Viva Ethpana....?

Next stop Barcelona, my favourite European city! Wandering down la Rambla, drinking Sangria, marveling at Gaudi's Sagrada Familia, and hitting up one of the beaches full of beautiful Spaniards after a long day. What I love about Barcelona is not that it is necessarily the most picturesque or even the most friendly place, but it really has a little bit of everything for everyone!  Chris and I camped for two nights here as this city is way too popular for us to be able to find hosts who weren't already booked up. We were literally 50 metres from the beach, a perfectly sandy beach with no rock to be seen and a man from Pakhistan selling cheap cold beers like they do on Wreck beach in Van! We were so torn because on the one hand we wanted to have time to check out the city but on the other, we kind of had it made there too! We spent the first night dedicating a good hour (at least) trying to finish a fishbowl of sangria each while people-watching on La Rambla.  Spain just seems so completely different from the rest of Europe. One of the most noticeable differences is the fact that their daily schedule is completely different - the siesta screws everything up! An afternoon nap does in theory sound like a great idea, unless you're the odd one out who needs to actually accomplish something during that time.  Then it gets tricky! Often places seem like a ghost town between 2 and 5pm and dinner isn't eaten until 10pm or later! You can distinguish tourists from locals based on who's sitting down at a restaurant to eat at 7 in the evening. This also becomes somewhat problematic if you're trying to sleep in a campground at midnight after a long drive and the local kids are playing a post-dinner soccer game.  Although generally there's nothing better than the sound of children's squeals of laughter, call me crazy but it seems a little out of place at 2 or 3 in the morning!

We dedicated a day to Gaudi, checking out Sagrada Familia, Parc Guell, La Pedrera and Casa Batllo, all featuring the uniqe architectural features that are distinctively Gaudi.  The inside of Sagrada Familia is finished, which was absolutely mind-blowing to see! When I was there seven years ago it was all scaffolding.  Now it is full of stained-glass windows and pillars and a ceiling that combine to mimic a forest with a canopy of leaves on the top.  Every city in Europe has a cathedral, but nothing is as unique as this building. It's meant to be finished by 2020, maybe we'll have to go back to see the final product! 

The inner 'canopy' of Sagrada Familia!

The outside is pretty crazy too!

Crazy, Dr. Seuss style Parc Guell :)

Enough of Europe for a while with its price tags and predictability! We want to rough it and have some shock value again! We decided to head to Morocco for one of the final weeks of our trip! We spent the better part of two days driving down to La Linea de la Concepcion, where we would leave our car with two couchsurfers for a week while we bartered our way around Morocco. Sascha and Bruna are an international couple from Germany and Brazil, respectively! And here we thought a New Zealand - Canada relationship was exotic! Sascha works in Gibraltar and it was interesting to hear his opinions about the Spanish culture and bureaucracy.  Spain is currently having quite the economical crisis.  There is a high rate of unemployment, especially among the younger generations.  It seems as though it is quite a challenge to accomplish many things in Spain: buying/selling a car is such a complicated process that people spend twice as much as they need to to hire someone to do it for them.  Apparently instead of trying to streamline processes in the public sector, Spain is trying to create more jobs and so often times things that should be simple become more complicated. We saw first hand the economic crisis because Sascha and Bruna live in a beautiful apartment complex with only maybe 20% occupancy, if that! In any case, once again we spent a night with people who were so easy to get along with and we looked forward to staying with them again when we returned from Morocco.

A little dessert hookah, anyone? Hanging with Sascha and Bruna :)

The best we could do for timing! Gotta love late night swims...

 We entered back into the land of public transportation with a day of ferries and buses and trains (oh my!) to land in Fez, Morocco. Fez is known as the most traditional city in Morocco because it has a medina (old city) that is the only medieval Muslim city that still functions as it did back in the day. Walking around its streets feels like going back in time!  Coincidentally, two stops before we got off the train to arrive in Fez a man named Abdul (shocking!) came into our compartment who had a son that was living in New Zealand with his kiwi wife in Christchurch.  He kept calling and calling on his phone to try and get through to his son so that Chris could talk to him.  It was a little weird.  At the station he pointed us in the right direction of a cheap hotel and some good places to eat and asked if we would like to see the tannery where he works the following morning. We thought it sounded too good to be true... that should've been our first clue. In any case he had also offered to have us over to his place to break the fast of Ramadan with his family, so he really did seem genuine.  We agreed!

