On a nice Spring day we went to the zoo.
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8 years ago
Thursday, May 13, 2010
Prague
The Monday before Easter I went to Prague. We took a train from Berlin, about a 5 hour trip. Luckily we took an early train and I slept most of the way. We found our way to the hotel and wanted a good place to get food. The concierge recommended a good place, not far. The directions led us to a dead end. So we asked someone else and were led in a different direction. We asked 3 more people, all of who kept telling us to go straight a little further. Then the road would fork off or turn around completely. We never ended up finding it.
Old Town Square was decorated festively for Easter, and there was a huge market set up for the week.
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp
Sunday, May 2, 2010
Eyjafjallajokull
The unpronounceable name of the volcano that took me to Africa. I am going to have to go out of chronological order in order to write about this as it is fresher on my mind. While I was on a trip to Spain and Portugal to meet my brother, a volcano erupted in Iceland. We were not affected at first, as we were in the south of Europe and it was Northern Europe that was most affected by it. We flew from Lisbon to Madrid with ease, seeing lines of stranded passengers trying in vain to rebook. We breezed through security as not really anyone was flying. Of the normal 25,000 or so flights that happen daily over Europe, there were only something like 6,000 in operation. That day one of them was ours. There were not a lot of people on our flight.
We then had our 4 planned days in Madrid, but kept seeing on the news that the smoke was still looming and flights were still grounded. They kept predicting the airports would reopen by the following day, then the following day, but this went on for 6 days. The volcano erupted on a Wednesday, we were supposed to fly back to Berlin on Monday. Sunday night we got an email from the airline saying our flight was officially canceled and that German airspace was still closed indefinitely. We now had to figure out what to do in Spain for an unknown amount of time. No one could predict how long this flight ban would go on, and they weren't offering rebooking until the following weekend.
The cost of renting a car and driving it one-way to Germany was about 1800 euro, so that was out. The buses and trains were already sold out solid until Tuesday (plus that would have been an expensive and unpleasant 2-3 day journey). We thought what the hell, we both have nowhere to be this week, let's take advantage of it and go somewhere else. We looked into cruises from Spain but couldn't find a decent one that fit our week or was cheap enough to justify it. The cost of renting a car for a week and returning it to the same location was only going to be 170 euro, so we decided to do that. Now we needed a destination. We had considered going North and seeing northern Spain maybe the south of France. Or south and trying to see the beaches. A very wonderful person I know works at the Marriott and was able to help us out on getting good rates at a place, which was crucial since we had to pay for a weeks worth of hotel. We found a Marriott in the South of Spain that was a time share condo complex. And on the beach. And cheaper than a hostel. We spent the week at the resort on the beach.
We realized we were in the very south of Spain and only about an hour to Tarifa, where we could take a ferry to Morocco. So we did.
We had heard and read that it is advisable to hire a guide as you get off the boat. Our minds were still not made up on whether or not we thought we needed one or if we could just sort of walk around and do things ourselves. Of course as we get off and have our passports checked (which had been stamped on the boat with the wrong date, throwing off the border police), we were immediately approached by two men; one barely up to my nipples claiming he is Hassan, a guide licensed by the government and highly recommends the hiring of a guide not only for informational purposes, but also for protection, as he can tell people to leave us alone. The other guy only agreed with him and told him we must hire this guy, then walked away. We talked it over and decided to hire him for the day, as he would take us everywhere, and he would pay for the taxis we took. We were paying him a flat fee for an all-inclusive day. We were lucky we did.
We got in a cab to drive to the Kasbah, basically a walled-in protected part of the city. Along the way he gave us some basic info, history, showed us notable buildings, etc.
We got out at the entrance and walked around for a while, him telling Bible stories or the significance of a certain house or building within the Kasbah.
He would force us to take pictures of random things, not moving on until we did. When he saw something he thought was particularly nice he would make us pose for a picture together. Like holding a fresh loaf of bread.
Or in front of a nice door.
He took us through a main plaza, then to the markets. He said we must have some mint tea and we would be going to an art school where they make rugs to have some and rest. We arrived at the 'art school' which was above a gift shop. A beautiful hall filled with beautiful rugs of all colors, sizes, and patterns. We were told to simply relax, rest, enjoy the tea.
