First impressions of Marrakech:
1. French arabic keyboard is going to make blogging difficult.
2. The food here is awesome. Fresh OJ for 30 cents. Havent had a meal yet, but looking forward to every one. Too bad for Alia everything looks like it is coated in nuts.
3. The massive covered market is much more pedestrian friendly than African markets.
4. Exotic animals spotted: zebra skin, leopard skin!!, turtles, alligator skin.
5. It is going to be hard not to buy a lot of souvenirs.
Things are going to be cheaper, only 65 dirham to sleep on the roof; breakfast included. The next two weeks are going to be wonderful, I think I will have to try every imaginable sweet I see.
But my legs and belly are going to be jelly when I get home.
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Monday, July 13, 2009
Hour-by-hour forecast for Pamplona, Spain. Sunny with a chance of sleep, 0%.
Time for a quick recount of the past... 48¿? hours.
Saturday, 09:00am wake up to head to Montserrat
Saturday, 11:30pm board bus to go run with the Bulls. Heading to Pamplona
------------------------(insert fake time break #1)----------------------------------
Sunday, 05:00am arrive in Pamplona. See a preview of the apocalypse, bodies and trash strewn everywhere. People are still drinking.
Sunday, 07:00am get onto the road where the bulls are run. People are still drinking.
Sunday, 07:45am are on the wrong part of the course, police sweep a few hundred people and drunks off of the course.
Sunday, 07:46am realize we are not running with the bulls. shit.
Sunday, 10:00am buy a bus ticket back to Madrid. Cheap, €18, but leaves at 9:30pm. shit. People seem to have stopped drinking.
Sunday, 10:00am--9:30pm the families come out. Grandparents, parents, stollers, toddlers. They are only seen in times play the waiting game. We are getting good at it by now. Find a bench to sit/sleep on for 45 minutes. Sun moves and now you´re in the sun. Get up, repeat... Find a park that has been cleaned by the amazing street-sweepers (actual people, not machines) in Pamplona. Sleep either until the urine wafts over you, or people are loud.
Sunday, 09:30pm ridicule a bunch of drunkards being prevented from getting on a bus because they have plastics cups full of god-knows-what, and the driver knows better than that. Laugh at them.
Sunday, 09:30:10 realize this is our bus. Get on the bus, the only open pairs of seats are at the very back.
Sunday, 09:31pm the drunkards sit next to, in front of, and behind us. Loud, smelly, vomiting, and passing out on the floor in the aisle. Damn. They were speaking what sounded like a cross between Russian and German. Maybe they were Romanian? Don´t know, their Spanish was fluent too (I hope they didn´t know English, oops).
Sunday, 09:50pm abandon ship. Open seats ahoy! Scramble up to the front of the bus, find two open seats, glad to be out of there.
Sunday, 10:30pm go back to rescue the food I forgot from the hungry drunk folk.
------------------------(insert fake time break #2)----------------------------------
Monday, 03:00am arrive in Madrid. "Sleep" outside the bus station.
Monday, 05:30am get into the Metro station. "Sleep" at a table
Monday, 06:30am decide it is best to beat the rush hour cramming on the Metro. Get on a train, go to where our hostel is. Check in time, 12 Noon.
Monday, 07:00am shit. That didn´t take long enough. "Sleep" on a bench.
Monday, 08:30am arrive at El Retiro park. Realize that the shampoo has exploded inside my backpack. Throw a tantrum. Sleep in the grass.
Monday, 11:30am desayuno. Huevos Americanos, scrambled eggs on toast, with coffee. €4.50
Monday, 12:15pm check into the hostel. Room isnt ready yet.
Monday, 01:00pm room is ready. Take out laundry. Do laundry in a washing machine. €3, still worth it, worth every cent.
Monday, 02:00pm sleep.
Monday, 06:30pm wake up. I slept more just now than in the past two days. Those eye shades really help knock you out when you are tired enough, discover the new must-have for traveling.
Now, we´re going to go shopping for the trip to Morocco tomorrow. After that, dinner. I am so hungry. Where can I get two double-doubles and an animal style fries? Pleeeeease?
