Alright friends, even though I have returned already for 11 days I did not officially complete the travel blog so here it goes...the final 5 days.
Our last full day in Marrakesh included a trip to yet another palace...they all kind of start blending together despite the fact that they are pretty. Following that we went to the Majorelle Gardens a far more appealing gardens than the ones we went to the previous days. The only problem was as we were standing in line we noticed we no longer had the button for the camera that allows you to take picture so we had to use a pen to push down on the tiny button within the big button that actually takes a picture. Pretty ghetto but at that point we really didn't care that much.
The afternoon was spent doing some shopping, getting hit on by a man (told me I was a very handsome man and made no comment to Nadine), and bargaining some of the ludicrous prices they were asking. One of the friends we met joined us for some dinner and drinks on our final night in Marrakesh.
The following morning we got up and took a "first class" ticket to Casablanca via the train. It was like $7 extra dollars and it was a six person couchette, hardly first class. The drive was really quite nice scenery-wise. We arrived in Casablanca mid afternoon and just walked along the coast line towards the main Mosque (Hassan II) in Casablanca which is the third largest Mosque in the world behind Mecca and Medina and one of the few that actually allow people inside. We didn't go in on that day (we went in on our last day) as it had closed for prayers.
The next morning we decided to take a city tour after going to the tourist office. We were expecting some professional looking guy with a car of his own but it was a really nice older gentleman with one tooth and who had to order cabs everywhere we went. Not the most professional seeming but the guy was great and the tour was interesting (by the way the guy's name was Lucky). The tour took us to the new medina (we were staying in the old one), city hall, royal palace, through the European part of town, and again to the Mosque. We then went to Rick's Cafe which is designed like it is in the movie Casablanca. They have it playing all day long and we sat and had a crazy expensive drink in the room.
Our last day we took the tour of the Mosque which is really amazing inside. It took 6 years to build which is quite something given it's size and intricate nature of the design. All the products are Moroccan except for some Italian marble which is pretty neat as well.
After we headed to the lighthouse along the coast and then walked around the souks in the old medina in the afternoon. We just packed up after dinner and had our last sleep before our return.
The route home was pretty clear sailing except for the 5 babies all around us on the flight from Paris to Toronto who didn't stop wailing for 8 hours. Really didn't make me want to have kids but anyways that's besides the point.
That is all for this blog. Hope it wasn't too boring to read those of you who read most or all of it. Maybe one day I'll get to do this again.
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
Sunday, March 14, 2010
Victoria Falls to Marrakech
Here is my massive blog since I owe everyone about 2.5 weeks worth so get ready!
Nadine and I arose at 4am from Cape Town to catch our 2 flights that eventually took us to Livingstone, Zambia, host of Victoria Falls. After being back in the developed world for almost 3 weeks we returned to the land of the developing.
We checked into our hostel which was full of British teenagers enjoying their gap years between high school and university. Let’s just say we felt slightly old despite our young age. We decided to take the Booze Cruise on the Zambezi river our first night and to our surprise and delight these British teens joined us for the adventure. Not quite at the stage where they can hold their liquor, the lot of them got pretty inebriated which culminated with one of them smacking their head on the ceiling walking down a flight of stairs and nearly falling all the way down.
The next morning we headed over to Victoria Falls which are twice Niagara in height and about five times in width. They are quite something but because they are so huge when you go to see them you get completely drenched and most people, including us, are forced to rent ponchos. Also due to their size it’s hard to see the whole thing at once unless you take a helicopter or microflight and those are wildly expensive. Either way they are still worth it.
In the afternoon we decided to simply walk around Livingstone and try to get involved with the people a bit. Nothing really exciting happened so I won’t dwell on it.
The next day we were scheduled to fly out of Zimbabwe so we took two cabs to get to the border because they have special cabs that zip back and forth over the bridge, a rather annoying feature. The view of the falls from the bridge though is really amazing and is almost better than within the park. We got to immigration in Zimbabwe and had to get a visa just to go to the airport to fly out of there. We were told all along that it would be $30 but upon arrival we were told that is was a ridiculous $75. Basically we were paying $75 to travel 15 minutes to the airport and fly out. We argued for awhile but felt that if we (and by “we” I mean “I”) continued to fight there would be a good chance we’d end up in a Zimbabwe prison, which is not exactly on my bucket list. Anyways we paid, the flight was delayed an hour and we eventually made it to Jo’burg.
Jo’Burg was really just a stopover but it was the night of Canada’s gold medal win over the US with Crosby scoring in OT which lead me to be really happy and angry at the same time…happy of course because they won, but upset because I missed it.
The following midday we left for Dar Es Salaam. Upon arrival to the airport in Dar we apparently walked into an attack of locusts filling out our entry forms as did everyone else on the plane. It was quite the scene people filling out their forms and flailing around getting rid of these flies. We went to our hotel for the night and woke up early to get to the airport for 720am to leave at 920am. Upon arrival the lady behind the desk said your plane has been cancelled until 530pm. She says and I quote “We told the locals about the time delay, are you a local?” To which I had to restrain myself maybe more than I ever have in my whole life from saying to her “Do I look like a local to you being that I am white and EVERYONE else is black.” We went back to the hotel where they let us stay til the flight at 530pm which we got on and I kid you not the flight was 15 minutes gate to gate!!
We got to Zanzibar and had our hotel in Stone Town which is a really interesting part of Zanzibar with really narrow roads and buildings that have that Middle East feel to them. Our first full day we took a spice tour which is when they take you to a forested area and you walk around smelling and tasting all the different spices that come from trees and leaves and roots. At the end there is a full tasting of all the edible spices and fruits. After we headed to what Zanzibar is known for…the beaches!! They are the typical white sand beaches with tons of bungalows all along for accommodation all with restaurants and bars. Pretty nice! Our GAP trip provided nice rooms though the electricity in Zanzibar has been gone for 3 months so they are all running on expensive generators so at 2am they shut off the fans and I have never sweated like that in my life….seriously.
The next day we went on a snorkeling trip where a rickety boat takes you to the reef which is 2 hours away. The trip their sucked, but the snorkeling was unreal, really unbelievable fish. On that trip I was wearing my Habs hat and this guy started asking me if I was from Montreal. Turned out he was from Vancouver and was travelling Africa. But he also told me that he had been travelling in Guyana for 4 months the year before. He’s probably the first white person I’ve ever met who simply travelled to Guyana not working. We had a fish cookout on one of the beaches before heading back to our lodge.
