How did I forget?!

I went kiteboarding in Greece!! Well, I took a lesson- mostly I flew the kite, and the one time I actually went into the water, I got side swiped by a giant wave, lost my bottoms, lost my instructors goggles that I was wearing, and thought I was maybe going to drown. It was way harder than I expected, however, I think it would be much easier without the waves. I'm hoping to give it another go sometime- the people that are skilled made it look sooo fun!

Opa!

The heat swarmed me as I stepped off of the plane in Athens, well in the sticks really- the airport is miles away from the city. Anyhoo, the heat felt great, even though it was 3am. Anna and I rode the train into the city, and decided that we should immediately head to the islands, so we got ferry tickets to Paros. 
Mmmm, the warm turquoise water and smell of the ocean! It is postcard beautiful every direction you look on Paros. We stayed in an adorable hotel with all the typical Greek decor- white with vibrant blue accents, quaint, balconies, flowers and vines growing all over. I'm gonna throw out a big judgmental stereotype here, but Greek people are super bossy, big bellied, HAIRY, loving creatures, that you just can't help but feel such an affection for. I very much enjoyed being bossed around and cared for by them. And oh my my the food!! Souvlaki, gyro, tzatziki, pita, hummus, and that eggplant casserole (can't think of the name). Mind you, Kokaros in west Seattle still has my heart in the Greek food dept- yup, even after eating it in the native land, it's that good. 
I spent five days of just relaxing on the gorgeous beach, reading, swimming, writing, taking siestas, watching the sailboats and jet skiis and swimmers, drifting on my floaty- it was truly magical. I was brown and refreshed by the end of the week. The beaches are all topless, and I decided to participate one day- not gonna lie, it felt pretty freeing. 
After all that beach action, we decides to rent a quad and check out the inland. We cruised around the entire island, stopping off at beaches along the way, and for crepe snacks. We got back into town right at sunset- wow! If I need to go to a happy place, I will close my eyes and go back to sitting at the waters edge watching that sky- not a care in the world. We also lucked out and got a private tour of an art gallery one night- the paintings were all ancient greek themed, painted by a woman living there, and were amazing, but way outside of my price range.
We switched from our hotel to camping for a few nights- beach camping? Yes please. Then we decided to island hop, and headed to Ios. Big mistake. Ios is actually a frat house in the shape of an island. There is club music in your ear no matter where you are or what time it is, and drunken 18 yr olds always within view. I am certain that I was the oldest person on the island, and by far the most clothed; I think my days of clubbing in a bikini and heels have sailed (cause that's how I used to always go out in Boise). One of the bars put a helmet on fore-mentioned totally awesome 18 yr old customer, hits them over the helmeted head with the nearest object (chair, paddle, etc.), then throws a shot of alcohol down their throat, while bar next door is having competition to drink 10 shots for a free tshirt- we high tailed it to the ferry for tickets to Santorini. 
Excellent choice! Santorini is stunning. There's a large volcano just off the island, and black sand beaches (very neat and very hot on the feet!). We had a fresh seafood feast at this little restaurant where we sat right at the water front. Afterwards we went to a place that had fantastic live music by a three person band from Australia (sorry didn't write down the name). While we were there, these two dorky man from the states came up to our table and wouldn't take the hint that we'd rather not be talking to them, and after a bit, the owner of the restaurant came over with two glasses of wine, handed them to us, and said, "you look like you could use these" and winked. Haha. The two dudes then left and we enjoyed our vino :) On the way back to our hotel, we found an adorable puppy without a collar, so we were naughty and brought it back to our hotel room. I miss my doggies soo much, so it was really nice cuddling for the night. As much as we wanted to give it a go smuggling the pooch back to the states, he still resides in Santorini, probably wooing a new set of travelers. 
After the islands, we went back to Athens, thankfully only for one night- it is a huge, dirty dirty city! Graffiti everywhere, we saws homeless people shooting up on the sidewalk, prostitutes...it's really quite a yucky city in my opinion. The thing it does have going for it though, are the ruins on top of the hill overlooking the city. We hiked up to the top in the evening and absorbed the lights and view. I wanted to just sleep there, rather than go back to our super sketchy crackhouse hostel, but for all my complaining, we survived, didn't get robbed, and were on our way out shortly. 
Greece was a great, relaxing leg of the trip, and i would love to vacation on the islands again- still several that I didn't check out, especially Crete. 

