Monthly Archives: January 2016

Spain/Morocco Trip Part IV – Barcelona

Saturday, December 26 – Salamanca to Madrid to Barcelona

As I write this, we are on the train on the way from Salamanca to Madrid.  From there we will take a different train to Barcelona.

Eric’s full out sick today, poor thing.  Chest congestion, stuffy nose, droopy…the whole bit.  We’ve gotten some drugs into him and he’s sleeping a little now.  We’re grateful for another fairly slow-paced day.  We’ll see how he does tomorrow, but I might do a little exploring in Barcelona on my own during the day.

Tomorrow night we’re meeting up with my friend Marta and her boyfriend for dinner.  When I was 16, I stayed with Marta and her family for a month just outside of Barcelona, then Marta came to NC with me for a month.  I had the pleasure of visiting her house and her family again when I was studying in Sevilla in 2003 (age 20) when 3 friends and I traveled up to Barcelona.  This time, it’s been 12 years since we’ve seen each other, but I’m finally getting to the point where I’ll feel comfortable speaking to her!  We’ve been so awkward around each other in the past, so I’m excited about the possibility of reminiscing and hearing how things were for her in NC all those years ago.

Three Days Later:

We’re now on the train back from Barcelona to Madrid on Tuesday night, December 29th.  We arrived in Barcelona on Saturday night, the 26th, found our hotel, called Hotel Curious, and pretty quickly set out to find food.  We ended up a few doors down from the hotel at this wonderful little place where I had the most amazing salad I’ve had in quite a while.  I think I’ve mentioned before that Panamá doesn’t have much in the way of lettuce or salad.  Anytime you hear about salad, they’re talking about potato salad or something else mixed with mayo.  Not Spain.  Spain means lettuce!  And tomatoes!  And in my case this time, a sweet and sour chicken, sprouts, pomegranate, corn nuts (which I could’ve done without) and some kind of soy and sesame dressing.  Amazing.  I also had a Eric-like craving for bourbon, so I ordered a copita de Four Roses and we settled in for a little while.  Eric wasn’t quite as fond of his dinner, but he had a beer and as usual, the potatoes were pretty good, so he was happy.  Plus, he won a bet over the “Bubbles!!!!!  Bubbles, bubbles, bubbles!” fish in Finding Nemo.  I didn’t remember that he was the one to close the chest and make the bubbles stop.  Silly me.  Anyway, as most of you know, when Eric is right, Eric is happy.

The next morning, we slept in, a la España, missed breakfast and found a café just off Las Ramblas for lunch.  Las Ramblas is a beautiful street…or boulevard seems like a more appropriate term…where people stroll among flower carts, souvenir stands, cafés, artists, living statues and other street performers down towards a statue of Colón (Christopher Columbus), which stands high over the harbor.  Sadly, our café was not quite as lovely.  I depended mostly on the patatas bravas, as usual, to tide me over.

We then headed towards Sagrada Familia.  If you haven’t heard of it, hold on…I’ll get to it in a bit.  Unfortunately, when we showed up on Sunday, we found out that it’s closed to visitors on Sundays (good call…should’ve realized that’d be the case!), and that we couldn’t get tickets until 12:15 on Tuesday.  We were lucky we could fit it in before heading back to Madrid!  Sadly, there were no more tickets available to go up in the towers, so Eric will have to come back to have his chance to see those views.  I’ve been up before, so I wasn’t quite as bummed out as he was, but I still had wanted to go again!

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We decided our next step would be to go to another work by Antonin Gaudí, the architect of Sagrada Familia, called Parc Güell.  It’s a beautiful park up on a mountain overlooking Barcelona.  It’s hard to describe, but there is a lot of colorful, playful mosaic work in the long benches around the area and in the nearby gingerbread house-looking buildings.  It was free to get it when I was last there, but this time they wanted 7 or 9 euros for a 30-minute visit.  We said no thank you because you could get a decent enough look from outside and Eric wasn’t dying to go up close.

