TravelStream™ news feed for member martin84 on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/martin84 en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Thu, 18 Jun 2009 12:10:20 -0400 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/martin84/global2008/1245340576/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/martin84/global2008/1245340576/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/martin84/global2008/1245340576/tpod.html Thu, 18 Jun 2009 12:10:20 -0400 Traveling around the world and back again

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Arobes, Principality of Asturias, Spain

Yep
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Ceceda de Abajo, Principality of Asturias, Spain

Zoom right in
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Oviedo, Asturias, Spain and Canary Islands

yep
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/martin84/global2008/1245340022/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/martin84/global2008/1245340022/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/martin84/global2008/1245340022/tpod.html Thu, 18 Jun 2009 11:52:21 -0400 Traveling around the world and back again

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Casablanca, Morocco

Hello
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/martin84/global2008/1242317940/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/martin84/global2008/1242317940/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/martin84/global2008/1242317940/tpod.html Mon, 18 May 2009 12:01:46 -0400 Traveling around the world and back again

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Casablanca, Morocco

I arrived in Morroco not really knowing the first thing about the country. What I did know, had a bit of Sahara in it and was mostly arabic led me to believe it would be a lot like Egypt. I was right in lots of ways ut also really wrong. But we shall see about that as things go on. We must have walked for over an hour at times completly lost beyond hope, eventually we had to pay a guy to take us to the hotel and it is ridicules but we never would have found it otherwise. Why does no-one know the film?
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/martin84/global2008/1242318600/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/martin84/global2008/1242318600/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/martin84/global2008/1242318600/tpod.html Mon, 18 May 2009 11:35:09 -0400 Traveling around the world and back again

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Fes, Morocco

We arrived off the bus absolutely exhausted, nightbus always sounds like such a good idea until you have to get up without having slept at all. So we asked a taxi driver to take us into the medina (using all 6 of our Fench words) he flatly refused and suggested through hand gestures that we could just walk there. So we crossed the busy road and entered into the medina, it immediately became clear why we couldn't take a taxi, the gates and narrow alleys of this medina meant only people, asses and carts could make it through. It was still about 7am and the first hotel we reached was closed but unluckily there was a man nearby. He told us that particular hotel was full but that he had a hotel with spaces. I have been messed about so many times in so many places that I didnt even want to go along for the ride but Pierce took the bait and I was caught too. We foillowed first just him and then his friend too through a maze of alleys until we reached an unmarked building in a small alleyway. We were shown a couple of rooms and I will be honest they were nice rooms apart from an unidentifyable smell and the fact that they only had one bed each. I didn't want to stay there if only because I didint like the way the people spoke to us, the feeling that you are being forced into something. Not to mention the constant contradiction. So we kept saying no and the price kept coming down and eventually we just left. The two touts followed us looking for trouble. It ended when one of them spat on Pierce, I could see him about to blow but he caught himself the two guys went around the corner shortly after that and sat down. We walked the other way and found a diferent way out of the alleys. I don't know how long they stayed there waiting for us to come around the corner. I hope they are still there now. We saw that all the hotels and sho^ps were still closed and so we went back to the bus station where we knew there were cafes open. Over coffee we decided that we only needed one day in Fez and we would head for the beach the following morning.We got into a hotel and we must have been tired because the price wasn't great, but the guy had mentioned breakfast and we had just said yes. I think we really just wanted to shower more than anything. I still had sand in my ears. We walked around the city for a bit until lunch I ordered a salad which inexplicably came with grated sausage on top, I ate around the meat. Pierce said he needed to sleep. So while he slept I read and we went back out in the evening. The medina is really great, its a huge area and I think the cutting of access to traffic really makes it. There is the obligatory souk as well as lots of mosques. The tourist board have put signs up to help guide foriegners through the maze of alleys. These lead you past all the interesting sights. Still for me mosques are fascinating and it was great to be able to look into some here without feeling like you are invading something sacred. Its strange that I don't feel that way about churches, like my social history gives me the right to sit quietly at the back of a church but not in a mosque. It may also be that I don't know how mosques work, something I hope to rectify. We wandered back up to the area near our hotel where we browsed through a number of shops, again of the Return to Oz, "look at all the cool stuff they have in here. I tried on one of the namesake hats and tried a Tommy Cooper: "Jus' like that" but I couldn't pull it off, the hat or the impression. Pierce bought a really quite small set of bongos for 1 euro. Thats insane prices, I nearly bought one just because I couldn't afford not to. But I still have a harmonica I can't play in my bag.and sat down for dinner at a nearby restaurant. We spotted some lost looking tourists nearby. Two young lads, who turned out to be English, being pestered by touts, Pierce (legend) pointed them in the right direction. They came back later and we went for a coffee together, an hilarious moment followed where six men swarmed the tall blonde guy trying to get him into their restaurant, it was funny because they all completely ignored us and just tried to out shout each other. Pierce and I took an earlyish night and the next morning boarded a bus to Rabat, the nations capital (just found that out myself).
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/martin84/global2008/1238780760/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/martin84/global2008/1238780760/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/martin84/global2008/1238780760/tpod.html Mon, 18 May 2009 11:15:29 -0400 Traveling around the world and back again

