Amazing Croatia!

Croatia. Oh Croatia. I was so excited for this part of the trip! After Morocco and Eastern Europe, which were so fast paced and tiring, I thought it would be nice to have some time of complete relaxation. What better way to accomplish this than to spend a week sailing around Croatia. I boarded a boat with my 35 new best friends and off we sailed. Our boat was called the Labrador and it looked a bit like an old pirate ship. There were 3 levels of cabins and lots of places for lying down and getting some sun or just relaxing with your book. Here is a shot of our beautiful boat.

Every morning started with a breakfast, which I generally skipped in order to sleep more. I finally woke up when we had our first swimming stop at 10:30 – I know, tough life! Each day we had one or two swimming stops, where we would jump off the side of the boat and just float around for a while. The water was so salty that you didn’t really have to do anything to float – maybe kick your legs once in a while, but otherwise it was the most relaxing time of the day. It was also the only way to cool down sometimes – of course Croatia was having the biggest heat wave of the summer, so it was impossible to beat the heat in any other way. I would just float for hours, it was so nice!

Each afternoon we would dock at a port city and go in for a quick wander. Some of the cities were tiny and consisted of nothing more than a couple shops and a winery, while others like Dubrovnik where large with lots of things to do. I really enjoyed our day in Dubrovnik – we kayaked out to an island and went snorkeling. The kayaking was really hard work, but at least my friend CJ and I succeeded, unlike some of the other pairs! We also spent the afternoon walking around the city walls. They encompass the entire old city and you can walk around the whole city like that. It was absolutely beautiful and I took so many pictures, I would be embarrassed to post them all!

In the evenings we would generally have a nice dinner then we had the option to go to a cool bar or club. I was a bit surprised by the food there – it’s all Italian! Pizza, pasta, gelato, you name it! I guess the Italy is just across the water and the ruled Croatia for hundreds of years, but it still surprised me. Croatia had some of the coolest bars I’ve ever been to – one of them was on its own island, where you had to take a boat out to the island and there was absolutely nothing else out there. You could wander down to the beach or sit in the trees, it was so cool! In Dubrovnik we went to a bar that was built between the city walls. It was really narrow, but felt very old and unique. On our final night we went to a club that was inside a cave! It was built back into the mountain and it was really loud and the music bounced off the walls – so fun! I was quite impressed with the nightlife in Croatia.

All in all, I really loved Croatia. I think going by boat is the best way to see the country, because you can see many islands in a short period of time without spending a lot of time traveling. Even though I’ve never been so hot for so long, a long dip in the water seemed to be the cure for everything. I would highly recommend that everyone visit the beautiful, historical country of Croatia!

You know it's going to be a bad day when....

I posted a blog entry before about some interesting things that have happened, and I decided it was about time for another of those posts. Hope you enjoy!

My camera
When I was in Morocco, we spent a day visiting the Sahara Desert. Our guide told us to be careful and not drop our cameras in the sand. What he didn’t tell us that we might be caught in a sand storm! Seriously, there was sand whipping everywhere and we had to cover our nose and mouth with our scarves to be able to breathe without taking in a huge mouthful of sand. I’ve never been in anything like that.

When we got back to camp the 11 of us pulled out our cameras and about 8 of them sounded horrible. There was grinding when you zoomed in or out, and some wouldn’t even turn on. After 20 minutes of hitting the side of the camera and trying to blow the sand out with puffs of air, my camera was back in action. I thought I had gotten away with a lucky warning. My camera was working great, minus the grinding when I zoomed. Imagine my surprise when 2 full weeks later, an error message was displayed on my screen. It wouldn't focus, I couldn't take any pictures, it had completely given up. Shoot, guess I didn’t get lucky after all. At least my awesome mom has promised to bring me a new camera when she arrives next week!

The roommate
I know, I posted about a roommate before. However, it seems like there is a large supply of oddball roommates out there! This is the story of my friend Ceri from Scotland and her crazy roommate from New Zealand (we’ll call her the Kiwi). So one night early in the trip Ceri is relaxing in her room before dinner. She starts hearing sounds coming from the bathroom, It’s not what you would normally expect – she hears talking. She hears “Should I wear this shirt tonight?” “No, I think you should wear the purple one. It makes your eyes look better.” “But this green one looks really cute with my jeans.” “Well, I guess do what you want to, but the purple one really is the best choice.” Who on earth is in the bathroom together? Why are there multiple people in her bathroom? Imagine her surprise when just the Kiwi walks out. Now I know we all talk to ourselves from time to time, but usually it’s inside your head and it’s not usually two different voices!

A couple days later we were heading to Auschwitz-Birkenau. Obviously it was going to be a very sad and somber day so everyone was pretty quiet all morning. Ceri was chatting with her roommate and asked how she was feeling. The Kiwi responds with “I’m fine. I don’t see why everyone is making such a big deal out of this. I don’t think the Holocaust even happened, it is all a big lie.” Seriously? SERIOUSLY? I don’t understand how there are still people who believe things like this. Can you imagine sharing a room with someone who is so crazy and ignorant for 2 weeks? Poor Ceri.

