Gibraltar

Our year-long journey started at the end of April 2012, and here we are 1 year later... filled with memories to fill our life's content. 

While in Morocco, we decided to take a ferry up to Gibraltar to spend a weekend.  Not because of any significant landmark that we were dying to see here..  but to meet up with Jen's parent who were passing through for a few hours while on their Transatlantic cruise.  They were kind enough to transport our laptops here for us, so that we can start the second part of our journey... working remotely, while travelling!

Jen was really happy to see her parents after such a long absence from home.  We met them at the base of The Rock... a huge mountain on this tiny peninsula.  We took a leisurely gondola ride up the mountain and slowly made our way down.  The day passed so fast, but it was great!

On our way down, we ran into several wild monkeys... who are apparently extremely aggressive if you have food with you.  We saw several monkeys leaping atop moving cars, and even saw one boldly go into the window of a minivan to steal a bag of food!

Since Gibraltar is part of the UK, we stopped at a Fish&Chips restaurant to enjoy a nice lunch with Jen's parent and their friends from the cruise.  Then it was time to walk them back to their cruise boat and say goodbye :(.

It's been an amazing year of travelling but we're both actually really looking forward to working and feeling productive again... not sure a lot of people get to say that in their lifetime :)

Oh!  We forgot to mention... since all of the hotels are crazy expensive here in Gibraltar, we decided to stay at a bed and breakfast.. on a boat... that's right... a boat!

Sahara Desert

There are deserts everywhere.. but not all are equal.  Most of the deserts we've been to so far, were rock deserts or small slivers of sand dunes. They were fun, but never really met that iconic image that we all get in our minds when we think.. "desert".  We were still in search of that classic desert scenery... endless sand dunes.. as far away as the eye can see.

From Marakech, we decided to check out the 3-day visit to the "big" sand dunes of the Sahara desert.  Unfortunately for us, this trip was probably the worst organized tour ever...  

We were picked up as planned and brought to the main square where they join the tour groups together.  Oops... it seems they overbooked the tour by 3 people and all of the mini-busses were full.  We had to sit in the square for 2 hours while they searched for another company/mini-van to send us out in.  Eventually, they asked if we could move our trip to the next day, but we had a night-train booked for the evening we were supposed to return.. since we had already lost 2 hours, we asked to just cancel the tour and get a refund, but they told us it's not possible to get a full refund and quickly disappeared on their cellphones again.  

Eventually, they end up throwing the 3 of us into a Taxi that would take us to meet up our driver/guide in another town.  They neglected to tell us that due to lost time, we'd completely miss the visit to the big castle along the way (another castle where Game of Thrones is filmed).  After figuring that out, there wasn't much we could do about it.. we accepted it and and were ready to move on... 

Unlucky for us, we met up with our driver/guide and he ended up being the absolute worst, most obnoxious driver ever.  He had such a bad attitude, was super unhelpful, made inappropriate jokes, constantly bashed on tourists, and anytime we asked for information he answered us like we where complete morons.  Our new friend Bobby, the 3rd overbooked passenger, ended up getting sick and puked out the window of the car (food poisoning).  For the next 30mins, our driver non-stop scolded him saying he was retarded for eating in the square (everyone eats in the square, by the way).  At one point Bobby asked the driver to stop the car because he was going to be sick again.  Bobby was laying on the ground outside the car looking horrible and miserable... our unsympathetic driver quickly lost patience and started screaming "come on!  just shove your fingers down your throat!  2 fingers, Bobby.. like this.. come on!  let's go!!". 

We eventually met up with the main group and 4 other tourists joined our vehicle, creating a nice conversational barrier between us and the driver... lucky for us, otherwise, Dom probably would have strangled the driver.

ANYWAYS... our long journey began by winding through the beautiful Atlas mountains.  Along the way, we did a few quick photo stops. 

We also stopped at a local village where another guide (he was super nice!) explained the traditions of the local Berber people.  He asked us not to take pictures of the Berber women as it is considered offensive to the family.  He told us one story of a journalist that took and published pictures of villagers working the fields.. when the husband saw the picture of his wife in public, he went straight home, divorced her and kicked her out of the home.. the wife didn't even know about the photo.

After 2 days of driving, we finally arrived at our destination: the Sahara.  We hopped on a camel and and rode 1.5 hours to the desert camp to spend the night. 

We climbed up a huge sand dune to watch the sunset and play in the sand.  The dunes didn't quite stretch out as far as the eye could see... but there were still quite a lot of them... this was certainly our best desert experience yet!

On our last day, we had an early breakfast and started our 12 hour drive back to Marrakech.  

