Smitten

A shot list of things I love about England:

- the candy. 

- free museums - usually good enough to be worth a few quid anyway!

- bathrooms with fans in them. 

- the candy. 

- Netflix. Sweet, sweet Netflix. 

- being approached by random people to receive free tickets to a show worth £40. 

- the candy. 

- tea. And scones. And sandwiches. But mostly tea. 

- crisps in flavours I would never have imagined but which are delicious nonetheless. (Smoked paprika, I'm looking at you.)

- the candy. 

WTF Barcelona?

I've been looking forward to this post for a while... Barcelona had some spectacular WTF moments. 

- the Barcelona metro's sound for "arriving at a station" sounds a lot like some of the notes in "Leaving Earth" from the Mass Effect 3 soundtrack. I was near tears often on the Barcelona metro. 

- in Spain, when you are waiting for service at a train station, there appears to be a law stating that for every two people in line, there must be at least one staff member standing about gossiping. If there are 20 or more people waiting, it's time for the siesta and all of the staff will leave. They will eventually come back. Sometimes the next day.  You will wait a long, long time for service at the train station in Spain. 

- that said, in spite of being very slow, and not speaking any English (while my Spanish is limited to about 20 words, four of which have to do with eating and two of which are about wine), once you do eventually get to the window, people will try very, very hard to help you, spending a long time on your claim and generally bending over backwards to be of assistance. So while we waited forever, eventually someone would help us and be incredibly good to us, not to mention tolerant of said broken Spanish when they did so. 

- on our last day, wandering around a park on our way to the museum of modern art, a buff gentleman asked us the time. Jesse told him, he thanked us, then whistled to a man across the street. Then he crouched down, and hid behind some bushes. He whistled to his partner again, moved forward a few feet, crouched down once more. This went on for a good minute, and I still have no idea what he was doing. 

Barcelona: the Quick Version

I'm like a week behind on posts now, so I realized I should probably just give a quick oversight of Barcelona, and maybe return to write a longer post about it later if I get the chance. Barcelona was wonderful, but thanks to a series of issues (like problems with the train, as mentioned, getting sick, and absolutely hating the first hostel we stayed in) I was just not in the right headspace to have a good time there. I liked it more and more as time went by, helped massively by changing hostels to one of the best places I've ever stayed, but I think my experience in the first couple of days has skewed my perspective badly, and I might not be able to look back fondly just yet. Still, we had a nice time and there were a lot of cool things to see, do, and most importantly, eat. 

We were kind of bad tourists in Barcelona; between my bad mood and sickness, Jesse's sickness just before he left, and making two extra trips to the train station, there was a lot we didn't get to see or do there. What we did get out to was great though!

Also it was gross out. Windy and warm and painfully humid. It really makes the views of the city grey and bleak. 

Glimpses of Gaudian architecture in the park. 

La Sagrada Familia, which is unbelievably gorgeous and awesome. Not in the overused, "cool" sense, but in the sense that it literally inspired awe. 

I'd have to say its the most beautiful church I've ever been in. 

Massive, and still under construction. 

View from the top.  

Also fruit on top of the spires. 

A spiral staircase that just went on forever... Long enough to give both of us vertigo and terrify me at least a little. 

On a brighter day, the city is much prettier. 

And fountains abound!

The modern art museum and gorgeous fountain leading up to it... So many people around though!

So Barcelona was pretty, but exhausting... It's nice to be in London, where I can relax a little and hopefully avoid any additional serious travel miscommunications!

Paris, je t'aime

I do. I really, really do. Paris has long been one of my favourite places, and revisiting it for a few days didn't do anything to diminish my love for the city. It might also have had something to do with mostly being left alone by locals, being able to fully speak the language, and never needing to pay someone for toilet paper, too. Getting to and from Paris was a complete nightmare, but I have chosen to interpret that as being indicative of the fact that I should probably never leave Paris again. 

