Berlin and Prague

This may have been my favorite part of this semester thus far...next weekend is Paris so we'll have to see if it stays that way. Let me just start by listing all of our mode of transportation that we used...

4/22 Bus from Granada to Sevilla, plane from Sevilla to Frankfurt-Hahn

4/23 Plane from Frankfurt to Berlin

4/24 Bus from Berlin to Prague

4/26 Bus from Prague to Nürnberg, Train from Nürnberg to Frankfurt, Bus from Frankfurt to Frankfurt-Hahn, Plane from Frankfurt-Hahn to Madrid, Bus from Madrid to Granada

Whew...that last day was unbelievably long. BUT it was definitely worth it. Berlin was so cool, the entire city was either old and crumbling or brand new. Most things were rebuilt after the fall of the wall and obviously WWII destroyed most of the city. We got to our really nice hostel at 8am and couldn't check in until 3pm so we went on a 3 1/2 hour walking tour with this company that gives really awesome free tours. We pretty much got to see everything on a small budget and tight time. It worked out perfectly. Once we got back to our hostel we crashed for a couple of hours and caught up on some much needed sleep. That night we went out for dinner and german beer and then took the U-Bahn to the far east side and saw the East Side Gallery. I liked that a lot, the art is really well preserved and the quotes and paintings are really meaningful. The next day we checked out and wandered the city a little until we had to catch our bus.

The bus was headed for Sofia, Bulgaria and we had 3 crazy eastern european bus drivers. I did not understand a single word of what was going on. The only thing was that the Bulgarians were yelling "Nein" at us in german because they thought we were trying to steal their seats. It was ridiculous.

We got to Prague around 11pm(45 minutes late) and went back to Halley's apartment. We got wine and headed to a club by the Charles Bridge. We ended up staying their until after the sun came up and walking back the city was so pretty and quiet. I got some nice pictures because the morning light was really beautiful. I slept until 11 and then we headed out to tour Prague. We wanted to do the same walking tour that they had in Berlin but we didn't make it their in time. So we saw it on our own and then Halley brought me to some other places that I hadn't seen. It was definitely a gorgeous city. The next morning we got up at 5:30 and headed out for the long travel day and finally arrived in Granada 24 hours later! I can't believe I was in Prague just yesterday!

It's good to be back and relax a little but not much since we are leaving for Paris on Thursday night! Only 23 more days till I am back in the states....nuts.

Marruecos...mmmaamama Afrika

Morocco...hmm what can I say to describe it? Interesting most definitely, unlike anything I have ever seen. Lots of traveling. They weren't kidding with the whole 50-60 hours on a bus thing. We left at 3:30am on Friday to head to Algeciras which is where the ferry takes you across to Africa. Then we got on a bus and drove to Fes. We didn't get there till just about dinner time so it was a pretty low key day/night. The following morning we woke up early for our adventure to the Medina. Never have I ever felt like it was possible to time traveled until now. It was like you crossed the street into the walled in market place(biggest in the world I think) and went back to the 11th century. I don't think it has changed much since then. Little shops, artisans, blacksmiths, pottery places, old family businesses line every tiny, winding street. The smells were really something else and it hit me like a ton a bricks when we passed the fish market, I won't even go into what the leather tannery smelled like. Everything is done completely by hand and by man power. No cars, just donkeys to transport whatever you need. We spent most of the day there and stopped at a pottery place on the way back.

The next morning we woke up even earlier for our journy 10-12 hours south to Erfoud and then the Sahara. The bus ride was long and hot. We stopped at the Ziz oasis for lunch. The brown landscape all of a sudden opens up into a canyon filled with green palm trees, birds and a river. Just like in the movies. This was about an hour away from Erfoud(which is as far as you can go on a real road.) Where the Sidewalk Ends. From here we got into 4x4 jeeps and drove 45 minutes into the dunes. Arriving just at dusk was perfect, we were able to see the landscape but it was kind of muted so the morning would be even more surprising.

That night we went to sleep in haimas, desert tents made from branches and black fabric. We had mats placed directly on the sand with a couple blankets for warmth. We woke up at 5 to watch the sunrise, not exactly the Lion King moment I was expecting but still amazing. It just all of a sudden appeared over the massive dunes and moved so quickly up into the sky. Dark to light in less than 1 minute. And cold to HOT in about the same. The heat was incredible for being March, kind of stays hazy all day and the sun just beats down. We walked back to our camp site for breakfast and the camel ride.

Caitlin and I had an ancient, rabid camel named Bob Marley. He grunted and foamed at the mouth the whole time. And I really though he might collapse into the sand. Probably one of poor Bob's last dune adventures...lucky for him he got to share it with us. We rode to the Great Dune and hiked up to see all across the desert, all the way to Algeria. Which was only about 50km from us. Then we rode to a desert pueblo, saw the poverty and extreme living situations, so eye-opening. The kids were heartbreaking. All except this one named Amid were so sweet and cute. It's just incredible how kids can still be happy and smiling when they have nothing. Nothing except the Sahara Desert as their playground.

We walked back to our camp from there in a sandstorm. *Note: haimas do not offer any protection from blowing sand. Our stuff was covered in red sand, in our bags, all our clothes, toothbrushes, bed, everything. We spent the afternoon in the big tent playing cards. We had a concert of typical saharan music during dinner. That night right before bed Caitlin discovered a giant sand colored spider in her bed, it also moved at the speed of light so getting rid of it was a bit of a process. Other than that though I didn't have too many bug issues.

In the morning we got up for our bus ride back to Meknes, where we spent the night before continuing back to Granada. Overall it was a great experience and I definitely want to see more places like it.

The next couple days of break we just kind of lounged around Granada, got a sun burn, watched a few processions etc. It was simple and relaxing.