Around the World...and then some

2 Continents, 3 Countries, 15 Days

WARNING: This post promises to be quite long. I apologize in advance. But I have just had quite possibly the best vacation of my life, so it most definitely deserves one gigantic post.


On Thursday afternoon, April 12th, I finished classes for the semester. Yes, that's right. I am officially done with classes for my junior year of college. I still have finals to take, but please, unimportant (oh, how i wish). So the very next day, Friday the 13th, I left for Marrakech, Morocco. I was meeting up with Kyle, who is studying in Fes (in Morocco) for the semester, Kristen and Dan LoPotro, who are studying in Paris, and Kristen's high school friend Liza, who is studying in Salamanca. I got there pretty late on Friday - everyone else had already arrived - but we spent that evening and the next day just wandering around the main square of Marrakech, called Jemaa al Fna. The best way to describe Jemaa al Fna is just colorful. There are orange juice vendors and carts full of bright spices and men charming snakes and women asking everyone they see if they want a henna design on their hand. But the best part is walking back behind the square to all the souks, where they make and sell shoes, pots, jewelery, scarves, rugs and many other things. I felt like we could wander back in these little alleyways for hours, just looking at everything. And for a day or two, that's exactly what we did. We had fun as well bargaining with the shopkeepers as they tried to rip us off basically just because we were white. Our French very much came in handy here, though, as we were able to communicate with them perfectly, and Dan even convinced a number of people he was Belgian (or they just said ok and couldn't have cared less...we weren't sure). But we bought many a souvenir back in the souks, which is going to be quite fun back in the states.

One day we decided we wanted to go to Essaouira, a small coastal town about 2 hours from Marrakech. With Kyle guiding us, we were able to rent out a Grand Taxi. The Grand Taxis, as opposed to the Petit Taxis, usually go far distances and can hold 6 people - 4 in the back, and 2 in the front seat. We just payed for 6 seats, and at least Dan got to be somewhat comfortable alone in the front seat. But as we started driving, our driver suggested that we go to the mountains today and Essaouira tomorrow, as the king was supposedly driving through and we could get stopped on the road for around 2 hours. We thought he just wanted our money for two days, and besides, we wanted to see the beach, so we told him we wanted to go anyway. But sure enough, in this tiny Moroccan town, just over an hour from Marrakech, we were stopped and told we couldn't drive further until the king came through. It seemed that everyone in the town had turned out to see the king. They were all lining the street, and Moroccan flags were hung everywhere, along with other decorations. We waited for around two hours, when finally everyone started cheering and clapping, and we suddenly see this big black car, with the one and only KING OF MOROCCO standing up through the sun roof, waving both his hands. See my pictures if you don't believe me. Anyway, after that, we got back in the taxi and drove to Essaouira, where we only had a few hours at this point, but we pretty much decided it was worth it because we did, after all, see the king.

Another bit of an adventure occurred on our very last day in Morocco. We decided to go up to the mountains to do a bit of hiking. Dan decided he wanted a quiet day by himself, and Liza had already left to return to Salamanca, so it was just Kristen, Kyle and me. We took a Grand Taxi again to a town in the mountains called Setti Fatma. It turned out that this day, of course, was the only cloudy and not very warm day we had the entire time we were in Morocco. It even started raining as we drove up the mountains, but had stopped by the time we arrived, and we could only hope it'd stay that way. We decided to get a guide to lead us up the mountain, which it turned out was a very good idea because there were no trail markings, or really no trail at all. In fact, the whole thing turned out to be much more than the fun little hike we were expecting. We realized this after passing by the first waterfall (there were 7 overall) and being forced to literally scale about 10 feet of very, very steep rock. From there to the sixth waterfall wasn't too bad, although definitely more rigorous than we had been expecting. It was the trek from the sixth to the seventh waterfall, however, that really got us. Suddenly we were climbing over rocks, jumping across streams and rivers, and wading through marshy grass. It had begun to rain again at this point as well, which just made it that much more exciting. At the seventh waterfall, we again had to scale about 8 feet of rock, however, this rock was quite wet and slippery and had very little hand or feet holds. After falling up to my knees in the river below, and basically being pulled up by our guide (who was, we later found out, only 16), we made it to the top of the waterfall. Getting back down, however, was just as fun, as Kristen literally slid on her butt down the rock, falling onto her hands and knees in the river below. By this point, we were literally soaking wet and freezing cold, and just as the hail/slush began to fall, we slowly made our way back down the mountain. In the end, it was one of the most insane experiences of my life, but it was totally worth it and, looking back, a lot of fun. Even if that's not quite what I was thinking as it was happening...

From there, Dan went back to Paris, Kyle to Fes, and Kristen and I continued on to Venice. Now, seeing as I have been wanting to go to Italy pretty much since I was 4 years old and dubbed the pasta queen, it had quite the expectations to live up to. And I must say, it didn't do too bad a job. Venice was beautiful. We were only there for one night and not even two days, but we spent most of our time just wandering and getting lost in all the little streets and around the canals. I definitely recommend going up the bell tower in St. Mark's Plaza, as the view was absolutely gorgeous. Venice is an island, in case you weren't aware, because we certainly weren't until we looked at the map that first day. But I really enjoyed having only two choices of transportation - by foot or by boat - and overall was really impressed with the city.

Kristen and I then took a train to Ferrara, where we met up with Adam and Kevin, who are studying there. Ferrara was a very cute little town, and reminded me a bit of Poitiers, although mainly just in size. We did a lot of just hanging out with the boys, and a lot of pizza, pasta and gelato eating of course. From Ferrara, we took a day trip to Florence one day and to Bologna another. Florence was beautiful, but as we were there for really only an afternoon, I'd really like to go back someday. Look at my pictures, though, because we went to this old fort on the edge of the city with the most beautiful view I've maybe ever seen ever. The hills of Tuscany are absolutely worth all the fuss they get. It was gorgeous. Bologna was a nice town, although not too exciting, but definitely home to some of the best gelato ever. We actually spent most of our time there searching for a physics museum that we then found out had been closed for years (yes, I was quite disappointed). I'd have to say, though, that other than the pasta of course, the best part of Italy was just hanging out with Kevin and Adam because it was so good to see them.

I flew back through Marseille, and stopped over in Nice, where the Mediterranean was blue and clear and unbelieveable. The rock beaches, however, were not quite as impressive, and I'm pretty sure I prefer sand. But now I'm back in Poitiers, supposedly studying for exams, and getting ready to go in *gasp* TWO WEEKS! It's kind of hard to believe that it's all almost over already. And not to mention that I'll soon be going back to the states, and staying there for an indefinite amount of time. But that's for another post... this one has gone on long enough. So, in conclusion, Morocco = quite cool, Italy = fabulous pasta, as expected, and Nice = perfectly gorgeous. I'd say it was a successful two weeks.

posted by Becky @ 11:22 AM