After an extremely long day of airports, we got in to Paris at dinner time and set off right away for Montmartre. Dinner was spectacular (at least in part due to the fact that I hadn't really eaten anything in three days, but still), and Montmartre is as beautiful as I remember. 

€15, for a huge, delicious plate of food!

Sacred Heart, surrounded by dudes with blankets covered with counterfeit merchandise. 

The view from Sacre Coeur. 

That was about all we could manage for that night - we'd been up since 3.30! - so it was back to the hotel for us. In the morning, we got up at a semi-normal time (aka not 3.30) and headed out for the day. We stopped by a bakery a block from the hotel to gather delicious sandwiches, then took the metro to the Musee d'Orsay. Which was totally interesting and cool and not boring or weird and kind of freaky at all. Totally. 

Okay, one part - a temporary Goya exhibition called l'ange du bizarre - was a little weird and creepy. The rest of it was interesting though, and there were a lot of beautiful paintings I was not allowed to photograph and that have all run together in my mind. I did especially like a few of the Renoirs, though, and there were a lot of sculptures I found quite nice. Also, the whole museum is housed in an old train station, and I loved the way they had converted it, with huge clocks in several places and enormous iron girders everywhere. It was a cool place to visit. 

After exhausting the Musee, we wandered off to find a snack (om nom nom macarons) and then head to the Eiffel Tower. Not surprisingly, it's not exactly hard to spot. 

Look, there it is! 

It's trying to hide, but I found it! 

Along the way, we encountered a sporting goods store too good to pass up:

How big was the fish, Jesse?

Soon, though, we were at the tower, and waiting in line to go up. The views from the top are really spectacular, even when it's overcast. 

I love that one incongruous skyscraper at the back. Just chilling. 

Solo Skyscraper: Hey guys! Wanna hang out?

Downtown Skyscrapers: Seriously, Pierre, what are you doing all the way over there?

After we headed down from the Tower, I kept looking back at it over my shoulder. Here is where I should warn you: I'm kind of obsessed with the Eiffel Tower. It is one of my favourite things in the world, and seeing it makes my whole day. It represents travel and the world and awe to me, and I adore it. All of this goes to say: I took a lot of photos of the Eiffel Tower. Like, of the approximately 100 photos I took in Paris, at least 70 have the Tower in them. Apologies in advance for spamming you with them. 

How can you not love it though?

Okay, okay. I'll leave off for now. After the Tower, we had some delicious Vietnamese food for dinner and called it a night. The next day, we headed to the Catacombs, decided the line was too long, and went to Notre Dame instead. It is exactly as I remembered, although there was a mass going on while we were inside so that was cool. 

It's big!

Rose window!

The main entrance. 

Right on the Seine, too. 

Also, there's a statue of Charlemagne out front, and can I just say that Charlemagne and his bros had pretty awesome moustaches? Seriously. 

After the Notre Dame, and a walking tour of the area that was quite interesting, we had lunch at a gorgeous little cafe before heading to the Pompidou. 

French onion soup! Referred to only as onion soup here. Also it looks kind of greasy in this but was totally not, it was amazing. 

This is a painting at the Pompidou. It is a glorious colour, though as far as art goes I'm not sure I get it... I'm not sure I got a lot of what was happening at the Pompidou though. There was a lot of stuff that confused and/or upset me. But there was a room filled with felt that was so delightfully quiet that I wanted to live there forever. 

I found the Eiffel Tower again! Also a million cranes. 

The next morning, we took another stab at the Catacombs, this time successfully. They were very cool, if quite dark, somewhat creepy, and exceedingly drippy. 

Narrow, short passageways in the whole place. 

The well used to mix concrete. It's a natural spring, and is evidently quite warm. It's called the foot bath because the water starts very suddenly, and in low light conditions the apprentices would often accidentally walk right into it when they went for water. 

One of the passages out. 