CREPES!

I swear, I ate my way through Paris. I must learn how to make crepes, as they are now staple in my diet. 
We did most of the tourist things in Paris, except the Eiffel tower. Yeah right, you can't miss that beast. It really is just huge, and they had no lifts while constructing it! And it has 2.5 million rivets in it- yeah, super interesting blog today, rivets :) We mistakenly got tickets to walk up the tower instead of ride the elevator, and it is a lot of steps! It was a good workout, but of course Harry Snotter, this little shithead english child was on the stairs throwing a tantrum the whole way up. The view was just as stunning as the first time i was there, only even better because it wasnt raining, woot! 
We spent most of one of our days going through the Louvre; way too many people, but completely worth it. I lost all other thoughts when wandering through the Louvre- just me and the art for a full, lovely day. We also strolled by ol Notre Dame, and the palace. Hate to say the cliche, but Paris is a romantic city. We watched the midnight tower light show, and it just made you feel happy. It's definitely too large of a city for me though- the subway is disgusting, and we saw a man with his pants (and underpants) down, laying on the subway platform, and he looked dead. Not that those situations can't/don't occur in smaller cities, but it just felt like ten million people doing their own thing. However, we did get some local yocal mixing at a small music venue one night. The opening band was quite terrible, but the second act was a huge improvement. 
We rode the train to Paris from Amsterdam, and it was fast and easy. Met some British kids (they are everywhere!) on the train, and one was living in Paris and was very helpful in directing us to where we were staying. 
Thats about all for Paris- no joke, it was mostly eating. A bit expensive, but yummmm!

Til we meet again Hamsterdam!

I adore Amsterdam! Everyone rides bikes, Everyone! And they have such a fantastic system for it with bike lanes and lights set up around the entire city. However, you could spot the tourists everywhere, standing in the bike lane. I finally tried the lava game with Anna, "sidewalk, good- bike lane, LAVA! Dont walk in the lava or you'll melt". The weather was much like Seattle summertime, and was quite gloomy, but the people were all so friendly and chill. We stayed with a really nice cat, Robyn, from couchsurfers the first couple of nights. He had an amazing 360 view from his rooftop terrace, and a spare bedroom for Anna and I. He made us coffee and played guitar for us in the mornings- quite the charmer. One night the three of us made sushi, and then he and I biked to a pub that had fantastic live jazz after- it was a great evening. The other nights we stayed in a hotel called Qbid, and it was...interesting? Our room had lights above the bed that changed colors and settings, there was no bathroom door, and it felt a bit like a spaceship. 

We hit up several of the museums- contemporary art, church of Amsterdam (really cool), wax museum (silly, but so entertaining), Tulip (come on, it was free), FOAM (photography), and...a couple more. I thought the church floors were really cool- they had large, engraved stone tomb tops. We did the canal tour- I believe they said there are 16 canal channels. The canals and the harbor are fresh water. We walked through the botanical garden and a great park (that I can't think of the name). We also checked out the coffee shops and walked through the red light district and saw the prostitutes in the windows (when in Rome). And for whatever reason I never get tired of zoos, so we went to the zoo. They had a baby elephant, and a baby giraffe that was playing with a gazelle (cuteness overload!). 

The public transport was really easy to navigate, everyone spoke English, the city and buildings are really clean and beautiful, and I could totally live there.

Couple randoms:
The wax museum, for whatever reason, had a haunted house in the middle of it that scared the bajesus out of me. They had a bunch of actors with chainsaws, and ones jumping out yelling at you- I don't think there was anything made of wax, and it was not good on my heart. 
There was a disgusting trough outside of central station for men to pee- no walls, no doors, just these little dividers so you can't see their junk but otherwise you're just out in the public on the sidewalk peeing.

More Rocco?...no

Aaaagggghhhhh!!! That's how I felt the entire time in Marrakech. It is crazy town! It was so hot when we were there, and the market is insane- the shop keeps HOUND you, make you haggle your hardest, are quite rude, and the entire time you are swarmed by people and nearly getting run over by vehicles. I think it was perhaps amplified due to the decline in tourism there. I did not enjoy it, but man is there cool stuff! Beautiful mirrors, hand sewn wall hangings, leather products, ceramics, metal work, and and and! I wish I could have went nuts, but I already had to pay an arm to ship the stuff I did get, and the ceramics of course all broke :( The market also had loads of entertainers- snake charmers, monkeys (so sad), henna tattoo artists...The food was delicious! Tajime (?) is yummy yummy. We stayed at an adorable little hostel, with lots of color (vibrant color all over the city- I really loved all of the bright color). 

