in Malaga for two days and then finally made it to Edinburgh Sunday night. Oh Spain. We were so bummed that Briana didn’t make it out, but also appreciative that we missed the strike by about 5 hours. It was great finally having the four of us together. We celebrated with Thai food and Italian desserts. And sleep.
Monday morning the snow continued. We were told this was not normal for Edinburgh at this time of year. We had pre-purchased tickets for Edinburgh Castle because they’re cheaper online. Monday morning we headed up the Royal Mile to find that the castle was closed due to weather conditions. Oops! Instead, we did the next best thing: the Scotch Whiskey Experience! It was a history lesson and sampling of the Scottish delicacy. Turns out whiskey isn’t exactly my thing, but we were inside in the heat for a few hours. From there we were to the Elephant House for lunch. It might appear like a nice, little café, but in fact it’s where Harry Potter was born. J.K. Rowling wrote several of the books there. From her seat you could see various inspirations like Hogwarts (a fancy private school) and the rock its sits on (the rock the castle sits on.) Additionally, during our tour with Alan he showed us several graves in a graveyard nearby that had names Rowling used. It was really fun to see.
After lunch we attempted to go to the Scottish National Museum, which was also closed due to weather. What’s the next best thing? Go see the new Harry Potter movie, in the city it was born in. I was so excited to see it in English and without subtitles. So fabulous. After the movie, warming up a bit in the hostel and changing into dry socks we searched the city for an open restaurant. After walking around for a while I stopped some people on the street to see if they had any recommendations. They recommended an Italian restaurant they had just walked out of. It ended up being great.
Tuesday morning we were finally allowed to enter the castle! Success! It was pretty, but at this point in time I kind of feel like once you’ve seen one castle, you’ve seen them all. Nonetheless, I enjoyed it and we got to see firsthand many of the things Alan talked about on our tour. After the castle, lunch and shopping we figured we should probably be on our way to Glasgow due to the terrible weather conditions and Scotland’s questionable snow clearing tactics. We checked out of the hostel, and said goodbye to the crazy people we met. (Cue the Australian woman living in Britain researching some old astronomical clock in Scotland, with a strange obsession about the slave trade and who kept turning the lights ON in the morning to wake us all up when she left the room.)
We set off with our bags for the Edinburgh bus station. Upon our arrival we quickly learned all buses to Glasgow had been cancelled. Here begins a very troubling 24 hours. Next stop, the train station. With some luck we buy 4:30 tickets to Glasgow. We kept looking at the board for a platform and saw the train was delayed until 4:40. Upon checking it again it just read “delayed.” We figured we’d walk out to the train anyway, where we hoped there would be heat. Turns out they reversed the delay and the train left at 4:30 as planned, but they didn’t alert the passengers. At this point a mild frostbite was setting in. We all literally huddled together for warmth and prayed we could get on the next train.
As soon as the platform came up we booked it for the train…us and about 300 Scots. All I remember is looking behind me while running and seeing a stampede. Thank goodness we got on the train! Sadly, there was no heat, so our limbs continued to freeze. We got off the train in Glasgow so happy to be there and just wanting to get to the hotel. We stood in line for the airport bus and were told most city buses had been cancelled. We decided to move to the cab line, but we were about 6th in line and only one cab was coming every ten minutes. Suddenly, we thought we saw an airport bus rush by so we started to run. Thank Jesus. We got on the bus and I asked the bus driver if he had ever head of our hotel. It was called the Lomond Airport Hotel, so I figured the bus driver must have at least heard of it. This was stage one of being concerned when the bus driver said he hadn’t heard of it and said nothing existed under that name. Once we got to the airport we got in a cab to the hotel. We asked the cab driver if he’d heard of the hotel and he replied, “unfortunately.” Stage two of concern. Stage three began as we got closer to the hotel. We passed boarded up factories and we clearly weren’t in the nice part of town. Stage four: panic begins. We pull up to the hotel. There isn’t even a visible sign. The driveway nor the stairs are shoveled. The doorbell is completely sideways and the place looks like it was the set of a horror movie. Entering the place doesn’t help calm my nerves. The rude man helping us says he only has Jan’s reservation. We should have made a run for it then. “Luckily” he had a room available for Julia, Briana and me. We paid, got our keys and went upstairs. Jan opened her door first, yelled and said she couldn’t go in there because it resembled the horror movie The Ring. We open our door to see a twin bed and a double bed.
We decided we would all sleep in there. Upon further examination, we realize one bed doesn’t have sheets, blankets or a pillow. There’s one towel for the three of us to share, a disturbingly funky stain under the bed, the floor in the bathroom literally sinks when stepped on, there are far too many exposed pipes, the toilet doesn’t flush and there is standing water/urine in the bathtub. After some consideration, we decided we could not stay after all. All we wanted was a warm shower and to sleep. This hotel risked our wellbeing. I have never seen a place as foul as this and I have stayed in my fair share of hostels and hotels throughout the world.
After deciding we couldn’t stay there the group kindly picked me as the group representative. I came up with my speech and we all marched downstairs with our bags to demand our money back. We put up a fight, but failed. We asked him to call a cab and he told us it would take an hour. At this point I was so pissed off, scared for my life and delirious that I said we would walk. So out we went, 20 pounds poorer in the shadiest neighborhood by the airport. Earlier in the day I had commented that it would be a successful trip if no one fell. Unfortunately, on our proud walk out of the hotel, Julia bit the dust and hit the ground pretty hard. Due to adrenaline, she said it didn’t hurt that much.
While we were leaving I was immediately reminded of a scene in the movie Eurotrip when they’re dropped off in the middle of nowhere Europe. Go to 1:47-3:25 for a pretty accurate description of how I felt.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JbcH_qYkeTc
We hit a stroke of luck when we saw someone walking towards us. We asked him which way civilization was. He pointed us towards the train and bus station. All buses to the airport were stopped, so we waited yet again in the cab line. This time we were joined by a Scottish teen with a black eye that had consumed a little too much whiskey. He was shouting god knows what at us and we felt a little better once he got in a cab, which the cab driver made him pay in advance due to his questionable state of being. Ten minutes later a cab arrived and we were off to the Ramada at the airport. Thank the lord they had rooms and an open restaurant. We all slept much better knowing we were not going to be killed and after having taken warm showers with no standing water. On the news we heard a very comforting report saying, “This week marks the collapse of Scotland’s infrastructure.” It’s a miracle we made it back here.
After all of this I learned a very good lesson. Go with your gut. Something didn’t seem right about that hotel and we should have never gotten out of the cab. We might have lost 20 pounds each, but in the end we were much happier staying in a safe hotel. If you think I am exaggerating, please look at the reviews on trip advisor.
http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Hotel_Review-g186570-d652593-Reviews-Lomond_Glasgow_Airport_Hotel-Paisley_Renfrewshire_Scotland.html
We made the mistake of looking at this after the fact. Please tell all of your family and friends to never stay at this hotel! I am going to be contacting the Scottish board of health with my concerns. I’m going to try and make this man wish he’d returned our 80 pounds. Sucker.
All in all, it was a wonderful trip. It’s probably the most fun I’ve had since I’ve been here. Now I’m counting down the days until I leave with Liza for my next adventure.
Hasta pronto,
Raquel
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