The ossuary. You're not allowed to use flash here, so not many of my photos turned out, but it was very interesting. The disinterred bones of millions of Parisians have been moved here from deconsecrated cemeteries. The audio guide kept going on about the many romantic flourishes the architects had put into it though... I guess I also don't get romance. 

We spent the rest of the afternoon wandering around, shopping on the Champs d'Elysee, hanging out at the Arc de Triomphe, and eventually making our way back to the foot of the Eiffel Tower to watch the sun set and the lights come on. It made for a superb end to a great trip to one of my all-time favourite places. 

Egyptian Obelisk!

The Arc de Triomphe is really, really big. 

Like, really big. 

Look, here it is again!

Now is where the Tower spam really starts, consider yourself warned!

As you can see, we stayed in the same place for some time, and I took this series of shots... I love the way they look next to each other!

This one also has the moon!

Last one... Goodbye Eiffel Tower! I love you! 

That wrapped up Paris quite nicely, and the next morning we left for Barcelona... Which is a whole other post unto itself!

WTF Morocco

 A lot of the weirdest things in Morocco were actually things I noticed about myself while there. Not that there weren't some interesting cultural differences too!

- It took me about twenty minutes to acclimatize to Morocco's crazy, no-holds-barred traffic system. The first time I crossed a street, it took eons to find a "safe" opportunity, and I usually had to wait for a local to cross first so I'd know I could go. The second time, I was worried I was going to starve to death, stuck in the middle of the road forever with no feasible way of ever crossing. By the third time, I walked into traffic like any native, throwing up a hand and giving a clear "I'm walking here!" scowl to anyone who dared face off with me. I'm not sure how more people aren't hit by cars there. 

- If you're ever late for a plane in Marrakech, and you hear them announcing "last call" for your flight, don't worry! They'll call last call at least eleven more times in the next twenty minutes. Eventually, they'll start announcing it nearly continuously, such that the PA won't even turn off between announcements. The words will run together smoothly, and soon it will be the soundtrack for your rapid descent into madness. This works doubly well if you are waiting for a delayed plane at 5.45 in the morning!

- I guess I like olives now. I had some with our first meal in Morocco, and they were alright. Then later, I had more, and they were pretty okay. Still later, I got annoyed when they weren't served for free as part of a meal. Eventually, I started ordering and paying for olive plates entirely of my own volition. No one is as surprised as I. 

- Everything ever has a rooftop terrace in Morocco. This is wonderful and should be adopted in every place ever. Even Vancouver, where it is clearly very feasible on account of the weather. Especially Vancouver. 

Marrakech, and Thank God It's Over

Morocco had an adventure around every corner. It had a lot of cool things and awesome moments, but if we're being truthful I couldn't wait to get out of that damn country by the time we got back to Marrakech. It's just exhausting, constantly fending off touts, trying to not get horribly scammed, and always keeping an eye on everything around me to keep myself safe and my possessions secure. It's an experience and a half, I'm glad I went, and I might consider going back, but I'm happy to be out of there for now. 

Part of the issue with Morocco is just that as a tourist, there aren't a tonne of things to do. There are a few museums, and a medina tour, but once you're through those there aren't many traditional tourist attractions, and since sitting somewhere and relaxing with a book is considered an ideal time for people to approach and try to get you to give them money in some form, it's hard to find things to fill your day, unless you want to spend a large chunk of time chilling on the roof terrace of your hotel. Which we did do often, actually, but still - no one wants to sit around without leaving their hotel all day! Also most hotels don't have a lot of food options, so that isn't really possible anyway. 

Marrakech did have some cool things, not to mention an incredible number of opportunities to get lost. We went out on our first night to get to the main square, Djemma el Fnaa, and on the way encountered the main mosque of the area. 

We had dinner and fresh squeezed orange juice in the square, then settled in on a rooftop patio to watch the world go by. Djemma is famous for its entertainers - drummers, acrobats, snake charmers and trained monkeys are all around, performing for the crowd. On ground level, it was a bit overwhelming, but from above, it was gorgeous. 

