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Morocco in a Day

20 Aug

Before we moved to Southern Spain, I did what any overly excited travel-lover would do; I started researching the travel possibilities that moving to Spain would provide. One of my top travel destinations on my to-do list was Morocco. After researching, I soon made a jaw-dropping discovery; living in the Rota area, the only thing standing between me and my two feet landing on Moroccan soil was a mere 2 hour distance. One hour and 15 minutes by car and a 45-minute ferry ride. Dreams of camels, snake charmers and curry food started dancing in my head. I had to go. And so I did.

Of course I waited until my siblings came to visit. Such a special experience could have only been reserved to share with some of my favorite people in the entire world. Besides, going without them would have triggered years of overwhelming jealousy and never-ending sibling rivalry.

To begin the planning of our day trip, I booked a *tour guide named Jamal. He’s pretty well known within the American community as the go-to tour guide for Tangier. As soon as we exited the ferry from Spain, Jamal was there at the dock waiting for us. Originally, I had planned for a day full of walking. Much to my relief, Jamal had a private driver and a large, clean van for us equipped with A/C. We were able to leave some belongings in the vehicle safely each time we stopped to explore a new place as the driver stayed with the van. The trip was more comfortable for us with two small children and lots of little extras that we ended up not having to carry every step of the way.

After Moroccan security gave our passports a look-see, we were bright-eyed, bushy tailed and on our way to our very own Moroccan adventure.

Mosque in memory of King Mohammed V.

This is a restaurant that we popped in for a quick break. We didn’t eat our lunch there but I’ve known of several Americans that have. Next time I’ll have to try some of their food.

My brother is musically talented in several instruments (drums, guitar, piano and the ukelele). He met with these fellas while in Morocco and we’re all looking forward to when this newly assembled boy band puts out their first record.

In the museum in the Kasbah.

The Kasbah and two chickens out on a stroll.

Overlooking the port of Tangier.

Ah, yes. The snake charmer. An unbelievable experience.

Oh, what a trooper.

Growing up, my sister had a couple of snakes as pets. She loves them.

See?

And then… there were camels.

We went for a camel ride! This happened to be Andrew and Leila’s favorite part of the trip.

This little baby was hanging around enjoying the ocean breeze.

This was my camel for our short camel-riding excursion. We bonded.

A view of Cape Spartel.

After our camel rides, we were hit up a local restaurant for lunch. To start, we had this delicious seafood soup. My sister, brother and myself all had amazing chicken and lamb kebabs. Andrew went straight for the typical moroccan dish, Tajine.

Lunch ended on a high note with this Moroccan Mint Tea, mighty tasty indeed.

After lunch, we got to visit the Church of St. Andrew, an Anglican church built in 1894.

Then, it was off to shop. Here’s a few shots around the market:

Here we are all together basking in the beauty of experiencing Morocco.

*For those of living within traveling distance to Morocco (that means you, Rota), I highly recommend using Jamal as your travel guide. He has really great tours to offer you and is more than willing to work with you on your very own customized tour upon request. Contact Jamal for more info at jamal_chatt@hotmail.com

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Fall

6 Dec

It’s fall, y’all. We made it from Spain to Virginia just in time to enjoy the colors of fall. And the pumpkin patches. And the pumpkin spice lattes from Starbucks. And pumpkin pie.

Alright. That’s enough.

Let’s get back these fall colors I was talking about.

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Don’t you just love fall?

Fall, fall, fall.

The End.

Feria in Rota

8 Jun

It’s true. I’ve been depriving you of information about one of Spain’s most important festivities. I will make you wait no longer.

Feria is the Spanish fair that happens every year starting in Mid-May just after Holy Week. The first Feria we visited was here in Rota. Growing up the only fair I attended was the Black Walnut Festival in Stockton, Missouri (here’s a little shout out for my Cedar County peeps). The Black Walnut Festival consisted of several booths selling handmade crafts, the usual FFA booth with food like cheeseburgers, nachos and my favorite: frito pie. A Black Walnut Festival specialty that you can’t pass up when visiting are the fried oreos. Yum. There are several performances throughout the 5-day festival so you can grab a hay bail to sit on, relax and listen to some knee-slappin bluegrass and just plain good ‘ol country music. Every night ends usually around 9 PM except for Saturday which may wrap up around 11 if those Missourians get to drinkin’ a little too much homemade root beer.

