Wonderful World of Dave

Well, it's 13 days until my vacation to China. I know all you readers out there (ok, well maybe all 10 of you...........golly I hope there's more than that!) are probably sick of hearing me talk about my vacation count down. I'm going stir crazy, and this wonderful outlet has been an interesting journey thus far, and at least keeps me occupied while I wait impatiently.

I am hoping to bring interesting fodder while I'm on vacation. Recently I procured a laptop computer, and I'm planning on taking it along with me to update things....a veritable travelogue...while my mom and I are traipsing through China on our oriental adventure. I came across a few things that will give you a little bit of flavor for my style of travelogue. And hopefully you will see my interesting "spin" on things.

Here's the first glimpse of some historical travel posting that I have done in the past. This was an email I sent home to my family while my mom and I traveled to Portugal, Spain, and Morocco in September/October of 2006. Enjoy!


October 10, 2006

Well, Sorry that it has taken so long for us to be able to write to let you know what´s going on. So many things have happened where to begin...

When we got to the airport a week ago Friday, what an interesting experience. When we got on the plane, and were ready to shove off from the gate, there was a delay that would cause us to be late getting to Newark to catch our flight to Lisbon. It wouldn´t have been so bad, however, it would have made us have to miss our flight.

After dealing with one ticket counter, one ¨not-so-informational¨ girl at the information desk, and two trips through security, we managed to get back on the plane with about 2 minutes to spare. Luckily, through the whole ordeal we ended up befriending a young woman who was flying from Chicago to Lisbon as well, and she managed to steer us in the right direction. After that, we got to Newark ok, managed to get on a later flight to Lisbon the same evening, and then after our fun, we decided a beer was in order. After doing some shopping, and experiencing some Japanese dude break wind really loudly while checking the store for some contact solution, we got on the plane.

We arrived in Lisbon and made it to the hotel just fine. Lisbon is very old, and very hilly, with a big castle on the hill that we were able to take pictures of both at night and during the day. It had a lot of small narrow streets and a lot of dogs, and a lot of dog shit. Which is amazing considering most of the dogs are somewhat emaciated, and somehow the rule ¨what goes in must come out¨ does not apply.

We visited Queluz Palace which was absolutely stunning, as well as the resort towns of Estoril and Cascais, which would have been a great place to spend a vacation for about a week (and about a week only, as the Portuguese are so friendly). We managed to watch a speed boat race and had a great lunch. We then proceeded to go to Sintra, which is a UNESCO world heritage sight. My what a beautiful city! It´s in the mountains and tucked away on hills. Hopefully our pictures will do it justice!

We then went to Seville, which reminded us a lot of Chicago in the modern areas. We visited the third largest cathedral in the world, La Giralda, and were able to go up the tower to the minaret to be able to see the whole of the city. We had an awesome dinner at the restaurant (which consisted of fish......yes fish!). The we went out and went shopping. Mom managed to get two watercolors near the cathedral. We then went to a cafe on a side street for lunch, where, thank goodness, my language skills helped make for an otherwise unpleasant experience. Needless to say, after being bombarded by beggars, one beggar (who had no teeth, had no English skills, and very bad manners) wouldn´t leave me alone, then proceeded to call me stupid. That was the third time I´ve heard mom drop the ¨f¨ bomb as she basically told the guy where to go.

We then went shopping around the area, and as we were heading back to the hotel, mom lost the paintings. After painstakingly retracing our steps, and revisiting the places we had been, we were able to recover them, and all was right with the world once again.

By the way, the people are obscenely beautiful in Seville.

Mom did not need her water wings, nose plug, or Esther Williams swim cap for the ferry ride across the straight of Gibraltar (it was just so damn fast!). Remarkably when we boarded the ferry, you were able to see Morocco on the other side.

We arrived in Tangier, and we landed on a completely different planet. It was definitely third world, but beautiful still. We managed to meet up with a wonderful couple from Edmonton, Alberta, named Karin and Ian, who have been a tremendous amount of fun! They´ve been on vacation I think for two weeks prior to us, and Karin said she has been eating her way through vacation (olives off the tree, oranges off the tree, flowers, etc.). She´s quite funny and a LOT of fun. We also managed to give a lot of the people on the tour nicknames. My are there a lot of "interesting" people. You´ll have to ask about the ´Boss of the Rope´.

Rabat was interesting, we managed to visit a mausoleum and necropolis, and once our death tour ended, we ended our evening with a buffet, in which it turned into a free for all. One Israeli woman caught an elbow from me on the chin.

We managed to use the "modern" facilities in Morocco at our first pit stop to Marrakech. I´m not so sure any more whether I mind being able to go to the bathroom outside any more or whether the hole was better. At this point, its a tossup.

Marrakech is very beautiful, very pink, green, blue, and HOT. The vegetation in Morocco is varied and very green. Greener than we expected. Of course, we arrived during Ramadan, where everyone fasts, and everything is unpredictable when it comes to service. Anyhow, there are a LOT of homeless people, and the farms and villages are way more primitive than anything we´ve ever seen before. But, in all, the people were extremely nice, polite, and in many cases grateful that they had the tourism.

In Marrakech we managed to purchase 2 carpets (and the Moroccans could teach car salespeople a thing or two about sales, eegads!!!!!!!), and went to the major square, the Djmaa el Fna where we saw snake (ick!) charmers and monkeys, we bought figs, and almonds, and then managed to get them back to the bus. MMM they were good!

We´ve basically eaten everything on the menu as far as variety goes in Morocco, and it´s all been very good.

Fes was interesting, and really, words don't describe what the Medina and the winding narrow streets are like with all of the souks (shops). Lets just say, after 10 minutes, I had enough Medina to last a lifetime. The tour director said that we should take in the atmosphere and the smells. We caught the smells alright, and I think rancid is the word best to describe them. Combined with tannery, donkey, b.o., and cumin. Hmm......that´s quite a smell.

We were able to buy traditional clothing, shoes, etc. at the market.

We arrived in Tangiers yesterday, where Matt Damon (yay.) is filming some James Bond movie that, had I not been to Tangiers while they were filming it, I´d probably have been sure to miss. We boarded the ferry back to the Mainland of Europe today, and went to Gibraltar.

Gibraltar........there´s no words really to describe that either. It´s very interesting, very small, and it´s beautiful. We managed to go through St. Michael´s Caves, walk around the streets, and visit the Barbary Apes. yes....Apes...... Macaques (this word makes me giggle) as a matter of fact. It was interesting! And they were EVERYWHERE!!!!! We had a LOT of rules to follow before getting off the bus. I wasn't so sure I wanted to get off the bus given the litany of instruction. But, as I said before, there´s nothing else like it.

We´re now in Torremolinos and it´s about 8:30 pm. We´re going to be getting in the shower and then going off for some tapas and booze with Karin and Ian. this hotel is right on the Mediterranean. Tomorrow we have the whole day off with no plans.

Anyhow, I guess that´s about it. We´ve taken a ton of pictures, and no major incidences have taken place aside from mom blowing up the room in Tangier. Oh....and mom was able to ride a camel not once.......but TWICE. Once in Marrakech, and once in Tangier. We have pictures for proof.

Hmm....other than that, not much else has happened. The food has been great, the weather has been in the 80s during the day and sunny, and the evenings have been great. We have seen a couple of cool shows in Morocco, and an AWESOME Fado show in Lisbon.

Well, gotta run, more things to see, and do.

Hope all is well with everyone, and love you all lots!

Dave and Mom