Since the city was too much for us, and we didnt have enough time for the Sahara, we decided to do a trek in the Atlas mountains. We drove out of the city, then did a brief camel ride, drove more, then hopped on mules. It was a long day, but with beautiful scenery, and a fantastic lunch- we stopped and swam at a  swimming hole, then ate a huge delicious lunch, and took a siesta, magical. One of our guides was the father of the household that we stayed at in a Berber village. His daughter prepared a lovely couscous over the fire that took three hours to make for dinner. We were served delish tea, and played with the youngest daughter once we were shooed away from the kitchen. The village was built tightly together with houses made by hand with stone, and roofs of wood, plastic and clay. The hills were lined with terraces of crop and grazing land. Since there is snow in the winter, they spend the summer stocking up supplies to last them through the winter, as they are house bound for much of it. The men in the family always stay in the house- when they marry, they build on a room for themselves and their wives. At the house that we stayed at, there was the grandma, the mother and father, they had eleven children (average amt for a Berber couple), but four daughters had married and moved to their husbands home, and one son was married with a child living there as well- it was a houseful, but only at night when everyone came in from working. All of the farming is done by hand. Men work the fields and herd the goats (7am-7pm they herd the goats for feeding everyday). The women harvest the vegetables, get the firewood, cook, take the cows out to graze, and milk the cows. The goats, cows and chickens are used for trade when supplies are needed from the nearest town (a few hours by mule). To harvest the grain, 6 mules are tied to a stick in the middle, and they walk them around and around, then they sift the seeds by hand with a piece of brush and tossing it in the air to sort out the grass- I'm not sure I really understand the process, but it was a lot of work. The school of the village is always a good distance walk away, this is so the children are not distracted by the livestock noise or people. The children are taught to speak Arabic and French. 

For three days in August all of the villages come together to celebrate Fatima, the Prophet's daughter. They celebrate on the day of her death. The people roast goats, make music, and get down village style :) Our guide nicknamed Anna Fatima Couscous and me Ayisha. My mule's name was Krikicha, and he was extremely well trained to voice commands; it was impressive. 

The villagers all live a very simple but hard life. They were very welcoming to us, and I was so appreciative of them sharing their way of life with us. 

There are Arganouz trees that are native to, an only grow in, Morocco, mostly the southern part. I thought I was losing it when I saw goats in the trees- they climb up into the trees, and eat the rinds off of the nuts growing in it. In June/July, the people gather the nuts, dry them out, crack off the outer rind, feed it to the animals, split open the shell inside of that and use it for firewood, take out the almond looking nut and roast it, put them into a mulching device that is turned by hand, knead the goo that comes out into a patty (2hrs), let the patty sit, then squeeze the oil out of the patty- whew, Arganouz oil! Anna and I bought a face mask and some delicious Arganouz butter- bit expensive, but they earned it with all of that work. 

I got a fever!!

but forget the cow and it's bell- it's time for the bulls!!! Or more specifically, my long over due blog on the Running of the Bulls:

(Yup, that's the ridiculous shit that you blog at 5am. I traveled crazy ridiculous whacked out hours on a plane yesterday- er, past two days, and passed out at my hostel in Auckland at 6pm, hence waking up at 5am today. My body is so confused)

Anyhoo, testosterone and red and fiesta...We rented a car in Madrid to drive to Pamplona (northern Spain) to watch the infamous Running of the Bulls! We loaded our homemade costumes into Marco (the car's name, as it was a VW Polo), turned our map right side up, and took off (forever since I drove a stick). We spent approximately one hour making a giant circle around Madrid, gettting a nice scenic tour of the city, and trying with all of our might not to start bickering like an old married couple, BUT we eventually made it onto the intended freeway, and were on our way. I'm so happy that we decided to drive, as roadtrips are also tons of fun with good friends, and we saw so many cute little towns along the way. We stopped and took photos, wondered, got a bite to eat at some adorable places.

