Thursday, December 30, 2010
So our most recent trip was a road trip to Madrid to drop my roommate’s mom off at the airport. After only one day of rest from the last trip, we headed out a little before 4 a.m. to Madrid. We made it there around 8:30 and stopped at a random little restaurant to have breakfast. The guy who owned the place turned out to be from Orlando. He moved here, married a Russian woman, had a baby and vowed to not return back to the U.S. He talked with us the entire time we were in there and was telling us how we should stay here and not go back either. He was even telling us places that we could possibly work. He was really cool and I want to go back to his restaurant next time I’m in Madrid. After that we headed to the airport. We then had to make the decision to return straight home or take advantage of having a car and go somewhere else. So our next stop was Segovia, a town about an hour northwest of Madrid. Turned out to be an excellent decision because I had never been there before and it was an amazing town. We drove around and found the area of town that it was known for. It had a lot of small touristy stores along with your normal shopping. There was also an amazing cathedral that we went into and an aqueduct that the Romans built. The castle there is Walt Disney used as an outline for Snow White’s castle and for another story too, I don’t remember which one. After that, we ate and hit the road again. I would also like to add that it was really warm in Segovia, even warmer than Aguilas. Once on the road we decided to stop in Toledo, another town that is on the outskirts of Madrid. I went to Toledo the first time I was in Spain and loved it so I was looking forward to seeing it again. We arrived, parked and walked around for just a little bit. The sun had gone down by now and it was cold and windy so it wasn’t the best conditions for walking around. We really didn’t do anything there but we did get to see a nice view of the castle and cathedral on our way out. So about 3 or 3 ½ hrs later we make it to Murcia and somehow end up on a different route to Aguilas than normal. We guess that it would work out anyway and continue. So we didn’t get gas in Murcia because we had to return the car in the morning and it is supposed to be empty. Little did we know we would hit a stretch of I don’t know how many miles without not only a gas station, but any signs of life period. So we finally come to a toll and the lady tells us how to get to Aguilas. Turns out I should have asked where was the nearest gas station was. Maybe 3 or 4 minutes after going through the toll the car stops. It says we have gas but the car isn’t doing anything. We were officially stuck on the middle of nowhere. I figured we were pretty close to Aguilas so I called a friend to see if they had the number for a tow truck that we could call and take us to a gas station. Turns out we weren’t anywhere near Aguilas and I called the roadside assistance. There were absolutely no signs around and the one sign that was there, when I told the lady what it said she told me that that mile marker and highway didn’t exist. I thought that was funny. So after several calls with the roadside assistance lady and the towing company, we finally figured out that we were in Mazarron, a town about 40 km from Aguilas. In the end the roadside assistance lady was really nice and so was the tow truck driver. He came, loaded up the car and took us to a gas station that was literally 1 ½ miles away. We almost made it. After about another 45 mins to an hour of driving we finally made it back to Aguilas. I think I’m done with road trips for awhile. In the end, we put almost 4,000 km (over 2,000 miles) on the car in 4 days. These trips were exhausting but fun. I got to revisit places that I went to the first time I was in Spain and places that I went to two years ago when I was here. I was ready to relax tonight but I just got a call from one of the teachers and we are going to eat in 30 mins and I have to shower too. Oh well, adios and happy New Year a day and a few hours early!
Tuesday, December 28, 2010
So while eating lunch on Christmas we decided to head to Granada for dinner. Once we arrived in Granada we walked around and found a nice restaurant to eat at. During dinner we discussed the fact that Seville is only a 3 hr drive away and the possibility of heading there next. So we finished our dinner in Granada and began walking back to the car to continue our journey. We arrived in Seville around 1 a.m. and found a hostel to stay in for the night. We woke up the next morning and discussed traveling to Lisbon, Portugal since it wasn’t that far away at all. Seville is about an hour away from the Spain/Portugal border and 5 hrs away from Lisbon. We finished our breakfast and began the next leg of our journey. Right before reaching the border, we stopped for gas and I decided to put some air into one of the tires. Little did I know, the hose had a massive hole in it and in the little time I spent attempting to add air to the tire, it went flat. I went and told the attendant that the air wasn’t working. He tried adding air himself. Same result. We began inspecting the device and the hose and that’s when he found the hole, which was badly duct taped. Fortunately, they had another one and we were back on the road. We took a very scenic route by accident that took us through the mountains and a lot of small towns. We were grateful for this because we got to see the countryside and enjoy the ride and view even though it took almost 2 hrs longer. So we finally arrive in Lisbon around 7 p.m. We had an excellent dinner; Portugal has never let me down for any meal. We then went next door to this famous bakery spot that has these great little pastries. There we enjoyed the sweets and decided that we were going to go ahead and drive back that night. So by 9:30 p.m. we were back on the road heading home. We started out making really good time and then all of sudden it seemed to slow down exponentially. After a long 12 ½ hrs we made it back to Aguilas. So, that was my Christmas this year. Hope everyone had a great Christmas! I really don’t have any pictures because we really didn’t see anything. We just drove and ate. The few pics that I do have are of cars and motorcycles and I will definitely put the pic of the Lambo that we saw up.