At night we went to a restaurant called Cinnamon in which as one of their meals you could get a Cinnamon Club Sandwich. I made a bet with one of the girls on the tour that the club would have a hint of cinnamon which to me made perfect sense. Unfortunately I was wrong and lost $10 but the meal was good none the less. We went to another bar afterwards and paid the local Massai people to perform one of their crazy jump dances. Kinda cool and also kinda terrifying. Went for a little slightly inebriated late night dip in the pool at one of the fancy lodges and promptly got kicked out which pretty much ended that night.
The next day we relaxed on the beach and headed back to Stone Town to sleep for the night before heading on the overland part of the journey. We went to a market for dinner which is just hundreds of little stands selling all different types of food. It’s all lit up and is pretty cool to see.
The next morning we took the two hour ferry ride to Dar. They showed movies which was sweet except they started off with the second Fantastic Four movie from the halfway point finished that one and put in Spiderman from the beginning so basically we watched two halves of two separate movies. And there were subtitles in really terrible English from movies that were playing in English. Couldn’t quite figure that one out. After the ferry we embarked on a 10.5 hour overland journey to Moshi in the GAP truck which I’m pretty sure has no shock absorbers so needless to say you are bumping up and down pretty hard. It’s actually kinda funny. We made it to the campsite around 830 and pretty much passed out immediately after dinner.
The next day we made it to Arusha around midday which is where they signed the “Peace Accords” for Rwanda in 1993 prior to the genocide. The campsite was pretty cool as there was a Massai museum which is the local culture there and there is a snake and amphibian/reptile park within and I got to hold a snake for a little while. So did Nadine but I don’t think she thought it was as cool as I did.
The following morning we were picked up in 4x4s and we made our way to the Serengeti. We passed by the Ngorogoro Crater Rim which we would return to the following evening. The Serengeti may have been my favourite part of the travelling portion of our time away. We were able to see all of the Big 5 which includes Elephants, Lions, Leopards, Buffaloes, and Rhinos (every time I see a Rhino I think of Bebop from the Ninja Turtles…anyone?!?). We saw Simba’s Rock from the Lion King though I think they made that up after the movie, but regardless. The end of the first day our leader, who was in the truck with us, decided he wanted to start having a few drinks. So we “uncorked” his box wine, fashioned a glass out of the bottom of a water bottle, and Nadine made a straw out of an old pen because it was very bumpy and you would cut your lip of you tried to drink from the glass directly (as I can attest to). Needless to say that night got a little out of hand.
The crater rim was actually as cool as Serengeti because it’s just this massive land mass that is literally a crater from an exploded volcano millions of years ago. It has tons of the animals as well and it’s the only place you can find the rhinos.
We headed back to Arusha for our last evening before departing for Kenya the following day. After spending a whopping 2 hours at the border with our group as they handwrote each and every visa (ridiculous!) we made our way to Nairobi. That drive was 7 hours, followed by an 8 hour wait for the overnight flight to London, then an hour drive across town to a different London airport, than a five hour wait for our three hour flight to Marrakech, Morocco (36 hours in total from Arusha to Morocco!).
Marrakech is an interesting city as there is a massive market in the Medina part of the town which is really quite something. Hundreds upon hundreds of shops, restaurants, etc. line this biblical looking city. We had dinner there our first night and then fell asleep due to complete exhaustion.
Saturday we went to the Saadien Tombs which were pretty neat. However we found this shop that sold hop on hop off bus tours tickets. We bought a 48 hour pass from this woman and went to the stop after the tomb. We waited for 35 minutes for the bus to come before we returned to find out what was going on. After some arguing (obviously coming mostly from me) she told me that the bus didn’t run on Saturdays to which I replied why the hell didn’t you tell me that in the first place and why would you sell me this ticket!! Needless to say we got our money back. (oh and by the way turns out the tour company has been out of business since last week, I think they may have forgotten to tell that woman). We checked out the Royal Palace afterwards before heading back for some rest and then dinner.
Today we checked out the Marrakech Museum (lots of art), the large Koranic School followed by one of the baths. Then after a ludicrous search for another old palace we checked that out as well (nothing is labeled in Marrakech making it extremely frustrating to find anything and we all know how well I deal with frustration ). We then had lunch and walked for an hour to these gardens which have trees from the 7th century. Not overly pleasing on the eyes but a large local hangout.
Anyways that’s it for now and I’ll probably write one more blog entry from Casablanca before we return on Friday!!
Nadine and I arose at 4am from Cape Town to catch our 2 flights that eventually took us to Livingstone, Zambia, host of Victoria Falls. After being back in the developed world for almost 3 weeks we returned to the land of the developing.
We checked into our hostel which was full of British teenagers enjoying their gap years between high school and university. Let’s just say we felt slightly old despite our young age. We decided to take the Booze Cruise on the Zambezi river our first night and to our surprise and delight these British teens joined us for the adventure. Not quite at the stage where they can hold their liquor, the lot of them got pretty inebriated which culminated with one of them smacking their head on the ceiling walking down a flight of stairs and nearly falling all the way down.
The next morning we headed over to Victoria Falls which are twice Niagara in height and about five times in width. They are quite something but because they are so huge when you go to see them you get completely drenched and most people, including us, are forced to rent ponchos. Also due to their size it’s hard to see the whole thing at once unless you take a helicopter or microflight and those are wildly expensive. Either way they are still worth it.
In the afternoon we decided to simply walk around Livingstone and try to get involved with the people a bit. Nothing really exciting happened so I won’t dwell on it.
The next day we were scheduled to fly out of Zimbabwe so we took two cabs to get to the border because they have special cabs that zip back and forth over the bridge, a rather annoying feature. The view of the falls from the bridge though is really amazing and is almost better than within the park. We got to immigration in Zimbabwe and had to get a visa just to go to the airport to fly out of there. We were told all along that it would be $30 but upon arrival we were told that is was a ridiculous $75. Basically we were paying $75 to travel 15 minutes to the airport and fly out. We argued for awhile but felt that if we (and by “we” I mean “I”) continued to fight there would be a good chance we’d end up in a Zimbabwe prison, which is not exactly on my bucket list. Anyways we paid, the flight was delayed an hour and we eventually made it to Jo’burg.