Crowds start to form as dusk falls. 

The food stalls and entertainers. 

20 dirham worth of sweets - $2.50 Canadian!

The next morning, we finally got a chance to sleep in, then went to explore Marrakech. We took the tourist  bus, going to the biggest sites in the area, then got off at the Baha Palaces to hang out for a little while. 

The Saadian tombs. 

Turtle! At the tombs!

A mosque near the tombs. 

Part of the Palace. I tripped over the step around the fountain seconds after taking this picture. 

Tiled roof of the Palace. 

The inner courtyard. We hung out to read there for a few hours, and it was peaceful and cool! Until some German tourists sat on us, anyway. We spent the rest of the day wandering around, mostly keeping an eye out for good spots to sit and read for a while. It was a relaxing say, which was desperately needed before we departed on our Sahara trip. Also, that night we had the best sandwich I've ever eaten. It was amazing and too good to waste time with photos, and we ate there three more times before leaving. 

The next three days were spent on the Sahara trip, and when we got back we again spent a day sleeping in and taking it easy. Both of us weren't feeling great, but it seemed stupid to stay in all day on our last day in Morocco, so we dragged ourselves out of the room and went to the Musee de Marrakech, and the medersa next to it. 

It's a beautiful riad with a gorgeous courtyard that they inexplicably ruined with a gross plastic dome overhead. The lighting is terrible. 

The medersa is much nicer though. 

See? Bright, open courtyards work so much better. 

The medersa was cool, but we were both getting tired, so we decided to head back to the hotel for a bit to read and relax. It turned out to be a good choice, because that's when we found out that due to an air traffic controller strike in France, our scheduled 10 am flight had been cancelled, and we were booked onto a new flight to Casablanca, with standby status from Casablanca to Paris. Oh, and the new flight left at 6.35. In the morning. 

Our relaxing afternoon soon became a nightmare of calling around and rescheduling taxis, confirming seats on the second flight, and realizing we had to leave the hotel at 4.20 the next morning, which pretty effectively killed what little enthusiasm we had for going out again that evening. Still, we grudgingly went to the Djemma for one last lemonade before leaving Morocco. 

The morning was also pretty stressful; though we got to the airport on time and with little hassle, upon arriving at the check-in desk we were told our flight had been cancelled. It took forty minutes and three different people to finally communicate that yes, we knew the 10 am direct flight was cancelled, but we had ticket to Casablanca. We had emailed confirmation of those tickets too. Still, we were shuttled back and forth for a while before finally getting checked in and making our way to the gate. 

Casablanca was a short hop, less than half an hour, and when we landed we had a good window to get to our gate for the flight to Paris - now confirmed as well, by the way. We got to the gate with about twenty minutes to kill, and all was well. For about, well, twenty minutes, when they got on the PA to announce that our flight was delayed. Or something. We tracked down a guy to see what was going on, and were eventually told that our flight had been pushed back from 8.20 to 13.00. Or 13.30. Or 14.00. But maybe 11.00. Or some time like that. No one had any clue when we were going to leave, so we wound up sitting in the Casablanca airport, staring at the sign that still read "8.20 to Paris - boarding" and hoping we wouldn't miss the announcement when it eventually did come. For bonus points, we were nearly out of dirham, and the credit card system in the airport was broken, so between us we could buy about half a cup of tea. 

Finally, at about 11 am, there was an announcement and a flurry of activity at our gate, so we rushed down to check and found our plane was boarding. It was slow going, but eventually our flight did leave at around 11.40, and we made it to Paris without much further excitement. The only good thing about the whole experience was that there was an EasyJet flight for Paris at the next gate. It was supposed to leave at nearly the same time, and we were jealous when they boarded and we couldn't. The jealousy evaporated when we saw that they were still sitting there, fully loaded, when we finally left three hours late. At least we weren't on that flight!