By this time, Eric had survived his worst day of whatever bronchitis, flu, cold thing that he had and had passed it on to me.  Since neither of us were feeling great, we went back to the hotel for a nap.

Next up was dinner with Marta and her boyfriend, Enric.  Again, Marta is the girl whose family I lived with for a month during an exchange program to Spain through the Rotary Club after my sophomore year of high school.  We had briefly seen each other again in 2003, but had barely even emailed since then.  I was glad to discover that conversation flowed fairly freely among all four of us once we got to dinner.  As Eric pointed out, when travel is the topic of conversation, everyone is eager to share their experiences and it’s easy to come up with questions to ask.  When I asked how long they had been together, both Marta and Enric responded by counting the number of trips they had taken together.  Each year during August, they take a month long trip to some crazy corner of the world.  The first year, and just before the war broke out there, they went to Syria.  They’ve also been to the Philippines, China, Indonesia, and India, I believe.  Pretty amazing.  Colombia is on their list, and we’re trying to steer them to Panamá too.  We may be a little biased.  Anyway, Eric had his first paella for dinner, which was fairly good, then Marta and Enric graciously walked back most of the way to the hotel with us, giving us a little bit of a tour on the way.  All in all, a very nice visit.

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On Monday, we headed to Montserrat.  Montserrat is…well…many things, from what we could tell.  First of all, it is a mountain (or perhaps a cluster of them) with absolutely stunning scenery.  Bazillions of years ago (or maybe not quite that long ago), some folks built a monastery up there, along with a chapel carved into this cave in the side of the mountain and some other stuff.  Now, there’s also a school, which houses and teaches members of their prestigious boys’ choir, along with a whole tiny little town.  There are also hours of hiking trails with incredible views.  Had we been healthy, had more time, and perhaps been a tad bit warmer, I think we could’ve spent a lot more time there.  As it was though, I was having my worst sick day and the hiking didn’t do much for my cough or chest and throat pain.

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Oh, and to get up to this crazy place, you can either drive, take a train, or take a cable car…which I would actually call more of a gondola.  It’s just one of those things that hangs from one tiny little arm that clamps onto the wires above it like a ski lift.  Always has seemed a little shady on the engineering there, but I figured if a GA Tech grad trusted it, I’d go along.  And it was fine.  The worst part of it was the combination of people shoving us out of the way to get to the windows to take photos and the people taking US politics in the center of the thing.  It was a long 5 minute ride.  Or maybe my sore throat had me a tad cranky.

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To get up even higher from there, we took this crazy train that sits at probably a 40 degree angle on the side of the mountain.  Again, a little scary, but pretty cool once my Yellow Jacket explained the counterweight system that kept it working.  There were two train cars on the track that always crossed in the middle, thereby keeping each other in place.  Yes, a shoddy explanation, but if you cared about details, you’d be reading Eric’s blog, not mine.

You’re right, he doesn’t have a blog.  And yes, I’ve asked him to guest blog.  For the past year I’ve asked him.  Obviously, no luck yet, folks.  Sorry.  Stuck with me for the time being.

So anyway, we got back from Montserrat, took our daily nap, then headed off to dinner at this lovely place that makes use of one portion of the old city wall as one of its walls.  There I had olives so big I had to eat them like a plum, a glass of red wine, and gluten free bread with tomato and jamón serrano on it.  Eric had this typical Catalonian food (that pretty much just looks like a pizza) with amazing chorizo, red peppers, and onions.  I insisted upon dessert, especially once I saw that they had flourless chocolate cake.  My favorite.  It was every bit as amazing as you’re thinking it probably was.

So today, Tuesday, December 29, we packed up our bags, stored them at the hotel, then headed off to Sagrada Familia for our scheduled and highly anticipated visit.  If you have never heard of it, it’s spectacular.  This church was designed by Antonin Gaudí in the late 1800’s and is still being built.  I’ve been lucky enough to visit it on 4 separate occasions – in 1998, 1999, 2003, and now in 2015.  It was incredible to see the progress they’ve made since my last visit.