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Cairo, Egypt

I'm not going to write Egypt yet in favour of Morocco which is fresher in my mind but bear with me all things will come in their own time.
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Madrid, Madrid, Spain

I knew what I would be doing (more or less) for the next few years and I was really excited. Bonus for me I was staying in a party hostel. There was a bar crawl organised every night often including free drinks, the thing to do then was take the free drinks and then add some cheap some booze of your own and stay in the hostel partying all night. The first night however I joined the bar crawl and met lots of great people, mostly canadians, I will never forget the nights out I had in Madrid or the many friends I met there. So I think this entry is just going to be a personal affair to remind me of some of the detail I might otherwise forget. Don't feel left out you wouldn't get the jokes even if I tried to explain it all. Pierce and Patrick the canadians, Pierre and Alex the canadiens, the russian, the two greeks, that german girl, lots of people and I don't remember any names!Afternoons drinking and playing cards in the park, learning Big 2 and Durak, Pierce's karaoke story, "I just want to sing", the animal noises conversation, quark-quark haroo-haroo cock-a-doodle-doo, dancing salsa and impressing everyone, dancing like lunatics in boca del lobo to odd jazz fusion, getting drunk on sangria playing kings cup and falling asleep sitting up until the russian came to put me to bed. The magician who did cool tricks and awkward conversations. The alternative guided tour including secret underground madrid, our lord cheesus and dragons. Singing ridicules songs. Cooking noodle goop, the only good food was made when I was far away from the kitchen, I did the washing up and smashed one plate. Watching the euros or bits of them. The exact same seats from a diferent side. The slowest story ever told.. and then I looked around and slowly people were starting to dance, and then in walked some more spanish people and they made me drink". Watching karate kid in awed silence then back to back Nick Cage movies. So many great times. During the days I visited the Reina Sofia an excellent art gallery with some Dalis, I love Dali and also some instalations on the lower floors. We also went to the Prado a much bigger gallery with more sobre art but by contrast we were in high spirits and laughed our way through the whole thing. Some racist jokes ensued and we had to call the whole thing of to get drinks and go to the park. Spent some sunny afternoons sitting in plazas and enjoying the beautiful architecture. Still by the end of my stay I was not comfortable with the spanish yet, still had lots of trouble with the accent. I also had dificulty getting food because restaurants in Spain serve plates of meat as meals and so vegitarian meals are hard to come by. Luckily our hostel had a kitchen and we cooked collectively the guys would always cook vegitarian just for me, which was nice, I'm not used to being the fussy eater.So I had organised work on a farm in Spain but it didnt start until 3 weeks later so  Ihad some time to waste. I knew I probably couldn't afford to stay in spain for that length of time so when Piere suggested I join him in travelling Marocco I thought it over carefully, I couldn't think of a reason not to, I ignored the nagging voice telling me I should be learning Spainish and jumped onto a bus for Casablanca. I was off and on the road again, will it ever stop?
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/martin84/global2008/1240135680/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/martin84/global2008/1240135680/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/martin84/global2008/1240135680/tpod.html Sat, 16 May 2009 11:36:24 -0400 Traveling around the world and back again

