Morocco Pary Two

We were dropped off by the SUV in a city that we did not know. Luckily one of the guys in the SUV with us was from Germany…well, we were not lucky he was from Germany but fortunate that although he lived in Germany his whole life, both of his parents are Moroccan. We were fortunate that when people came up to us trying to get us to buy things and luring us into different “packages” and what not he was able to speak to them in Arabic. It was brilliant because every time these guys came up to us they spoke French or English, but our new friend replied in Arabic, which set them on their butts and did not give us any trouble. Our new friend helped us get a Grand Taxi to a larger city so we could continue on our journey. So, these grand taxis are bonkers. Much like the first bus we took the driver was a mad man. Passing cars on bends and passing with visible oncoming traffic was no big deal for this guy. Jay was sleeping but I witnessed driving like I had never seen before. The driver was driving like he was in a video game and had a restart button on his dashboard incase of a close call or a crash. Oh and just incase you were thinking “it is ok because Aaron and his friend Jay were surely wearing their seatbelts like good young men” we were not. We searched the backseat to find no such belt although there were two other passengers to accompany us on our ride.
We got to our city safe and sound and eventually found the bus station. We then tried to get tickets to our next destination, Chefchaouen. There were no direct busses there so we need a bus to Fes so we could get a bus from Fes to Chef. There was some problem with the computers at the CTM bus counter and the guy speaking French just seemed like he did not want to sell me a ticket. CTM is a European bus company and is a good deal nicer than the local long distance bus we tool from Nador to Fes. We wanted a CTM bus because they were nicer and being that we were spending the night on the bus and the price was only a few dollars more we decided to splurge. While I was attempting to sort out the tickets Jay found a nice park with grass to sit in being we had a good deal of time before the bus we were trying to take would depart. I walked to where Jay was a bit frustrated for not knowing French and bewildered as to why I could not get the tickets. I came upon him speaking to three local looking guys. It was cool chatting with them and one of them ended up helping us a great deal with speaking with the CTM guy. We ended up getting our tickets with the help of the guy. We hung out in the part till dinner and then found a place to eat. We were quite fortunate because it seemed that every time we had a good deal of time to wait there was always a soccer game on TV. At the restaurant we found the same spoke true. We enjoyed our food and the game and soon climbed aboard our bus to Fes.
The night pervious we both had a tough time sleeping on the bus but this night we were both zonked out and soon arrived in Fes. Once at the Fes station we booked a bus to Chefchaouen but was not for three hours. We both tried to read but with little success Jay decided to sprawl out on four chairs and try to catch up on lost sleep. I was bored for a bit but once Jay fell into a deep asleep I was amused. Jay started snoring. Loud, powerful, body shouting through Jay’s nose and mouth about how little sleep it has gotten, snoring. It was great because Jay was across the room from me so it looked like I didn’t know the guy. People came in the room and smiled, laughed or even took a picture. I video taped the event and had to hold back my laughter while taping. It was great. The snoring passed the time and we got on the bus to Chefchaouen. This was a short one in comparison to the rest. Only four hours. Within a few blinks of our eyes and we were there.
Chefchaouen was beautiful. It is a city of 45,000 people, nestled at the foot of a mountain, with buildings completely white with most having shades of blue painted from four feet and down. It was seriously something out of a storybook. We got off the bus and walked through the medina in search of our hotel. A guy came up to us asking us what we were looking for (the bags gave it away) and we told him the name of our hotel. He lead us there and once there asked if we wanted hashish, which is like marijuana. We said no and he left. We got inside and it was beautiful. Not many places in the world a room for two in a beautifully decorated hotel would be ten dollars, but it was. After offloading our stuff into our room we decided to hike up to a bit of the mountain looking down at the town that had ruins of an old mosk atop. We trail blazed. Climbing past a cemetery and houses we finally reached the top with beads of sweat pouring off me. Once we crested over the last bit we saw our three friends sitting against the ruins. The girl from Boston, Ali, the guy from Seattle (Clay) and the guy form New Castle (Andrew). It was so cool. We caught up with them and just sat for a good two hours. The sight was amazing. After a good long sit we decided to venture further up. All five of us were trekking through this countryside. There were “trail signs” that we were not too great at following but made it up as far as we wanted and again just sat and hung out. Jay started playing a game with the sunflower seeds we had purchased by throwing one up into the air in front and above him and trying to play the wind just right to catch it back into his mouth. That occupied a decent chunk of time.
the mint tea being brewed in the corner of the room. In this room was a TV with awful American music videos being played. It was an odd atmosphere. The guy started going at Clay, asking him how much he was willing to pay for the ones he wanted to buy. Clay said that he did not have his money with him but if he were to buy he might buy two that were very similar but quite cool. The guy took the third away. He said what would you say about paying 900 dirham for those two? Clay told him that he like them but couldn’t pay that and he didn’t even have his money. There was a bit of talking back and forth as we all got our tea, well just about all of us. They forgot to give me one. Everyone else began sipping the tea while Clay and this guy were talking. The guy asked Clay to give him a “Democratic” price. They loved saying this and was very ironic because they did not live in a Democracy, but that’s beside the point. Clay told him that if he actually were to buy a painting he would only buy one. The guy asked him for a fair price. Clay told him that he was a student and he did not have much money for art. The guy persisted that Clay give him a price. Clay said told him that a price tWe made our way down the mountain and into the medina. Jay saw a shop in the medina that sold hookahs. Hookah is a way of smoking flavored tobacco that is popular in the Middle East and Asia. Jay ended up buying one and we continued walking back to the hotel. On the way to the hotel we stopped at a place where our friends Ali, Clay and Andrew had found that had amazing sandwiches. They were amazing and with our tummies full we went to the hotel. We hung out at the hotel for a bit but our group decided that it would be cool go to onto the mountain to look at the stars and the lit up city. We walked on the path up the mountain but there was not much lighting further up so we decided to scale a side littered with loose rocks and rubble. We made it up a good distance and all picked a big rock to star gaze. Our lack of constellational knowledge enabled brilliant half hearted attempts at linking starts to make figures and shout them out. It was a good laugh. The thing was though that if you have ever climbed up a steep loose rocky slope you know that getting up is usually not the problem, it is getting down in once piece. Clay was the first to attempt getting down and was rewarded by falling on his butt, luckily not sliding. After the ginypig Clay showed us how not to start we all gingerly, some more than others, made our way down the slope while making a good racket. We all made it down safe and headed to get our mint tea fix. Clay was leading the pack and stumbled upon a cool art shop with paintings hanging out side for us to view. We all stopped and enjoyed. The artist himself came out and asked us if we wanted some “hospitality tea.” We did not get the picture yet so we went inside. The man told us that we could look at the paintings, enjoy the tea and we could talk and get to know each other. He said even if we did not buy a painting that it would be a good night because we would be friends. Clay was the one who was most into the paintings so he was looking around the most. He guy caught onto this. He asked Clay what his favorite paintings were. He selected three. The guy took those three off the wall and we should have smelled trouble, but it was being masked by the