The inside of the church has been completed in the past 12 years, and I had managed to refrain from seeing photos of it.  It was an incredible surprise to see it this time around.  Last time there was scaffolding everywhere, drop cloths, workers…you really couldn’t get a feel for what it was going to look like.  But this time…oh!  I walked into this huge place and felt awe like I’ve never felt before in a church or cathedral.  This is not your typical gothic cathedral.  The stained glass windows are brilliantly designed to just bathe the interior with warmth and light.  The columns are like trees, so you feel as though you’re in a huge forest.  I could go on and on, but I think I’ll just show you the photos instead…

And now, we’re on our way back to Madrid where we’ll grab some dinner, rest up tonight in a hotel near the airport, then catch our 10+ hour flight back tomorrow!  Then I’ll wash my jeans for the first time in 12 days.

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Spain/Morocco Trip Part III – Salamanca

So I realize that my posts from Spain are more like a journal detailing what we did than actually being my usual brilliant and captivating posts, so feel free to skip to the photos on this one if you like.  You have my blessing.

Day One in Salamanca:

Convent of San Esteban.  Old and new cathedrals – old means 1200s, new means plans began in the mid-1500s.  Amazing.  Took audiotour, also did tour of bell tower, etc.  Great views of Salamanca, saw the river and Roman bridge from the top, etc.  Found out the Casa de Lis was closed.  Then stumbled upon the Cuerva de Salamanca which ended up being a tower that you climb…not sure where the cave part comes in.  Amazing lunch at Vino Diario – tuna on bread, meat selection, potatoes in garlic sauce and some kind of shoulder steak that was just incredible, especially with the potatoes.  Eric also ran into what may have been the first IPA he ever liked, called Black and made in Salamanca.  I had a two dollar glass of the house red wine and loved it.
Walked up to train station to see if we could change our tickets to a later train on the 26th b/c everything is closed from now until about when we leave, but no luck.  Luckily we got in the main things we wanted to do today between 10-2 when everything closed for Nochebuena (Christmas Eve).  Apparently tonight is the main night when everyone is home with their families, so no restaurants or anything are open tonight.  The hotel doesn’t have a restaurant, so they are kindly having a very nice dinner catered for us.  Eric has ordered lamb.  I’m sticking with chicken.
Walked through the Plaza Mayor on the way home and it’s gorgeous, just like everyone says.  Instead of a Christmas tree they have a giant red ball ornament, which is pretty cool.  Came back to the hotel for a siesta and working on deciding whether we’ll brave the cold for midnight mass (from midnight to 2 am in a huge drafty 13th century cathedral or whether we’ll wait until noon tomorrow.  I’m hoping we can get up the motivation to go tonight because really, when else would we have this chance?
Looking forward to our peaceful little Christmas celebration.  Just the two of us and a city filled with amazing architecture from the literal Dark Ages.  Plus a comfortable hotel with a cushy bed, beers chilling on the window sill, and netflix at our disposal.
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Christmas Eve was lovely.  The hotel we were in in Salamanca did not have a restaurant, but they were kind enough to email us the week before we arrived to ask if we would like for them to order dinner for us from a nice restaurant and have it for us that night.  All the restaurants and tourist attractions closed around 2 pm that day (Thursday), so the hotel manager knew we wouldn’t have any other options.  Very sweet.  So Eric ordered lamb and I ordered chicken.

We wandered downstairs to the dining room around 8:30 and found that we were the only people who had taken the hotel up on their offer!  It was sweet though.  They had set up one table in the corner with a candle on it and insisted we have some wine.  The meal was fine…nothing amazing and not so much worth the price, but we were grateful to have a big warm(ish) meal on Christmas Eve.  We started with bread and jamón serrano (shocker!), then had some kind of crab soup with another kind of bread.  Because I had been sick in Tangier and my stomach was still not quite right, I didn’t want to risk any gluten or dairy, so I’m sure that’s most of my feeling that the dinner wasn’t fabulous.  The crab soup was really good, but creamy, so Eric did me a favor and ate mine too.