Saturday, 09:00am wake up to head to Montserrat
Saturday, 11:30pm board bus to go run with the Bulls. Heading to Pamplona
------------------------(insert fake time break #1)----------------------------------
Sunday, 05:00am arrive in Pamplona. See a preview of the apocalypse, bodies and trash strewn everywhere. People are still drinking.
Sunday, 07:00am get onto the road where the bulls are run. People are still drinking.
Sunday, 07:45am are on the wrong part of the course, police sweep a few hundred people and drunks off of the course.
Sunday, 07:46am realize we are not running with the bulls. shit.
Sunday, 10:00am buy a bus ticket back to Madrid. Cheap, €18, but leaves at 9:30pm. shit. People seem to have stopped drinking.
Sunday, 10:00am--9:30pm the families come out. Grandparents, parents, stollers, toddlers. They are only seen in times play the waiting game. We are getting good at it by now. Find a bench to sit/sleep on for 45 minutes. Sun moves and now you´re in the sun. Get up, repeat... Find a park that has been cleaned by the amazing street-sweepers (actual people, not machines) in Pamplona. Sleep either until the urine wafts over you, or people are loud.
Sunday, 09:30pm ridicule a bunch of drunkards being prevented from getting on a bus because they have plastics cups full of god-knows-what, and the driver knows better than that. Laugh at them.
Sunday, 09:30:10 realize this is our bus. Get on the bus, the only open pairs of seats are at the very back.
Sunday, 09:31pm the drunkards sit next to, in front of, and behind us. Loud, smelly, vomiting, and passing out on the floor in the aisle. Damn. They were speaking what sounded like a cross between Russian and German. Maybe they were Romanian? Don´t know, their Spanish was fluent too (I hope they didn´t know English, oops).
Sunday, 09:50pm abandon ship. Open seats ahoy! Scramble up to the front of the bus, find two open seats, glad to be out of there.
Sunday, 10:30pm go back to rescue the food I forgot from the hungry drunk folk.
------------------------(insert fake time break #2)----------------------------------
Monday, 03:00am arrive in Madrid. "Sleep" outside the bus station.
Monday, 05:30am get into the Metro station. "Sleep" at a table
Monday, 06:30am decide it is best to beat the rush hour cramming on the Metro. Get on a train, go to where our hostel is. Check in time, 12 Noon.
Monday, 07:00am shit. That didn´t take long enough. "Sleep" on a bench.
Monday, 08:30am arrive at El Retiro park. Realize that the shampoo has exploded inside my backpack. Throw a tantrum. Sleep in the grass.
Monday, 11:30am desayuno. Huevos Americanos, scrambled eggs on toast, with coffee. €4.50
Monday, 12:15pm check into the hostel. Room isnt ready yet.
Monday, 01:00pm room is ready. Take out laundry. Do laundry in a washing machine. €3, still worth it, worth every cent.
Monday, 02:00pm sleep.
Monday, 06:30pm wake up. I slept more just now than in the past two days. Those eye shades really help knock you out when you are tired enough, discover the new must-have for traveling.
Now, we´re going to go shopping for the trip to Morocco tomorrow. After that, dinner. I am so hungry. Where can I get two double-doubles and an animal style fries? Pleeeeease?
Saturday, July 11, 2009
Montserrat
Recovering from a sunburn I got from the three hours spent on the beach yesterday, (it was cloudy when we got there! of course I wasn´t wearing sunscreen), we went to see Montserrat, this big church up on a mountain. I was slightly hesitant about going, not sure if it would be worth the €15 round trip train ticket. Glad I went though.
It was a somewhat cloudy day, but the temperature kept it reasonable (maybe 70 degrees?) and allowed us to make a nice hike up to Sant Jeroni, the 1,236m highest peak above the church. We were nearly above the clouds when we summited, but they cleared out and provided some decent views on the way down.
Really cool. Saw some legit rock climbers ascending other formations. Pretty jealous of them--it has been a long time since I went climbing outdoors.