sweet aroma of the tea.The amount he was willing to pay would be insulting to him and he didn’t want to do that because he like his work. It was almost eerie how as the guy persisted and began to raise his voice the awful American music increased in volume as well. Clay said that he would love to give the guy 500 dirham for one. The guy along with all of us were shocked at what we had heard. Clay continued to say that he did not have that kind of money to spend on art and that he didn’t even have a house to put art in. The guy not even shaken demanded Clay to give an offer. At this point the tension was eased slightly because this guys helper came over and set my tea down. Clay said 100 dirham. The guy said ok. Clay told him that like he said, he did not have the money with him and that if he felt like he wanted to painting tomorrow he would come back to get it. Now lets remember that this guy invited us in for “hospitality tea” and told us that even if we did not buy a painting it would be ok because we would be friends at the end of the night. After clay told him he might come back tomorrow because he had no money with him the guy absolutely snapped. He started yelling at clay as the awful American music blazed. The man started getting scary and began insulting Clay, calling him a liar and a lot more things that I will refrain from typing. He turned to us, yelling how we are stupid kids and all we wanted was free tea. He demanded us to leave his shop. I had only had two sips of my tea and was sad to leave with the glass having sweet nectar still in it but I was scared for my safety. I was the last one to leave the shop and the guy followed us all the while yelling and cursing, using inappropriate English words but not really in the correct way. We came to a T in the walkway, we turned right, back to our hotel. The raging artist luckily turned left. After this we found a place to get some mint tea that had a much les stressful feel about it. After our relaxing cup of tea we headed back to the hotel.
Once back at the hotel we all sat around a big table in the lounge talking and them smoking out of Jay’s hookah. The hookah however did not work all too well. The night drew to a close and we went to sleep with the intent on waking up early to go to a hammam, which is a traditional Moroccan bathhouse where one can get a massage after being cleaned. Jay was going to go on a eight or so hour hike after and I was going to try to play soccer with some of the local kids in a field we saw while up on the mountain. All these things were derailed by our accumulated lack of sleep over our traveling, which allowed our bodies not to wake up upon hearing the alarm clock and the knocking on the door by the guy we had organized to go to the hammam with. We needed the sleep and got it. We woke up and went for some breakfast. We saw Ali, Clay and Andrew that morning and told them where we were going for breakfast. They came and found us and we went looking at the shops in Chefchaouen. There was a lot of cool stuff. We went to this hat guy who exported happiness with his hats, which was a good experience and spent a good amount of time in a leather store. Our group ended up buying four bags from the guy. It made his day. We spent the whole day looking around at shops because we knew we were leaving that late afternoon. Before we left Jay wanted to exchange his hookah for a hookah that worked. Fair enough right? We found the shop and there was a different guy than the guy who sold it to Jay. We suspected a problem. We spoke with the guy there and he seem very nice and helpful. He told us we could exchange it for another one no problem. It seemed like it would work out well because they did not have any more the same size as Jay’s, they were all larger. So we were getting ready to leave the store with this larger hookah and the guy asked where we were going, that we needed to pay. Jay was not going to pay extra just to get a working hookah. The guy went off the get the other guy who had sold the hookah to Jay and he would not give Jay the bigger one. Also understandable. Jay just wanted a working hookah so they spent loads of time refitting the bits that fit into each other because the problem was that air was getting out where it wasn’t suppose to. After a lot of work we left wit the same one but now it worked. Success.
Our friend Andrew was heading back down to Fes for the rest of his say in Morocco so he left to the bus station and was said goodbye. Clay and Ali were going to Tangier to catch a ferry to Spain because their trip was coming to an end. Jay and I were going to Asilah. Clay and Ali were going to catch a bus to Tangier but because there was no way to get directly from Chefchaouen to Asilah we also needed to go to Tangier so we convinced them to take a grand taxi with us. Before we went down to get a grad taxi we had one last delicious sandwich. Jay and I were out of money though to pay for the grand taxi and for that matter the rest of our tip so we went to get money out of an ATM machine. Jay’s debit card has not worked the whole trip so I had to take money out for the both of us. I put in my American debit card and did everything to get money out but instead of spitting out money it eat my card. Big bummer. Luckily being that I have been in Scotland for a while I had a Scottish bankcard. So I used that and it worked. Big relief. We got in the grand taxi and said by to Chefchaouen. We had a nice ride to Tangier but on the way we saw a bus, one of the same types of busses we had ridden on our first bus ride, flipped over a railing and had rolled down a clip. We also saw a grand taxi in horrible condition after being in an accident. Both things we didn’t want to see but did not surprise me at all. We arrived in Tangier and parted ways with Ali and Clay. We got in another grand taxi to Asilah.
The trip to Asilah was not long at all and we were dropped off at our hotel in Asilah. We had an interesting time filling out paper work with the desk worker who didn’t know a word of English and continued to talk to us in what ever language he was speak as if after time we would pick it up or something. Again he did not like the fact that we did not have a stamp. For the sake of space I will try to write the abridged version of Asilah even though it was great. In Asilah we went on a nice long walk along the Moroccan coast, laid on the beach there but the wind blowing sand on us turned out the but to much to handle, watched some local kids play soccer on the beach, watched lots of soccer at night and had a huge scare with money when my Scottish card did not work. It was really thin ice because there was really nothing we could do to get money if my Scottish card got eaten too so I was very careful. I eventually went into a bank and asked to get money out. They asked for my passport, which was at the hotel so they accepted my Washington State driver’s license. I didn’t really feel too good about how easy it was to get money out using a foreign drivers license but at that moment in time I was not going to tell them off, I was just glad we had money to get back to Spain to get on our respective fights.
We decided that we should wake up early on Thursday so we could get from Asilah to Tangier to get a ferry to Spain to get back to Malaga at a descent hour so we knew we would not miss out super early AM flights on Friday. We woke up and checked out and got some breakfast. While eating breakfast I got my shoes shined. It felt so cool and the guy worked so hard on each shoe. It was well worth the dollar fifty. We then got in a grand taxi and went to Tangier. It was great because the guy dropped us right off at the ferry dock. We went and got our tickets and walked up to the security checkpoint to get onto the ferry. We got to the booth and gave the lady our passports. She flipped through and we cringed. She went through again and again. Then looked at us and said, “stamp?” “we didn’t get one.” She told us to go talk to the police. We went down to the police. Got into the police office and explained what happened. They listened to our whole story and said frankly that we had to go back to where we got in. That was the absolute last thing we wanted to hear. We asked if we could do anything else here in Tangier. They told us we could go to the chief of police and we wanted to do everything in our power to get out of this country as soon as possible so we went to the chief of police. The story was the same. They couldn’t do anything for us. Even when we told them that we would miss our flights and that we needed to get on our flights. We had to go all the way over to where we got in and this was no short distance. We got a taxi to the bus station and got a CTM bus to Nador which is where we needed to get to and from there we would take a taxi to the boarder and get out. It is great that they have such a great bus system but