Prior to booking this tour, we verified with the booking agent that the tour would return early enough for us to catch our 9:45pm train and were told we'd be back by 5PM.  We again verified this with the tour agency that picked us on in the morning and were told we'd have plenty of time.  Apparently they all neglected to tell our driver.. and when we went to verify with him that we'd be back in Marrakech sometime before 7PM, he was furious, drove like a madman, and yelled at us the whole way home for not telling him on the first day that we had a train to catch.  He got us worried saying he'd need to speed all the way back, and that if we got a ticket then we'd have to pay for it (yet he still forced us to make stops at restaurants all along the way... we think they get commission for taking tourist there).  

We made it to the train station on time and ran into other people from our tour group who were catching the same train as us... turns out that all of the other vehicles from our group easily got back around 5:30pm (as we were originally told).  SO, it seems our idiot driver was just looking for another excuse to yell at us and mis-treat us.... 

So.. The camel rides and sand dunes sure were super fun!!! .... the whole trip would have been significantly better minus the overbooking mixup and the idiot driver!!  Oh well!

Essaouira

Essaouira is a pretty port town on the West coast of Morocco which has recently become even more popular because of its appearance in TV series Game of Thrones, as the city of Astapor. 

It's a super cute town to walk through since it's so scenic and much more laid-back than Marrakech.  We would have like to spend more time there, unfortunately, we were misinformed about the bus schedule.. so our "day-trip" actually ended up being 6 hours of bus ride and 3 hours of visiting.  But, we managed to visit the fort, have a quick lunch in a cute cafe, and quickly walk a couple of streets.  It's definitely a place where you can relax and spend a couple of days... maybe next time!


Marrakech

We originally planned to spend 6 months working and slowly floating through Europe, but as Canadians, we are only allowed to stay a max of 3 months in Europe (out of every 6 months, cumulative days, and non-resettable).  We didn't realize this was a big of a deal since there are so many great places to see around Europe... but after doing some research, we discovered that this 3 month "Schengen Visa" doesn't just apply to EU countries.. it applies to every country that is part off the Schengen Agreement.  This turns out to be EVERY country in the European and surrounding region except for the UK (too expensive), Russia (we heard it can be tough to get a visa), Turkey, and the African countries.

So.. life can be unpredictable.. but we went with the flow and bought our tickets to Morocco!

When you think of Morocco, you think hectic bazaars, snake charmers, small streets, colourful crafts, tagines and mint tea...  We were not disappointed!  The old town of Marrakech is bustling with continuous activity and is a really pretty place to walk around. 

We stayed at a really cool hang-out hostel called Marrakech Rouge, where we had the best host!  Ali is unbelievably chill, friendly, and helpful.  He was constantly offering us the yummiest homemade mint tea with Moroccan pastries and, of course, always passing around the shisha (flavoured tobacco)!  The thing Dom loved most is that one of the official languages of Morocco is French!  In all of our travels, this is actually the first county we've been to where people speak French, so Dom was super happy to be speaking French again :)

The main square (or Djemaa El-Fna) is where most of the action is.  You can watch snake charmers, trained moneys doing tricks, various entertainers singing&dancing, eat at one of the many fresh food stands, get fresh pressed orange juice, or shop for various colourful handicrafts.  Our first couple of days were filled with an excitement of the senses.  

Visiting the souk means getting very lost in the massive maze of tiny alleys filled with a variety of shops: Tagines, slippers, wood boxes/carvings, spices, scarves, etc... If you adventure past the shopping alleys, you can actually see where they hand-make all of the wares that they sell.

Unfortunately, as we began to roam the more touristy areas vendors became a bit more aggressive and overwhelming:  Locals insist on being your tour-guide and follow you for several blocks.. if they give you directions and you actually go that way (even if you were planning to go that way anyways), they insist on tips and follow you even more.  In the square, a snake charmer forced a snake around Dom's neck, as we were just walking by.. then the snake charmer got aggressive and repeatedly pushed the head of the snake into Dom's face while insisting on a big tip.  On another occasion, two waiters fought to get us to eat at their stand and it became an aggressive, unfriendly tug-of-war where Dom was literally the rope... each of them had one of Dom's arms and were pulling him in opposite directions while Dom was insisting that they stop touching him....a bit too much.

