Basque Country

When you talk about Basque Country in Spain, you have to be very careful not to refer to it as being part of Spain, for risk of offending Basque nationalists, nor to refer to it as its own country, as it isn't that either, as much as some Basques might like it to be. In fact, Basque (as well as Catalunian) nationalism might be THE hot-button issues in Spain, politically speaking. This, as well as what I have heard about how wonderful the land and the people are, made me really want to see this part of Spain before I left. Luckily, I got to, and it was amazing.

First, a little geography.



You can see the Basque country/territory there on the Northern coast. It's a relatively small piece of land, but one which has ignited a lot of tempers, tirades and terrorism. (See articles on Basque nationalism and ETA http://edition.cnn.com/2000/WORLD/europe/11/21/spain.basque/ http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/4832672.stm --the second article was the biggest news story in Europe for a while).

Well, all of that nonsense aside, Basque country, and the entire northern part of Spain, is perhaps the most beautiful place I've ever visited. Here are some pictures that are fairly poor representaions of just how beautiful it is there (but they do their best):



Every bend you come around is a new view, and every single one is postcard-worthy. The entire place is absolutely picturesque and I understand now why they're so proud of their land.

I drove up there with my friend Alvaro, with whom I've been doing a language exchange (half English, half Spanish), for semana santa (All of Spain gets time off for easter; we got a whole week off from school Spring Break style). He has family there, pretty distant family actually, that owns a hotel, and when we got there they were extremely hospitable. We ate at the hotel once or twice a day; the food was amazing and they eat a TON of it. Seriously, the Basques are famous for the amount that they eat, and justly so. We went to a restaurant and ordered the menu del dia (menu of the day) and they brought out veritable mountains of food, all for the same price you'd pay anywhere else in Spain for maybe half as much. I made the comment that if I lived there, I'd definitely be a little bit fat.

Anyway, his family was amazing and really went out of their way to make us feel at home. We were staying in an albergue -- which I suppose translates to something like backpacker lodge -- in a small town on the coast, Lekeitio, about 45 minutes from where the family lives, and we'd drive over there every day and visit and take excursions with them, etc. One day we went to see San Juan, which is this amazing island/rock formation off the coast not far from where we were, which a church on the top:



I made the comment that someday I'm going to have a house there. It's my new life goal. This picture



was taken from on top of the mountain. As I say, everywhere is picturesque.

We spent most of the trip just cruising around the northern shore/resting when we had time. And eating of course. We did take a day trip down to Bilbao and the Guggenheim museum, which is really incredible.



There's this gigantic sculpture of a dog made out of flowers out front (look at the size of the kid for scale reference):



Couldn't take any pictures inside of the museum itself, but it's awesome -- the architecture is absolutely stunning and the exhibitions they have are great.

We also went to France!! We wanted to drive out to San Sebastian for a day, and once you get there it's only another 45 minutes or so across the French border. Here's a picture from the French coastal town of Biarritz:



There's definitely a marked difference between Spanish Basque country and French basque country, the most notable being that in French Basque country they don't really speak Basque.

Then we did stop in San Sebastian -- the wealthiest and most expensive city in Spain, and the hotbed of Basque nationalism -- on our way back to Mundaka, where the hotel is. It's another great city, and though we weren't there for too long, I loved what I saw of it.

Here's a picture from downtown:


and another picture of a little Basque nationalist protest. Looks like somebody made the mistake of putting up a Spanish flag, so some separatists made their own statement:



So it was really a great trip. We had cheap, good lodgings, and ate like kings the whole time, mostly for free. I really fell in love with that part of Spain.. er, of the Iberian peninsula.

Here's a picture of me and Alvaro with some of his family:

Morocco, Part II

Sorry again for the long lack of an update... or completion of the prior one.

I would say that the second part of our trip was somewhat less exciting, but that's mainly because practically nothing can top the experience in the desert.

We took a long bus ride to Marrakech, where we were to stay for the remainder of the trip. We got there and found our hotel to be awfully nice -- much more up to western standards than the ones we stayed in outside the city. There was more touring around the city, going to various historically-relevant places, and then hitting up the GIGANTIC market in the center of town. There are literally thousands of booths there, most of which sell touristy-type items (that is, things catered specifically to Europeans who come -- obviously not intended for consumption by other Moroccans). Here are some pictures from there:



I went to the market on a couple of occasions, and found a few nice gifts (that means you, family!) The thing about Moroccan commerce, though (like that of many countries in this region, I imagine) is that in any place besides like a restaurant or a grocery store, it's all based on haggling. There's nobody who doesn't play the haggling game, and they all play it well. Essentially the way it works is that every time you express interest in something, the person at the store will give you a price that is usually about 4 times as much as the thing was bought for. You then make a disappointed face and say, "oh, no it's too much" and then they say "ok you want - I make you good price" and you proceed to say "oh, no it's just it's too much, I can't" and they say "no, you tell me what price you pay." You then name a price that seems close to reasonable, or maybe a little bit under it, and the store owner then proceeds to make an exasperated face. "___?! You think this is a joke?! Is worth much more!" And you can probably imagine how it goes from there. Sometimes, this can be fun. Other times it can be irritating -- especially when you see something you like and you just want to buy it. Other times, they can get really pushy. Regardless, if you want to buy, you have to play the game.

