The Grand Adventure is Drawing to a Close

Hi everyone,

At the moment I am in London and this time tomorrow I will be happily in my own bed, so you're looking at the last of my emails (yay!). I am looking forward to enjoying so many familiarities and comforts of home that I have been doing without for the past 33 days, including not-living-out-of-a-suitcase!!

So, we went to Spain. Dan, Tracy & I piled all our stuff into Dan's car and we took a road trip north. The border between Morocco & Spain is totally insane. These guys run up to your car and give you a border entry card, (and expect payment, of course), then you fill it out and have to park your car - right at the border - and go to a wicket to get the stamp. Then you go through about 4 or 5 passport checks and questions from men who sometimes look like they are buddy-down-the-street and are sometimes carrying guns. It's all chaos - people bud in line, yell over top of each other... and it was a Sunday when we went!

Anyways, we arrived in Ceuta/Sebta (Spanish/Arabic) and it was a lovely departure from our travels so far. Like being back in Europe. Tracy got us by with her Spanish skills (is there any language she doesn't speak?? apparently she hasn't been formally trained in either Pig Latin or Arabic) and we had an awesome time, soaking up the atmosphere. We walked around town, ate ice cream, took photos, soaked our feet in the Mediterranean and went to a pizzeria for dinner.

Ok, so we're at the Pizzeria and the server asks if we want to share a Caeser salad to start, and we agree. Let me tell you what was in the salad. No, wait, let me tell you what wasn't in the salad: the kitchen sink! It had lettuce, tomato, corn, artichokes, rice, olives, carrots, cucumbers, palm hearts, tuna, beets... and more. We're not kidding. And strange thing is, it was pretty good! But it ain't no Ceasar salad!!

The next day (Monday), we got up early and drove back to Rabat. Dan only tried to kill us a couple of times by looking somewhere else other than the road, but little does he know how hearty we are from weeks of crossing the street in Egypt! So, we made it all the way to the train station unscathed. Sad goodbye to Dan who was a very generous host - thanks Dan!!

Arriving in Marrakech, we checked in to our Riad and two young guys seemed to be running the place. They amused themselves greatly by continually quoting us ridiculous times for things - i.e. 4 hours to get to the airport, 3 hour walk to get to the main square, etc. However they were really friendly and helpful once they had their laugh. The Riad was very nice, as well. My only complaint is that there was no door on the bathroom (just a curtain), and you don't realize how important that is until you don't have one! Yeesh.

We walked to the main square which was called Jemaa El Fna, and it was crazy there at night! So alive with kiosks selling orange juice, crowds of people around storytellers, food stands, henna tattoo artists, kids trying to sell you tissue, and shopping shopping shopping. Marrakech is the Moroccan city most like Egypt in that people hassled us the most here out of any place in Morocco.

Tracy had another henna done on her hand and we decided to walk back to our Riad. Then, I was rudely welcomed to Marrkech by having a tomato thrown at me!! I was shocked and dismayed; I certainly do love my vegetables, but not when used in an unfriendly projectile sort of manner. There were Arabic guys walking on the street towards us and they were really shocked too, apologizing and making sure all was ok. I was pretty upset - but we wrote it off to random kids driving by and being idiots. Everybody else in Morocco has been so nice, it was such a shame, really. Washed out my clothes when I got back to the Riad.

The next day we took Marrakesh by storm and we spent time again at Jemaa El Fna (saw snake-charmers!), the Tombeaux, Marjorelle Gardens (an oasis in the middle of the insanity; we loved it), Palace ruins, Marrakech Museum, Ben Youssef and some famous monument thingy that we don't even know what it was - but was neat anyways.

Totally strange coincidence - while at the Museum we ran into 2 people that were staying at our Dar in Fes! Really specific places to be running into each other. Almost creepy... :) And then at the airport later we ran into more people that were staying at that Dar in Fes! What a small, small world. There were only 3 people at the Dar that we didn't see in a different Moroccan city (the strange English/French family that kepy insulting Tracy... maybe it was good that we didn't run in to them).

Our last Moroccan meal was delicious; cucumber soup, Moroccan chicken curry, vegetable pastry and poached pear & ice cream for dessert. We will definitely miss the food! Our last night in Morocco was a little annoying because there was really loud music going on at some neighbouring building - and it went on all-night-long!! Seriously, it was still going when we woke up this morning at 5:45am.

So, we flew to London. We had a proper English meal of fish n' chips and we stocked up on snacks and whatnot for travels ahead. I fly home tomorrow and Tracy has a few more days in the UK before she's back in the GVRD.

Here's some random thoughts:
- we've tried 4 types of Fanta: apple, orange, black current & lemon.
- the Moroccans eat their french fries with dijon mustard; Tracy has now converted.
- we saw several instances of Moroccans hitting their children out in public. Hard. :(
- shoving clothes into your bag willy-nilly makes them really wrinkled, but sweating de-wrinkle-fies anything pretty quick.
- there was regularly no shower curtain and you need a certain amount of skill to not get the bathroom floor flooded.
- I have eaten more pizza and drank more pop on this trip than any other one food/drink.
- there's no row 13 in airplanes? Like elevators I guess. I mean, who wants to sit in row 13 in a flying tin can?
- my Canada flag keychain was stolen off my suitcase. It would have been very difficult to remove. My carabeener clips got stolen off my luggage, but they would have been easy.
- a bunch of songs I paid for through iTunes, about 30 of them, still 'play' on my iPhone but with no sound. I have restarted the phone but to no avail. Strange! They were definitely working before, and went blank about halfway through my trip. Anyone know why?
- I have played inordinate amounts of cribbage on my iPhone and am now convinced that I am a better player. Anyone wanna take me on?
- if I were to do Morocco again, I would do Marrakech first, then Fes, then end with Dan in Rabat because it was so nice to have some real relaxing time without a crazy agenda.
- how do pilots know, when they are flying right IN the clouds, that there isn't another airplane in there coming the other way?? Karl??

Thanks all of you for reading these emails (or, well, for receiving them anyways!). Typing out my experiences is much faster than writing them all down and they are often things I want to remember too. Hopefully you've gotten a giggle or some helpful info out of them at one point or another. I'll send links to photos sometime in the next few weeks.

If you are in the GVRD, look me up before I go back to work on Sep 8th! If not, I hope we can get together sometime soon for a visit. Take care, and be good.

Cheers,
Elaan