First of all, I traveled with amazing friends. April and Camille, who were done with their service and on their way back to America and Kim and Emily, who I met over a year ago now in D.C. on our way to Senegal. Each one of them made the vacation extra special. Five easy-going, considerate, adventurous, goofballs=fun!
(From left to right: Emily, Camille, me, Kim and April)
Morocco: Africa, but not really. This was our starting point and one of my favorite parts of the trip. It was hard to believe we were still so close to Senegal as we walked the clean, paved sidewalks. Some other things that made it amazing; fresh squeezed orange juice on every corner (for under a dollar), healthy, well-treated cats, beautiful tiles, rugs, couches and overall decor, instead of salt and pepper shakers, it was salt and cumin (!!!), all kinds of fresh seafood, fruits and vegetables, charming, walled-off old cities, so many kind people, the best couch surfers ever, etc. While in Morocco we visited Casablanca, Fes and Chefchaouen.
In Casablanca we went to Mosque Hassan II, second only in size to Mecca. It was right on the ocean and apparently has a glass floor so that worshippers can stare into the sea as they pray. We also met some really talented musicians who treated us to a private band practice viewing.
Fes, ahh Fes. I need to go back to this place. We stayed with an amazing couch surfer named Jamal who made great company, showed us around, sang to us and told us all of the places we needed to go. Plus he had dreads and a mullet. Party in the front. Party in the back. Hence we loved him.
You enter the old medina of Fes through a huge, blue tiled doorway that is gorgeous and step into the unique alleyways full of vendors with food, leather, jewlery, juices, etc.
Our other favorite thing about Fes was the hammam. This is hard to explain but here goes. The hammam is the equivalent of going to a sauna for Moroccans. It is a bathhouse seperated by gender. It is traditional for Moroccans to go once a week, usually before fridays prayers. As we walked in, the only travelers with all Arabic women and no common language, we debated on how naked to get, finally deciding to wear just undies no bra (is this too much info?)
We walked into the bathing room and naked Moroccan women lined the walls with their buckets of different temperatured water in front of them, bathing one another. We, however, just maturely, stood against the wall covering our chests giggling as quietly as possible about the situation we had put ourselves in. A nice woman came up to us and guestured to sit down and start bathing. As we did so, the women working, with lovely uniforms of pink granny panties and black headwraps, scrubbed us down and washed and braided our hair. At first it was akward, but after the weirdness it was relaxing and bonding. As a traveler, in Morocco you rarely interact with the women so this was a treasured experience.
After Fes, we moved onto Chefchaouen, a village in the mountains. The whole town is painted different shades of blue, accompanied also with blue taxis, blue clothing...pretty much everything was blue. They say it keeps the mosquitos and flies away.
We spent most of our time in Chef hiking and picnicing in the Rif Mountains. Being at an elevation, surrounded by rivers, streams, waterfalls, trees, mountains, plants, etc. was all too refreshing!
I love Morocco! Who wants to go back with me???
Barcelona was next up. What a big city, full or history and architectual wonders. My favorites were works by Gaudi. His architechture is so unusual. In Park Guell, which is a magical park full of his buildings, sculptures and mosaics, I really felt like I was in a Dr. Suess book. He also is responsible for the design of Sagrada Familia, the most unique church I've ever been too. It has numerous angular stone carving depicting biblical stories and enormous ornamental towers, testaments to the twelve apostles.
Avignon, in the south of France, was our next stop. It was a cozy little place with an old city that had a wall built entirely around it during war. Avignon is called the city of popes because it used to hold the papacy, but now is just full of beautiful old churches and buildings. It was an adorable little city to relax in after the hustle and bustle of Barcelona. Also, Amorino's rose shaped gelato, (the best in the world!) is in Avignon. You can choose a different flavor for every petal...YUM!
In Switzerland we visited Geneva and Zurich. Lake Geneva was beautiful, surrounded by the mountains. We took a paddle boat, complete with a slide, out on the lake. There is a huge water fountain in the same lake that was actually installed to create another outlet for the hydraulic power plant, but now is a huge attraction. The water shoots up 140 meters tall at 200km/hr, pretty intense.
Geneva was the land of mountains, lakes, beautiful parks, NGO's, namebrands, banks and watches. The most expensive place I've ever been too. I would love to go back and hike in the Alps and discover the countryside, as opposed to the cities because the beauty of Switzerland is overwhelming.
To get to Italy we took a train from Switzerland. It was the most gorgeous ride I have ever been on, through the farmland and mountains. At one point the valleys of two mountains met at an immaculate waterfall.
In Italy we went to Cinqueterre, Florence and Rome. All special in their own way. Italy is ranked up there with Morocco in my favorite destinations during our trip.