The next day we were guided through the streets of the medina.  The tour quickly turned into a shopping trip rather than sightseeing and it really seemed as though Abdul was quite eager to get us to buy a bunch of stuff. The first stop was the tanneries, where we were given a proper tour and explanation on the rooftop of the tannery. From here we could see all the different steps taken to make the leather that Fez is most known for.  Apparently one of the steps in producing soft leather is to soak it in a solution of water and pigeon poo for up to a week.  The highly scientific term 'pigeon poo' would be somewhat amusing in regular English, but there is something hilarious about hearing it in an Arabic ESL accent.  It reminded me of the Dutch woman at information who tried to explain to us in broken english that they had just had a celebration for 'zee homosexuals' (in English terms gay pride parade). Anyway, pretty funny. 

The white containers are where the leather is softened with ze pigeon poo, and the darker pots are where the leather is dyed! Pretty cool :)

The tour ended with the common explanation that we were welcome to look around but needn't feel any pressure to buy anything. This is the speal that actually means 'I plan on pressuring you more than you ever thought possible to get you to buy something'. It didn't really worry us though, seeing as we weren't going to buy anything we didn't want. We feel we are seasoned barterers now after being in Asia and Egypt! Second stop,  the rug shop! We were told this was a government controlled shop so not to worry, all of the rugs had price tags! Nevermind that there was nothing in the store for under $1000! Here we met the best salesman we have experienced on our entire trip.  From the moment we set foot into this shop, we had at least five guys dedicated to pulling out rugs of all colours and sizes and with a flick of the wrist unrolling dozens of rugs all over the room for us to look at. From the beginning we said we couldn't possibly afford to buy one rug.  The solution? "Buy two! Take one home and sell it at an auction in Vancouver and you will get 8 times what you pay for it here! That will allow you to pay for the first rug you couldn't afford in the first place!" We were speechless. We were then told that Kiwis get a 75% discount on shipping because NZ gives Moroccans an 'import agreement' allowing them to get cheap Merino wool for their rugs **cough, bullshit, cough** This guy was good, but we held strong.  Even after we had unequivocally told him there was no way we were buying a rug he said "I totally understand, you don't want a rug... but, you are only in Morocco once... just... which one is your favorite, you don't need to buy it, but just for argument's sake...!" We had to walk out on him and the five others, leaving them to re-roll the thirty rugs we left unsold on the floor. 

Afterwards, we had a great meal on Abdul's  recommendation, saw the sights of the medina and then were left to our own devices to peruse the shops of the medina and told we'd be picked up at 6:30 for dinner. That was the last time we saw him, we were stood up!! This led us to realize that he must have been taking a cut from the few things we did buy, although we really feel like we got the better end of the deal.  We puzzled over the possible explanations of this scenario for quite a while and then moved on. We'd had a great day regardless! The medina of Fez sure did deliver in the 'shock value' department: the meat market had freshly skinned goat heads and we saw a chicken's throat slashed open- not for those with a weak stomach! There were donkeys used everywhere to transport goods through the streets that were way too narrow to fit any sort of car and the smell of the tanneries would creep up and smack you in the face every now and then. In short, it was awesome and unlike any other market or city centre we have ever seen. 

One of the quieter side streets in the Fez medina.

Snake charmer!

