Day 9 & 10: Istanbul

So, on Friday I arrived in Istanbul around 6:00pm. I booked the hostel that morning and I honestly just picked it at random and based on the price. When I got here, it ended up being across the street from the Hagia Sophia, a historic mosque, and there is a bar on the third floor of the hostel. The hostel is called Cheers.

I spent Friday night making friends with fellow travelers at the bars.

Saturday, I got up early and had breakfast with a friend I made from Spain. We got together with someone from France, Germany, and the UK and started our adventure throughout Istanbul. I will be honest, I am not impressed with the city. The mosques are huge and beautiful, but you can only see so many mosques before they start to all look the same. There we visited a large palace, that was beautiful and contained a lot of history. We also visited the Grand Bazaar. Here, I was also disappointed. I pictured an old market with a lot of locals and Turkish related items for sale. Each store sold the same things: spices, leather jackets, jewelry, and Turkish delights. There were tvs and intercoms that filled the place, making it feel like a mall. The city itself, from what I have seen, is not as beautiful as I expected. Distastefully color buildings with neon signs all over (not as bad as Amsterdam). I was planning to make my trip here last about 5-7 days , I am now ready to leave on Monday. Tonight we all had dinner right on the Golden Horn at a restaurant called Fish Point. It was really good, and we spent over 4 hours eating there. Being able to speak about certain issues with people from all over the world is very rare and awesome, you can see why it took us over 4 hours to leave.

Tomorrow we are going to visit the Blue Mosque, which is right down the road, and then try to squeeze a good Turkish Bath in. Unless if something comes up, I think I may be trying to go to either Israel or Egypt on Monday. Only time will tell.

Morocco Wrap Up

So, like I said earlier, tonight is my last night in Morocco as I am headed to Turkey tomorrow. Now that I have some down time, I wanted to talk about Morocco from my perspective.

When I got here it was not really what I was expecting. I pictured small houses and buildings, most of which are built out of mud, shops lining the street and more animals then vehicles. I was wrong. Casablanca is a big city, with some of its influence coming from when Morocco was under control by the French up until about the 60s. People in Morocco speak both French and Arabic. The streets are WAY overcrowded, with no real traffic laws, aside from surviving, in play.While the traffic is hectic, it gets the job done, and I saw only one wreck. It will definitely put some grey in your hair fast.

The 4 days spent without my big pack were actually nice. I was forced to live in something that was unplanned and out of my control, truly helped break me into the whole backpacking experience.

Our multiple trips to old Medina were so cool because that area is exactly what i expected Morocco to be. Really small pathways that were mostly muddy and not lite on the trash, but one hell of an experience that always had us on our guard, I could see how easy it would be to disappear there, Taken 3? The shop that I got some things from was amazing, so many cool things ranging from doors, rugs, to guns.

While I was there, I wanted to spend my time doing things that a fellow Moroccan would do, e.g., no tourist activities. The Moroccan food is really good, I never had a bad meal. The dishes all incorporate bread and you typically eat with your hands, using the bread as your spoon. The mint tea is also really good, if you ever get a chance to visit, definitely get some. Another great dish is called a Tagine. It is similar to a crock pot, but is used to cook in shorter time spans.

Our road trip through southern Morocco was great. The countryside is really beautiful and the large mountain range provided a great backdrop, some of which had snow on the top. We didnt really spend that much time in Agadir, as there was not much to do. Our hostel was between Agadir and Taraghout and filled with many surfers from around the world. Eating in the main area and meeting people from The Netherlands and Italy was a really cool experience. We were there during the main surfing season, so the place was packed with people from as far as Australia. The waves were really big, too big for me to learn on. Our day spent in Marrakesh was brief. I was not a big fan, the locals are very rude, and always trying to scam you. It would have been more fun if I was there with a group and doing like a desert expedition or something, which is very popular there.

Common things are relatively inexpensive, the currency is called the Dirham.We would eat huge meals and it would cost around 7 USD for the both of us, not too shabby. There is also a lot of partying to be done in Casablanca, I did not experience any of it because we were constantly having to get up early to get things done. I have had my far share of late nights and early mornings in the States, and I dont want to start my trip off with a drag. Trying to drink beer for beer with a Moroccan is not easy, and I am from the South.

One of the things that I wanted to do was learn to surf. Unfortunately I did not get to surf, I really wanted this to learn before my travels. But the weather and waves did not provide the right weather for a surf, too big and choppy.

My overall experience in Morocco was great, primarily because of Youseff. He took me in as if we had known each other since childhood and exposed me to much of the Moroccan lifestyle. Since I had never been to a Muslim country, the regular Muslim call to prayer took me by surprise, but was a great introduction into the religion. There is a huge mosque right on the coast that is beautiful, and apparently everyone in Morocco donated at least one Dirham to help fund the construction.

The majority of the people are nice, except while on the road. They are religious and follow the peacefulness that the Koran promotes. Everyone greets you with "As-salam alaykum", which means "Peace be upon you" in Arabic. There is a lot of trash on the streets and many of the roads are not maintained, which does take away from the city, but you just have to take it for what it is, something new and different.

Feels like I have been here for a while, but I have more than half a year of the this still left to tackle. I have from January 25th to February 10th to get to get to Delhi, India. I start a 28 day tour of all of India in February. I think I will be making a pit stop in Dubai, but it all depends on who I meet and what happens in Istanbul. Only time will tell and anything is possible.

Day 5, 6, 7, and 8

I have not had much time or internet to post in a while, sorry for that.

