Christmas Break Part 1 - Travel and New Years Eve

Trip Start Aug 2008

Trip End Jul 2009

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Flag of Morocco Tangier, Morocco
Friday, January 9, 2009

1st of all ... Happy New Year!!
2nd ... This update will be in 4 parts, b/c I'm a huge dork and want the line on the map to go all over the place ... so read what you like ...

OK, so after my awesome Philadelphia airport update, I got on the plane to Madrid, took some night time cold medicine, ate dinner, and passed out. It was the best flight I've ever had! I ran into Erik Dronen (from Signal Hill) at the Madrid airport. He lives and works in Madrid, and he was looking for his bags, none of which were there. Sucks to be Erik! BOTH of my bags were there ... hooray!

I had to mail one of my bags to Switzerland from the Madrid airport (which I was planning to do), because Europe has stupid baggage allowances. However, because I had just woken up, was still a bit groggy, and wasn't really prepared for the whole Spanish-speaking thing, it proved to be a little difficult. Nonetheless, it got accomplished ... then I was on my way to Malaga to meet up with Erin, Sarah, and Melinda (Sarah's friend from StL).

When I got there, the girls were still on their day trip. However, I was able to get into our room, at which point I promptly fell asleep. When the girls got back, they announced that they had scheduled a day trip for us to Tangier, Morocco for the next day (New Years Eve). We hung out, caught up with each other, and pretended we were going to go to bed early in preparation for the next day ... which didn't happen.

Somehow I managed to get up in time for our 6:25am pick up time. It was a 2.5 hour bus ride to get to the port. From there, we took a 1/2 hour ferry ride to Tangier. I had my first Coca Cola Light of the trip on the ferry (this was before I discovered Spanish coffee). Coca Cola Light is no Diet Coke, but this one was AWESOME. It was in English and Arabic, and it had an old-school pop top.

Arabic CocaCola Light

Old School Pop Top

We had really high hopes as we approached Tangier. It looked really beautiful! We got on another bus that drove us around the newer areas of Tangier. They showed us the point where the Mediterranean and the Atlantic Ocean meet and even had a place where people could pay to ride camels.

Approaching Tangier

Ride-able Camels

Then we went on a walking tour of the old city and the Kasba. We weren't entirely prepared for the begging children on the street or the peddlers, but we still enjoyed our time during the walking tour. They took us to a traditional Moroccan restaurant for Moroccan food and they had a little band playing there too.

Band at Lunch

Soup

Afterward, the walking tour continued. They took us to a rug market, where they were essentially just trying to sell us their very beautiful, very expensive rugs. We told them we were homeless (i.e. didn't have home to put them in), and they told us we should just buy a small one ... not happening! Then, we proceeded to a 'spice shop.' The quotes are probably a bit miss leading ... there were no drugs involved, but it was definitely not a spice shop. I'm not sure how to explain what they sold ... it was more like going to a healer's pharmacy. They had oils and things to 'cure' just about anything. We managed to make it out of there without buying anything too!

Rug Show

Spice Shop

After our shopping tour, it was time to head back to Spain. The ferry back was a bit rough. A storm was moving in. I thought I was going to lose it, but the jet lag helped me out, and I slept most of the way back. When we finally got back to the resort, we all took naps to prepare for the New Years Eve festivities.

The girls found a great bar several days before I arrived and decided this is where we would start New Years Eve. They had AMAZING drinks. We all ordered off of the cocktails menu. We started to get a little concerned after it took more than 5 minutes to bring out the drinks. The wait, however, was well worth it! They brought out the drinks one by one, and they were all worth their individual fanfare! (It's also worthy to note that the Spanish pour awesome drinks ... like 3/4 liquor, 1/4 mixer!)

Drink 1

Drink 2

As it got closer to midnight, the bar passed out party supplies ... masks, hats, noise makers, etc. The Spanish have an interesting NYE tradition. They eat one grape per second for the last 12 seconds of the new year. If you follow it, you'll have good luck the following year. So, we counted down the end of 2008 all decked out and shoving grapes into our mouths!

All Decked Out

So many Grapes

The complex of bars and restaurants we were at also had a fireworks display and launched lanterns. It was really awesome!

Fireworks!

As this bar settled down, we decided it was time to move on ... so we headed to an Irish Bar. Somehow we made friends with the owners of the bar and hung out with them all night. They let us take pictures behind the bar and made sure our drinks were plenty strong.