Marrakech is the bigger of the two cities and quite different from the older, more traditional Fez. We stayed in the 'ville-neuve', the more modern part of the city, but within walking distance of the medina. Marrakech is home to such touristy gimmicks as snake charmers, horse and carriage rides and monkeys, all in the main square of Jemaa el Fna. We did a lot of wandering through the medina and shopping a bit more than we should've.  If you're not doing an organized tour (which we decided against for various reasons) then experiencing the city is somewhat limited to shopping. The local cuisine is another part of the culture, which in itself proved to be difficult at times as the locals celebrate (do they call it 'celebrating'?) Ramadan from July 20th to August 20th.  During Ramadan those of Muslim religion and culture don't eat or drink anything (not even water!) while the sun is up.  I don't know the background behind why this happens during one of the sunniest months of the year.  Wouldn't it be easier to fast during one of the winter months where there are fewer hours of sunlight? Hmm.. maybe that is the point though, and it's supposed to be a challenge or it would be otherwise pointless? Anyway, moving on from my internal thoughts.  If I had the internet right now I'd just look it up, but no such luck... Ramadan was really interesting to experience, but if you decide to go make sure you go for the beginning or end of it so that you can experience Morocco during the regular part of the year as well.  Many of the shops are closed during this time and people just kind of hide out because daily temperatures are high and energy levels are low.  Sometimes it felt like we were walking in a ghost town and we weren't able to find a proper breakfast spot until lunchtime! Still, it was a really cool experience to be sitting near a group of Moroccans just before sundown to see them get out their dates and coffee and snacks and eagerly await the town-wide dinner siren. It's a time of community because no matter where anyone is or what they are doing, every single muslim will sit down and share a meal with his or her neighbour.  Several times we got offered a snack of dates or something during the breaking of the fast.

Sure would suck to spend the day completely surrounded in food you can't eat until sundown!

One of my favorite things about the Arabic african countries we've visited - fresh squeezed delicious OJ!

We got to experience the celebration of the end of Ramadan and what a city normally looks like during the day in Assilah, a small coastal town 50 km south from Tanger.  We were there for one day of Ramadan as well as a normal day, once Ramadan was finished.  IT was such a contrast to see people socializing over coffee, doing daily chores, or opening the shop for sales during daylight for the first time in a month.  We would have liked to see Marrakech or Fez at this point - they would've seemed that much more vibrant and colourful, we are sure of it! At this point we were really wanting a couple of full days at the beach so we went to this random town with sun-bathing in mind! The "paradise beach" was a little ways outside of town, but well worth it! The crisp cool Atlantic ocean kept us refreshed in the sweltering heat and the beach was lined with restaurants for snacks when you got hungry.  We had a great two days watching the camels being walked up and down the sand by their tourist-hungry owners. A few tagine meals later, it was time to head back to Spain!

This was our mode of transportation for a 45-minute trip back from the beach. Comfy!

Our last day of public transportation was an absolute doozy. We left Assilah at 11:30 and didn't get back to La Linea until almost twelve hours later due to late trains, late ferries, late buses, malfunctioning bank machines, misinformation, you name it, it happened! It was a bit frustrating, but at least it made us that much happier to have our own wheels back for the remainder of our trip!

It was sweet to have a plathe to go back to in Spain. La Linea de la Conthepthion. What's that? Everyone here talkth with a lithp! It'th really difficult get uthed to. Do you thee what I mean? I thought I could underthtand Thpanish quite well, but it'th a whole different ball game down here! Chris says that he heard it was because back in the good ol' days there was a king that had a lisp and it evolved into a dialect.  If that's true, it makes the accent even more ridiculous! Anyway, we stayed with our international friends once again and had a great BBQ after a day of hanging with monkeys in Gibraltar! We had no idea what to expect, and hadn't even planned to visit GIbraltar, but we heard about the monkeys on top of the rock and we had to go check it out.  We watched the main street get smaller and smaller as we climbed up the rock on the gondola, shoulder-to-shoulder with a bunch of other eager tourists.  Before we even arrived at the top we approached the platform where there were three or four young little monkeys jumping from rail to rail and playing with each other.  That was only the beginning! Once you get out, around every corner there are monkeys of all sizes, who seem to be completely indifferent to the fact that endless groups of tourists are making funny faces at them, trying to pose for pictures, and taunting them in various ways. We were no better, entertained for hours watching these wild crazy monkeys steal people's ice creams and hats and play with each other. Chris had been hanging out for some good monkey watching and of all places, we finally ticked that box in Europe! We stayed there for a good couple of hours until we had to escape the heat. It was one of the highlight events for us in Europe, for sure!

Monkeying around...

View from the 'Top of the Rock'!

He even tried to grab my kindle! Cheeky monkey!