Breakfast and my feet
When I was in Casablanca, I stayed in a super fancy American hotel. I felt safe in a city that is really big and loud and fast paced. When I’m with a tour group I’m fine staying in the middle of a big city in a shady area, but when I’m on my own I like to be in a safer, more anonymous place where I can have all my meals if I’m feeling uncomfortable. My first day there I went up to the club room to have breakfast. It was near the end of breakfast time and a couple of business men where there. I grabbed some food and sat down. The guy who worked there came over a minute later and asked if I wanted any coffee. He complimented the Columbine tattoo on my foot and walked off.

He was back in a minute with my coffee and he asked to see my tattoo again. I showed it to him and suddenly he’s taking his towel and rubbing my toes, like he’s trying to get the dirt off! Unfortunately it’s not dirt, it’s just a super sweet tan line. I was starting to get a little embarrassed by my feet….I mean, how hot is this flip flop tan line?

He gets a frown on his face and asks to see the bottom of my foot. I turn it over, but realize this is starting to get a little weird. He sees the bottom, then leans in to sniff them! WTF!!!! Why is this dude sniffing my foot! He works here, he’s supposed to be safe! After the odd sniff, he walks away.

At this point I start looking around the room and realize everyone else has left. It’s just me and the hotel employee/creepster. I’m starting to think it’s time to head out so I start to fold my newspaper and finish my coffee. 15 seconds later, he’s back again. One of my feet was up on the coffee table so he bends over and touches the toes. Then he asks in his broken English/French combination if he can kiss them. Excuse me, WHAT? I must have heard this wrong, so I ask him to repeat in my broken French/English combination. Oh no, clearly he is asking if he can kiss my feet!! There was a lot of fumbling around as I threw the newspaper down, muttered something about meeting my mom, gestured towards my watch and RAN! Needless to say, I didn’t eat breakfast the next day!

Europe. Contiki. Need I say more?

I am so excited to be back in Europe! I absolutely love it here – if it was easier to get a visa, I swear I would move here. Everything is so beautiful and ornate, even buildings like the post office are just so intricately designed. It’s not like at home where all the buildings are put up as quickly and cheaply as possible – there’s so much character! I’ve also enjoyed it from a food perspective. Morocco had absolutely no variety in food but Europe has everything – in the last week I’ve had Italian, Thai, Mexican and I’ve got my eye on a sushi restaurant. Oh, and I’ve had Eastern European of course (think schnitzel, goulash and strudel). Food is such a huge part of the travel experience – I can eat Chinese food at home but it’s so different the food they actual serve in China. Thinking about all this food sure has made me hungry!

I’ve already seen much of Europe so I wanted to do something I had not yet visited before, so I chose Eastern Europe. We are visiting Germany, Czech, Austria, Hungary, Slovakia and Poland in just under 2 weeks. It’s so fast paced but I love it. It's been so interesting to learn so much about both Communism and WWII. It's also different to be in a part of Europe that is dominated by Jewish quarters - I'm so used to everything being Catholic, it's a new dynamic for me. I was fascinated to learn about the Berlin wall and everything the people went through - it is so sad to think that they suffered for so long. What remains of the wall now does have some cool art work covering it.

I had already been to Vienna and Budapest so I was most excited for the other cities. Imagine my surprise that my favorite city so far was Budapest! I feel like I breezed through it so fast last time that we didn’t really get to enjoy it much. This time, we had quite a bit of free time so I was able to enjoy it at my own pace. I went with one of the girls in the tour and we just got lost. I love doing that – just going for a wander, not looking at the map, stopping for a coffee or a gelato, then trying to figure our way back home. That’s exactly what we did yesterday – did a little bit of shopping, had some food, sent some postcards and just relaxed. I loved the laid back feeling of Budapest, I could really see myself living somewhere like that. The best part of the day was in the afternoon I found my way to a movie theater and finally saw Harry Potter! I know, I know, it’s been out for ages, but I haven’t had the opportunity to go to a movie. This one was actually in English with Hungarian subtitles, so I’m pretty sure I’m fluent in Hungarian now as well! It was such a good movie but I was a little sad for the end of the Harry Potter era. I also missed seeing it with my sisters….it was sad to go without them! (Love and miss you girls!)

Of course, since this is Contiki there are also lots of late nights and early mornings. Some people hate on Contiki because it is for people 18 – 35, it’s a large bus with 50 people and there is lots of drinking and wild nights that happen. However, I really enjoy the Contiki type travel. I wouldn’t want to do it all the time, but it’s nice to be with people who are your own age and everyone is outgoing and nice. You get to know so many people in such a short period of time, and it’s like you’ve known them for years. It’s so much fun to go out dancing in Prague or go to a beer festival in Berlin, then you have a 5 hour bus ride the next day where there is nothing to do but sleep. I’ve got enough serious times on the trip, like hiking on Everest,  that I love having a variety as I see the world. I love Contiki and the people on my tour are so much fun!

Since this is the Europe section, I’ll leave you with the two most common tourist places here – a castle and a church. Enjoy!