Since Pamplona is INSANE during this event, we decided to camp in nearby San Sebastian- fantastico decision! It's on the coast and soooo gorgeous there. When we checked into our tent, Anna asked if everyone there was Australian (no beef with Australia, we just happened to have met a lot of obnoxious men from there-mind you the guy she's talking to has an Australian accent), and the guy said no, that there were a handful of others. Then he said 'Have ya had a lot a crepes?' (Australian speak for 'why, have you ran into a lot of creeps'), and Anna responds, 'Tons! Chocolate, nutella, banana, you name it!' Cue extremely confused look on campground guy's face. Ahahahaha! Our campground was up on a cliff overlooking the main beach, wow! The campsite itself was not quite as peaceful, but what's to be expected from a group of young people pumping up to run with animals that have giant horns? We had a huge BBQ and several beers, and passed out just in time to have a little nap before our 4am departure to Pamplona....Yeah, oy! We made it though, and in our awesome outfits that we made. We painted our faces on the bus ride in the morning, and Anna stood up and yelled, asking if anyone else would like face paint- she was confused why no one responded, and then I reminded her that it's 4am!! ha.

When we got into Pamplona, I was shocked- I had an idea of what was coming, but no clue as to the magnitude! There were people passed out everywhere!! All along the street side, parks loaded with bodies, and the bus stop contained several dudes that I was certain were dead. There was also massive amounts of trash EVERYWHERE- glass, paper, food, and the stench of urine was nauseating! So gross. We made our way through crowds and crowds of people, trying to find a spot that had visibility to the alley way that the bulls run up (really small blocked off street). A huge percentage of the people were drunk, either from the night before, or just getting an early start. This led to some way to aggressive males, a horrible funk odor in the air, and difficulty navigating through the mass. BUT, now for the good parts- there were amazing costumes (some really creative and fun ones, and if nothing else, TONS of red everywhere), we were able to find a pretty good spot up on a step so we could see the alley, and no one died this year (though an Aussie-shocker- was skewered really bad). You only see the bulls for such a short amount of time, as they run by so fast, but it was more entertaining to see all of the people running anyway- their looks, and stretching to prepare, and you could just feel their adreneline. It was such a strange experience, but I'm really happy that we were able to do it. 

Shirt Fronts

This seemed like a clever idea until we discovered that a lot of people had squirt guns, and thought it was hilarious to shoot at our targets!

Muh muh muh my sharona!

I don't know why, but that GD song has been stuck in my head for days!!

Barcelona:
We did the uber tourist thang and took the open top bus tour; it was pretty cool. Unfortunately, we did it immediately upon arrival from the overnight train, and in the intense heat, so we fell asleep at the end. However, before our embarrassing slumber up top of the bus, we saw lots of interesting things- the Olympic stadium (was it 92 that the games were there?), castle, lots of great architecture- I know I say that a lot, but man the old buildings are so detailed and beautiful. The castle turned out to be a club at night, so we went and danced and people watched- it was crazy, just out in a castle courtyard with a DJ and a couple of bars and tons of people. We were definitely under-hussied up, but i'm there- too old, and too tired for it. Mind you, the heals and hairspray came out. Aside from touring around, we spent a good deal of time on the beaches- aw, the beach! I got sooo sunburned- Anna and I laughed hysterically when I took my swimsuit off, and we saw the lines; it looked like I was still wearing a white bikini. The beaches were topless, and the locals especially, women and children, did not wear tops- some kids even went fully nude, boys and girls. I have mixed feelings about this- it's natural...but...anyhoo, I'm not going to dive into it right now. To get to the beach, we walked along this really cool pedestrian walkway on the pier, and you could see the gondolas running above (unfortunately we didn't ride them). All over the city there were street performers- some of them sooooo good (we saw an amazing acrobat act with 4/5 guys that stood on eachothera heads-3 stacked! And did all kinds of flips and strength moves), and some of them just in elaborate costumes posing for photos. The main street is La Rambla, and we spent a lot of time walking it. One night we went to a flamenco show- I loved it! The singer was my favorite part- I won't be able to do his voice/style justice in writing. The dancers were extremely passionate- it kind of made me tired just feeling their expression, but it was beautiful, and very entertaining. Afterwards we went for tapas and drinks- the spanish end to each evening, and not a bad ending at all. Another evening we went out to dinner with Anna's mom and her friends that happened to be vacationing there at the same time as us. Anna was excited to see her mom, and dinner was delicious- seafood!

I wouldn't live in Barcelona, but a three day weekend I highly recommend!