Jo’Burg was really just a stopover but it was the night of Canada’s gold medal win over the US with Crosby scoring in OT which lead me to be really happy and angry at the same time…happy of course because they won, but upset because I missed it.
The following midday we left for Dar Es Salaam. Upon arrival to the airport in Dar we apparently walked into an attack of locusts filling out our entry forms as did everyone else on the plane. It was quite the scene people filling out their forms and flailing around getting rid of these flies. We went to our hotel for the night and woke up early to get to the airport for 720am to leave at 920am. Upon arrival the lady behind the desk said your plane has been cancelled until 530pm. She says and I quote “We told the locals about the time delay, are you a local?” To which I had to restrain myself maybe more than I ever have in my whole life from saying to her “Do I look like a local to you being that I am white and EVERYONE else is black.” We went back to the hotel where they let us stay til the flight at 530pm which we got on and I kid you not the flight was 15 minutes gate to gate!!
We got to Zanzibar and had our hotel in Stone Town which is a really interesting part of Zanzibar with really narrow roads and buildings that have that Middle East feel to them. Our first full day we took a spice tour which is when they take you to a forested area and you walk around smelling and tasting all the different spices that come from trees and leaves and roots. At the end there is a full tasting of all the edible spices and fruits. After we headed to what Zanzibar is known for…the beaches!! They are the typical white sand beaches with tons of bungalows all along for accommodation all with restaurants and bars. Pretty nice! Our GAP trip provided nice rooms though the electricity in Zanzibar has been gone for 3 months so they are all running on expensive generators so at 2am they shut off the fans and I have never sweated like that in my life….seriously.
The next day we went on a snorkeling trip where a rickety boat takes you to the reef which is 2 hours away. The trip their sucked, but the snorkeling was unreal, really unbelievable fish. On that trip I was wearing my Habs hat and this guy started asking me if I was from Montreal. Turned out he was from Vancouver and was travelling Africa. But he also told me that he had been travelling in Guyana for 4 months the year before. He’s probably the first white person I’ve ever met who simply travelled to Guyana not working. We had a fish cookout on one of the beaches before heading back to our lodge.
At night we went to a restaurant called Cinnamon in which as one of their meals you could get a Cinnamon Club Sandwich. I made a bet with one of the girls on the tour that the club would have a hint of cinnamon which to me made perfect sense. Unfortunately I was wrong and lost $10 but the meal was good none the less. We went to another bar afterwards and paid the local Massai people to perform one of their crazy jump dances. Kinda cool and also kinda terrifying. Went for a little slightly inebriated late night dip in the pool at one of the fancy lodges and promptly got kicked out which pretty much ended that night.
The next day we relaxed on the beach and headed back to Stone Town to sleep for the night before heading on the overland part of the journey. We went to a market for dinner which is just hundreds of little stands selling all different types of food. It’s all lit up and is pretty cool to see.
The next morning we took the two hour ferry ride to Dar. They showed movies which was sweet except they started off with the second Fantastic Four movie from the halfway point finished that one and put in Spiderman from the beginning so basically we watched two halves of two separate movies. And there were subtitles in really terrible English from movies that were playing in English. Couldn’t quite figure that one out. After the ferry we embarked on a 10.5 hour overland journey to Moshi in the GAP truck which I’m pretty sure has no shock absorbers so needless to say you are bumping up and down pretty hard. It’s actually kinda funny. We made it to the campsite around 830 and pretty much passed out immediately after dinner.
The next day we made it to Arusha around midday which is where they signed the “Peace Accords” for Rwanda in 1993 prior to the genocide. The campsite was pretty cool as there was a Massai museum which is the local culture there and there is a snake and amphibian/reptile park within and I got to hold a snake for a little while. So did Nadine but I don’t think she thought it was as cool as I did.
The following morning we were picked up in 4x4s and we made our way to the Serengeti. We passed by the Ngorogoro Crater Rim which we would return to the following evening. The Serengeti may have been my favourite part of the travelling portion of our time away. We were able to see all of the Big 5 which includes Elephants, Lions, Leopards, Buffaloes, and Rhinos (every time I see a Rhino I think of Bebop from the Ninja Turtles…anyone?!?). We saw Simba’s Rock from the Lion King though I think they made that up after the movie, but regardless. The end of the first day our leader, who was in the truck with us, decided he wanted to start having a few drinks. So we “uncorked” his box wine, fashioned a glass out of the bottom of a water bottle, and Nadine made a straw out of an old pen because it was very bumpy and you would cut your lip of you tried to drink from the glass directly (as I can attest to). Needless to say that night got a little out of hand.
The crater rim was actually as cool as Serengeti because it’s just this massive land mass that is literally a crater from an exploded volcano millions of years ago. It has tons of the animals as well and it’s the only place you can find the rhinos.
We headed back to Arusha for our last evening before departing for Kenya the following day. After spending a whopping 2 hours at the border with our group as they handwrote each and every visa (ridiculous!) we made our way to Nairobi. That drive was 7 hours, followed by an 8 hour wait for the overnight flight to London, then an hour drive across town to a different London airport, than a five hour wait for our three hour flight to Marrakech, Morocco (36 hours in total from Arusha to Morocco!).
Marrakech is an interesting city as there is a massive market in the Medina part of the town which is really quite something. Hundreds upon hundreds of shops, restaurants, etc. line this biblical looking city. We had dinner there our first night and then fell asleep due to complete exhaustion.
Saturday we went to the Saadien Tombs which were pretty neat. However we found this shop that sold hop on hop off bus tours tickets. We bought a 48 hour pass from this woman and went to the stop after the tomb. We waited for 35 minutes for the bus to come before we returned to find out what was going on. After some arguing (obviously coming mostly from me) she told me that the bus didn’t run on Saturdays to which I replied why the hell didn’t you tell me that in the first place and why would you sell me this ticket!! Needless to say we got our money back. (oh and by the way turns out the tour company has been out of business since last week, I think they may have forgotten to tell that woman). We checked out the Royal Palace afterwards before heading back for some rest and then dinner.
Today we checked out the Marrakech Museum (lots of art), the large Koranic School followed by one of the baths. Then after a ludicrous search for another old palace we checked that out as well (nothing is labeled in Marrakech making it extremely frustrating to find anything and we all know how well I deal with frustration ). We then had lunch and walked for an hour to these gardens which have trees from the 7th century. Not overly pleasing on the eyes but a large local hangout.
