Back to Africa

G’day all,

The past week has yet again been full of travel action. Christine and I spent 3 nights in Valencia before heading off to Madrid. On our last day in Valencia we went to the Aquarium which like the IMAX, was also in one of the space-aged looking buildings and had a fair bit of ‘wow factor’ about it. The Aquarium was really awesome and it contained several huge Aquariums from different oceans around the world. The highlight was a toss up between the Dolphin show and the big Beluga Whales which you could see just inches away under the water. The lowlight was when some exotic bird shat all over Christine and I in front of a big Spanish tour group. After the Aquarium we went to the beach which was ok but nothing as flash as I expected. It was at least nice to see some sand again instead of pebbles. The following day we headed off to Madrid for a fly by visit to see Christine off at the airport and to see a big bullfight. After settling in to our hostel we headed straight to the bullfight arena which was a real experience and well worth the effort. The bullfighting ring we went to was huge and being the bullfighting festival at the moment, there was hardly a seat left in the whole joint. Although it was pretty gory, we were expecting it to be a lot worse and were more amused by the trumpet playing and the pooncey Matadors than the blood and guts. The crowd really got into it and Christine and I spent the whole time trying to figure out the rules and at the end we still didn’t get it. It seemed to be very traditional to the point where after the best fight of the night the whole crowd threw the Matador their hats and bunches of flowers and waved white flags. Disappointed by the lack of gore we expected at the fight, the following day Christine and I went to this ‘Body Exhibition.’ The Body Exhibition was really awesome and it had heaps of dead human bodies cut up and pulled to pieces in all sorts of arrangements. As much as I wanted to take photos it was prohibited and I would have felt too guilty but it surely was an eye-opener. The sickest thing we saw was probably the full skin of a man cut off his body and stretched out in a glass box. Christine flew out back to Ireland later on that day and I caught an over night bus to Tangier in Morocco to meet up with my best mates. Most of the ‘Club 43’ crew were doing a tour of Morocco and I knew they were in the country somewhere camping. The day I arrived I got on the internet and found they were heading into Tangier the following day on the Friday so I made plans to meet up with them. The bus ride to Tangier was a funny experience as I never realized how much Moroccan people worship their luggage. The bus was full of people down to the last seat and I, as per usual, was the only tourist on the bus. We had a large trailer behind the bus full of luggage plus the aisle of the bus was packed to the rim with extra luggage. I was prepared for the hustle and bustle of Moroccan touts once we finally arrived on Thursday afternoon and after Egypt I was relieved that they weren’t as bad as I expected. By the time I got off the bus and found a guest house, I was already asked at least 7 or 8 times if I wanted to by hash. Hash, as you may know is one of Morocco’s biggest exports, and Marijuana grows here in the mountains like gum trees do in Australia. Apart from that I was falling in love with Morocco very fast and all the hype I heard about how good Morocco is was all coming true. On my first night in Morocco I walked around until midnight looking at all the little stalls and getting lost in the medina. I instantly became a big fan of the fruit shakes and cheap food and my indulging habits kicked back in again real fast. On Friday I caught a taxi up to the bush to a campsite where my best mates Tate, Sean, Shane, and Des were staying on their tour. It was the last night of their 3 week Moroccan tour and I joined in on the action for the final night party. It was great to see the guys again and we sat around the camp fire drinking punch all night talking about all our travel stories. Tate was running short of time and had to leave on Saturday for Spain but the rest of the guys were pretty keen to stay in Morocco and come to Chefchaouen with me for a few days. Chefchaouen was only a couple of hours away from Tangier and is a really nice town to chill out in for a few days. The whole town is painted a nice light blue colour to keep the mosquitoes away and is perched up on the edge of the ‘Rif Mountains.’ Even though it’s a tiny town, it is full of little blue alley ways and we ended up being constantly lost. Chefchaouen is where most of the hash comes from in Morocco and the hash dealers line the streets everywhere. The funny thing is that Des looks like the ‘typical hippy’ with his long dreadlocks and everywhere we walked the hash dealers saw us a mile away and were running up to us from every direction. In Morocco they call Hippies, ‘Rustas’ so as we walked along we could hear ‘Hey Rusta Man’ yelled out everywhere so it became quite funny. We had all been travelling pretty hard for the past month or so, so we decided to just chill out and relax in Chefchaouen for 3 days and do nothing. On our last day in Chefchaouen it rained like cats and dogs but we were booked on a tour with a dodgy guide to check out the Hash fields. We walked up the mountains for about 1½ hours with the guide until we came across a scene very similar to what you may have seen in the movie ‘The Beach.’ The field was huge and it was full of Marijuana plants as far as the eye could see. It was something you don’t see everyday so we were pretty amazed. Later that day I split from the guys to head to Fez for a few days while they headed of to Seville in Spain together. On the bus I met this pretty hardcore traveller from the States called Jean so we ended up hanging out and exploring Fez together. Fez was huge and neither of us had a map and we were pretty much lost the whole time we were there. At first I didn’t see what all the fuss was about with Fez until we eventually found the ‘Medina’. The medina was the biggest labyrinth I’ve ever seen with the walls so high you couldn’t even see the sun to tell which direction is north. It wasn’t blue like the one in Chefchaouen, but this medina was just simply massive. Every little laneway looked almost identical to the next and it took us hours to find our way in and even longer to find our way out. In amongst the maze of miniature streets were these stinky but interesting tanneries where they dye all the leather. The tanneries stunk very badly of fat and off meat but were really primitive and interesting to see. We ended up being taken on a bit of a tour of the medina by some young kids who also took us to visit their home. The houses in Fez were huge dusty old mansions with nothing inside them but floor, couches, beds, and pot plants. The interesting thing was that they all had a huge gap in the roof which allows sun to come in through all floors, and when it rains they have to drag plastic covers over the big square hole in the roof. After a big day of walking around we finally got back to the hotel at 11pm. I left first thing the next morning travelled back to Tangier for a night and now I’m currently on my way to Seville to meet up with the guys again. Only one more week left of Europe now then it’s off to Canada, USA, Mexico, Peru, and New Zealand until September. Thanks to everyone with their comments left between this site, Myspace, Facebook, Bebo, and Travbuddy. I have been trying to as best as I can to reply but I’m also trying to get off the internet as best I can while travelling too, so thank you very much and apologies if I haven’t gotten back to you. To get blog update emails please send me an email to paulwood900@gmail.com and will put you straight on my email list.

Update ya’ll soon,

Paul