Le Cinqueterre is a collection of five villages on the coast of the Ligurain Sea. We stayed in the village of Riomaggiore, full of bright colored, stacked houses. Our great adventure in Cinqueterre was hiking from the first village, Monterosso, back to the last village, which was ours. The hike was up and down the mountains because each village was in a valley. The whole path was coastal, so every step of the way there was an amazing view.
Something about the old Italians here really got to me. I don't know if Italians are more wrinkle prone or if they live longer, or maybe in this village they made it what it is through their hard work, but either way, they look ancient (in the least offensive way). Like they have wisdom engraved in their faces. I went to Mass in this village and between the beauty of the Italian language singing God's praises, the organ and these old italian worshippers, the whole service my heart was smiling.
There is something powerful about the interactions you have without a shared language. As we all offered the sign of peace this old woman and I looked into one anothers eyes and you knew we both meant it with all of our hearts. Anyway, that service left a little impression in my heart for whatever reason.
Florence. We stayed with a guy who was more than a bit off kilter. He had us load the dishwasher and then stood over us the entire time telling us how we were doing it wrong. He also described every blanket he owned one morning and got mad at me for not telling him I wanted to make my own instant coffee for breakfast a day in advance. There are so many other funny stories associated with this guy...what an experience.
The city itself was beautiful. We spent most of our time visiting churches and museums and chatting up random Senegalese people who tried to sell us things. It was so fun to throw some Wolof their way and see how suprised they were. You could tell it made them excited to think of their homeland and know that we shared something so important in common.
My two favorite things in Florence were the Duomo (a giant, ornate cathedral) and the Uffizi Art Gallery. The Uffizi claims to have the most complete Renaissance art collection. Michelangelo, Botticelli, Rembrant, Da Vinci and so many others are represented here. It crazy to examine Botticelli's "Birth of Venus," in its emmensity and to picture him standing over it making the brush strokes.
(The Duomo, meaning house in latin beacause it is the house of God.)
Then we fell in love with Rome. We stayed with Kim's somehow relatives, who were the most welcoming and generous people. We had big Italian three course dinners with heaps of amazing food and wine. At night their kids would take us out to spend time at different Piazza's. Piazza's are all over Italy and are just public areas with some special church or building and usually fountains. They are meant for only pedestrians and typically have outdoor seating for food and drinks and live music.
Rome was a healing city. You couldn't help but be renewed by the beauty, culture and spirituality that you were surrounded with. Saint Peter's Basillica was my favorite. I have never been in such an ornate church. There were so many statues, paintings, mosaics, relief scultures, chapels, etc. Detail was worked into every square inch of this place. Despite all of the tourists it still felt like such a spiritual place.
The Sistine Chapel was overwhelming. Just covered in Michelangelo's frescos. The size of these paintings are unimaginable. "The Last Judgement," covered an entire wall and his known painting, "The Creation of Adam," was in the middle of the ceiling and so much more powerful than you can imagine with a replica. Standing in the middle just surrounded by these painting was incredible. A must do in Rome.
My other favorite was the Colosseum. It was one of those places that you know hasn't changed much since the first couple of centuries. It was used for gladitory fights, animal fights, public executions and other bizzare forms of entertainment for the public. It felt so weird to be in a place were human beings had death shows. To know that this was a central hangout spot for families, when now we couldn't imagine that sort of punishment or entertainment. The architecture was incredible...to think that it was built between 72-80A.D. was hard to believe. We got a view into the intricate maze of tunnels under the colosseum used to store gladiators and let out the animals. It was a pretty cool feeling to stand right where the emperors and gladiators did so many centuries ago.
The Pantheon is another place I need to share. It is a 2000 year old church with an unreinforced open dome as a ceiling. It's an architechtural wonder because it is still the largest unreinforced dome in the world. The inside is simple and the sunlight from the open dome, illuminated certain things at different parts of the day.
I may be boring you but I have only one country to go...Greece. We took an overnight ferry to Patras and after a night there went to Stoupa. Stoupa is a little community in the mountains on the beach, with mostly retired people. It was nice to be in a place with no tourists, and you all know how I feel about the combination of mountains and ocean! The food was so yummy. Pitas, souvlaki, tzatziki, greek salads!
Last but not least was Athens. We didn't have much time there but did get to visit the Acropolis, which was astonishing. The Parthenon, built in 440 (ish) B.C. still stands today, overlooking all of Athens. It was a nice way to end our trip. Downtown Athens is a little seedy so it helped ease Kim and I into returning to Senegal.
So. Now I am back. It was the trip of a lifetime and it couldn't have gone any better. This might have been way more information than you wanted but it was fun for me to reminisce so I hope you enjoyed! Thanks for the help Rava and Papa and Mom and Dad. I still miss everyone back home like crazy. Thanks for all of the love, letters and packages recently... hearing from everyone means so much to me!
Back to the bush...