Loving that we splurged for a great camera for moments like these!

Me and Toffee!

Originally our plan for the end of our trip was to stop and stay in one spot in Southern Spain for a week as well as one spot in Morocco for a week.  We had been moving around pretty quickly and wanted to get a more in-depth taste of a place (preferably next to a surf beach) for a change.  Unfortunately, because there were so many things we kept wanting to see and do this never really happened.  Still, we were saved from couch-hopping when we were accepted by Brian and Jane to stay at their place outside of Malaga for five whole nights! Score! We were so excited that we would have a 'home base' from which to explore Malaga, Granada and hit up a beach or two before heading homeward bound.  We didn't know quite what to expect at first, as Jane and Brian are a bit older than we are (they might refer to themselves as "wrinklies"), but probably about five minutes after we pulled up we felt totally at home and for the next five days we had surrogate Spanish parents taking care of us and making us feel like part of the family! Jane and Brian are originally from the UK, and have the most fascinating stories and experiences to tell.  They love to travel and have done a lot of it, so we found ourselves spending the evenings having a glass of wine and chatting about every topic under the sun. Their place is in the mountains about a 45-minute drive east of Malaga.  It's a beautiful house that the two have made their own, complete with a beautiful swimming pool, great view and two little dogs who have the run of the place.  We were in paradise and so happy to chill before heading on our epic road-trip back up to Dusseldorf. Every morning we had fresh fruit salad and the best marmalade ever (not together as a combination, but both equally delicious)! One morning we went for breakfast with some of their friends and got to check out the closest small town of Competa, a quaint town in rural Andalucia. Our last touristy day trip was to check out the Alhambra!!! I had recently read 'The Constant Princess' by Philippa Gregory, and throughout the book there are constant references and descriptions of the palaces of Alhambra and the Arabic architecture. I was looking forward to it! Well, it was beautiful, definitely, and it was completely different from anything else we'd seen in Europe, but we just felt like there was something missing or something that just didn't quite do it for us. Or maybe we are just over sightseeing for the moment! We did get some good pictures of the beautiful Arabic inscriptions and carvings. In any case, I'd give it one thumb up and say that the guide books sure make it seem like it is the most amazing place on Earth, but I much prefer Sagrada Familia!

One of the impressive water features in Alhambra

Fresh fruit salad and delicious homemade marmalade every morning in an idyllic setting - it sure was tough to leave!

Not a bad place to relax! Notice one of the other family members - Kelly :)

Our amazingly wonderful hosts! We will definitely be back one day!

 We had *tear* our last day at the beach and at Casa Kirk on Monday.  We had a fancy shmancy home-cooked meal, including rice with a least 8-delicious (you'll have to ask)! Next stop is La Tomatina and we will say goodbye to our Spanish padres for now and make sure to find the opportunity for a visit in the future. 

We have less than one week left!!!! It is absolutely insane  to think that a week tomorrow I will be back at work (yikes!)... I need to go have a moment of silence, and perhaps one more glass of wine...

La vie est belle!

Ah, Mediterranean Europe...  Endless beaches filled with tourists, people playing paddle board, gelato stands, men in tiny speedos, bare-breasted women, and tans so dark you swear people here have been sunbathing for years, like its their full-time job.  Gotta love it! 

One of the many busy beaches we lied on in the French Riviera... La tee da!

Nice was the first city we hit on the French Riviera, and it oozes with posh Frenchies. It's like Kits beach on steroids, where all the well-to-do people go! The city itself has fairly narrow streets in the old town with bars, restaurants and ice cream parlors filling the squares in between.  It's a beautiful city, especially at night, to sit under an umbrella, sip on a glass of wine and watch people pass by for hours on end. 

Gorgeous winding mountain view drive on the way from Geneva to Nice! Tough on the stomach, but easy on the eyes!

One of the restaurant-lined streets in Nice

Chris and I stayed in this amazingly James-Bond style apartment building that literally hangs out over the mediterranean! We got the hook up from some friends and stayed in what used to be the maid's quarters (small room with bed and shower, etc) for free! Score!

The view from the rooftop of the place we stayed in Nice.  Doesn't get much more 'oceanfront' than that!