Thursday, December 23, 2010
Monday, December 20, 2010
Thursday, December 16, 2010
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
Friday, December 10, 2010
Thursday, December 09, 2010
So our journey began on Friday with a two-hr bus ride to a different city to catch our flight to Madrid. My roundtrip flight to Alicante to Madrid only cost 25 Euros after taxes and all the fees. Roundtrip to Morocco only cost 80 Euros. It should have only cost me 40 Euros but the price went up right when I was buying my ticket. Once in Madrid, we began to walk around and look for a place to eat dinner. We found this Caribbean restaurant where I had a good Cuban meal. After that, we walked around for a few hours and then called it a night and went to our hostel.
There also happened be a massive strike by the Spanish air traffic controllers that turned into a huge fiasco. They went on strike when there was a 5-day weekend, costing Spain millions of dollars, well Euros, because they had to cancel so many flights. I don’t know if it made the news in the US but it was a big deal. Hundreds of thousands of people were stuck at the airport. Once seeing all this on the news, we were extremely happy that we made it in.
We walked around all day Saturday and I actually remembered quite a bit from when I went to Madrid in 2006. That evening, we met up with some of our Spanish friends that came to Madrid also. We did some more walking around and then headed in to get ready for our trip to Africa. We had to keep watching the news to see the status on the airport and the flights. In the end, the military had to come in and take over until they apparently made the controllers come back.
The flight from Madrid to Tangier was only one hour. In the span of about 5 minutes we went from flying over the Spanish coast right onto the landing strip on Tangier’s coast. We go through customs and get our money changed before starting our adventure. The taxi driver could only read Sanskrit, so I had quite a task of attempting to explain the address and where we were going. We made it after all and the apartment we rented was incredible. It was without a doubt the most interesting place I have ever stayed. The living room looked like it was from a palace. We all had our own massive couches that we referred to as our thrones. Once we got settled in, we headed out to find a taxi to take us down to the port area. Once we got down there, it began to rain so we decided to find a restaurant to eat at and wait out the rain. We then had a massive meal that was quality and cost 1/3 of we would have to pay in Spain. During the meal, I received a text from one of the teachers at my school who was supposed to fly to Morocco on Saturday and he told me that his flight got canceled and he was heading back to Aguilas from Madrid. After eating, we began asking questions to our waiter about places to see and things to do but he really didn’t understand us so he got these two older guys who have a store across the street from the restaurant to talk with us. They spoke Arabic, French, Spanish, English and I think German also. They then hooked us up with a taxi driver who spoke Spanish. This was the biggest blessing of all for the trip. This man, Mohammed, was literally the nicest person ever. He drove us all around the city for almost an hour and half showing and telling us everything for only 20 Euros. We were even going to ride camels but it started raining kind of hard then so we passed on that. He also took us to the area where all the kings and princes of all the Middle Eastern countries have their vacation palaces. We couldn’t take any pics of them though. We then went to this famous cave that is called Hercules’ Cave and then he took us back into the city to have dinner. After that we went back to the apartment and chilled for the night.
So Monday morning Mohammed came and picked us up and drove us to a beach town that was about 30 mins down the Atlantic coast. This place was called Asilah and we spent a couple hours walking around and exploring. Mohammed then took us back to Tangier and we walked around for the rest of the evening.
Tuesday morning Mohammed picked us up one last time to take us to the airport. We thanked him for making our trip incredible and he thanked us and told us to come back and visit him and the country. We changed our money back and got ready for our flight back to Madrid. When we went through customs 2 of the guys asked me if I spoke Arabic since my name was Jamal.