Another thing about Moroccans that impressed me is their linguistic dexterity. That is to say, especially amongst those who are trying to sell things, most Moroccans speak bits of at least 5 languages -- Berber, Arabic, French, English and Spanish. They might not be fluent in English and Spanish, but they speak well enough to communicate with you. Berber, Arabic and French they speak perfectly. I think Moroccans are especially famous for this around the globe.

While in Marrakech, we took a day trip to the not-too-far-away costal town of Essaouira, where Jason, Eli and I spent half of the afternoon building this really cool sand castle/sculpture:



We then stood and defied nature as the tide quickly rose, besieging our monument to man's ability to create.



It was a slow and arduous ordeal -- our fortress withstood many an aquatic bombardment, but once the outer walls were breached it was downhill from there:



And soon enough, it was all over. Nature had played her course, and once again had emerged victorious over the exploits of man.



After that, it was one more day spent in Marrakech, going back to the market, taking it easy, eating at McDonald's because it was the only restaurant nearby that we knew we could trust not to give us an intestinal infection (which is ironic, because in the states McDonald's is probably the restaurant I trust LEAST not to make me sick). Then it was on a plane, and back to Spain.. It felt very strange to feel like I had gotten "home" when I came back here... everything seemed so normal and comfortable - not at all foreign or exotic by comparison with the week I spent in a third world African country.

Morocco: a week spent with sand between my toes

Where to begin?

We spent a week in this country on the Northwest corner of Africa, travelling to various corners of the country, visiting everything from small towns to the Sahara desert to metropolitan centers. It will be hard to formulate all the experiences and impressions I had in one journal entry, but I'll do my best.

Saturday, flew out of Madrid, got to Marrakech and started our 8-hour bus ride to Zagora... wait, here's a map of Morocco so you know where these places are.



So we drove from Marrakech to Ouarzazate the first day, passing through the Atlas mountains:



The views on the way there were incredible. The mountains, valleys.. all the houses are made out of adobe (=dried mud). When we got to Ouarzazate, which is on the outskirts of the desert, we took a walk through an oasis.



After spending the night in Ouarzazate, we departed for Merzouga, which would be our jumping-off point for the desert. We drove out into the Sahara in 4x4s, and arrived at a small village/bed and breakfast that was run by a group of Berbers (Moroccan natives). They treated us like kings: once we got there, they treated us to a feast of Moroccan food (which had already begun taking a toll on my unaccustomed stomach), after which we danced the night away to a group of Moroccan musicians. Here's a picture that was taken of me getting my Morocco on:



We all slept in tents that night



and the next morning were awoken at about 5:15 by the sound of a camel that sounded like it was being eaten alive. I think it was just sick, but it scared everybody out of their minds, and we all started saying things like "Please don't let the desert monster eat me." But once we were up, they put us all on camels, loaded up a caravan and we rode out into the sand dunes



where we watched the sun rise across the Algerian border



From thence it was another long bus trip to Zagora, where we stayed the night, and then took another long trip to Marrakech. On the way there, we stopped to see the biggest Casbah (defined as "an older or native quarter of many cities in northern Africa; the quarter in which the citadel is located") in Morocco. There was a small river/stream that we had to cross to get there, and we were flooded by kids, probably 20 of them, who wanted to help us across. It was nice of them, but once we were on the other side, they all started demanding money. I gave one of them a euro, which I found out we weren't supposed to do, and then the rest of them felt entitled. It was a mess.

That's one of the things about Morocco: it's an extremely poor country. Every time we arrived in one of the small towns, we were flooded with people trying to sell us things, trying to get us to pay them for random things, or just begging. A lot of the time it was children, but sometimes it involved adults too. The children, though, would often be happy with a pen (I suppose because they don't have them for school), so Maricarmen provided us with several hundred at the beginning of the trip.

Anyway, back to the casbah.

We walked through an old, mud-built town (which must have constituted the casbah) and then climbed up to the top of a high hill where the wind was blowing probably 35 miles an hour. The view was gorgeous, though unfortunately I didn't take my camera up there with me. I have some pictures taken by others of us having fun though.

Me posing glamously in the wind with my Moroccan-made turban/scarf:




Here's me outside of the casbah wearing my turban (which Britt wrapped herself -- I'll let you be the judge of if she did a good job or not):


After that it was back on the bus for 3 or 4 more hours until we got to Marrakech, where we spent 3 nights. That part of the trip will constitute PART II of the Morocco update.

Stay tuned.

PS I set up a group gallery at moroccotrip.atpic.com for everybody to post their pictures from the trip -- so far only 2 other people besides me have put anything, but you might like to have a look.