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Madrid, Madrid, Spain

I arrived in Madrid at 4am after negotiating customs, I was disappointed to not get a passport stamp, I found the entrance to the metro and then a place to curl up and sleep until the metro opened 3 hours later. I managed to get some sleep and was only disturbed by the cleaner, possibly the only person who visits the corner of the airport I had chosen to sleep in. By 8 I was up and about and ready to face the city. The hostel would not let me check in until midday and so I was back out on the streets, compared to egypt, india and the picture I had of spain in my head the weather was bitterly cold. Walking the streets of madrid is a real treat. I had come to Spain not knowing what to expect so what I got was impressve. There are beautiful buildings and quiet plazas everywhere, it brought back to my mind everything that makes Europe great. I was really nervous with my Spanish but tried it out in a few shops and a cafe. I recieved a few blank looks but I felt like with a bit more practise and confidence I could get quite good. The words were in my head and just wouldn't come out fast enough or sounding quite right. Back at the hostel after lunch I found that teenage dutch children were littering the common areas. Not the sort of hostel I was after. The next day I would move to try to find some people to talk to.I really needed to organise my life a little bit. I had a university application online that needed finalising and sending and three months in Spain to fill. Therefore, I was happy to find a hostel with free internet. I spent most of my first day emailing to volunteer programmes, spanish contacts and universities. The second day I noticed a notice requesting guests restrict internet time to 15minutes. Guiltily I carried on organising. But I was rewarded for my efforts, by my fourth day in Madrid I had sent my university application, applied for student finance, I had a tentative job on a farm in the north of spain for a month and I had complete details for a course I wanted to attend in Barcelona for a month that didn't need much notice. Considering I had arrived with only a vague idea of what I wanted I was very pleased with the progress I had made. I was rezdy to party and also to get out and see the city.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/martin84/global2008/1238588700/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/martin84/global2008/1238588700/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/martin84/global2008/1238588700/tpod.html Sat, 16 May 2009 10:45:22 -0400 Traveling around the world and back again

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Manama, Bahrain

Bahrain is a strange place, everything seems so new and yet artificial. This may sound odd but in my opinion the city has no soul. It reminded me of LA in that respect. There is no down town, no street life, no old monuments or particular sights to see. The new commercial areas with soaring tower blocks are certainly impressive. But maybe my opinion is biased I didn't have a very welcoming start. Anyway we should start at the beggining. You may remember that I had been having some money trouble when I left India, well I found to my delight that my card worked perfectly in Bahrain and it was a good thing it did.Feeling good, with cash in pocket I approached the taxi stand clutching an address for one of two hostels on the island kingdom of Bahrain. The place is full of big hotels I could never afford but budget accomodation is lacking. The taxi drivers all looked at the piece of paper blankly but where is it they asked. Eventually one driver claimed to know where it was and we set off. I realised immediately why the other drivers had not known the address, the whole city is numbered, there are no street names. After driving me around for about 45minutes the driver admitted that he didn't actually know the address I had shown him and offered to take me to a hotel he knew. I agreed but as soon as I saw the hotel I realised he had been taking me for a ride. I took my bag out of the car and the driver insisted that I must pay not only the meter price but also additional fees, I didnt have change and couldn't argue the point. He got away with the money and I walked away disliking the whole country.I found a hotel that seemed to be within my budget. As I was shown to my room a couple of girls that looked thai said hello to me through their open doors. After negotiating the room down to the best price I could, the bellboy asked me if I wanted any girls. I then realised I had checked into a brothel. That night my belief was confirmed by noices coming from the room next door.I knew I would not be able to eat in restaurants here as I had grown accustomed in India and found a small convenience store. Here was my second encounter with Bahrainian hospitality, the man behind the counter looked at me, not even glancing at the goods I had selected and picked a number. I payed and sat on a nearby wall eating my lunch and assessing the situation. I really wished that I had never come in the first place but I knew wishing couldn't solve anything so I formed out a plan and a budjet for the next few days.Early the next morning I changed hotel to the second of the two hostels on the island; phoning them first to get directions. I visited a shopping mall where I collected the money I had been sent, (thanks Joffy) and used it to buy food to keep me going until my flight left the island. Wheatabix and milk, fruit and sandwich creating materials. I spent the next few days wandering the streets and enourmous shopping malls. I didn't see many people around, the imagine (and the song) in my head was ghost town. Except diferent in this case because everywhere I looked were half finished building projects seemingly deserted. Not a city but a building site and between the half built high rises areas of desert remain, when the wind blows dust fills the air and clothes turn white to match the sand. I spent the rest of my time watching movies on the TV in the hostel. One evening I went out to a restaurant, tired of the food I had in the hostels fridge I ate the only thing they had on the menu. Meat after about 3 months without. I felt guilty as I had before, not guilty because of the animal but guilty because I was not keeping my vow.. not that I had ever made a vow particularly but the feeling was there regardless. I didn't really enjoy the meal as much as you might expect. I don't miss meat is the truth of the matter.Overall, it was a strange few days and I spent most of my time missing India and looking forward to Egypt. I was happy when it came to the day I was leaving. I had already scouted the route and knew I could take a bus most of the way. I walked the last half kilometer. Before boarding the plane I made sure that I had plenty of dollars, just in case my card didnt get on with the egyption ATMs.
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