for all long trips they only do nights so we had to wait till 8pm. That meant we had to be in Tangier for eight hours. Not fun. We got a taxi to an Internet café to buy one-way flights to where we had to go. I had no money in my bank accounts to buy a ticket so I was glad that Jay’s card worked for that and being that he owed me money from getting money during the trip it seemed to work out. After we spent an hour at the café we went to look for a place to spend the next seven hours. We found a patch of grass near the ocean and set up camp. I will not stress the more, but Tangier is not a nice place. It is very built up, which is good but just feels so weird and there are so many people who target tourists. The thing is that because Tangier is the biggest coastal city and being that it is 30 minutes from Spain there are so many tourists usually so people in Tangier are really quite good at spotting and targeting them. This sucked for us. All we were trying to do was pass the time by any means necessary. We were reading, sleeping (in turn, there always had to be one of us awake) and walking in and out of this really nice hotel. Just anything to pass the time, but every 20 minutes we had a joker come by trying to sell us something. At one point Jay left for to get something and I was left with the gear. There was an older guy who was across the street from us who had been looking over at us every once and a while and once Jay left he came moseying over. He came over and started telling me that Tangier was a dangerous place, but I was welcome here. He asked me what I was reading because I had been before he interrupted me. I told him just a book. He started going off about how people cannot eat education and he began to grab my book. I asked him what he was doing and he said he just wanted to look at the book. I was now wrestling with this guy who had a half eaten cookie in his right hand, trying to snatch my book with his left and had a little extra cookie left on his lower lip. I had no idea what to do but an older guy walking by stopped and started talking to this guy in Arabic and eventually I guess persuaded this guy to give me my book back and walk away and hopefully told him to finish the rest of this cookie that was on his bottom lip. I was so thankful for this guy walking by. Jay returned and I told him what had happened and we shared laughs. More guys came by trying to sell us stuff so us four house of this snapped. We began responding to these people in made up languages. When they come by they ask what language we speak…English, French or Spanish? With one guy I pretended I was mute. I know this sounds horrible and I do feel bad about it but things just didn’t seem normal on this day. One guy who came by asked Jay for some dirham, so Jay just asked him the same thing because we actually really didn’t have money either. We were delirious. It came close enough to time of departure that we decided to try to get back to the bus station. We made it back and found the bar at the bus station showing a soccer match. Perfect timing once again. We watched the soccer till we got on our bus. The bus was meant to get us into Nador at 7am but did not arrive till 9. We took a taxi to boarder and I really thought we were at a different one. There were so many more people and just looked unfamiliar.
We walked up to this building that had windows with workers behind them. We saw everyone in the line had white papers. We waited in line and got a white paper. We filled it out and waited in line again. Guess what happened when we got to the front of the line and gave them our passports? They looked through it four times. That’s after we told them we didn’t have a stamp. The guy told us to go around to the side and wait for someone. There was a military guy who wouldn’t let us pas until the guy came out of the building. He knew English and told us to hold on that he had to talk to someone. Once he left we were left to talk to people in French. Got real far with that. One guy came over to us and started talking to us in very broken English. All I made out was that he wanted us to stay a night in a hotel for some reason. I could not believe it. It was Friday and I had booked a ticket back to Scotland for that next day, Saturday at 11:30am and the ferry was seven hours and only left at 9am and midnight daily. I couldn’t believe that I might miss yet another flight. I was panicking a little. There was a couple waiting in the same place as us who knew French so we asked them to tell them what was going on. The man did and it seemed to help. We were just left there to stand for a good 20 minutes. After a while we were called to go closer to the boarder. I thought somehow we had made it. We had not made it however. We were escorted into a newly built very nice building that stood out amongst the dingy buildings that were at the boarder. We were led upstairs into a big office. I were told to have a seat. We sat down and began talking to a guy behind a huge desk who looked very important. Jay told him that we had come through the boarder and had not seen where to get a stamp and went through and did not get one. He asked us how long we had been in Morocco for and if we had spent any nights in hotels. We told him that we had been in Morocco for seven days. He asked us to name all the hotels we had been in and what cities we had visited. We listed all we could remember. He was such a nice guy but my heart was still pounding out of my chest. He told us that next time we needed to get a stamp and the he would sort it out. We were escorted out of the building and back to the place where we had become accustomed to waiting at. After ten minutes or so a guy in a suit came up to us and told us to fallow him. We went around to the side where everyone was waiting in line to get out of Morocco. Everyone else was giving the people with guns their passports and then let through. We cut the line with this guy and approached the man with the gun. He reached for our passports, I was thinking this is ridiculous, after all this we still aren’t going to get out, but just then the suited man yelled at the gun man and he let us through. We had not gotten stamp in and we had not gotten a stamp out. We have never been to Morocco! We did not care that we had not received stamps to go in our passports, we were just relieved to be out.
We made our way to the ferry and got tickets for that. We had a good amount of time to wait but we were getting really good at that. Before we knew it we were on the ferry. We were going to get a good night sleep on the nice ferry, which would lull us to sleep with the slight sea rocks back and forth. However, once we got on we realized it would be difficult. There were 10 Spanish teenagers who were not trying to sleep at all. They were yammering away and listening to music on their cell phones. This went on for a good two hours with us trying to sleep. We could tell others were getting annoyed as well. An old man who was reading his news paper spoke up and address this youngster. I couldn’t make out what he was saying much because it was Spanish but I think the man was asking where this kids parents were or his parents wouldn’t like how he was acting. Something of that nature. While the man was talking to the kid, the kid muted his phone music and actually looked at the guy but the second the man stopped talking the kid went right back to what he was doing. It was ridiculous. Him and his friends were goofing off and doing the exact same thing. After a few more minutes of this music playing and talking and jumping around another voice spoke up. This time it was from behind us. It was a deep voice. The kid did the same thing as with the older man, he muted and acted like he was listening. Then once the guy stopped he went right back to it. This second man was not like the first man. He was not going to let what this kid was doing to stand. The man got up. He was a big man. He was 6’5 and broad. He was charging at this kid. This big guys friends were holding him back and pushing him away form the kid. I saw the kid get real scared and was not saying a thing. The big man charged at the kid three times and then was pushed outside onto a deck by his friends to cool off. Once the man got pushed outside this young kid continued to go back and do what he was doing. This kid had some nerve. We could not believe it. About then minutes later security guards game and spoke with the kid and he finally shut up. We then got to sleep. We woke up and left the ferry. We walked to the city bus to the airport. Jay was going to stay in Malaga for a few more days to watch a bull fight but I had a flight to catch so we said bye and I got to the airport, got on my flight, got my back in Glasgow, UK, got to the bus station in Glasgow, got on a bus to Aberdeen and got picked up in Aberdeen and got back to Banchory. What an adventure!