Hassan went downstairs and left us with the proprietor, who causally talked to us for a moment, making polite conversation. Then a man appeared with a rug rolled up in his arms and awaited the host to beckon him forward. Our host looked at us and started talking about all the rugs he has here, finally ushering the man to come forward, unrolling the rug before us, smoothing the edges, and running back to a pile of more rugs. We were told what it was made of, the plants used to dye the thread, how many stitches are in a single square inch. Then another was brought out and unrolled on top of it. And another. And another. Suddenly we realized we were in the middle of a very skillful sales show, as he carefully threw in that he accepts any currency, any credit card, they ship all over the world, and that he has things for every kind of price range. We laughed thinking they are selling to the wrong guys here, neither of us are in any kind of market for a rug. Those tricky bastards have honed the art of selling over hundreds of years. I ended up buying 2 and Andy got 1. And we both left feeling good about it.
The snake charmers
The food market
We then had our 4 planned days in Madrid, but kept seeing on the news that the smoke was still looming and flights were still grounded. They kept predicting the airports would reopen by the following day, then the following day, but this went on for 6 days. The volcano erupted on a Wednesday, we were supposed to fly back to Berlin on Monday. Sunday night we got an email from the airline saying our flight was officially canceled and that German airspace was still closed indefinitely. We now had to figure out what to do in Spain for an unknown amount of time. No one could predict how long this flight ban would go on, and they weren't offering rebooking until the following weekend.
The cost of renting a car and driving it one-way to Germany was about 1800 euro, so that was out. The buses and trains were already sold out solid until Tuesday (plus that would have been an expensive and unpleasant 2-3 day journey). We thought what the hell, we both have nowhere to be this week, let's take advantage of it and go somewhere else. We looked into cruises from Spain but couldn't find a decent one that fit our week or was cheap enough to justify it. The cost of renting a car for a week and returning it to the same location was only going to be 170 euro, so we decided to do that. Now we needed a destination. We had considered going North and seeing northern Spain maybe the south of France. Or south and trying to see the beaches. A very wonderful person I know works at the Marriott and was able to help us out on getting good rates at a place, which was crucial since we had to pay for a weeks worth of hotel. We found a Marriott in the South of Spain that was a time share condo complex. And on the beach. And cheaper than a hostel. We spent the week at the resort on the beach.
We realized we were in the very south of Spain and only about an hour to Tarifa, where we could take a ferry to Morocco. So we did.
We had heard and read that it is advisable to hire a guide as you get off the boat. Our minds were still not made up on whether or not we thought we needed one or if we could just sort of walk around and do things ourselves. Of course as we get off and have our passports checked (which had been stamped on the boat with the wrong date, throwing off the border police), we were immediately approached by two men; one barely up to my nipples claiming he is Hassan, a guide licensed by the government and highly recommends the hiring of a guide not only for informational purposes, but also for protection, as he can tell people to leave us alone. The other guy only agreed with him and told him we must hire this guy, then walked away. We talked it over and decided to hire him for the day, as he would take us everywhere, and he would pay for the taxis we took. We were paying him a flat fee for an all-inclusive day. We were lucky we did.
We got in a cab to drive to the Kasbah, basically a walled-in protected part of the city. Along the way he gave us some basic info, history, showed us notable buildings, etc.
We got out at the entrance and walked around for a while, him telling Bible stories or the significance of a certain house or building within the Kasbah.
He would force us to take pictures of random things, not moving on until we did. When he saw something he thought was particularly nice he would make us pose for a picture together. Like holding a fresh loaf of bread.
Or in front of a nice door.
He took us through a main plaza, then to the markets. He said we must have some mint tea and we would be going to an art school where they make rugs to have some and rest. We arrived at the 'art school' which was above a gift shop. A beautiful hall filled with beautiful rugs of all colors, sizes, and patterns. We were told to simply relax, rest, enjoy the tea.
Hassan went downstairs and left us with the proprietor, who causally talked to us for a moment, making polite conversation. Then a man appeared with a rug rolled up in his arms and awaited the host to beckon him forward. Our host looked at us and started talking about all the rugs he has here, finally ushering the man to come forward, unrolling the rug before us, smoothing the edges, and running back to a pile of more rugs. We were told what it was made of, the plants used to dye the thread, how many stitches are in a single square inch. Then another was brought out and unrolled on top of it. And another. And another. Suddenly we realized we were in the middle of a very skillful sales show, as he carefully threw in that he accepts any currency, any credit card, they ship all over the world, and that he has things for every kind of price range. We laughed thinking they are selling to the wrong guys here, neither of us are in any kind of market for a rug. Those tricky bastards have honed the art of selling over hundreds of years. I ended up buying 2 and Andy got 1. And we both left feeling good about it.
The snake charmers
The food market
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