Well, Feria, as you could have guessed, is completely different. Starting with…

the clothes. At Feria you can find most of the women dressed in their finest Feria dresses. Feria dresses come in all different colors and lengths, but there are always frills. Always. And I love them. It goes without saying that the picture above is not exactly top notch for showing you the variety of Feria dresses. I posted it to show you another little something. See the white and green striped tent that all those people are standing outside of? It’s called a casteta. Inside the casteta holds exactly what Feria is all about: drinking and dancing. Only this time, it’s not homemade root beer. The signature drink of Feria is called a rebujito. It is very, very tasty. Everyone (who is 18 and above) drinks rebujitos at Feria. It’s not uncommon to see someone carrying around an entire pitcher with their glass.

Since the first picture wasn’t too great at showing you the beauty of the Feria dresses, I had my lovely assistant strike a couple of poses to show off her Feria dress. Our neighbors were nice enough to lend both the girls some used dresses that their daughters once wore. However, Leila was not feeling so great and I was afraid hers would have been too hot for her. When wearing a Feria dress, you have to have the right shoes, jewelry and of course, the flower on the side or top of your head.

My favorite part of Feria?

The horses! All throughout Feria, the horses and carriages make their way around the Feria grounds. For anywhere between 10 and 40 Euro, you can have your own carriage ride to take in the sights.

Hola, caballos!

And… the whole family!

Speaking of the whole family, during the Feria weekend Leila had a temperature of 104 so I had to take her the emergency room in the middle of the night. We didn’t make our way back home until 3:30 AM and much to my surprise I saw several families finally leaving Feria. I’m talking small children Aliana’s size and even in strollers. Spanish people know how to have a party! Er, uh… a fiesta!

Am I in Spain?

25 May

Because when I was held up by a John Deere tractor the other day, it sure felt like I was back home in Missouri.

Sheep in the Street

11 May

If you’ve been a reader for very long, you are familiar with the fact that I love farm animals. If not, get familiar here, friend. While we were driving through the city of Jerez recently, we came across the strangest, most pleasant sight. Sheep.

Yes, sheep. In the hundreds. Right there in the city.

The road you see here is a mere side-road. The other road that they were near is a pretty busy one near to a shopping complex with stores such as Ikea and the like.

Just to the right of this picture holds said shopping complex. I am curious as to 1) how the sheep were able to travel to this particular location safely 2) how it is legal for so many sheep to just graze on public land like that. Don’t get me wrong, I loved seeing them. But, how is it legal for a sheep herder/farmer fellow to bring hundreds of sheep to crap all over public property like that?

I don’t know about you, but (to be read with a heavy country accent) where I come from sheep are kept on the farmers property. If a sheep were ever in the street back home, you’d have everyone and their brother and their brother’s mother calling to see who lost a sheep and to get it before it got run over.

I just can’t imagine the trek that these sheep would have had to endure with the traffic. And the sheep herder, well he would have to have been crazy to attempt this.

My daughter? She’s a little crazy, too. We kinda like her thatta way.

And that sheep herder? Not only was he crazy, but he was uh, helpful. Yeah, I’ll call him helpful.

Yeah, he was helpful alright. Because he “helped” Aliana get close to that little lamb there. Do you see the fear in her eyes? I can tell you that she wasn’t scared of the lamb.

Look at me and my two new pals. After this, he asked to see the photos on the camera. He talked my ear off and unfortunately I couldn’t understand a word he said. It’s things like this that make living overseas so interesting!

Nasal Irrigation and other fun Spring pastimes

15 Apr

Lately I’ve been on the front lines in a furious battle against seasonal allergies.

Oh, the allergies. They’re furious this time of year.

I don’t know if you’ve ever spent 5 solid days constantly sneezing, blowing and wiping your nose. After a while, you start to look like Rudolph’s distant cousin.

In the wee hours of the night, around 4 AM-ish last night, I was lying propped up in my bed, kleenex jammed up my nostrils all the while feeling like a balloon was sitting right behind my forehead square in-between my eyes. I tried to blow my nose and it would not blow. I tried to breathe in air and the air would not come. My already itching throat hurt from accidentally keeping my mouth cranked wide open, my head ached from that balloony feeling thingy and I’m pretty certain if I would have sneezed just one more time my itchy, swollen, burning eyes would have fallen plum out of their sockets. I was wheezing, sneezing and praying for relief. And if that wasn’t bad enough, every few seconds there was a popping feeling in the back of my throat. Pop.