My chicken was good, but not as interesting as Eric’s lamb.  They brought out the entire leg, including the hoof.  I couldn’t even stand to look at it, but Eric seemed to enjoy it, particularly when he decided it was appropriate to take it down like a turkey leg at the State Fair.  Hilarious.  Dessert was nice, but again, lots of dairy, so I left most of mine on the plate.

After dinner, we had the pleasure of Facetiming with Eric’s brother and sister-in-law’s family, his extended family up in Maryland and with my parents, sister, brother-in-law, and niece (just one of them, the other had already gone to bed).  And actually the Facetiming started because when we came back upstairs after dinner, we saw that Eric’s sister-in-law Jennifer had posted this year’s Christmas video of our niece, Rylee, and our nephew, Tyler.  Each year, Jennifer takes pictures and videos of the kids making Christmas cookies, then does a gorgeous job of setting it all to beautiful tear-jerking music.  This year, they made cinnamon ornaments instead, but the effect was just the same.  Stronger, perhaps, than in years past because of the awesome interaction between Rylee and Tyler.  Big smiles, hugs, teamwork…it was beautiful.  Between the touching video and the feeling of being so far away from family at Christmas time, Eric teared up and we immediately called Ray and Jennifer and the kids.

I had imagined that we would be too sleepy or just plain exhausted for midnight mass, but after the uplifting visits with our families, we decided to go for it.  The service was from midnight to 1:30 am in a cathedral that was built in the 1200’s on a 35 degree night.  And it was beautiful.  The cathedral itself inspires a certain degree of awe, as you might imagine, with its 53 painted panels of scenes from the Bible behind the altar, gothic arches, and lofty dome.  But add that to the families that gathered in their winter attire – many with shiny gold, sparkly, or fur coats – the incredible voices of the choir, and the fact that the bishop was there (hat and all!!!), and it was almost overwhelming at points.  Poor Eric I know was sleepy and bored since the service was lengthy and all in Spanish, but I was so grateful that he was there with me.  It’s a shame; I really wish he could have understood the sermon.  The bishop had a sore throat and had lost his voice, so back-up priest gave it.  It was beautiful.  I wish I could remember enough of it to do it justice in a summary, but suffice it to say that a hopeful Christmas sermon in a beautiful Spanish accent by a sweet sounding old man fit the setting perfectly.  The service ended with the choir singing Noche de Paz (Silent Night), which always gets me.

Christmas (Friday, 12/25) in Salamanca:

Christmas was, in a word, peaceful.  We went downstairs for a late breakfast, then decided to exchange presents after returning to the room.  Well, actually, I was prepared to just give presents (aside from the ones that my parents had sent – thanks Mom and Dad!), as Eric had already given me an awesome bluetooth speaker as an early gift when a party we were having required its use.  We had only packed a few sheets of tissue paper, so I folded his gifts inside it (sans tape).  He insisted on giving me a tissue paper hat after each of his four presents.  After he had unwrapped three shirts and a new PS4 game from me, he gave me a new UNC shirt from my parents.  He then brought me another package, which I thought was going to be the scarf that we had bought in Tangier and kept wrapped as a Christmas present for me.  But he surprised me!  He had custom designed (on cafepress.com) a shirt with several silhouetted figures playing capoeira.  Evidently, he had found the images online and then spent several hours photoshopping each one to his satisfaction and positioning them on the shirt so that it looked like they were interacting with one another.  I was really surprised and touched.  A very sweet gift.

After gifts, we watched movies and napped for most of the day!  It was lovely.  Poor Eric was starting to feel sick, so it was good timing for a down day.  We Facetimed with my family for a while around 4:30 our time (10:30 am their time) and got to see Laine, the 5 year old, open her Star Wars movie from us.  She’s hilarious….she was so excited.  The girl is all Ninja Turtles and Star Wars.  Not surprisingly, she also loved my capoeira shirt!