Anyways that’s it for now and I’ll probably write one more blog entry from Casablanca before we return on Friday!!
Friday, February 26, 2010
The Rest of Barcelona and all of Cape Town
Ok so I’ve slacked off big time over the past 8 days but it’s been a bit of a whirlwind and does not seem to be slowing down any time soon (though we do return in 3 weeks).
So a team consisting of me, Nadine, and two other Canadians ended up winning quiz night and in the process winning 125 Euros to be split between the 4 of us. Not bad considering most teams had 8-10 people (it helped that there were three questions concerning Canada including “In which country can you find the township of Dildo”…answer, Newfoundland, Canada)
Nadine and I took our share (which were really 5 Euro tickets to be used at designated areas) and spent the next day doing a bike tour around Barcelona with the guy who ran quiz night (an Australian guy who was supposed to come to Barcelona for 10 days and stayed 9 ½ years). The bike tour was great and I got to ride what looked like a chopper bike in the sense that I was sitting like I was on a Harley. Stopped for some 1 Euro wine and tapas during the tour which wasn’t too bad either. We did the Picasso museum as well which was a little better than the one in Paris that I did the last time I was in France. At night we went for a Spanish cooking lesson and made Sangrias and Pailella.
Friday we went up to one of the hillside areas of Barcelona mainly so I could see the Olympic stadium and everything that was built around it to spruce Barcelona up in 1992. Most locals will tell you that the place had not been restored since Franco destroyed in during the Spanish Civil War in 1936, and the Olympics was the catalyst for it. The National Palace and other monuments surrounds the stadium and the swimming pool and it sits in a great setting on top of the hillside.
Saturday our day was basically dedicated to Antoni Gaudi the famous Spanish architect as we first went to his unbelievable park that sits on the other mountain-side area of Barcelona. We then went to two of his buildings in the city which stand out immensely and we went in one of them. The architecture is very unique and is heavily influenced by his absinthe drinking. We topped it off with the Sagrada Familia church which we had seen the outside during the bike tour but did not go inside the first time. We went in this time and unfortunately they still have not completed it even though Gaudi died in 1926. It will be massive but is strange in the sense that the new architects have made their own redesigns so it looks a little funny from the outside.
We left Barcelona Sunday evening and flew back to London only to fly 11.5 hours down to Cape Town. We arrived back in the “developing” world Monday morning (developing is in quotations because Cape Town hardly looks developing). We checked out the Waterfront once we had set our bags at Duncan’s place. We then decided on basically no rest to climb Lion’s Head mountain which is part of the Table Mountain National Park chain of mountains. Duncan and his two female roommates were on full rest as opposed to Nadine and I who were slightly exhausted. None the less it was one of the greatest scenery shots I have ever seen as Cape Town is surrounded by unbelievable oceans and mountains which might make it the prettiest city I have ever been to.
Tuesday Nadine and I took the hop on hop off tour bus and checked out the South Africa Museum, Jewish Museum, District 6 museum (which the movie District 9 is apparently loosely based on), and rode the bus the rest of the circuit seeing some of the other scenes in Cape Town.
Wednesday, after Duncan and I stayed up to watch Canada wallop Germany until 5am, him, me, Nadine, and his roommates hit the road to drive to Simon’s Town and Cape Point. Simon’s Town is the scene of penguins walking around and you can basically get up right beside them but do not touch them as they bite. The drive from Simon’s Town to Cape Point is the most spectacular drive I have ever taken and the scene at Cape Point might beat the one from Lion’s Head, though it is very close.
This morning, again after Duncan and I watched Canada hammer Russia until 5am, Nadine and I took the incredibly sea-sick inducing ferry ride to Robben Island which is the prison where Mandela and other political prisoners, along with common law prisoners, resided until the early eighties. It is quite the scene and 120 people actually still live there despite the fact that the prison has not been a prison since 1996. Mandela’s cell is the only one with stuff still in it as it is obviously a huge tourist attraction.
That is all for now as Nadine and I are headed to Zambia for Victoria Falls in the morning.
So a team consisting of me, Nadine, and two other Canadians ended up winning quiz night and in the process winning 125 Euros to be split between the 4 of us. Not bad considering most teams had 8-10 people (it helped that there were three questions concerning Canada including “In which country can you find the township of Dildo”…answer, Newfoundland, Canada)
Nadine and I took our share (which were really 5 Euro tickets to be used at designated areas) and spent the next day doing a bike tour around Barcelona with the guy who ran quiz night (an Australian guy who was supposed to come to Barcelona for 10 days and stayed 9 ½ years). The bike tour was great and I got to ride what looked like a chopper bike in the sense that I was sitting like I was on a Harley. Stopped for some 1 Euro wine and tapas during the tour which wasn’t too bad either. We did the Picasso museum as well which was a little better than the one in Paris that I did the last time I was in France. At night we went for a Spanish cooking lesson and made Sangrias and Pailella.
Friday we went up to one of the hillside areas of Barcelona mainly so I could see the Olympic stadium and everything that was built around it to spruce Barcelona up in 1992. Most locals will tell you that the place had not been restored since Franco destroyed in during the Spanish Civil War in 1936, and the Olympics was the catalyst for it. The National Palace and other monuments surrounds the stadium and the swimming pool and it sits in a great setting on top of the hillside.
Saturday our day was basically dedicated to Antoni Gaudi the famous Spanish architect as we first went to his unbelievable park that sits on the other mountain-side area of Barcelona. We then went to two of his buildings in the city which stand out immensely and we went in one of them. The architecture is very unique and is heavily influenced by his absinthe drinking. We topped it off with the Sagrada Familia church which we had seen the outside during the bike tour but did not go inside the first time. We went in this time and unfortunately they still have not completed it even though Gaudi died in 1926. It will be massive but is strange in the sense that the new architects have made their own redesigns so it looks a little funny from the outside.
We left Barcelona Sunday evening and flew back to London only to fly 11.5 hours down to Cape Town. We arrived back in the “developing” world Monday morning (developing is in quotations because Cape Town hardly looks developing). We checked out the Waterfront once we had set our bags at Duncan’s place. We then decided on basically no rest to climb Lion’s Head mountain which is part of the Table Mountain National Park chain of mountains. Duncan and his two female roommates were on full rest as opposed to Nadine and I who were slightly exhausted. None the less it was one of the greatest scenery shots I have ever seen as Cape Town is surrounded by unbelievable oceans and mountains which might make it the prettiest city I have ever been to.