Hope you feel the read was worth it. Two thing are for certain. I will never forget my trip to Morocco and if I ever go back I will make sure to get a stamp.

Morocco Part 1

It defiantly pays to pay a little more and fly with a proper airline. I am by no means expressing that I do not appreciate Ryan Air and all they do for the little money one spends. I am however saying that there is a reason why Ryan Air is so cheap.
On short flights there is not much of a discrepancy between airlines. In my opinion what makes one better than another is legroom.
On my flight from Aberdeen to Paris there was more than enough legroom. It was highly enjoyable not having my knees hit the back of the seat in front of me. On top of the legroom, there was no one sitting in my isle. Always a blessing when one is enable to spread out, and I did.
Upon landing everyone was shown down the stairs and into a big bus. When I got down to the concrete I saw a sign that read “Malaga,” so I went over and said, “I’m going to Malaga.” A man showed me to a small van. I got in and another guy got in. We then went speeding away to a designated place, we got out, and the driver got out. He said to follow him so we did at a vigorous pace. French people often get a bad rap but this guy was showing us the royal treatment, zooming through checkpoints and taking short cuts thought the airport. This was because we were only given 40 minutes of a layover. I got to the gate no problem. Something of mine did not make it on the flight however.
Got to Malaga, Spain just as planned, went to the baggage carousel that was assigned to my flight, many bags were spit to be collected, mine, nowhere. After visiting all the carousels with no luck I saw people form my flight head in the direction of a booth, which ended up being the booth to report lost luggage. This was the place for me. I was at the end of the line. Waiting in like while consulting my watch to slow down because my means of transportation form the airport to hostel where Jay (my friend who I was to meet and travel around Morocco with) was already, was conveniently a one Euro city bus and conveniently the city busses stop running at midnight. I arrived in Malaga at eleven. While standing in line pleading with my watch to slow down I knew I would not make it to the window before twelve. I finally got to the window at 12:30 and reported my lost bag. Then the challenge of getting to a hostel with directions suited for a city bus traveler. I gave the paper with directions to a cab driver and got in. He knew the place. We started driving and this guy started yelling at me and laughing. I saw in the passenger seat dumbfounded. He continued to yell in Spanish. By the fourth of fifth outburst with my adrenalin rapidly pumping through my body, thinking he was not dropping me off at my hostel but taking me to an unknown location to do who knows what, I asked surprisingly calmly (I think because I knew if push came to shove I could take this guy in a fist fight) “what are you saying?” He looked over at me and said, “I’m talking to my friend” gestured to the dash. At this point in time I felt stupid and could now hear a radio type voice speaking and stopping, then him responding. I could now relax a bit but was still wondering why the journey was taking so long. We finally got to the place where he said the place was with the meter reading 17.00. I was frustrated because I could have caught a 1euro bus and now I was paying this guy 17. I got out my wallet but the guy told me to wait a minute. He pressed a button and his meter went from 17 to 22. I thought this to be ridiculous. I laughed and exclaimed, “22?!” He, “this is Malaga.” me, “alright, you need to tell me exactly where to go then if I am paying you 22euros.” He pointed in a direction and I got out. This direction was exactly opposite of where I needed to go. After walking around for a good half hour I stumbled upon a place with the curtains pulled down but lights on inside. This was the place. No signs, nothing. I saw Jay sitting in the lounge, greeted him but told him Air France had lost my luggage, to show me to our room and that I needed to sleep.
We woke up the next day and had to wait for my luggage to arrive. We had planned on going to Morocco that day but could not without all my stuff. The day was now all together wasted and really was not torturous whatsoever. We spent the day on the beach in Malaga and the night watching Spain v. Italy football (soccer) match. We had decided that the following day we needed to leave for Morocco regardless or the situation with my luggage.
The next morning I woke up early and made a phone call to the airport. They had my bag and were going to bring it to the hostel but were not certain if it was late afternoon or evening drop off. Both were unacceptable. We collected our stuff, turned in our key to the room and left to the airport to get my bag back. Got there and things were pretty strait forward. It was a great success.
We went in search for the ferry port to catch the four-hour ferry from Malaga to Melilla. Melilla is a Spanish enclave on the continent of Africa. Just a little Spanish city surrounded by Morocco and water. We knew it departed at 2pm and had plenty of time to spare. We got on the ferry and this was no ordinary ferry I must tell you. This was basically an old cruise ship with decks and lounge chairs for relaxation pleasure in the sun. We were loving it. It departed at 2 so we anticipated getting into Melilla at roughly 6pm. 6pm came and went. We went outside and saw now coast in sight. I asked the bar tender how much longer we had expecting twenty to thirty minutes…”three more hours.” There must have been a mistake. The ferry was only be running on one engine apposed to the usual five or this was the wrong ferry. The web site said the ferry was 4 hours. Apparently it is and has always been seven grueling hours.
We got to Melilla at 9pm and had no change of making it across the boarder into Morocco tonight so had to get a hostel. We woke up the next morning early to get a full day in. We arrived at the boarder and were ready for what was ahead of us. We had read in the guidebook that we needed a stamp out of Spain and into Morocco. We saw the Spanish boarder booth and got a stamp no problem. We started walking toward Morocco clutching both pockets with my hands. My passport being in one pocket and my wallet in the other. People started to come to us my passport stamped. We saw cars being stopped by a guy with a big gun and another guy with a big gun on the sidewalk just letting people walk right through. We stopped near the gunned men looking for some direction or advice. Nothing. We had no other ideas of what to do so we walked past. We were in Morocco now? We saw a bank and headed towards it to get money out. Being closed and not wanting to waist time for it to open I took mon asking to buy things we needed for the boarder but we were not put off. He continued full steam ahead. My head was on swivel looking for anything that looked suspicious while scanning for a place to getey out of the wall. We found a bus that went to a slightly larger city named Nador so we could catch a bus to Fes, our first stop.
At this time I will tell you that there are four major ways of getting around in Morocco. There are train, big gray hound type busses without toilet facilities, grand taxi, which are old Mercedes where four people are crammed in the back with two in front, plus the driver, and Peti taxis to get around within cities. We used the later three missing out on train travel experience. I will talk more about these modes of transport when they come up during the trip.