Monday
The last day in Agadir, we had breakfast at our hostel with a few people from Milan, Italy. We loaded up the car and set off for Marrakesh. I drove, which was easy until we got into the city. Once in Marrakesh, it was Mayhem. I managed the roads fine, but it was very hectic, having to constantly watch out for other cars and pedestrians was intense.
I am glad we just did an afternoon in Marrakesh, it was a disgusting tourist trap. Every store owner would heckle you to death, even the guys selling oranges. There were two guys in the main square that had monkeys. I wanted to get a picture with one of them, then the other one came up and got in the photo. After that the monkeys jumped over to Youseff. They then both wanted to be paid for two photos and charged an outrageous amount. Even though Youseff is from Morocco, he was still treated as a tourist. Luckily he speaks Arabic, and we were able to get ourselves out of that monkey business. After lunch, we set off on the wrong drive to Casablanca.

Tuesday
My bags finally arrived Spent the majority of my time getting lost on the way to the airport. Took the wrong train about 45 minutes outside of Casablanca before the ticket guy came through and realized I was on the wrong train. My plane to surprise Youseff with grits fell through, as the can exploded in my bag, I saved what I could. n the afternoon, we went back to Old Medina and I bought a few things for myself, family, and my moms interior design shop back in Columbia, SC called Verve.

Wednesday
Spent the morning hanging out at Youseffs house and neighborhood while he worked. We spent the afternoon trying to pack up and ship the things that I bought back home, which, it turns out, is about twice as expensive as the things I bought.So we are trying to find a cheaper, reliable, Moroccan alternatives. Fingers crossed. Tonight begins a holiday in Morocco, Aid Miloud, during which alcohol is prohibited from being sold, so we turned to the black market. We ended up getting a 24 pack of beer, the size of the small Michelob Ultra cans, for 75 USD, talk about expensive beer.

Thursday
I hung out at Youseffs place while he worked. We came back into the city to much calmer streets because of the holiday. We have just been hanging out in Casa taking it easy. Tomorrow, I will be off to Istanbul, Turkey. Not sure what to expect, but I have heard amazing things.

I will load pictures tomorrow

Day 3 & 4: Agadir & Taraghout

The past two days have been spent in a small surfing town called Taraghout. We have met people from all over and there are tons of people here in RVs on a road trip from Europe. The waves were really big this morning (7-8ft) so it was not a good place for beginner like me!

Yesterday was spent primarily driving from Casablanca to Agadir (about 5 hours), the city right before Taghazout.

The coast is really nice, out hostel is across the road from the beach and a quick drive into the main town of Taghazout. We spent today walking the beach, checking out the different surf spots and watching the good surfers take on the big waves. Granted I don't surf, I have never seen these big of waves in person.

Walking through the town was really cool. Some of the houses and restaurants are right on the beach. Behind the beach are very large mountains, which provides for a really cool backdrop.

Unfortunately, my bag has still not arrived to Morocco and we have no clue where it is. Luckily I have been able to borrow a few clothes from Youseff, so all is well.

Tomorrow we are driving to Merrekesh for the day and should be to Casablanca by nightfall.

Day 2: Casablanca

The first real day of my adventure begins. I landed in Casablanca and the airliners lost my bag. If you thought I was traveling with little gear, now all I have is a pair of shorts and long sleeve shirt and an extra pair of socks... A really good start, and by the way, it is no where near "shorts weather." I have met up with a good friend of a friend named Youseff, who is from Morocco and spent the the better part of 10 years growing up in the United States, primarily Myrtle Beach. Southern Charm is alive. He has gone above and beyond to show me a great time and made sure that I not feel like a guest but like I am at home. Hoping that this was how I would be treated, I surprised him with a good amount of Quaker grits to take him back to his days in The South.

In the early day, we traveled via train to his girlfriend's apartment in the heart of Casablanca. The way in was a very rural train ride. Farms and half built apartments followed us the entire way in. The traffic in the city is absolutely awful. There is no such thing as lanes and crosswalk signs might as well not exist. I think of myself as "on my toes"... I almost walked in front of a car and almost got ran over by a kid on a bicycle.

We then traveled to where Youseff works and lives, Dar Bouazza, about a 20 minute slow ride outside of Casablanca. I had the opportunity to watch him and his team at Kat Shapes build surf boards. Afterwards, I walked by myself into the small town where the docks are the central area. Youseff and I bought 30 Large sardines for around $2 and had someone right on the beach cook them for us with a Moroccan salad. The sardines were the best things I had ever had. Afterwards, we had some left over, so Youseff invited a man that looked very hungry to help us finish. I cannot tell you how thankful he was.

When we returned to the city, we walked through Old Medina, which is exactly what I was expecting Morocco to be like. Very narrow street, packed with people, and lined with shops.
Found some very neat old Moroccan items, an old middle eastern flint lock rifle really peaked my interests!

 On our walk back home, we came accross some interesting dressed men that were pouring water into golden looking cups. Usaf informed me that this was how water used to be distributed to the locals.

After we left, we rented a car for the days ahead; tomorrow we set off on a multi-day toad trip through Marrakech, Agadir, Essaouira, and Taghazout.

Day 1 (In the good ole USA)

So, I have begun my adventures around the world. To get there, I am flying through Charlotte then JFK in NY and will land in Casablanca, Morocco around 6:30am (their time).

Excited to start my journey and it will be interesting to see how my personality and mindset changes as the months go by. I hope you enjoy following my 8 month backpacking journey.