Tuesday Nadine and I took the hop on hop off tour bus and checked out the South Africa Museum, Jewish Museum, District 6 museum (which the movie District 9 is apparently loosely based on), and rode the bus the rest of the circuit seeing some of the other scenes in Cape Town.
Wednesday, after Duncan and I stayed up to watch Canada wallop Germany until 5am, him, me, Nadine, and his roommates hit the road to drive to Simon’s Town and Cape Point. Simon’s Town is the scene of penguins walking around and you can basically get up right beside them but do not touch them as they bite. The drive from Simon’s Town to Cape Point is the most spectacular drive I have ever taken and the scene at Cape Point might beat the one from Lion’s Head, though it is very close.
This morning, again after Duncan and I watched Canada hammer Russia until 5am, Nadine and I took the incredibly sea-sick inducing ferry ride to Robben Island which is the prison where Mandela and other political prisoners, along with common law prisoners, resided until the early eighties. It is quite the scene and 120 people actually still live there despite the fact that the prison has not been a prison since 1996. Mandela’s cell is the only one with stuff still in it as it is obviously a huge tourist attraction.
That is all for now as Nadine and I are headed to Zambia for Victoria Falls in the morning.
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
Barcelona
We arrived in Barcelona early yesterday morning and made it to the hostel by noon. Hostels seem to have become a little more sophisticated since I was last in Europe but I think I might be getting a bit old for some of them. Nadine and I are sharing a room with a bunch of girls who are studying abroad I assume in their thirs years (20 of 21 years old). It makes us feel a bit old but whatcha gonna do.
We took a walk to La Ramblas and walked up to the Place de Catlauyna that has some pretty nice monuments and stuff like that. We also walked around the main outdoor market which looks like a more sophisticated version of the ones in Guyana.
We then walked to the Gothic Cathedral which is beside the fortress wall built 2000 years ago in which 2/3 of it is actually underground.
We then walked over to the parliament park with the buildings and their arc de triomphe which is a much smaller version of the one in Paris.
After we headed over to the Museum of Chocolate which is really quite something as it gives you the history of chocolate and then has a bunch of chocolate-made sculptures and your ticket for entry is a chocolate bar (which I may have eaten before I got in if it had not been for Nadine's astute observation that it was in fact the ticket).
Went to a bar called the Irish Rambler near our hostel at night because there was some huge soccer games on and it really is unreal how huge soccer is outside North America.
Today we took a walk down to the Christopher Columbus monument and walked around the pier. We then took a two hour walking tour which was great because I don't know much about Spanish history or what it is I'm looking at here but our guide explained it all. We went back to the cathedral, took a walk to the highest point in old Barcelona and saw the original roman columns, went to the art building and saw where Picasso got it on for the first time (not kidding!), went to some nice squares and not so nice squares (George Orwell Square has a weird monument in it that attracted drug addicts who trip out on it so around here that square is aptly named Trippy Square. Went to the Picasso museum afterwards. Very different from the one I went to in Paris the last time I went to Europe but impressive regardless.
Tonight we go to the Barcelona version of quiz night. I'll update later.
We took a walk to La Ramblas and walked up to the Place de Catlauyna that has some pretty nice monuments and stuff like that. We also walked around the main outdoor market which looks like a more sophisticated version of the ones in Guyana.
We then walked to the Gothic Cathedral which is beside the fortress wall built 2000 years ago in which 2/3 of it is actually underground.
We then walked over to the parliament park with the buildings and their arc de triomphe which is a much smaller version of the one in Paris.
After we headed over to the Museum of Chocolate which is really quite something as it gives you the history of chocolate and then has a bunch of chocolate-made sculptures and your ticket for entry is a chocolate bar (which I may have eaten before I got in if it had not been for Nadine's astute observation that it was in fact the ticket).
Went to a bar called the Irish Rambler near our hostel at night because there was some huge soccer games on and it really is unreal how huge soccer is outside North America.
Today we took a walk down to the Christopher Columbus monument and walked around the pier. We then took a two hour walking tour which was great because I don't know much about Spanish history or what it is I'm looking at here but our guide explained it all. We went back to the cathedral, took a walk to the highest point in old Barcelona and saw the original roman columns, went to the art building and saw where Picasso got it on for the first time (not kidding!), went to some nice squares and not so nice squares (George Orwell Square has a weird monument in it that attracted drug addicts who trip out on it so around here that square is aptly named Trippy Square. Went to the Picasso museum afterwards. Very different from the one I went to in Paris the last time I went to Europe but impressive regardless.
Tonight we go to the Barcelona version of quiz night. I'll update later.
Monday, February 15, 2010
The Last Few Days in Paris
Saturday we woke up and went to the Louvre. I'm pretty sure you could spend a year in Paris, hit up the Louvre every day and still not cover the whole thing. We were there for 3-4 hours and did about 2 floors. We did the Mona Lisa, which always fascinates me at its popularity because to someone who is not a trained artist (i know that comes to a shock to most of you) it doesn't look all that impressive and is quite small. Either way, the Louvre is still interesting for a while.
After the Louvre we went to the Notre Dame cathedral which is always pretty neat though we didn't get to climb it this time because of ice (i did it last time but for nadine that kind of sucked).
We then walked to Hotel de Ville which had a pretty cool ice rink on the outside though it looked like if you wanted to skate you had to rent figure skates and i'm pretty sure i would die if i tried to skate in those.
Took a walk over to the Centre Pompidou which is like the isor of paris and went it for a bit but it was more contemporary "art" so we didn't last that long. Went for a few drinks at night near us in Montmartre.
Sunday we went to the Catacombs which have these crazy underground passages of old skulls and bones that were moved from many of the cemetaries that were spreading disease in the late 1700s and early 1800s. Pretty creepy.
After the Catacombs we went to the Pantheon which had a lot of famous dead people like Voltaire, Braille, Hugo, Dumas, etc. (pretty morbid day I guess). Walked around the Latin Quarter til dinner and then we went to the Eiffel Tower at night (i'm pretty much screwed for all other Valentine's Day dates after this one!!). We waited in line but got up and the view there is unreal especially at night. Though on the way up the elevator kinda stopped for a bit to which the lady running it said, and I quote, "don't worry we are not going to die". Ummm, I don't remember asking or even thinking about dying but I'm pretty sure I am now.