Barcelona has been a good city, quite different from Madrid. A lot less formal, but more touristy, much more... but also more like home/California. Except I´m not sure where I´d go biking if I lived here, it must take a while to actually get outside of the city. I´m missing the bike a lot, especially after seeing the Tour come through and occasionally seeing more and more cyclists. Everyone be ready to spend an awesome fall mountain biking. I´m ready to go.
Next on Africa Africa Africa:
We fly to Marrakech, Morocco on the 14th, and are there until the 26th. Going to climb Jebel Toubkal, the highest peak in Morocco at 4165m. Seeing Marrakech, Imlil, and Essaouria mostly, with a bus over to the other side of the mountains to see some other towns.
It was a somewhat cloudy day, but the temperature kept it reasonable (maybe 70 degrees?) and allowed us to make a nice hike up to Sant Jeroni, the 1,236m highest peak above the church. We were nearly above the clouds when we summited, but they cleared out and provided some decent views on the way down.
Really cool. Saw some legit rock climbers ascending other formations. Pretty jealous of them--it has been a long time since I went climbing outdoors.
Barcelona has been a good city, quite different from Madrid. A lot less formal, but more touristy, much more... but also more like home/California. Except I´m not sure where I´d go biking if I lived here, it must take a while to actually get outside of the city. I´m missing the bike a lot, especially after seeing the Tour come through and occasionally seeing more and more cyclists. Everyone be ready to spend an awesome fall mountain biking. I´m ready to go.
Next on Africa Africa Africa:
We fly to Marrakech, Morocco on the 14th, and are there until the 26th. Going to climb Jebel Toubkal, the highest peak in Morocco at 4165m. Seeing Marrakech, Imlil, and Essaouria mostly, with a bus over to the other side of the mountains to see some other towns.
Friday, July 10, 2009
Tour de France, Stage 7
This morning was a lot more beautiful than yesterday. The air was clear, with a low cloud ceiling, providing for a good morning to see a bike race. There wasnt any rush to get there early today, based on the experience of seeing the Tour of California leave from San Jose, we could get there only an hour or two early and still not miss anything. If we wanted the prized starting-line photo, we would have to stand in one spot, but I wanted to try to see the riders before the race.
We went on the hunt for where the teams would set up their big vans and lay out the bikes for the papparazzi, and found the big empty parking area. That was about 9:30, with the caravan scheduled to leave at 10:00 and the riders scheduled to leave at 11:00, I suggested we look for the coolest cappucino-serving café and hoped to collect a signature or two. So left we went out of the parking area.
We looped back onto the course and saw the caravan leaving, and by the time we got to the parking area, the first of the teams was arriving. Yes Alia, they came from the right side. You win.
The big attraction was when the main show rolled in, the Astana bus. I didn't feel like pushing the crowds and standing seven deep, but did get this:
After that, circled around to see all of the mechanics prepping the bikes for the race. It was too crowded at the start line to really see all of the riders signing in, and with our patience spend from yesterday, we headed about 500m down the road from the starting line to see it all roll out of town.
View of the corral and back side of the start:
Front of the peloton, you can see Cavendish and a bit of Cancellara:
Fabian Cancellara, in yellow:
We went on the hunt for where the teams would set up their big vans and lay out the bikes for the papparazzi, and found the big empty parking area. That was about 9:30, with the caravan scheduled to leave at 10:00 and the riders scheduled to leave at 11:00, I suggested we look for the coolest cappucino-serving café and hoped to collect a signature or two. So left we went out of the parking area.
We looped back onto the course and saw the caravan leaving, and by the time we got to the parking area, the first of the teams was arriving. Yes Alia, they came from the right side. You win.
The big attraction was when the main show rolled in, the Astana bus. I didn't feel like pushing the crowds and standing seven deep, but did get this:
After that, circled around to see all of the mechanics prepping the bikes for the race. It was too crowded at the start line to really see all of the riders signing in, and with our patience spend from yesterday, we headed about 500m down the road from the starting line to see it all roll out of town.
