Just look at what I can accomplish when I procrastinate
Mosque doors in Fez
This is documentation of our great adventure. Siobhan and I tried really hard to plan this trip, but morocco isn't so big on the internet so we ended up pulling this trip out of our asses as we went. It could have been a lot worse. Instead it was awesome, there were a few 'moments', but it worked out a lot better than I expected.
You think this looks gross? Hey, at least you aren't breathing it. Some where deep down we must have liked it, because I can't even count how many times we walked through this part of the market. You'd smell it coming, knowing full well that heaving abounds. It was a good 100 or so feet with blood running through the gutters, people chopping off heads of live animals, guts dangling like streamers at a 6yr olds birthday party. But nothing visual could EVER compare to the smell associated, lots of death+compactmarket+african sun beating down=stench to end all stenches.
our grand entrance. The ferry sucked. It is 6am, we have no idea where we are, where we are going or how to get there, plus no money, no sleep, and this is the high point of the day. On the plus side we met other people, Louis, Ellen, Andrew and Chris. Traveling buddies rule.
Siobhan, your back pack looks so weak.
Like I said the first ferry was lame. We slept in shifts, well sorta, more like we decided that we should just get drunk. So we accomplished this instead.
This brings me to the driving in Morocco. AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH. Is the only way to put it. This is what the crazy red taxi's look like, watch yourself.
Not to mention the twilight zone bus ride that we took to fez, that goes down in infamy! My favorite part was while moving driver switch-a-roo, so what if we are going about 55mph. It was about 7 hours, no bathroom breaks, lots of police checks and strange behavior. By strange I mean incredibly illegal. I particularly enjoyed the bag full of stolen passports. Although the unloading of stolen goods (big bags of shoes none the less) once we got to Fez was also amazing. Well, I have never felt safer, great way to start things off. By the time we got off Siobhan and I couldn't even discuss it, just kinda shook our heads in disbelief. It was completely hilarious about an hour/day later though.
More pretty mosque doors that we encountered while weaving through the ol' timey markets.
This is us at dinner, you have to bargain for everything. I don't think we actually ate here. But just so everyone knows, Moroccan food, yum yum.
A view of the old city in Fez.
Apparently dentures are the hot comodity in Fez. They were the only things worthy of being showcased.
More pretty, old gates.
Who knew that animal cruelty could be so cute?
Something about Morocco makes me think 'that's what Palm Springs would look like after the apocalypse'. Not necessarily this picture, but you get the idea.
The markets in the old city were amazing. But I am horrible at bargaining, horrible! In the end the difference of 10 darcomozit-wha (can't remember) is probably less than a 1$.
Seriously, how often do you just walk by this kinda stuff? Do you have any idea how old all these walls and gates are? Damn old!
Here is the gang in the markets. There were amazing goods, as you will see later.
I am not even going to pretend that I have any idea what the difference between a donkey, ass, or mule is, but this one of the above. These poor guys get loaded up with goods for the market and then rip down the little labyrinth like streets of the old town markets, watch your azz (and your toes) cause they will just take you out.
Here are the gates to the old city, what the fuck are these called Siobhan? Will I ever know? In order to get here (which we had to do about twice a day) I bought a postcard to show the cab drivers. We'd have been lost without it. I don't know what I did with it, hmmm. This was definitely Siobhan's idea, no way I conceived such an ingenious plan.
This picture would have been better if it wasn't for dude. Then through the arches you would see the cemeteries that lined the outside of the old city. They were beautiful, every headstone was white.
One of the spice stalls at the markets in Fez.
Here are the goods of which I speak, proudly being modeled by Andrew and Chris. We would go hangout on their terrace that over looked the old city and blue gates and TRY to remember how to play card games. These kids ruled, I mean just check out the jackets and Fez's!
I am doing a little extreme tourism. Or standing in the way.
Chris, Ellen and Siobhan in front of the blue gates (ok we need to just make up a name for them already)
On our walk to the top of that hill thing that over looks the city. You can see the old city below and the graveyard on the left.
This picture is purely to show you all what an amazing bag Siobhan bought in Fez. I expect everyone to acknowledge its greatness. Please tell me that you use this to carry your books to school.
Other amazing purchases included the fish necklace. Bone or plastic, did we ever find out? Or were we just biting that thing for the hell of it? Anyway Siobhan, I know you have the biggest eyelashes ever and they must be hard to hold up, but enough of the excessive eye blinking! Jeeze.
The trip home kicked the trip theres azz. Our ferry had reclining seats and everything. It was classy, so we stole the bread people didn't eat off the tables in the restaurant. It was like a cruise ship, complete with dance floors, a real bar and a movie theater and stores. But it was colder than a dead piece of vagina so we couldn't sleep, again.
I think one of the highlights of the trip was waiting forever at the port to catch the ferry. We did a lot of deep reflection and really got to know one another. we are so in sync, like did you know that Siobhan were in the same lingerie mood that day? According to cosmo of course. We also looked at what the future held for us, i.e. a game of MASH.
After taking a normal bus ride to the port and the sweet ferry back to Spain we decided that 24hrs of traveling warranted some R&R. So we drank the spanish equivalent of 40's and spent our last day on the beaches of Almeria in Spain. We also had some very tasty pizza.
This was Siobhan's souvenir from Spain, i got one too. It was my first, I pealed and everything.
In sum, Morocco was awesome. It was the first place where I actually felt like I was traveling. I am definitely going back at some point in my life. It lived up to my expectations, which were pretty dang high. Also it is the first place I have been where I haven't seen starbucks, but don't worry, they had a McDonald's.