We also got to see baby Summer eating some brunch and watch the rest of the family open a special surprise gift from us.   When Laine was probably four months old, I took pictures of her while I was babysitting, then surprised Jennifer (my sister) and Mom with collages on Mother’s Day.  Eric thinks it’s creepy the way I did it, but I saw the idea at a friend’s house and loved it.  I cropped nine pictures down into squares and each is a close-up of a particular feature – an eye, a nose, a foot, etc.  I love it.

So this year when we were in NC in October, I found the same dress that Laine was wearing in her pictures and dressed Summer in it while Jennifer and Drew were out.  Eric and Laine helped me take pictures, and luckily Laine didn’t mention the photo shoot to her parents.  I made a matching collage of Summer’s photos and gave a copy to Jennifer and Drew and a copy to my parents for Christmas.

So back to Christmas Day activities.  We finally got showered and headed out in search of food around 5:30 pm.  A lot more people were out than had been out on Christmas Eve.  Apparently it’s custom to have Christmas Eve dinner at home and then to go out to eat on Christmas Day…at least for a lot of families in Salamanca.  We made a quick stop at the University of Salamanca, founded in 1218 and still open to students today, on the way.  The façade of the main building on campus is extremely intricate.  There is a tiny frog sculpture hidden in it, and legend has it that if students could find it, they would pass their exams.  Other stories say that the frog represents sexuality and its location atop a skull stands as a reminder that distractions of a sexual nature can lead to death.  So there’s that.  Anyway, I knew where it was because I looked it up ahead of time.  And it’s a good thing because Eric couldn’t find it.

Plaza Mayor, Salamanca
Christmas dinner!
Found the frog on the façade at Universidad de Salamanca

We had tapas for dinner…again, shocking…then headed back to the hotel for a few episodes of Aziz Ansari’s new show and an episode of Homeland (our current favorite) to close out the day.  Poor Eric was feeling pretty puny by this time.

