Day 123 Peggy Gugenheim Museum

On Saturday there was an obvious increase in people. I guess it was a holiday and there were people everywhere. We found our way back up the Canal at the doorstep of Peggy Gugenheim. Peggy was an eccentric lady who cultivated a vast assortment of Modern art during her lifetime. After she passed away her Grand Canal estate was converted into a fun and quirky little museum. This has got to be one of my favorite museums in Europe so far. The art was interesting, location amazing and just the right amount of people. A trip to the museum is easily spoiled with hundreds of people pushing their way around.


Me in Peggy's seat


Peggy's view of the canal.....how amazing would it be to have a mansion on the grand canal.


I want this house.

After the museum we headed to the famous Rialto Bridge. This is I think the biggest bridge in Venice and is lined with shops and tourists alike. After spending a bit of time watching the canal traffic and taking some pictures we headed back to pick up our bags.


The Rialto


Me on the Rialto Bridge

Tonight is the great train adventure. We planned a trip to Cinque Terre and to get there it is kind of pain from Venice. The cheaper and less time consuming way to do this journey is to take night trains. However,we didn't realize we would have to switch trains four times during the night until we printed our tickets. Bastard! It was a rough night to say the least, and hopefully one to not be repeated.

Day 122 San Marco's Square

Venice is beautiful. The first thing we did was board a water taxi to reach the infamous San Marco's square.

The water taxi was nice. We got amazing views of the canals without shelling out the big bucks for a gondolas. See, budget travel can still be fun.



Arriving at San Marco's square is quite the sight. Erica had downloaded a audio guide so we got lots of interesting facts and such.


The Square


San Marcos has the fattest pigeons

Photographs aren't allowed in the church so I will leave you with one of the outside.




Doge's Palace was our next stop. I can't say it was anything amazing. It was nice. There were lots of great rooms with out stuff and walls. Walls with old pretty paintings....err. Hate to say I don't have anything intelligent to say about this one....but it was pretty!




Gondolas on the way to the hostel

Day 120,121 Marrakesh to Milano to Venice

Bonjourno Italy. Arriving in the evening and leaving in the morning left much to be seen in Milan. We tried to plan at least a morning of sight seeing before we took off for Venice to meet up with our friend Erica who is coming from Seattle but the only cheap train left at seven a.m. Not much is open before seven to see.

Arriving in Venice and finding our hostel was easy enough. Erica arrived a short time later and we just spent the day walking around our area of the island. The hostel we are staying in is on the questionable side but its on the island and saves us a lot of time and moola getting back and forth the see the sights.

Some first glimpses of Venice.








I guess these locks are left by couples to signal their lasting love

Day 119 Yves St. Laurent Park

Being done with shopping we decided to get out of the city and see a park of the French designer Yves St. Laurent. The pictures on the website made it look amazing and it was nice when we got there. Lots of color and some pretty fountains. Laurent's tomb was the main event and fairly basic given its colorful surroundings.




The most popular photos were right outside the gift shop and were not supposed to be taken.


It was a garden.....

Being our last night in Morocco we decided to go out and see the Medina at night. After our short stroll to the square we tried to see the performers but found it a bit of a hassle, unfortunately. The main reason I wanted to come to Marrakesh was the Medina and the performers. I had read about the atmosphere of the performance area being so fun and joyful. There were supposed to be many kinds of dancing and singing. Reality, there were a few groups and everytime they caught a glimpse of a foreigner someone runs up to and demands euros and multiple ones and that whether you had stood there for five seconds or five minutes. We paid a few tariffs and then went on our way. We couldn't enjoy the shows with people demanding money and then hounding us for more when we paid up. Out to Milan in the morning!


Spices and dried fruits.




Street performers or exstortionists, thin line


This guy might have cursed me for the rest of my travels after he stared me down for snapping pictures. Still not sure what I exactly got a picture of?!

Day 118 Shopping the Medina....errr.. taking pictures....actually just a little stroll....

Tired, sick and a little frightened we set out to see the Medina. The medina was what made me want to come to Morocco. When you read about the charms and interesting findings in the alley ways and squares how could you not. I demand a refund. I think that Lonely Planet owes us money and time for the lack of charm the Medina had. Now I know that you have to take situations as they come but really Morocco.