Our last day we went to the Conciegerie in the morning which was/is the justice palace but it had some cool things from the Revolution such as Marie Antoinette's prison cell before she was executed.
In the afternoon we just walked around Champs Elysees for a while and then came back to relax and pack before our early flight.
Tomorrow morning we are off to Barcelona.
Speak soon.
PS one of the most underrated funny things in paris is the voices on the metro announcing the stops. it's a lady who, about 100m before the stop says the name of the stop in the form of a question like Ternes??, drawn out to get you all excited, and then 2 seconds later when you get there she says it again but this time like you've finally arrived, Ternes. Hard to explain but funny none the less.
After the Louvre we went to the Notre Dame cathedral which is always pretty neat though we didn't get to climb it this time because of ice (i did it last time but for nadine that kind of sucked).
We then walked to Hotel de Ville which had a pretty cool ice rink on the outside though it looked like if you wanted to skate you had to rent figure skates and i'm pretty sure i would die if i tried to skate in those.
Took a walk over to the Centre Pompidou which is like the isor of paris and went it for a bit but it was more contemporary "art" so we didn't last that long. Went for a few drinks at night near us in Montmartre.
Sunday we went to the Catacombs which have these crazy underground passages of old skulls and bones that were moved from many of the cemetaries that were spreading disease in the late 1700s and early 1800s. Pretty creepy.
After the Catacombs we went to the Pantheon which had a lot of famous dead people like Voltaire, Braille, Hugo, Dumas, etc. (pretty morbid day I guess). Walked around the Latin Quarter til dinner and then we went to the Eiffel Tower at night (i'm pretty much screwed for all other Valentine's Day dates after this one!!). We waited in line but got up and the view there is unreal especially at night. Though on the way up the elevator kinda stopped for a bit to which the lady running it said, and I quote, "don't worry we are not going to die". Ummm, I don't remember asking or even thinking about dying but I'm pretty sure I am now.
Our last day we went to the Conciegerie in the morning which was/is the justice palace but it had some cool things from the Revolution such as Marie Antoinette's prison cell before she was executed.
In the afternoon we just walked around Champs Elysees for a while and then came back to relax and pack before our early flight.
Tomorrow morning we are off to Barcelona.
Speak soon.
PS one of the most underrated funny things in paris is the voices on the metro announcing the stops. it's a lady who, about 100m before the stop says the name of the stop in the form of a question like Ternes??, drawn out to get you all excited, and then 2 seconds later when you get there she says it again but this time like you've finally arrived, Ternes. Hard to explain but funny none the less.
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
our last night out and return to the developed world
so we had our last night out in Georgetown last Friday night and had some people over to our "palace". our landlord lives next door and he made a point of telling me after we had some people over at christmas that this house was not a "frat house" (we had like 8 people over, the night was done by 1130 and i'm pretty sure there were maybe 2 bottles of alcohol total). we had done a pretty good job of not breaking anything while in this house over the last 6 weeks but in the span of 15 minutes, a woman opened the window pane and it fell 20 feet out of the window, a guy broke a glass, and some girl decided she thought the side table was a chair and it broke (her exact comment after the chair broke was in fact "I thought this was a chair. I did like this girl however). Despite that it was a nice last night out.
On our last morning in Guyana, our maid startled us at 9am (it was a sunday so she had no business being there), and proceeded to tell us that "me have to make urine before church". God I love Creole.
we departed Guyana at 3pm on Sunday for a 3 flight adventure to get to London. We got into London Monday at 9am London time and made our was through the developed world to see Noah, our first contact with anyone back home for 4 months. It was kind of different to not be the only white person walking around which was nice.
we stayed on London until Thursday. In that time, for my own records, we did the following things.
1) Piccadily Circus
2) Buckingham Palace
3) St. James Park
4) Westminster Abbey
5) Big Ben and Parliament
6) London Eye (though didn't go on it because it was kinda pricey)
7) Tate Modern Art Museum (I will discuss my feelings on modern art in a bit)
8) St. Paul's Cathedral
9) Trafalgar Square
10) National Gallery and National Portrait Gallery (real art!)
11) Tower of London and Tower Bridge (again couldn't go in Tower London, too bad!)
12) London Bridge
13) British Museum
And of course we ate at Noah's restaurant. Not knowingly because the menu was tricky to understand I had the liver of the lamb and pig's feet. Interesting indeed.
We left Thursday morning for Paris.
Upon arriving we did Moulin Rouge and Sacre Coeur. I have a lot more dejavu moments here in paris than I did in london. The view from Sacre Coeur is probably the best in Paris, outside the Eiffel Tower.
Today, we did Arc de Triomphe, Champs Elysees and the Musee Invalides (unbelievable war musem, with Napolean's tomb in it). We walked to the Eiffel Tower but deicded to go up it at night one of the next couple nights.
Unfortunately we also did the Grande Palais. I say this because it had one modern art exhibit and that was it! And that exhibit was a massive pyramid shaped pile of clothes with a crane dropping from the ceiling, picking up a handful, going about 15 feet in the air and dropping the handful on the pile. How does this crap make it into museums!!! Rule of thumb, if Jeremy Kronick can make the piece of art, it is not art!!!!!!!!!
That is all for my rant on modern art. I apologize to people that like it, kind of :)
On our last morning in Guyana, our maid startled us at 9am (it was a sunday so she had no business being there), and proceeded to tell us that "me have to make urine before church". God I love Creole.
we departed Guyana at 3pm on Sunday for a 3 flight adventure to get to London. We got into London Monday at 9am London time and made our was through the developed world to see Noah, our first contact with anyone back home for 4 months. It was kind of different to not be the only white person walking around which was nice.
we stayed on London until Thursday. In that time, for my own records, we did the following things.
1) Piccadily Circus
2) Buckingham Palace
3) St. James Park
4) Westminster Abbey
5) Big Ben and Parliament
6) London Eye (though didn't go on it because it was kinda pricey)
7) Tate Modern Art Museum (I will discuss my feelings on modern art in a bit)
8) St. Paul's Cathedral
9) Trafalgar Square
10) National Gallery and National Portrait Gallery (real art!)
11) Tower of London and Tower Bridge (again couldn't go in Tower London, too bad!)