Spain/Morocco Trip, Part Two – Tangier

On the morning of Monday, December 21, we woke up in time to metro to the airport and catch a one hour flight to Tangier (or Tangiers or Tanger, depending on what language you speak and/or what kind of mood you’re in), Morocco!  I was definitely anxious, as I had very little idea what to expect, and it would be the first time aside from a weekend trip to Portugal 15 years ago, when I would be in a country in which I didn’t speak the language.  The official language in Tangier is French, but the most used language is Moroccan Arabic.  I believe Spanish is third, then English.
After running through the airport because we were told at check-in that our flight was already closed, we made it to the gate to find that no one had boarded yet.  We then had a gate change, then waited another hour or so before getting on the flight.  Yay for RyanAir!  The flight was very short – just an hour – and it was very cool to fly over the Strait of Gibraltar and see Spain behind us and Morocco ahead of us.  Or as I was thinking of it, Europe and comfort behind us and Africa and adventure ahead of us.  Exciting!
We quickly found our taxi driver, who had been waiting there since our flight was supposed to originally take off from Madrid (12:30 pm).  Not sure why he was there THAT early, but anyway, by the time we reached him, he had been there for quite some time waiting on us.  He told us he didn’t get my email to the hotel saying that we were delayed.  Oh well.
The hotel…was beautiful.  It’s called the Grand Hotel Villa de France, and it reminded me of something out of Dirty Rotten Scoundrels….does that reference ring a bell with anyone?  Something about the terraces and it being on a hill…I’m not sure.  Anyway, we were given the room two down from where the painter Matisse lived for a year back in 1912-13 and where he painted “Window at Tangiers.”  Kinda cool.  We came to find out that many famous people have lived in and visited Tangier over the years – from Tennessee Williams to ________.  Tons of movies have been filmed there too – at least in part, including From Russia With Love, Inception, The Bourne Ultimatum, and the latest James Bond film, SPECTRE.  Also, Archer was supposedly born there.  So there’s that.
Our hotel
View from the hotel. You can see the hotel gate in the foreground.
View from the hotel
View from the hotel at night
Our hotel
A little trivia, Tangier was an “international city” until the mid-late 1950’s, meaning, as Eric and I understand it, that it kinda existed as its only little country.  To this day, it has a Spanish, English, Italian, and German part of town, plus others.  Our first cab drive was very proud to point out one corner where there was a mosque, a Jewish temple, and a Christian church all within a few hundred meters from one another.  He explained that in Tangier, people of all religions live at peace together.
Anyway, when we arrived at the hotel that first day, Monday, December 21, we were greeted by a man who said he was there to take us on a walking tour of the city as soon as we got settled into our room, showered, and changed.  We hadn’t exactly been planning on this.  I had written to the hotel manager to ask who he recommended for a tour guide, and he wrote back to say it had been taken care of and we would discuss it further when we arrived.  I didn’t realize that he had already made our schedule for us!  We decided, however, to take advantage of the opportunity to make our first half day productive, and after a short rest in the room (and no showers or changing…dirty Americans), we headed off on foot towards the market.
The market was awesome.  We entered right in front of an olive stand and the smell was heavenly…at least to me.  Eric hates olives and was pretty grossed out.  Even so, the smell of all the spices was amazing.  We saw fruits and veggies for sale, as you’d expect, plus dead chickens and roosters hanging upside-down and huge chunks of meat on butcher blocks.  I actually almost ran into a dead rooster at one point and decided I should watch where I was walking.
Lots of dead birds hanging upside down. Not as bad as the ones that still had their heads though. EEK!
Olives! The smell was amazing!
Following our guide
Spices
We moved on to the Medina, the old area of the city where lots of wealthy people live, and twisted through narrow but beautiful streets up towards the Casbah…as in “Rock the Casbah.”  We also got a great view of the ocean and could see the lights from Spain across the Strait of Gibraltar, as it had gotten dark by that point.
A lot of men wore these pointed hoods.
We also visited several shops along the way, including a huge furniture/textiles/rug/jewelry/silver store that was three stories tall and absolutely huge.  The guy who showed us around this store spoke PERFECT English, knew where North Carolina was, and actually has a degree in interior design from Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD).  Amazing.  He noted that our accents didn’t sound southern, which I know will disappoint my Aunt Angela a bit.  🙂  Anyway, we had our first experience in haggling over prices at this store, where we were interested in a cashmere scarf for me (I didn’t know it was cashmere until afterwards…just thought it was pretty and soft…I’m so cultured) and a beautiful solid silver bracelet for our sister-in-law, Jennifer Paris.  We quickly found out that although prices were very negotiable, they weren’t just giving things away.  This was not like haggling in Mexico.  The bracelet ended up being quite a bit more expensive than we had been thinking, even though we did get him to cut the “original,” i.e. B.S. price by 75%.  Ha!  We walked away from that one…sorry Jennifer!  We got you a nice gift elsewhere.  🙂