We went to lunch with little excitement other than it was 90 or so degrees out. Jamie and I then started to stroll around the Medina. The catch in Marrakesh was that we couldn't really take pictures. People wanted our money and maybe we just picked some bad areas but it was too hard with motorbikes trying to run you over and vendors yelling at you. So we put away the cameras and strolled for a bit before heading back to play cards and such. So much for Morocco.....


A pretty door. In thruth I think it was the entrance to a chinese restaurant


Rugs, pretty, pretty rugs


Stop, Have a good day?, Would you like to buy a llama???? A lot of writing for what I thought should be a don't ride your motorbike in the medina and try to run over tourists....


At night while waiting for our food this little kitten came to sit on our table and keep us company. However, since the table next to ours had gotten their food we were only bffs for like ten minutes.

Days 117 Getting to and surviving Marrakesh

By this time we are tired. Jamie and I had experiences in the Fes Medina that made going to the tougher, bigger and more abrasive Medina of Marrakesh a little daunting. But you gotta do what you gotta do. We have a flight booked out in a few days to get to Italy and there is no turning back at this point. A long train ride later and many pringles later we arrived at the station to be brought to the Medina to find our home for the next few days.

The Medina is a maze of alleys and streets. While in Fes you are always moving out of the way for donkeys and carts in Marrakesh they tear around on motorbikes. I don't think this is an improvement. The directions to our hostel included finding a young boy and paying him to lead you to the hostel. In Morocco you can't ask where the bathroom is without handing someone some money. They are very hip to the idea of tipping.... upon arrival we had the first of many disputes about how much to pay someone. The hostel sent us a paper with a price, we paid the price the boy took us on a round about way and therefore demanded more money for his time. We did not give in on this one, gotta stand your ground where you can.

We settled in and didn't even venture out that night for more than a few necessities. Our hostel sucked but we had internet and there are some last minute Italy things to hatch out. Traveling with three people really does take more planning.....

Day 116 Entering the Medina....

The medina. The market. Hell. All words that describe our Saturday trying to get to know Fes. Trying hard to like Morocco but not succeeding was continued to the Medina. In Granada, Spain there were a bunch of Moroccain stores and I did a bit of looking and had an idea of what I wanted to buy before I went in. I was really surprised at the prices I was quoted. I know that part of bartering is starting high but really. You aren't going to get much less if half of the starting price, so if that is too high that I have been taught to not go further.


Olives!


Very fresh poultry


Me and more pretty tile at a temple in the Medina


Spices


Moroccan Carpets.


The bag I would have bought if I wasn't backpacking...sometimes you can't rationalize buying and packing around something....sometimes.


Shoes....so many shoes. Jamie actually bought a red pair, and now they are known as her clown shoes... sometimes you don't see those things until it is too late.


A little performance during a coffee stop


We also visited a tannery with a cute little guy who explained the process with us then graciously showed us around his shops....with the constant saying..."it's only money" Sadly for him our money didn't become his...

One thing I want is a leather poof. Make that two. These are leather pillows you fill with stuff and then sit on or stare at because they are pretty. They were 12 euro in Spain and should be cheaper here. Shouldn't they? When I was quoted well over that I walked away from the seller knowing that I did not want to go any further. As I walked away the man yelled at me and then about me to his fellow and was yelled at by the man. All this stuff to make me look like a jerk. I have given some ridiculous low ball offers to people in Asia. Not all transactions have ended in smiles BUT I have never been yelled at like that in my life and made my first taste of market life rather sour.


kind of like the poofs I bought. You fill them with blankets, etc and they are like little stools.

We continued on. I bought some amazing bowls and a poof deciding that I didn't need much else and I could continue my minimal spending through Morocco. During our walk around we saw lots of things that make Morocco different. Random animals for sale. "Fresh" poultry clucking away. We also visited a tannery where we got a lesson in making our own poofs and some advice on life that money isn't everything.....I wonder what he thought we should do with our money?

On our walk back up we were ready to leave. I got a marraige proposal when I retorted that I didn't have a house to put a carpet in to one seller. You may think he was joking but I am not so sure he wasn't selling off his small purple carpet and his oldest son. Jamie had an unfortunate run in with a young lad who decided to cop a feel. All and all our first and late meal at good old McDonalds was all we were ready to do at that point.


Given that the hostel has a curfew and we have a 8 hour train ride tomorrow we stuck around the hostel and read as most of the people there didn't speak English.