Camels and Headscarves

I will start of by saying I really, really enjoyed my time in the south part of Morocco. After my time in the north, I was pretty unhappy and very worried about staying here for 2 more weeks. I didn’t really enjoy that part – it was all about seeing big cities, food problems and shopping – I know, be surprised! The problem here is that I have no room to carry things, so my love of shopping has been stinted. The only thing I bought was the rug, because they offered to ship it home for me. However, the south was completely different. We were able to get off the beaten path and see some really incredible little towns and we had some opportunities to do very different things. In addition, I was able to take some time and learn more about the culture of Morocco, which made me think a lot so much about my life verses theirs.

First, the cool stuff that we did. When we were in the northern part of Morocco we took trains and public buses everywhere, but in the southern part the transportation is not reliable, so we had a private mini bus. We visited so many out of the way places – we went to the High Atlas Mountains, the Sahara, the Mid Atlas mountains and spent a couple days on the beach. My favorite day, by far, was the day we went to see the Sahara. We had quite a long day on the bus to get there. We had a stop in the afternoon where we all bought head scarves and learned how to tie them. See, it’s not just me!

For a long time I thought that the scarf across the bottom of your face was only a religious thing, but I learned today that it is a necessity as well. When you are in the middle of the desert and the wind is whipping the sand everywhere, the last thing you want to do is take a swift mouthful of sand. The scarf in front of your face prevents this, the same way your sunglasses are imperative to protect your eyes. Once we were bundled up correctly, we all got on our camels. If you’ve never ridden a camel before, I will tell you it’s not as easy as it looks! They put a bunch of padding on a try really hard, but there is just no way to avoid that hump! You either have to sit super far forward and hit the handle ever time your camel walks, or you sit really far back and don’t hold on to anything – scary! This is a picture of my lovely camel and me…

After our camel ride we rode 4x4s out into the middle of the dunes. There wasn’t another soul around – there were just miles and miles of desert. It was soooo hot and windy and completely inhospitable, you realize there is no way people could live out here. And yet, people do. I have no idea how they do it, with nothing around you except the sand. People used to cross these deserts on camels with their whole nomad families, walking for 52 days at a time (there were signs everywhere that told you how many days to Timbuktu). How did they survive those journeys? What did they eat and drink? How did they stay safe from others they encountered? (we were only 35k from the border of Algeria, which freaked me out!) Even with all these thoughts rolling around in my head, I managed to admire the beautiful barrenness of the desert around me.

Besides our amazing day in the desert, we also saw some other crazy stuff. In one small area here, they actually have goats that climb trees. Don’t believe me? Here is a picture of a goat standing in a tree, eating nuts like this is nothing out of the ordinary!

We also got to spend a day touring Mollywood. What is Mollywood, you ask? Well, it’s Moroccan Hollywood, of course! I didn’t realize it before, but a fair number of movies are made in Morocco every year. It’s a lot of movies that take place in hot and dry places, for example Egypt, ancient Rome or the desert anywhere. The most famous two that they mentioned a lot were Gladiator and Kingdom of Heaven. We got to spend the day walking around the large backdrops, putting ourselves in those scenes. If you didn’t know better, you might think I had actually gone to Egypt!

In addition to the fun places we visited, I had the opportunity to live in a world so far from my own. Being in Morocco has transported me to a culture completely foreign to me, one that has made me think about how my world compares to theirs. On the surface the differences are easy to see – the women here wear jilabas (the dress/robe) and some wear burhkas (the face covering), the call to prayer rings out over the city 5 times every day, and 99% of the people you see walking around or working are men. I’ve thought a lot about why they live the way they do – is it a choice each person makes or is it something forced on them by another member of their family? How is it possible that so many people live in such poverty? Why doesn’t their government help them more? Are they happy?

There are so many questions that I can’t answer. Maybe they are quite happy living in a world where less is more. Do we really all need cell phones and computers and high definition tvs and two cars to be content? We’re so used to being in a world that is go, go, go, but would it really be so bad to slow down for a while? One of the girls in my group, Lizzie, kept saying that she wanted to leave her normal life and join a nomadic family. They just move around all the time, seeing new places and not putting down roots. This is okay for them though, because the most important thing in their world is the people around them. I’m not quite ready to join the nomad tribe yet, but I think it’s good from time to time to slow down and take inventory of what is most important in our lives.

When you go into a city in Morocco, there are 5 main things you will find in all of them: a school, a bakery, a hammam (bath), a souk (shops) and a medina (old city). When I first arrived I took this to be how it is in some of the small cities, but assumed it wasn’t that way in a large city like Casablanca. However, yesterday I was wandering on my own and happened to come across a poor area of town. The time was about 7pm, and the sun goes down at 7:35, so everyone was preparing to break their fast for Ramadan. I smelled the incredible smell of baking bread, and started to see families walking by with a pie, or three loaves of bread, or an entire cake, still in its pan. I realized that they were all coming out of one door, and that’s when it hit me – this was still the bakery for the entire community. The people are so poor that they do not have electricity or hot water or an oven – they prepare their creations in their own home, but do not have the means to bake them. They have to take them in their pans to the local oven and have them baked there. To see this happening still in a large, urban town like Casablanca really puts things in perspective. After all, how often do you see the guy below just wandering through the streets of a major city?