I would love to have these in my house!
Next we stopped at a spice shop/pharmacy.  We were treated to a well-rehearsed explanation of the main spices and remedies used in Morocco (or at least the most marketable ones), including spices from cumin to saffron, hand lotion, some kind of soap-like bar that keeps bugs away when you rub it on your wrists, a tiny bottle of fleur d’oranger which supposedly helps with nausea, hangovers, and migraines if you sniff it and wipe it on your temples and knocks you out like Ambien when you put a single drop in a glass of water before bed.  Additionally, he had a tube of green lipstick that changed to red when you put it on your skin.  Interesting stuff.  We chose a few items to give as gifts and Eric did a fantastic job negotiating with him.  It was tricky when they acted like they were offended when you offered a low price, but that’s the game.  I insisted on taking my nice camera with us on our tour because…um…when else are we going to be in Tangier?…and that was evidently (and obviously, looking back) a clue to them that we had money.  Lesson learned.  The camera stayed in the hotel the next day.  But I’m grateful for my pictures!  Eric was very sweet to take most of them.
Spices
The “phamacist,” i.e. spice shop guy.
Spice shop
We next stopped at this random shop where we were introduced to a guy who I think was only identified as a Nomad.  LONG story short, we were given some history of his people, he dressed us up in nomadic clothing, served us the traditional Moroccan mint tea (helps with digestion, they say), then proceeded to explain in detail how they build their tents.  It was all very interesting, but when he started pulling out rug after wall covering after tapestry after blanket to show us, Eric and I decided it was time to figure out how to tell him we appreciated everything, but we weren’t going to be buying any heavy blankets to haul back to Panamá.  Very interesting guy, but we were so hungry and tired by that time.
Another fabric/scarf/blanket store with some tricky negotiating and a guy who thought it was hilarious to dress us up in turbans and take our picture, then we headed off to dinner.
Dinner was phenomenal.  We started off with bread, some kind of spicy red dip stuff, amazing olives, some olive tapenade, and some kind of green pepper…um…tapenade?  I couldn’t help myself…I threw my gluten free rules out the window (again…cause I had some bread in Spain too) and ate what I thought was a reasonable amount after balancing out the level of temptation vs. the severity of the stomach pain that I was sure to feel later.  We next had Moroccan soup…what’s in it, I couldn’t tell you, but it was awesome.  After that was this pastry type thing – maybe filo dough? – with veggies of some sort in it.  And the best part?  It was completely covered in powdered sugar and cinnamon.  Awesome!  If only my parents had known that trick when I was young.  The main dish was a tangine with incredibly tender chicken that just fell off the bone, potatoes, some unknown root veggie, and cous cous.  Dessert was orange slices covered in cinnamon plus some kind of baclava type stuff.  Again, amazing.  We finished the meal off with a glass of mint tea and headed back to the hotel quite content.
The next morning (Tuesday, December 22) we woke up late.  When we got down to breakfast, no one was there.  We were told that since there weren’t many guests in the hotel, they would just bring us what we wanted instead of having the whole buffet out.  Not knowing what all the options were, we ordered omelets and fruit.  After a while, our waiter returned with a huge tray of food, but instead of bringing it straight to our table, he set it on the bar and began berating the two maintenance guys, presumably, for working while we were there.  One guy continued to work on some wiring in the ceiling…right above our food.  Nice.  We’re fine with the work, just please bring the food to our table before it gets ceiling dust in it!  Kinda funny.  Anyway, we received omelets, olives (as always!), bowls of a mixture of diced pears, kiwi and oranges, plus a cheese and meat tray, a HUGE bread basket with maybe 10 types of bread, apricots, prunes, coffee, and fresh squeezed orange juice.  We did the best we could, but we barely made a dent in all that they brought!
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We were slow getting out that day.  We took a self-guided tour of the hotel and took pictures of the amazing view from the rooftop terrace, then came the biggest adventure of our little African adventure….the shower.  This shower was no joke.  First of all, I believe it was constructed from a modified pressure-washer.  Secondly, the water started out at a normal temperature, but I soon discovered that it would cycle through freezing cold, burning hot, then miserably tepid before returning to a decent temperature again.  Eric made fun of me because I was frequently yelling out as the temperature changed.  I was also rewarded with a beat-red back from the water pressure.