12) London Bridge
13) British Museum
And of course we ate at Noah's restaurant. Not knowingly because the menu was tricky to understand I had the liver of the lamb and pig's feet. Interesting indeed.
We left Thursday morning for Paris.
Upon arriving we did Moulin Rouge and Sacre Coeur. I have a lot more dejavu moments here in paris than I did in london. The view from Sacre Coeur is probably the best in Paris, outside the Eiffel Tower.
Today, we did Arc de Triomphe, Champs Elysees and the Musee Invalides (unbelievable war musem, with Napolean's tomb in it). We walked to the Eiffel Tower but deicded to go up it at night one of the next couple nights.
Unfortunately we also did the Grande Palais. I say this because it had one modern art exhibit and that was it! And that exhibit was a massive pyramid shaped pile of clothes with a crane dropping from the ceiling, picking up a handful, going about 15 feet in the air and dropping the handful on the pile. How does this crap make it into museums!!! Rule of thumb, if Jeremy Kronick can make the piece of art, it is not art!!!!!!!!!
That is all for my rant on modern art. I apologize to people that like it, kind of :)
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
our last full weekend
So this past weekend was our last full weekend in Guyana as next weekend we leave on Sunday for our 6 week galavant around Europe and Africa.
Friday night we decided to go to a Boxing match here at the local "sports center" which kinda looks like a glorified school gym. Anyways, the night is split between amateurs and professionals with the amateurs fighting for the first half and the pros taking over after. We walked in to find two 11 year olds going at it (top 5 most ridiculous sports scenes I've ever seen live...#1 was two Buffalo Bills fans fighting with each other over what the Bills should do on their next play and getting kicked out of the stadium). After a couple more amateur fights the pros took over. Most fights had one Guyanese person verus an out of towner. Every time the Guyanese fighter would start doing well, the fans would all rush the ring like they did in the 30s when there was no security (slightly terrifying for the four white kids in the front row...that would be us). The undercard was actually a really good fight between two heavyweights. Then the main draw was two women heavyweights duking it out. One was the former heavyweight "champion of the world" (I put that in quotes because she had two heavyweight championship belts from organizations I have never heard of which lead to the following quote by me to Nadine: "when I get home I'm gonna kick the shit out of Ryan when he least expects it and declare my self the WCA heavyweight champion of the world"..sorry Ry you just came to mind first). The "champion" won the fight which lead a woman in the stands to enter the ring, take the microphone (the fight was televised) and proceed to challenge this woman to a fight while stomping around the stage....this quickly took its spot as #2 on the most ridiculous sports scenes I have ever seen.
Saturday we went to a lodge called Rockstone in Region 10 here in Guyana. Peaceful place where you can canoe and swim at the "beach" (sand that streches about 100m). It was nice that it was peaceful because the trip there involved us on the mini bus going so fast that we passed a sports car. That may not be that impressive but there were 18 PEOPLE in the bus, including a guy we picked up on the way who climbed through the window to get in!!
Sunday we came back from the lodge and went to the Sea Wall here in Georgetown at night. This is quite the phenomenon as basically the entire city goes to the sea wall over a 10km distance and just sits on the wall and drinks all night. We felt the need to experience this once while we were here.
Anyways that is all for now I will update you the day we leave for London on what we did the rest of the week.
Friday night we decided to go to a Boxing match here at the local "sports center" which kinda looks like a glorified school gym. Anyways, the night is split between amateurs and professionals with the amateurs fighting for the first half and the pros taking over after. We walked in to find two 11 year olds going at it (top 5 most ridiculous sports scenes I've ever seen live...#1 was two Buffalo Bills fans fighting with each other over what the Bills should do on their next play and getting kicked out of the stadium). After a couple more amateur fights the pros took over. Most fights had one Guyanese person verus an out of towner. Every time the Guyanese fighter would start doing well, the fans would all rush the ring like they did in the 30s when there was no security (slightly terrifying for the four white kids in the front row...that would be us). The undercard was actually a really good fight between two heavyweights. Then the main draw was two women heavyweights duking it out. One was the former heavyweight "champion of the world" (I put that in quotes because she had two heavyweight championship belts from organizations I have never heard of which lead to the following quote by me to Nadine: "when I get home I'm gonna kick the shit out of Ryan when he least expects it and declare my self the WCA heavyweight champion of the world"..sorry Ry you just came to mind first). The "champion" won the fight which lead a woman in the stands to enter the ring, take the microphone (the fight was televised) and proceed to challenge this woman to a fight while stomping around the stage....this quickly took its spot as #2 on the most ridiculous sports scenes I have ever seen.
Saturday we went to a lodge called Rockstone in Region 10 here in Guyana. Peaceful place where you can canoe and swim at the "beach" (sand that streches about 100m). It was nice that it was peaceful because the trip there involved us on the mini bus going so fast that we passed a sports car. That may not be that impressive but there were 18 PEOPLE in the bus, including a guy we picked up on the way who climbed through the window to get in!!
Sunday we came back from the lodge and went to the Sea Wall here in Georgetown at night. This is quite the phenomenon as basically the entire city goes to the sea wall over a 10km distance and just sits on the wall and drinks all night. We felt the need to experience this once while we were here.
Anyways that is all for now I will update you the day we leave for London on what we did the rest of the week.
Saturday, January 23, 2010
A Day at the Falls
After we first went to Mabaruma I can honestly tell you I never thought I would ride in a smaller plane that that one (a 12 seater). Well, I was wrong!
We met our group to go to Kaieteur Falls at 1115 with the plan to leave at 1200. Given that "this is Guyana" as the locals put it, we left around 1330 (sorry for the military time that's all they use here and it's kinda stuck with me). When we went out to the plan I noticed that it was in fact an 8 seater with basically 4 mini-benches holding 2 people each (definitely the most chlosterphobic place I've ever been in).
We arrived at the Falls and did 2 of 3 fly arounds which consisted of the plane basically being on its side over and over again. Talk about stomach in mouth! Anyways, the falls are really unbelievable. They are 5 times higher than Niagara and are the largest single drop falls in the world. Apparently one of the wonders of the world. Not bad for Guyana!
It's funny, you spend about 3 or 4 hours all told in travel time and spend only about 2 hours at the Falls. Either way, very much worth it.
That is all. Not as many posts here in G-Town because it's a very routined life here.
We leave in 2 weeks to head for our travels so I'm sure there will be a fair amount of blogs for those readers that are still actually reading this :)
Speak to everyone soon.