Day 115 Fez

Getting Fes was fine except I don't speak French. I didn't realize how big of a problem that would be until we showed about 209320932 cab drivers our information and almost got charged 4xs the price to go the short distance. A fellow backpacker suggested the Fes Youth Hostel and upon arrival no one was home. This is strange as there seems to be always someone at a hostel at sometime. We took a few minutes to drink in the situation and by then someone had come to check in. Upon getting situated we found out that the hostel closed in twenty minutes for three hours. We were hungry and had intentions of getting some dinner but really? Three hour lock out in the middle of the day. It was a blessing in disguise as we have no hostels for Italy booked so we seeked out food and internet. We splurged a bit in Moroccan standards and had some delicious chicken. The salad I had was really nice and makes me wish I knew what was in some of these dressings sometimes.

Italy booked, food eaten and it being holy day we putzed around the hostel for a bit and I read a good portion of my book, Little Men. I have to say one of the things that differs the most between traveling Europe and Asia is the chill time. In Asia their way of life sort of makes you relaxe at points and heading to Italy both Jamie and I are well aware that we are going to be on an intense schedule and we should take advantage of times like these.

Tomorrow, the Medina.

Days 113 & 114 Getting to Morocco and Chefchauen

Chefchauen, Morocco

Sixteen hours. Train. Bus. Boat. Bus. Cab. Annoying man. We arrived in Chefchauen, Morocco. I have to say that I was more excitd for Morocco in theory than in reality. The reality is that it is far closer to the type of traveling I did in Asia than Europe. Also, it is an Islamic country and not being covered from head to toe ilicits stares, sneers and unwelcomed comments...sometimes including a marraige proposal.

Chefchauen is a cute little town. For the most part it is a village and the mountain is the big sight. But what did we see more of....rain. Yep our new plague on this trip. Now being from Seattle you ask, rain? How bad could it be. Well this is like heaven opening and pouring down on the world. So we ventured out during one of the breaks to get breakfast. We then realized our hotel was rather horrible in comparison to the neighbors so we swtiched and then tried to see the sights and eat during the small windows of no rain.


One of the many public fountains


Chefchauen is a town of blue doors.


Why my backpack is going to weigh 20920392 pounds when we leave here.

That evening we were abusing the free wifi and watching Little Miss Sunshine....going out after dark as two women is not the best idea......and the power goes out. For about twenty minutes at a time we read by candlelight and listened to kid running up and down the stairs outside until we went to bed. Leaving early in the morning on a bus to Fes we needed our sleep.

Day 113 The Alhambra

Today is Alhambra. After much trying, researching and reserving we are off to see Alhambra. This week was entirely sold out and closed one day due to a visit from the Queen of Spain. To be honest I didn't know they had royalty but I am now well aware of that fact.

Not only did we see the big site at our assigned time of two o'clock but we also hit up the Cathedral in the morning. It was a big cathedral and honestly they are starting to look the same. The alter was exceptionally beautiful and I tried to get a picture but I find the bigger the item the harder it is to get a picture. So my best is below.

After a long hike/jog/freakout I finally retrieved my passport from the hippy hostel and made it back to catch the Alhambra bus. By the way. For our "student tickets" they didn't check my drivers license, student ID or passport. Just saying Mr. Oasis Ticket Seller.

After entering the Alhambra we ran into a few more hostelers and walked around a couple of the major sights before the Palaces themselves in which we have another more specific time that we need to be there at. It is a rather impressive sight. The tile was amazing and if you could take away the hoards of tour groups it could be very peaceful.


One of the peaceful buildings....at least I thought they looked peaceful


Me inside one of the cave/tombs






Tile!




The gardens. Which we didn't spend too much time in but were very beautiful

Day 112 Street Art! And a lot of walking

Granada is a really hippie town. From what I put together there are at least three major squats around the town. One of the bigger ones being a group that lives in the caves just outside the historic district. From what the hostel staff tells us. These are mostly middle class kids with iphones just going off the grid for a few weeks or months and not true trubadors.

The hostel that we should have stayed at was offering a graffiti tour as a well-known artist takes up residence in Granada and has quite a few murals around the town. The hike was not for the faint of heart. While we were excited to see the sun I could have gone for a few less degrees for this hike...it was a bit hot. But I got some great pictures of the street art and the town itself.






Cut little grassy church




The town

That evening we rounded up quite a large group and went out for another kebab. I don't know why I love them so much but I could eat flaffel everyday.