Our second water-related adventure of the day came when we ventured out to buy water so we could brush our teeth.  The following information will help in understanding this story:  the money used in Morocco is called the dirham.  The exchange rate was approximately 10 dirham to 1 euro.  Most vendors and stores would take either, but preferred dirhams.  When we approached the first stand to attempt to buy water, the shopkeeper, who didn’t speak english, indicated that it would cost 6.  6 what?  We weren’t sure, but given the prices we’d been given, we assumed he was talking about euros.  Sounds silly now, but it was a big bottle of water and these folks tried to gouge us on other things.  So Eric, again taking control of negotiating, offered 30 dirham, or what we thought was half of the asking price.  Kinda standard bargaining in Tangier.  After some confusing discussion back and forth and much disagreement, we decided we could not make a deal and walked on to find water elsewhere.
We later found water in the market, right after I almost ran face-first into a hanging dead rooster and a few minutes after we had seen two guys walking down the street carrying at least 6 dead roosters each, still with feathers and everything.  Good morning Tangier!  Anyway, Eric again offered 30 dirham to this guy for the water when he told us it was 6 euros.  After a couple of minutes speaking with this more patient and understanding shopkeeper, we realized that he was saying it was 6 dirham, or about 60 cents…not 6 euros!  So while Eric was arguing and offering 30 dirham, he was offering the guy 5 times what it was worth!  Luckily the guy was kind and honest and worked through it with us.  Made us feel pretty dumb for what had happened with the first poor guy!
After we brushed our teeth with our reasonably priced water, we set back out with the goal of reaching a big mosque that was built in the 14th century.  Crazy, right?  We wound our way through the markets and into the medina, found a beautiful view, then decided to head to the mosque and the Casbah.  However, as you might imagine, the streets are not straight, they are narrow, they end abruptly sometimes, so it was hard to navigate.  Nonetheless, we enjoyed seeing as much of the old part of the city that we did, and we eventually made it to our intended destination.
That night, we went via taxi to another hotel that had a nice restaurant.  We never would have found the place on our own, but the concierge at the front desk was nice enough to make reservations for us.  The decor was gorgeous!  The proprietress spoke French, as opposed to the folks the night before who mostly spoke Arabic.  There was also a French speaking couple seated next to us.  Between the French and the Sinatra-esque music, the atmosphere was quite different from the night before.  We had the same soup again, only with lemon confit in it which really brought out the flavors.  Next, Eric had lamb and I had chicken in an olive sauce, both prepared in a tangine.  Both came with candied pears, and we were treated to a slice of pear tart for dessert, on the house.  Eric was quite pleased with his lamb, and while I enjoyed my meal, I much preferred the meal from the night before.  Good experiences both though.  At least until…
Inside the French restaurant
After the French couple left, we were the only ones left in the restaurant.  The waiters and staff disappeared and we were left alone.  We were both ready to leave and get back to the hotel, so we looked around for a bit, trying to find someone so we could pay and leave.  After a while, all the lights went out!  Well, we decided, I guess they’re ready for us to leave too!  We walked down the two flights of stairs to the entrance to find that the power had gone out on the whole block.  Luckily we had cash and were able to pay and head back home.  I wonder how often that happens!
Unfortunately, I spent the next few hours back at the hotel pretty sick to my stomach.  I was lucky enough to have it clear up quickly though, and I had no trouble falling asleep.  Not sure whether to blame the bread or something else, but either way, I’m trying to exhibit more self-control in the baguette world now.  It’s hard….so hard.  My favorite things about Spain are bocadillos (sandwiches on crusty baguettes) and manchego cheese, and I’ve been craving those things since I was last here 12 years ago.  Hard to walk away from all this goodness when it’s right in front of me.  Eric’s been very helpful in taking away these temptations and gently steering me towards things that will be better for me.
On Wednesday, December 23, we flew back to Madrid, then took a train to Salamanca.  Long day of travel, but we’re now in the city where we’ll be for Christmas!  Though we enjoyed Tangier, I think we’re both happy to be back in Spain.  The degree of comfort we feel here is just through the roof compared to Tangier, as you might imagine.  We both decided, however, that we can see why so many Americans have lived in Tangier over the years.  It might take a few months to get comfortable there, but gosh, it’s a beautiful city with very friendly people.
One more note about our Moroccan adventure:  language.  So many people there speak at least four languages.  While our tour guide and many shopkeepers spoke English, we found ourselves using our four French words/phrases with hotel staff and the waiters at the second restaurant:  bonjour, merci, au revoir, and bon soirée.  We also used “salaam alaikum” (a greeting – “may peace be with you”), “la” (no) and “shokran” (thank you) with random people we encountered in town.  We spoke Spanish with taxi drivers who spoke a Spanish/French mixture back.  It felt so wonderful to find Spanish as the common language between two American and a Moroccan.  Overall, this part of our journey was a great adventure.