 The driving habits of the French (especially in the South) took some getting used to, to say the least! Particularly the parking habits.  We would be following the tricky GPS directions intently and then pull up behind a car at an intersection only to find that the owner of the car had thought it acceptable to park literally in the middle of the lane, sans hazard lights! On the other hand, some of the French drivers believe that having hazard lights enables the driver to park absolutely anywhere.  This includes but is not limited to parking in driveways, on sidewalks, and most commonly double parking for hours at a time on single lane streets! The roads are already enough of a maze without having to dodge cars every few minutes! We did however follow suit a couple of times, embracing the car culture for a quick pee break.  'When in Rome', right?  The other mind-boggling part of driving through Europe is trying to fit into the parking lots made to encourage every car-owner to drive either a Smartt car or a Mini.   Just to get past the gate we have to tuck in our wing mirrors and there is absolutely no room for error on either side of the car.  The streak marks on the cemented corridors show that not many vehicles make it out unscathed.  The American truck population would have trouble adapting to the parking conditions in Europe - trucks just don't exist! 

Some of the yachts in Monte Carlo

While we're on the subject, Chris and I went into Monaco to spend a few hours ogling the fancy cars and yachts in and around the famous casino.  You can just imagine how important those rich guys must feel having a constant stream of tourists standing next to the door of their Ferrari, pretending to be its owner. I swear they get together with their rich buddies and take bets on whose car will get the most photo ops of the day.  It's amazing how the principality of Monaco is so small that in order to house the overpopulous number of inhabitants, the buildings appear to be piled on top of each other with little room to breathe and limited green space.  We're not exactly the pompous type, but it's crazy to see the frivolity of people with ridiculous amounts of money!

Lookout over beautiful French coastline!

The Monte Carlo casino!

We then had some much needed beach time for a couple of days. Chris was pumped because he can float better in the Mediterranean than any other sea and it's way warmer too! Perfect! I was just happy to bask in the hot sun and read my book.  We checked out Antibes and another beach in between Nice and Monaco. It was hard work having to embrace the beach culture but hey, we're here to experience it all so we did our part!

Heading into August and being in the popular mediterranean Europe area, it became rather clear that couchsurfing would be a challenge from here forward.  We opened ourselves to the possibility of going to places that might be a bit more remote, but where we might meet people who are a bit less inundated with requests from other tourists and experience more rural areas in Europe for a change.  This is how we met Christine and Olivier, a middle-aged, kind, English-speaking, motorcycle-driving couple who live outside of Orange in a small town in Provence. We left the 'French Riviera' to hit up Provence.  Wow, both of those areas are do well known- we're stoked we got to check them both out! We stopped in Avignon just long enough to get a picture in front of the "Pont" (bridge).  I was pretty excited to be in the city that's home to the song "Sur le pont d'Avignon, l'on y danse..." etc.  You frenchies will know what I'm talking about! Then we continued on to Orange to meet our hosts!

 

The Pont D'Avignon

Lucky for us, there was a Medieval festival going on in Chateauneuf Du Pape (great French name!). The area is a well-known wine region, as are most areas in Southern France! We spent a solid five hours at the festival tasting wines, trying local specialties like nougat, sausage, cured meats and sweets, and checking out some of the events.  One of the best parts was the jousting Knight's competition, which reminded us of those people that re-enact medieval battles in their backyards as a hobby. These guys were in their element! We also heard a scottish band (?) playing in the old local church and had some wine from the barrels being carried through the village streets by a bunch of donkeys.  Olivier was in his glory, knowing many people from the village and going to the front of each food booth to ask for a taster for his 'Canadian' friends. It was pretty funny, as there were quite a few other tourists from other parts of France and the EU, but Olivier always seemed to get a taste of whatever it was he wanted us to try! Christine cooked up a giant feast for us when we got home later. It must've been a four-course meal, with prosciutto and melon, ratatouille and lamb, cheeses and then ice cream to boot! The French down here know how to eat! 

Chateau Neuf-Du-Pape, the beautiful little town known for it's wine worldwide!

Check out the barrels of wine on the donkey! We got free refills kindly poured for us - pretty kick ass!