Once back in Madrid, we walked around some more before eventually getting caught in a heavy downpour. The only bad weather of the trip, besides our turbulent flight back to Madrid from Tangier. Headed back to the hostel and the trip was pretty much over. Spent a bunch of hrs at the two airports and had over 4 hours of time to waste in Murcia while waiting for the bus to Aguilas.
We were extremely blessed to have such a great trip when they were so many opportunities for things to not go in our favor. Madrid was cold and crowded but we had a great time there and I even like it now. I wasn’t too fond of it in the past. Morocco was incredible. The food was great and so cheap while the people were extremely nice. I couldn’t have had a better trip.
There also happened be a massive strike by the Spanish air traffic controllers that turned into a huge fiasco. They went on strike when there was a 5-day weekend, costing Spain millions of dollars, well Euros, because they had to cancel so many flights. I don’t know if it made the news in the US but it was a big deal. Hundreds of thousands of people were stuck at the airport. Once seeing all this on the news, we were extremely happy that we made it in.
We walked around all day Saturday and I actually remembered quite a bit from when I went to Madrid in 2006. That evening, we met up with some of our Spanish friends that came to Madrid also. We did some more walking around and then headed in to get ready for our trip to Africa. We had to keep watching the news to see the status on the airport and the flights. In the end, the military had to come in and take over until they apparently made the controllers come back.
The flight from Madrid to Tangier was only one hour. In the span of about 5 minutes we went from flying over the Spanish coast right onto the landing strip on Tangier’s coast. We go through customs and get our money changed before starting our adventure. The taxi driver could only read Sanskrit, so I had quite a task of attempting to explain the address and where we were going. We made it after all and the apartment we rented was incredible. It was without a doubt the most interesting place I have ever stayed. The living room looked like it was from a palace. We all had our own massive couches that we referred to as our thrones. Once we got settled in, we headed out to find a taxi to take us down to the port area. Once we got down there, it began to rain so we decided to find a restaurant to eat at and wait out the rain. We then had a massive meal that was quality and cost 1/3 of we would have to pay in Spain. During the meal, I received a text from one of the teachers at my school who was supposed to fly to Morocco on Saturday and he told me that his flight got canceled and he was heading back to Aguilas from Madrid. After eating, we began asking questions to our waiter about places to see and things to do but he really didn’t understand us so he got these two older guys who have a store across the street from the restaurant to talk with us. They spoke Arabic, French, Spanish, English and I think German also. They then hooked us up with a taxi driver who spoke Spanish. This was the biggest blessing of all for the trip. This man, Mohammed, was literally the nicest person ever. He drove us all around the city for almost an hour and half showing and telling us everything for only 20 Euros. We were even going to ride camels but it started raining kind of hard then so we passed on that. He also took us to the area where all the kings and princes of all the Middle Eastern countries have their vacation palaces. We couldn’t take any pics of them though. We then went to this famous cave that is called Hercules’ Cave and then he took us back into the city to have dinner. After that we went back to the apartment and chilled for the night.
So Monday morning Mohammed came and picked us up and drove us to a beach town that was about 30 mins down the Atlantic coast. This place was called Asilah and we spent a couple hours walking around and exploring. Mohammed then took us back to Tangier and we walked around for the rest of the evening.
Tuesday morning Mohammed picked us up one last time to take us to the airport. We thanked him for making our trip incredible and he thanked us and told us to come back and visit him and the country. We changed our money back and got ready for our flight back to Madrid. When we went through customs 2 of the guys asked me if I spoke Arabic since my name was Jamal.
Once back in Madrid, we walked around some more before eventually getting caught in a heavy downpour. The only bad weather of the trip, besides our turbulent flight back to Madrid from Tangier. Headed back to the hostel and the trip was pretty much over. Spent a bunch of hrs at the two airports and had over 4 hours of time to waste in Murcia while waiting for the bus to Aguilas.
We were extremely blessed to have such a great trip when they were so many opportunities for things to not go in our favor. Madrid was cold and crowded but we had a great time there and I even like it now. I wasn’t too fond of it in the past. Morocco was incredible. The food was great and so cheap while the people were extremely nice. I couldn’t have had a better trip.
Thursday, December 02, 2010
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