Nothing says Morocco like Tagine and couscous!  ...and we had plenty!  Sadly, we were extremely disappointed with the food here.  We were really looking forward to experiencing real Moroccan food since the Moroccan restaurants in Calgary are so delicious!   In all of the restaurants here, the dishes were surprisingly flavourless, too oily, and too mushy.. the bread was always very dry.. and the prices were touristy-expensive!  Nonetheless, we still decided to take a cooking class :)   

Lastly, before departing for our next destination, we experienced our first Hammam (Turkish Massage).  Here is a quick description of the experience:  You arrive, strip, and wear a towel.  An attendant, strips the towel, smears you in Argan oil, then takes you to the sauna (or Moroccan igloo) where you sit for 30 minutes.  Once you're thoroughly cooked, they rinse you off and lay you on a marble table.  They then take sand paper (maybe not.. but it sure feels like it!) and scrape all of the dead skin off of your body, then another rinse.  Next, a 45 minute massage, another rinse, and then you can relax in the lounge drinking that delicious Moroccan Tea again!  Overall, an interesting and enjoyable experience with a decent price tag (about $15cad each for the 2 hour treatment) :)



2 days in Barcelona

What do you do when you have 2 days in Barcelona..?  Most would probably visit the famous buildings, churches, and other tourist sites.  For us, after being abroad for a year, we decided to do a bit of shopping!! 

We did most of our shopping in one store: Desingual.  A store that we first discovered in Cartagena, Columbia, where Dom fell in love with a pair of really cool shorts.. but didn't want to pay the outrageous $300USD price tag!  Since Desingual is actually from Barcelona, the prices are still sorta high but significantly more reasonable.. and there's a store every 2 blocks.... crazy... but we like their stuff.  Unfortunately for us, we're still travelling light, so we limited ourselves to window shopping plus a couple of items.

After our short stint of retail therapy, we also checked out some of the beautiful architecture that Barcelona has to offer.


We also happened to be in Barcelona during Saint Jordi's Day (Catalonia's version of Valentines day).  The story is that Saint Jordi slew a dragon to save a princess, and then plucked a red rose for the princess from a rose bush that sprouted on the exact spot where the dragon's red blood had spilled.  Now the tradition is that the boy gives his sweetheart a red rose, and in return, the girl gives her sweetheart... a book.


City of David's Tower

The City of David and the Tower of David are 2 distinct sites in Jerusalem.  

The iconic Tower of David wasn't actually built by David: The name comes from the Byzantine Christians who for a long time believed the site to be the palace of King David (the second king of the Israelites).  The Tower of David sits in a big fortification near the Jaffa gate that was used by different conquerors over time.  The entrance fee included a brief, entertaining, cartoon history of Jerusalem, and a wonderful view of the area. 

The City of David is where David built his capital after conquering Jerusalem.  Over time, it disappeared from view and is now an active archeological site.  There are a lot of ruins in the area, but one of the most interesting area is Hezekiah's Tunnel. 

According to the Bible, King Hezekiah prepared Jerusalem for an impending siege by the Assyrians, by "blocking the source of the waters of the upper Gihon, and leading them straight down on the west to the City of David".  Now you can walk through the 500m+ water tunnel.... in pitch darkness.  At some points, the water goes all the way to your hips (Jen's hips)... :)!  It was a fun experience!

Church of Holy Sepulchre

325 years after Jesus's death, the Church of Holy Sepulchre was built by Queen Helena, over the location where she believed that Jesus was crucified and buried. 

With the Lonely Planet's help, we made our way through the various niches to follow his last footsteps - the final five (of 14) Stations of the Cross:

  • Station 10 - The location where Jesus is said to have been stripped of his clothing
  • Station 11 - Where Jesus was nailed to the cross
  • Station 12 - Where Jesus died on the cross
  • Station 13 - Where Jesus's  body was taken down and handed to Mary, and the Stone of Unction where the body of Jesus was cleansed.

Lastly, we made our way to Station 14  - The Holy Sepulchre (the tomb where Jesus was laid.. or what's left of it) 

We thought that Jesus was buried in a cave/cavern!… apparently, over time, pilgrims took momentum rock piece from the cavern until it was all gone.  What you find here now is a marble slab covering the rock where Jesus's body was laid to rest.

We also learned that the Church of the Sepulture cannot be renovated due to the "Status Quo" agreement which states that everyone who owns part of the church, must agree in order to make any change to the church.  Since they can never agree, the wooden "Immovable Ladder" still sits above the main door of the church, and has been there since the 18th century!

Why was a ladder up there in the first place?  Apparently, long ago, the different religious orders argued about who should have the key to the Church.  They arbitrated by visiting a Judge... who decided to gave the key to a local Muslim family.  The family decided to charge for opening the doors, and since the churches did not want to pay, they put up a ladder and went in through the window.  When the Status Quo agreement was signed, the ladder happened to be there!  …(we think they leave it there because it makes for a nice tourist story ;))

Mahane Yehuda

Ofri and Niv recommended that we check out the Mahane Yehuda Market.  