We got to Nador and needed breakfast. This was our first introduction to mint tea. It is amazing. We never found out how to make it but basically looks like hot water with lots of mint leaves in the glass with sugar. After breakfast we found the bus station. We had read and were told that people who come up to you asking for business are usually not the ones who actually handle the business so its horrible to walk away from people who are asking you where you are going or what you want to do but it is just something that must be done. We found a big bus to Fes and chucked our stuff under the buss. This bus was a bus that Moroccans use. Once we started going I realized I was not in American, I was not in Scotland. This was for a number of reasons. First off the views were so beautiful. It did not even look like Africa. There was such lush greenery and mountain ranges and lakes. Breathtaking. Secondly, rules and common sense did not seem to apply to our bus driver. Roads in Morocco are quite bendy. Ok, fair enough. Loads of places have this same thing. In other places massive busses do not overtake on those exact bends. There was an attempt to overtake on a bend where the bus driver pulled the bus out into the oncoming lane of traffic but had to slow down and pull back into our lane because a car had come. It was shocking the amount of times he overtook on blind corners. Also instead of picking people up at stops, we just slowed down just enough for the person wanting a lift to start running and jump in the opened door. It reminded me of baton runners in the Olympics.
We made it off that bus without any major incident and were in Fes. We walked around the medina in Fes, which is the old part of the city with narrow walkways and shops covering all surfaces. It really was something to experience. It seemed a bit silly to be carrying our bags around with us so be got dinner at a nice Moroccan restaurant. At the restaurant we met and chatted with a girl from Boston, a guy from Vashon Island (very close to Seattle, WA) and a guy from New Castle, UK. After dinner we found a hotel. When we got to the hotel and checked in they asked us for our passports. We gave ours to them but told them we did not have a stamp. The guy looked at both of our passports, flipping through them four times astonished that we did not have a stamp. There was another guy who came over and started shouting in Arabic. Jay and I looked at each other not knowing what to do. The man who was not yelling told us that it is kind of a problem because the forms that we fill out are turned into the police. The man told us it should not be a problem and that he was not going to turn our sheets in. We ditched out stuff and found our hotel had two decks that overlook the medina so we hung out up there. It soon became dark and we went to sleep.
The next morning we had a delicious breakfast at the hotel with a crape type thing with honey on top and of course a mint tea. We had to check out because we were not spending another night in Fes but we put our stuff on one of the roofs as other folks had also done. During the day we walked around the medina a bit more but also went up on a hillside to a military museum. The museum was quite interesting. There were displays of everything from swards, guns, cannons and suits of armor. The only problem was that the info was in Arabic and French. It was enjoyable just to look anyways. While in Fes Jay purchases a traditional Moroccan outfit called a Jalabiyya with matching pants. It was really cool. After we felt done seeing the medina and looking in the shops we went to our hotels rooftop to catch some rays and read. We met a guy from California and a guy from Norway and played the card game hearts with them. That was good fun getting to know them and playing hearts. After a bit of that we decided we needed to get some food before we got on an over night bus to Rassani. Rassani is very far south and a bit east of Fes, very near Algeria. We took the overnight bus there to get a car ride into the dessert. At the bus station in Fes we met a guy who gave us information about a dessert excursion of sorts. He told us that from Rassani we could get a 10 dirham (1 U.S. dollar = 7.30999496 Moroccan dirham) ride into the dessert and get a room for 50 dirham or a tent for 25. We decided this was a good deal being that we had just paid 180 dirham for a double room in Fes. The guy called his boss who would pick us up and handed me the phone. I talked to the guy and he seemed like a nice guy, he asked me for my name because he warned me that when we get off the bus that people would try to solicit business and that he would come find me and ask me by name. That made sense so it was a deal. The man was correct. That is precisely what happened after our 10-hour bus ride we got out and people started hassling us. The guy found me saying, “are you Aaron” and we got into his land rover with two other people. We had a half hour ride into the desert and it was cool. Once we got into the dessert area it looked like what I would think the moon would look like or something. It was very windy and we could see the sand being blown in streams across the sand. We came to our safe haven from the wind in the form of an old looking estate with 4 buildings within a squared wall. We unloaded and were greeted by a man who asked if we anted “hospitality tea.” We found out through a couple of encounters that “hospitality tea” is not what it sounds like. It is more so “I want sell you lots of stuff and try to rip you off tea.”
We oblige to the offer and step in the room. Basically to make a very long story short we told the guy that we were not staying the night when he asked how many nights we were to say and his demeanor changed drastically. We wanted to go on a camel ride so he told us we could go on a day trip starting at 10 get into the dunes, eat lunch in a tent they have out there, come back and leave back to Rassani all for a low low price of 1,500 dirham. I had just gotten that same amount out of the bank for the whole rest of our trip. This guy was an absolute joker. We talked with him and decided we were not able to pay that or pay for any day trip with lunch. At one point we just asked if we could stay for the day and get a ride out to Rassani to catch a night bus but the guy said that it would cost 600 dirham for that. We had a slight concern that we might never get out of the dessert. We convinced him that we were students and did not have much money but wanted to have a camel ride. We got it down to 350 dirham for an hour camel ride which turned out to be so brilliant with our guide letting us down off the camels to walk in the sand and wear his traditional outfit and hat wrap thing. It was so cool and just the right amount of time. We left for Rassani when we got back. We were basically shoved into the SUV while the other people traveling with us were given handshakes and told how lovely it was to have them. We asked the people in the SUV how much their camel rides were. They had gone on over night tracks for 600 dirham. We could not wrap our minds around this guy’s initial offer after hearing what these other people go but it was still a great 4 hours in the dessert.