PS Not sure if I mentioned this in my blog about the ridiculous names of the communities but we passed one on the way home called Mc Doom which may be the funniest of them all (Pat, this definitely made me think of you!!)
PPS That expressions "this is Guyana" is actually abbreviated TIG by locals and manifests it very often in your life. For example, the other day I was told to go by the Ministry of Amerindian Affairs because if I showed up in person I could get an interview slot with the secretary. The secretary was an hour late and when I showed up she told me she'd call me to set up the appointment which I could've just done by the phone. Than I went to work where I was supposed to have a meeting an 1200 with another Minister (after being rescheduled from 1100) only to find out at 1140 that the meeting needed to be postponed for a week!! I had been preparing all morning. So basically my entire morning had been wasted. The response by any local?? You guessed it...TIG!
We met our group to go to Kaieteur Falls at 1115 with the plan to leave at 1200. Given that "this is Guyana" as the locals put it, we left around 1330 (sorry for the military time that's all they use here and it's kinda stuck with me). When we went out to the plan I noticed that it was in fact an 8 seater with basically 4 mini-benches holding 2 people each (definitely the most chlosterphobic place I've ever been in).
We arrived at the Falls and did 2 of 3 fly arounds which consisted of the plane basically being on its side over and over again. Talk about stomach in mouth! Anyways, the falls are really unbelievable. They are 5 times higher than Niagara and are the largest single drop falls in the world. Apparently one of the wonders of the world. Not bad for Guyana!
It's funny, you spend about 3 or 4 hours all told in travel time and spend only about 2 hours at the Falls. Either way, very much worth it.
That is all. Not as many posts here in G-Town because it's a very routined life here.
We leave in 2 weeks to head for our travels so I'm sure there will be a fair amount of blogs for those readers that are still actually reading this :)
Speak to everyone soon.
PS Not sure if I mentioned this in my blog about the ridiculous names of the communities but we passed one on the way home called Mc Doom which may be the funniest of them all (Pat, this definitely made me think of you!!)
PPS That expressions "this is Guyana" is actually abbreviated TIG by locals and manifests it very often in your life. For example, the other day I was told to go by the Ministry of Amerindian Affairs because if I showed up in person I could get an interview slot with the secretary. The secretary was an hour late and when I showed up she told me she'd call me to set up the appointment which I could've just done by the phone. Than I went to work where I was supposed to have a meeting an 1200 with another Minister (after being rescheduled from 1100) only to find out at 1140 that the meeting needed to be postponed for a week!! I had been preparing all morning. So basically my entire morning had been wasted. The response by any local?? You guessed it...TIG!
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
Partying with the Pres
So Friday night some of the other VSOs and Nadine and I went out to a few bars/clubs here in Georgetown. Around midnight we went to our final stop of the night, a bar/club called Mojos. As we get out of the cab I looked over to the side of the club and saw a man standing there with a couple of his friends having a chat. I said to one of the VSOs "is that the president?" and she said "no way". She, being very forward, went over to him and asked and it turned out he was.
We all went in and drank (seperately). He basically stood at the bar the whole nigh just kind of looking around, with no real security around him. My friend took a picture with him.
All I kept thinking was Obama needs hundreds of secret service just to leave the White House, and this guy comes out and parties with his citizens. Wild stuff!
On Sunday we went to these black creeks which are relatively famous here in G-Town. But what was more funny was passing the huge signs on the way there representing the different communities. They include, Good Success, Supply, Land of Canaan, Garden of Eden, New Hope and more.
Anyways we are really winding down here and leave in less than 4 weeks! It's gone by very fast.
See ya.
We all went in and drank (seperately). He basically stood at the bar the whole nigh just kind of looking around, with no real security around him. My friend took a picture with him.
All I kept thinking was Obama needs hundreds of secret service just to leave the White House, and this guy comes out and parties with his citizens. Wild stuff!
On Sunday we went to these black creeks which are relatively famous here in G-Town. But what was more funny was passing the huge signs on the way there representing the different communities. They include, Good Success, Supply, Land of Canaan, Garden of Eden, New Hope and more.
Anyways we are really winding down here and leave in less than 4 weeks! It's gone by very fast.
See ya.
Thursday, January 7, 2010
New Year's and other
So after Christmas things slowed down a bit. We had a week off until returning to work so we just relaxed, hit up the pool and wound down from a whirlwind two months away from Georgetown.
That being said, stuff still did happen. The other Deloitte guy had a couple of his friends here and so we went out for drinks and somehow ended up at the Guyanese version of a strip club. This entailed one woman on stage in the hour we were there, porno on the 5 televisions around us (all different episodes), a couple going at it at the corner, all the while us sitting on perverts row. (mom really sorry for going through that it was just too funny).
New Year's saw us get invited to a part at an American diplomat's house. The guy probably has the most important job in Guyana to Guyanese citizens. His job is to give these Guyanese citizens green cards (those who qualify of course). He lives in a "posh" area of Georgetown called, I shit you not, Bel-Air, and yes he frequently gets called the Fresh Prince of Georgetown Belair.
After ringing in the new decade we had a few more days to relax before work began again.
And in typical Guyanese fashion we have been without internet for the firs four days. At first it was the technicians fault, than the phone companies, than VSO ITs, now we're not sure. But as they say here, TIG (this is Guyana).
Anyways that's all for now.
Take it easy.
That being said, stuff still did happen. The other Deloitte guy had a couple of his friends here and so we went out for drinks and somehow ended up at the Guyanese version of a strip club. This entailed one woman on stage in the hour we were there, porno on the 5 televisions around us (all different episodes), a couple going at it at the corner, all the while us sitting on perverts row. (mom really sorry for going through that it was just too funny).
New Year's saw us get invited to a part at an American diplomat's house. The guy probably has the most important job in Guyana to Guyanese citizens. His job is to give these Guyanese citizens green cards (those who qualify of course). He lives in a "posh" area of Georgetown called, I shit you not, Bel-Air, and yes he frequently gets called the Fresh Prince of Georgetown Belair.
After ringing in the new decade we had a few more days to relax before work began again.
And in typical Guyanese fashion we have been without internet for the firs four days. At first it was the technicians fault, than the phone companies, than VSO ITs, now we're not sure. But as they say here, TIG (this is Guyana).
Anyways that's all for now.
Take it easy.
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