just in africa for a weekend. nbd.

oh hey there. my travels continue...to the blue-walled land of MOROCCO. yes, Morocco. I still can't really believe I went to Africa, which not only adds another country to my list, but a whole other continent. good job study abroad, i am becoming more cultured by the minute. side note: as i write this blog i'm listening to Waka Waka (This Time for Africa) by Shakira, which, coincidentally, we heard quite a few times walking the streets of ChefChaouen. about chefchaouen- this was actually one of the most beautiful cities I have seen, certainly in the past 2 months. granted, you can't really compare simple blue walled houses with the grandiose image of La Giralda in sevilla, but there was something majestic about the simplicity of this city. so often since being here in spain i've really come to look at the US differently. believe me, i have so much pride for my country and my cities (because i do consider boston my home as well as new york). being such a young country, the US just can't boast its architecture the way other countries can. yes, we have skyscrapers and i'm the first to marvel at the NYC skyline every time i enter manhattan, but the architecture i see on my travels took hundreds of years to complete. you can't really compete with that. in morocco, there were walls built into mountains surrounding running streams and incredible formations that created something extremely breathtaking. and as i mentioned before, the blue walls bordered narrow residential streets to protect them from the hot moroccan sun. take a look:

of course, the pictures just don't do it justice but it helps. After a delicious lunch in ChefChaouen, we walked around for 3 hours bartering with local vendors for moroccan jewelry, wall tapestries, and ceramics. twice in these 3 hours i was told in very broken spanglish that i looked moroccan, and that i must be mistaken, because my efforts to assure them that i was in fact american did absolutely nothing to convince them. i think i need to start a list of all of countries i've heard when guessing my ethnicity...

back at the hotel that night, we walked along the beach searching for the largest seashell and got to see a "supermoon." apparently the full moon was closer to the earth than it has been in the last 18 years. and it was massive, and gorgeous, above the ocean. this to be followed by delicious moroccan cous-cous- coudn't have been a better day. unfortunately, it was then that we were informed that we had to evacuate the country 10 hours earlier the next day due to a nation-wide protest. no big deal, just need to make sure we live through the weekend, right? still, the next morning was worth it: got more amazing views from a beach with true blue water and, oh yeah, rode a camel! 3 minutes of fun!

the rest of the day was spent traveling, which always sucks, especially when the vacation is ending. however, i had a moment of bliss when i stepped off the bus back in sevilla and realized that i'm still on vacation as long as i'm in spain! with the promised sunshine ahead, i can't wait to see what the next two months will bring, both here in sevilla and during my travels to Italy, France, Prague, and Portugal!



viva la vida.

¡pollo, pollo!

"once was enough." that's pretty much the response i've been getting from everyone when i ask them about carnaval in cadiz. for me, it was actually SO much fun. yes, ridiculous and overwhelming in so many ways, but such an incredible experience. sadly, i have no pictures to share since i decided to leave my camera at home for the night (and as you'll soon learn, that was a very smart decision) but here's one from google:

going into it i really didn't know what to expect, all i had heard was that it's just a massive party in the streets, and that it was mandatory to dress up, otherwise i would look silly as the only one without a costume. well, i did dress up (and as always, my costume was sub par, but no pasa nada) but i was not prepared for the costumes i saw. let's see if i can accurately set the scene for you:

bright lights from multiple snack stands blinded us as we exited the bus. as my eyes adjusted to the scene i was bombarded with images of indians, hippies, naked old ladies, athletes, mimes, and chickens (just to name a few) and THOUSANDS of people hailing from sevilla, malaga, cadiz, madrid, barcelona, and granada. needless to say, shelby and i beelined it for the popcorn stand and quickly finished off the biggest size they had. the rest of the night is a bit hazy, but had something to do with making friends with chickens from malaga and getting pickpocketed. yep, it was bound to happen at some point, figures it would be during carnaval. luckily enough, i had previously moved all of my important stuff (credit cards, drivers license, etc) from my wallet beforehand so i was only out about 7 euros. regardless, carnaval was something not to be missed and just further confirmed my previous belief that spaniards are fucking crazy and have few limits.

viva la vida.

bostel-icous

my dear friends, i've failed you. it has been AGES since i've written in this silly little thing. i think the spanish lifestyle of procrastination and siestas has worn off on me. except i don't really siesta, pretty much spend most of my time on facebook. so let's see. oh yeah, that little gem of a city called amsterdam. so difficult to put into words.

if you haven't seen my facebook album, you must see it. the pictures don't do it justice, but they certainly will give visual aids to these words. i'll try and help you out here too. first of all, as the title explains, it was a bostel experience. a bostel, my young grasshoppers, is a boat-hostel. This is where we spent 3 lovely nights. docked on a canal in the middle of the city, our home away from home awaited us. the rooms were cozy, to say the least:

after checking in to our digs, we ventured out to explore the city. and boy, did we explore. this was probably my favorite find of the night, confirming my belief that amsterdam, although an excellent weekend destination spot, is just a joke of a city. look closely at the bunnies:

 moving on. the next day we had a Heineken experience, complete with virtual simulation of the brewing process, the longest foosball table in the world, and an unexpected run-in with Tufts in Paris students. quite an experience, i'd say.

the next day, my mind was blown- i have never experienced art the way i did this weekend. the van gogh museum was one of the most amazing artistic viewing experiences i have ever had. i think we spent about 5 hours in that museum (although at least 2 of those hours were spent in the cafe with too much stolen coffee and nutella)

and finally, we come full circle back to the bostel. due to the torrential downpour afuera, we decided it was best to remain inside for the night for something a little more tranquil the night before our long day of travels. little did we know that when you put american, french, estonian, and english people together on a boat, shit gets crazy. in just a few hours i learned how to play bullshit in french, how to cheers in about 4 different languages (in estonia they cheers to terrible sex, in case you were wondering), created a hit single, starred in an estonian music video, and "learned" how to play the guitar. if that's not a successful night then i don't know what is.

needless to say, waking up at 6 AM to travel for the next 18 hours was extremely difficult.