Week Three to Fiveish

From the time I last wrote there have been people coming and going. Sean (my host brother) has left to Fiji for five weeks teaching soccer. It has been sounding like he is having a blast but the house is a bit quieter. I had some friends come back from Zambia. Awesome stories from that. I also had a friend come back who was skiing and working in a pub in the French Alps, so it is good she is back as well.

We have continued to have the Rock and Edge along with Edge bible studies. We have continued to go into the primary schools on Wednesdays for a half hour of teaching and time for questions. I am always amazed at the great questions we are asked. Caitlin and myself continue to go along to the 2020 group that meets during lunch on Thursdays. We had been leading it for the majority of the term but let one of the teachers lead it because we were tired of doing. He lead for a few weeks but just got a promotion while a teacher is on maternity leave and doesn’t have enough time to plan, so again we were asked to lead.

The every day has been going really well. If you remember back about how for the first week or so it was really easy to wake up in the morning and then the Super Bowl came around and knocked me off my regiment. Well, it is still real tough for me waking up in the mornings although the weather has been nice and the sun shining in the window to great me in the mornings has helped.

My over all energy level was attacked while taking a vacation to visit my friend Jay in Milan, Italy, well actually more so the journey there and back were the things that did me in. I will attempt to shed some light for you on my journey to and from Milan. I woke up at 6:00am on Friday February 15th, left the house at 6:30am to get into Aberdeen for my 7:15am Mega bus to be in Glasgow at 10:50am, then caught an hour bus to the airport making it there at 12:00 noon, the plane took off at 2:05pm, got to Milan (Bergamo) at 5:30pm, got on a hour long bus ride into Milan making it 6:30pm when I met Jay. As you can see from the time I left my house I did not stop traveling till twelve hours later. What an adventure!

Once there I had a blast. The first place we went to was a place called “Big Pizza.” As you could imagine the pizzas were large and my stomach was thankful for that. A great way to be introduced to Milan. We went back to Jay’s apartment and met his roommates and shortly there after my head hit the pillow.

We woke up and were off the see the sites because not much is open on Sundays and I was only there for Saturday and Sunday. We went around and saw the Santa Maria Delle Grazie (where the Last Supper painting is kept). I could see this Church from Jay’s living room in his apartment. We were in a prime location. After being in there we went to the Duomo, which was amazing! The shear size makes one shiver and the detail makes one stand in awe. The inside was amazing with the vaulted ceilings that seemed to go up a mile high and the decorative masterpieces that were sprawled across the walls and the beautifully designed stained glass windows all worthy of note. The inside was fantastic and free of charge. We left the building, went around the corner, paid five euros, walked through the turn stall, climbed who knows how many steps but upon concurring the final step the world was revealed to us, well maybe just Milan. We had climbed the steps that led to the top of the Duomo. Even how magnificently decorated the inside was, it did stand a chance in comparison to the exterior craftsmanship. The whole building was some sort of white stone that was so elegantly carved. I will attach one of the many pictures I took while up there. It was so peaceful and a site to be had while in Milan. Although the sun was not shining bright on Saturday we could still see the majority of Milan from the roof of the Duomo. We spent a good 45 minutes up there just hanging out and trying to take it all in. After that we walked to the Castle in Milan, which was cool in its own right.