View of the corral and back side of the start:
Front of the peloton, you can see Cavendish and a bit of Cancellara:
Fabian Cancellara, in yellow:
Thursday, July 9, 2009
Stage 6, Tour de France
Wow, today was pretty long. We got up at about 8am worried that we were going to get to the stage too late to get a good spot to watch the finish; the peloton was expected at 3pm.
Got to the Olympic Stadium around 10am to see the finish line still being set up, the official tape was not on the ground yet. A crew was busily trying to paint over a pedestrian crossing so it wouldnt confuse riders, but they were fighting a losing battle. The pounding rain was no match for the blowtorch-brooms that they had on hand, they couldnt keep the road dry enough to put black paint down.
We stood in this rain until the caravan arrived sometime around 4:30. Yes, six and a half hours of solid rain in Barcelona in July. Has this ever happened before? Who knows. The rain died down when the riders had about 30k to go, as far as I could tell based on Alia's translations of the French announcements.
David Millar was going to be the star of the day.
5k to go, 36 seconds lead over the sprinters.
4k to go, 30 seconds.
3k to go, 25 seconds.
2k to go, 20 seconds.
And we see a mass of riders flying by, I see a Cervelo test team rider and Caisse d'Epagne rider at the front, turns out Mr. Hushovd won it.
Tomorrow we go see the start of the race, and I try to get a signature or two.
Got to the Olympic Stadium around 10am to see the finish line still being set up, the official tape was not on the ground yet. A crew was busily trying to paint over a pedestrian crossing so it wouldnt confuse riders, but they were fighting a losing battle. The pounding rain was no match for the blowtorch-brooms that they had on hand, they couldnt keep the road dry enough to put black paint down.
We stood in this rain until the caravan arrived sometime around 4:30. Yes, six and a half hours of solid rain in Barcelona in July. Has this ever happened before? Who knows. The rain died down when the riders had about 30k to go, as far as I could tell based on Alia's translations of the French announcements.
David Millar was going to be the star of the day.
5k to go, 36 seconds lead over the sprinters.
4k to go, 30 seconds.
3k to go, 25 seconds.
2k to go, 20 seconds.
And we see a mass of riders flying by, I see a Cervelo test team rider and Caisse d'Epagne rider at the front, turns out Mr. Hushovd won it.
Tomorrow we go see the start of the race, and I try to get a signature or two.
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
Madge
Introducing Madge, our trusty steed across West Africa to the desert and back.
She is a reincarnated cement mixer, V6 Mercedes power. Capacity for twenty passengers and two drivers, 400L of purified water, 6 gerricans, lots of propane, a kitchen, and toolbench. Eight seats on the roof for slow scenic drives. One big back locker to hold everyones gear. A dozen+ tents, and an extendable tarp for cooking in the rain. A big tow cable tied on the front, handy for pulling out stuck tro-tros.
Possibly the best feature--school bus style windows, making the back seats the coolest places in Mali. What a breeze.
Didnt have a single mechanical that slowed the trip down, though apparently the speedometer/trip distance meter broke once.
If you are considering traveling in Africa, I highly recommend looking into an overlanding.
barcelona
In Barcelona! One day until the Tour arrives! Super excited. The finale of the stage heads up Montjuic, for any of those that are familiar with the area. Yesterdays bus ride from Madrid to Barcelona was a long one, taking about 8 hours start to finish.
This hostel we are staying out, Alberguinn Youth Hostel, has two computers with free internet. Quite handy.
Today I think we are going to try to buy bus tickets to Pamplona, and maybe walk around La Rambla. Tomorrow and the next day are Tour de France days, probably all day tomorrow in order to get a good view to see the finish, and the beginning of the next day. After that, a morning on the beach before an overnight bus ride to Pamplona.
Later today I am going to try to upload some photos. Hopefully it works!
This hostel we are staying out, Alberguinn Youth Hostel, has two computers with free internet. Quite handy.
Today I think we are going to try to buy bus tickets to Pamplona, and maybe walk around La Rambla. Tomorrow and the next day are Tour de France days, probably all day tomorrow in order to get a good view to see the finish, and the beginning of the next day. After that, a morning on the beach before an overnight bus ride to Pamplona.
Later today I am going to try to upload some photos. Hopefully it works!
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