Pop…

Pop…

And if I could have just stopped snoring!

The allergies. They are winning.

I’ve had problems with allergies in the past. Back in Missouri during this beautiful time of year, I would become desperate for relief. When I lived in Japan, I had no allergies (thank the Lord). When I lived in Florida, my allergies came in the form of mild headaches. I could handle the headaches.

Now I’m in Spain and they’re back. Full force. And furious.

Since I’m still breastfeeding, medications aren’t an option. So, I’ve had to come up with another plan of attack to win this fight against allergies. It goes without saying that local honey would be ideal for my situation. Unfortunately, because I don’t know the language, I’ve yet to find local honey here in Spain. Because I have a very wise friend who suggested it, I’ve been putting hydrogen peroxide into my ears and leaving it for 5-10 minutes. This works great for loosening up all that junk in the ‘ol schnoz. And it tickles my ears. I like it when it tickles. A neti pot would be magical, but would take days to reach me from the US if I ordered it online. So, my friend Marti brought me a nasal irrigation system today.

Let me tell you, a nasal irrigation system is not as fun as it sounds. The results? They’re decent. The process? It’s rough. You fill up a little bottle with 8 ounces of water, pour a sinus rinse mixture packet into it, insert the bottle tip into one nostril and squeeze. The rinse will drain either into the opposite nostril or into your throat. If you’re lucky, you’ll have it draining into both. Mmm… tasty. Oh, and the directions suggest trying to say “Kah… Kah… Kah” during the rinse. Seriously?! Whatever. Happily, after using this system, I feel a lot better (thanks Marti).

Since Spring is in full swing, I’ll be fighting the good fight for a little while longer.

Do you suffer through Spring with seasonal allergies? What have you tried and what works for you?

Today stinks.

1 Apr

Today Andrew sat me down after work and told me that some things at work got switched around and he’d be deploying in January. For a year. My eyes widened. My jaw dropped. How could this be?

Later a Facebook friend who has a 4 month old son posted her little boy is going to be a big brother (oh my gosh, could you imagine?!). I congratulated her on her joyous occasion.

When I logged on to WordPress.com to check for comments and view my stats, I had a reasonable amount of views for today only to find words in black saying “April fools!”.

I fell for it. All three. April fools stinks.

What about you? Did you fall for any April fools jokes today?

Mail

24 Mar

While spending three months in Missouri, we celebrated Christmas and 3 out of 4 of us had birthdays. All 4 of us receiving Christmas gifts from our family members along with 3/4 of us receiving birthdays gifts is a lot of gifts. And if you’re wondering; no, it did not fit in my suitcase. In order to get all of our belongings to Spain, I had to box up and ship out 6 packages before leaving Missouri. The last 4 out of 6 came yesterday.

Of course there are only three boxes shown here. The other one was hiding in the hallway. Anyways, that’s beside the point. Just look at the condition of those boxes. Those poor things, all battered and bruised. They were purchased from the post office so I entrusted the sturdiness of them. Let’s look further, shall we?

Look at this! That sucker was torn so severely that I was able to reach my hand inside and pull out its innards. Which means that any hooligan could have done such a thing.

I’m happy that some nice person went out of their way and taped up this box so that nothing fell out. At least I think nothing fell out. But, how on earth could this box have been ripped so much? How was this box being handled for it to be damaged this way?

And sadly, my favorite Disneyland souvenir: broken! To smithereens! Smithereens, I tell you. For shame.

What can a girl do to get some un-damaged mail around these parts?

Travel Tip #1

1 Mar

When your child screams “peanuts” repeatedly in a muffled airplane cabin, it doesn’t really sound like “peanuts”.

Cheers to pretzels!

Today’s travel tip is brought to you by a flustered and embarrassed mother who sometimes wishes duct tape was an approved carry-on item.

That is all.

Mystery Flower

22 Feb

Remember those close-up shots of the flower I posted the other day? Well, the flower was a tulip!

Tulips are a sure sign of spring. They look (and smell) a lot better in person. Spring, spring, won’t you bring me some tulips?

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