We then returned to Jay’s apartment because he was not feeling so well. For dinner Jay and his friends usually go to a restaurant to have a “partivo” (I really have no idea how to spell it). Partivos are meant to be for people to buy a drink of choice and have some appetizers that they have set out, then to go to another restaurant and have a main course. This however is not how Jay and his friends handle partivos. They go and make it into a full out meal. They are set up in a way where any drink is a certain amount and then all the appetizers you desire are free. On Saturday night Jay slept while one of his roommates, a friend and myself went to this place to that had a partivo. This place was nice, I mean real nice. We walked in and the host looked at us a little funny and talked to a worker that was standing by him. We asked if we could have a table. He went away without saying anything and left us to stand in the entrance. We could see a number of open tables. The guy came back and showed us to where we were going to sit. The cool thing about this place was that instead of individual seats, they had sofas. However in our situation for whatever reasons us three grown men were shown to a “love seat.” It was a joke. We tried to get in but we would have needed a human sized shoehorn to get us all on that sofa. We asked if there were any other seats available. The guy looked at us and said. “You are lucky you have these seats.” We didn’t feel like valued customers but asked if there were any other possible places to sit. He took us outside, which sounds bad but was really not outside because we were under a big owning and had much more room. So we ordered our drinks, it was the first time I have paid 7 Euros for a Diet Coke but the food was great. We had a few other incidences with these people at this restaurant but I will not go into it for sake of length.

We made our way back to the apartment to see how Jay was feeling. He had perked up and was ready for the night. Jay’s roommate had an Italian friend who was loaded and was coming to over with some of his friends. Around 10:00pm 15 Italian guys showed up to join in the festivities. There were those 15 Italian guys, 8 Americans, two Austrians and a girl from England all in Jay’s apartment. It was bonkers. It was a lot of fun taking to the Italian guys, some of whom have been to America. It was fun getting their view on things and asking them about Italy. The rich Italian had gotten us onto a list to get into this club that was meant to be a really nice establishment. At Midnight while outside the club we found out that although we were on this list we still had to pay 15 Euros to get in. I am not against dancing…But the type of dancing I was anticipating going on and the 15 less euros I would have all pointed to not going in. Jay was fine with this and we purchases a panini each and got a taxi to the apartment. We got back to the apartment, stepped gingerly over the broken glass…oh yeah, I forgot to say that on the way out to the club one of Jay’s friends broke one of the glass doors they have in the apartment, that sucked. So after walking over the glass we both fell asleep.

Sunday was another day of adventures. Efforts to get tickets to the soccer match on Saturday failed but I still wanted and Jay wanted me to see the stadium. We took the bus to the stadium, which is an 85,000 seat massive stadium. It was cool because we walked around it and saw workers bringing in new sawd rolls of turf for the stadium. In the afternoon we went to play soccer with a guy we met at a bar after the partivo who said he and a friend played in a park every Sunday. So we showed up and played around. While we were playing a short-sided game a local guy came up to play with us. Although we were glad that this guy showed up to even the teams up we soon realized that something was a bit off about this guy. We spent two minutes explaining the teams to him and there after he took a shot at the goal no matter how far he was away or who was in the direct path towards the goal. He played no defense and yelled at his two teammates who luckily were not me whenever he felt they were doing something wrong. At one point he put on his jacket and hat he had earlier taken off and was standing in the corner of our made field and was screaming for the ball. We all felt like he was going to collect it and run. He was passed the ball and continued to play. Bazaar to say the least. After he was done playing he came over to each of us and shook out hands and said good game, he offered me a cigarette and left. When we were done playing we said bye to the guys we were playing with and went back to the apartment. We had a low key night with one of Jay’s roommates cooked us up some hamburgers. We watched some soccer on TV but that was basically it because we had to wake up and get me to the Metro to catch my bus out of Milan to get on the plain to go to Glasgow (Prestwich) to catch a bus into Glasgow, to get a bus to Aberdeen, to get picked up by Ian (my host dad) at the bus station to get back home. Was a good, tiring, experience filled and well worth trip.

Week Two

I left off last in the middle of Thursday if you recall. Thursday night’s activity is the Edge (high school aged youth group). The topic was a question “Does worship only happened in certain places?” We decided that it would be cool to do something that young people would not usually think of doing in a church sanctuary. The west church a few weeks earlier had just got a nice new projector and screen installed. We decided to play the Nintendo Wii in the sanctuary on the projector. It was brilliant. We ended up playing an Olympics game essentially the whole night except for a little bit of singing in room where not many people would think of singing in. It was quite a lot of fun.

Fridays are usually a mellow day. Nothing too urgent to plan for so we usually discuss a book that we have been reading. We are just getting done with a book by Rob Bell called Velvet Elvis. A very good book. We do that over a time called Friday Coffees, which is always good fun, and see lots of people. It is from 10am to 12 noon. There are people who volunteer to serve coffee, tea or juice and have prepared little goodies to eat. There are a lot of stay at home moms in Banchory who come and bring their little children so it is always nice chatting with them and seeing the little guys and gals. After that I don’t do much but got home and occupy myself until 4pm when Tony and myself go to the Secondary school’s game hall to play football (soccer) with the teachers. There are no proper goals because we play 5 on 5 and use a cone type thing that is called a “skittle.” A goal is scored by knocking the skittle down. I did not mention in the last email that I broke one of the janitor’s wrist. We both went up to win a header and he kind of just bounced off me and tried to brace himself from the fall by putting his had down when he landed. So this past Friday when I showed up the teachers were poking some fun at me and seemed like everyone that worked for the school all the sudden knew who I was. On Friday it snowed a good amount, which was fantastic for the next day.

One of my friends Peter Brodie and I woke up super early on Saturday to go skiing. The drive up was beautiful. Every tree had frosty white covering and the lakes were aqua blue because of the ice. We got up after being behind jokers who didn’t have a clue how to drive in the snow. At a standstill they figure that the faster they accelerate the better chance they have to get going so they absolutely punch it, putting their foot to the floor and kicking up an unreal amount of snow. If you have ever seen an artificial snow maker the spits out snow, that is what it looked like these jokers had under their tires. Once we got to the base of the mountain I saw things were different. There were no big four or six person lifts. The best they had was a two person T-bar. The snow was fine although there were instances that required taking off our skis to walk over bits of runs (usually at the top) with a 10-yard field of stone. The visibility was not the best other than those two runs where the sun broke through the cloud cover just enough to see the differences in the slope. Some people joke when they ski that it takes longer to get up than to go down, in this situation it was most certainly the case. All in all it was an experience and I was glad to go up but would never travel to Scotland to go skiing, that’s for sure.