Looking good, I'm so scared!

It's harder than it looks!

Carcassonne is a city that was recommended to us, so we headed to check out the area and be somewhere a little less touristy.  Considering it is in the middle of the high tourist season, other than Nice, Paris and Munich we have done well to avoid super massive crowds! We didn't really know what to expect of the area.  All we knew was that Carcassonne is where the "Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves" movie was filmed and when you see the old town surrounded by fortress walls you can see why they chose that location.  The medieval town is protected with 52 towers, making it Europe's largest city fortifications.  It also has a drawbridge and is set high up on the hill which makes for a good-looking postcard pic.  We tried to go into the castle, stood in a line of 50 people or so for a solid 20 minutes during which they processed maybe 3 groups of people. Apparently this was the norm, according to the ticket-ripper, so we decided to instead appreciate the castle from the outside and spend our saved time wandering around the narrow streets inside the rest of the fortress walls and swimming at a local lake. 

This may or may not be Carcassonne... I think it is another random castle we passed along the way!

 

This is definitely Carcassonne!

Normally in Vancouver if you go to a lake it is a pretty stock-standard event. It doesn't require description because what you do is generally typical and most of them are similar in layout. We have twice now been astounded by the lake culture in France. The first time we had to pay an entrance fee.  During this second occasion we followed Garmin's directions down what seemed like a footpath for a good 15kms only to reach the lake and be flagged down by a pimply-faced 'security' guard. He told us we actually couldn't go through that particular gate and that we would have to turn around and go all the way around to the other side of the gate. Then he walked in front of our car for a good kilometre while he 'led' us back where we came from, even though the only other possible route would be to drive through the actual lake itself.  So a good hour later we parked up on the other side of the lake at which point we were sweating and eager to jump into the water.  We swam around for literally all of five minutes before some policemen showed up and started announcing something on a loudspeaker. It was so muffled I couldn't decipher the french, but we started to notice that people were responding to whatever it was he said by getting out of the water. There were the same security guards, using their whistles very officially and ordering people to get out! We were baffled, but politely obeyed and returned to our towels, somewhat frustrated at this point that our original plan of having a quick swim had turned into an all-day affair! We waited about an hour for a man to ride around in a boat with what appeared to be probeware of some sort. Every now and again a little girl would wade in up to her knees to fill up her sand-castle bucket and get whistled at to get back onto dry land. I'm surprised the police didn't start giving out fines to whoever dared to venture too far back in! We though it was a less than opportune time to test water quality, but it was all lost in translation to us and quite amusing in any case!

The infamous lake

 

Our last night in France was spent with Ivan, who was doing an internship at a winery in the area.  We stayed in this old school-house that was part of the winery. He took us on a random, but unique tour of the area in the pitch black we checked out a place that is supposed to be an optical illusion - it's too hard to explain but in any case, it was memorable...
The next morning we checked out the area in daylight and our visit ended with doing a tasting led by Ivan in the actual winery. We can confidently say that this place was one of the coolest winery rooms we've ever seen! What a great way to say aurevoir to France! 

Before we hit up Barcelona we wanted one extra stamp on our passport - Andorra! We wound through the mountains of Andorra listening to the Ricky Gervais "Guide To...", an amusing series in which Ricky, Karl and Steve discuss various topics.  The premise is that Karl is a small-brained Englishman with inventive answers to questions of opinions on the environment, health care, the future, etc.  We should've stocked up on more podcasts and similar programs for our long drive back to Germany at the end of our trip! Anyway, Andorra ended up being really cool so we stayed for an extra night and did a hike up in the mountains. Chris decided to go on an epic hike around this lake, and I dipped my feet in the water on top of this mountain while listening to the mountain horses jangle their bells while grazing nearby. Andorra has a cool vibe because pretty much every single building looks like a ski lodge.  Probably a good thing considering the main draw for the country is snow sports!  The passport stamp was pretty cool too! 

A picnic at our empty campsite, enjoying some delicious wine of the region!

Overall impressions of Southern France didn't disappoint! If anything, they exceeded our expectations, especially with the awesome people we've met! Give us more!!! On to SPAIN!