We went there on a Friday, so it was SO much fun!!  It was INSANELY busy with locals swarming the vendors to make all of their purchases for/before Shabbat (Saturday) - the Jewish day of rest, where all forms of work are prohibited according to Jewish Law.  For strict followers, even cooking / lighting flames / using electricity is even prohibited, which is why they do all of their shopping and cooking on Friday :).

The market was awesome with so many new and interesting foods to see and sample.  We tried one of Ofri's favourite desserts called Halva, which Jen really loved (probably because it's made from sesame seeds and is full of sugar).

We also really enjoyed a giant bagel that you eat with a spice called Zaatar.

Lastly, we all met up with Ofri's cousin for lunch (at a yummy Hummus restaurant, of course!) and then went to his place for coffee and Baklava.


Thanks to Ofri and Niv for yet another great day!



Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum

If you ever have a chance to visit Jerusalem, a visit to the Holocaust Museum is a bit out of the way but is a definite must!  The museum is amazingly well done and very historically informative (about WWII in general, not just about the Holocaust).  

We spent a couple of dollars to get the audio guide and expected to be here for about an hour or so... 4.5 hours later, we realized the time had to hurry through the rest since we didn't expect to be there so late (and hadn't eaten all day)!  

You can't take pictures inside the museum, so you'll just have to take our word for it and go check it out for yourselves.  Admission is free so you've got nothing to lose!!


The Old City of Jerusalem

To finish off our trip to Israel, we spent our last weekend in Jerusalem with Ofri and Niv.  

Wow, such an incredible city!  There is SO much to see, learn, and experience.  Such an ancient city with so much history, where do you start…?  Fortunately, Niv found a free walking tour, which we all thoroughly enjoyed!  

Here's a summary of a few of the major events that occurred here:
  • World Creation: Ok, maybe it didn't actually start here, but apparently the Jewish people believe that the Rock Under the Dome was used to create the world
  • The Mount of Olives - where Abraham nearly sacrificed his son to prove his faith to God
  • David, the first Jewish king who built his city here
  • 586 BC - Persians (now-day Syrians) took over the promised land
  • 63 BC - the Romans took over the promised land
  • 30 AD - Jesus was crucified and died here
  • 570 AD - Mohammad ascended to heaven from the Rock Under the Dome (Note that there was no Dome at the time)
  • 638 AD - Muslims took over the promised land
  • 1099 - Crusaders took over the promised land
  • 1917 - the British came
  • 1948 - Israel was created

Here's the Jerusalem history cheat-sheet that our guide showed us.  Really interesting, but… way too many names and dates to remember!

Here are some other random facts that our guide told us (that we actually remembered):

  • Jesus is actually born in -4BC… apparently some historian made a calculation error at some point.
  • Before the invention of the compass, people used East (also known as "the orient") to orient their sense of direction because it's where the sun rises every morning when they start their journey.  Therefore, the word "disoriented" comes from when people lost their sense of which way East was.
  • Concrete was invented by the Romans
  • Armenia was the first Christian nation... "after the king willed it so". 
  • The Armenian flag depicts the Turkish Mountain Mount Ararat with Noah's Ark sitting atop it.  Mount Ararat is the mountain where Noah landed after the flood
  • Only 3-4 million people can do a pilgrimage Mecca during Hajj, per year
  • Once a believer has done a pilgrimage to Mecca, men add the title al-Hajji to their name and women add Hajiiya.  They also hang a sign above the front door of their house to indicate that they have made the Hajj.
  • The Christmas Tree came from the Catholic Church who was trying to ease assimilation with the Wiccan religion (they believe in nature)
  • In ancient times, the seeds of the Carob Tree were thought to all be uniform in weight in size so they were often used as a standard of measure for both weights and lengths.

Jerusalem is a holy city to 3 major religions (Judaism, Islam, and Christianity), so the various districts and streets all had unique blends of styles and cultures.

The Dome of the Rock
  • For the Jews, the Dome of the Rock is the first rock used to create the world
  • For the Muslims, the Dome of the Rock is where Mohammad ascended to heaven to talk to god and argue about how many prayers a Muslim should perform each day.  They started at 500 and settled on 5.
  • Barak (like in Barak Obama) was the name of the horse that Mohammad rode to the Dome of the Rock

Roman Ruins in the Cardo (heart of the old city).

The Wailing Wall
  • The western wall (wailing wall), is a holy place where Jewish people go to pray.  They also write wishes on pieces of paper and push them into the cracks of the wall.
  • Apparently this didn't become a significant place until 1967... after the 6 days war.  Prior to that, Israel's territory did not encompass Jerusalem

The Outer Wall