In the previous email I wrote about how it was such a blessing to be able to rework my sleeping pattern and that it was so easy to wake in the morning. This wonderland that I was living in was derailed by the Super Bowl. As you could imagine having the Super Bowl at a convenient time for everyone in America to watch makes it so people in the UK get screwed. The coverage started at 11pm and ended at 3am. I had come home from our bible study that meets on Sunday evenings and was shattered. Was just ready to get into bed when Ian (my host dad) reminded me of the game and how we had a few brave souls coming over for the long hall. We came out with the caffeinated drinks and munchies to fuel our journey. I am not going to lie. I slept through most of the third quarter, but was alert for the rest. The frustrating part was that half the excitement about the Super Bowl when one doesn’t really care the victor is the commercials. They were nowhere to be seen or heard. During the times where there were meant to have commercials they had these three suits put their two cents in. A major let down to say the least.

Monday was a horrible morning to wake up. Once I eventually got up we planned a bit but didn’t have a whole lot to do. When evening rolled around I got picked up to go to a basketball game. Instead of going to the University aged bible study I decided to go to my basketball game. A decision I was ok with but soon changed. I got picked up and was driven to Aberdeen, 40minutes away. Got to the gym and saw our opponents. Very small guys and two girls. I later found out they were 16 year old boys and two girls. Don’t get me wrong, I think it is great for girls to get involved in sports but I don’t care to play against them especially at what is suppose to be a competitive level. I was jumping for our team, when the ball was in the air I jumped and the guy from the other team jumped and he reached maybe as high as my elbow. At that moment I asked myself what I got myself into. I am not the best athlete or the tallest person but I was faster, stronger, could jump higher and was about 6 inches taller than anyone else on the other team. Let me say also that they were not good basketball players. I continued to play thinking I could get something out of this experience but after getting two nice scratches courtesy of the girls on the opposing team and the score keeper jerking my chain around saying that I was not on the score sheet so I was disqualified from the match I ended up getting two technical fouls and was relieved to not have to play any longer. I have a game tonight (Firday), hopefully it will be a better all around experience.

I realize this update may be longer than the last so I will try to shorten the descriptions of the next days. Tuesday went well with the Rock. Lots of fun. Wednesday we went into a fifth grade class and let them ask questions about Christianity (were loads of good questions and was brilliant). Later in the evening we went to a thing called the Guild (a group of older women in the church) and told them about what we have been doing with different programs. Then on Thursday Sean (host brother) left for his trip to Fiji to coach soccer for five weeks, we had the school group at lunch 2020, was good and then the Edge in the evening which was great as well.

Week One since being back

The trip back to Banchory was a good one. I have not had a poor journey so far which I am grateful for. This trip was a bit different with the amount of vacant seats on both flights. It was nice because the SeaTac to Heathrow flight I had the isle to my left and an empty space to my right. Although the space factor was a new experience the regiment I have fallowed did not waver. The objective: watch as many films as possible. To complete it means no sleep and no sleep it was. Once I got back to “The Neuk” (the house’s name in Banchory) it was 6pm and crashed shortly there after. Jet lag is always an issue but I consider myself a seasoned jet lag over comer. It is nice to be able to reconstruct ones sleeping patterns so drastically. I wake without trouble at 8am or earlier and get to bed by 11pm. A drastic change from the norm I will assure you.

I got back on Wednesday and went to the Edge Thursday night, which was great to see those young people and just get right back into the swing of things. On Fridays we go to Friday Coffees in the morning, which is always great and again good to see people I have not seen in 6 weeks. Later that day I was invited to go to Caitlin’s house for Burns Supper. I was not aware of the significance of this night and celebration until I arrived. Turns out Robbie Burns is a famous Scottish poet who some say invented hagis or at least made it popular. Scots celebrate him on his birthday, the 25th of January. The night was filled with interesting food (the hagis) and loads of Burns poetry. It was with out a doubt a real life Scottish experience. The next day I realized I had been volunteered to do the children’s address at church on Sunday and also leading the bible study also on Sunday so it was a day of preparation. After spending the middle part of the day in my bible and brainstorming Calum (my host brother who is in Edinburgh University) and Meg (his wife, also at Edinburgh University) showed up and we had our own Burns nigh celebration. So back-to-back days of hagis! To be honest I wouldn’t wish it upon anyone. For those of you of Scandinavian decent I will dare to compare hagis to lutefisk. Being that it makes no common sense to consume such food in these modern times, the taste is one the be acquired (which I will not spend the time to do so), and commonly there are people who are presented with the chance to try a taste and have not. After dinner we went to a friends house and had an actual meal to be consumed. We then played a came called Articulate for a couple of hours and then had to finish planning the children’s talk. The great things about getting into a better sleeping routine is that when before there was no time to do things in the morning, now this is. I therefore finished up what I was to say in the morning before church and then went to church. After church I had a choice to make. To go into town with Sean, his girlfriend and Calum to bowl or to stay and plan the bible study for later than night knowing that we were all to go out for a meal at 5pm and would not get back until just before bible study. I decided to bowl. It turned out to be ok bout would have been a wiser choice to stay and prepare although the bible study turned out well. The next few days were early risers with school assemblies 8:45am and planning after that. Monday evening we had a university aged bible study, which was good to get some good conversation and discussion from a little bit older people. That was good and on Tuesday night we had Rock, which was out of control (in a good way) with 45 people. Wednesday was good and that night was the first time back on the basketball court since being back in Banchory. It was good seeing all those guys and getting in a good run. I realized however that I although tried to get in shape while I was home did not. Even though my sleep patterns had changed it was still difficult to get out of bed on Thursday morning on account of the sore body.

It has been really good getting back into things over here and it really doesn’t feel as if I were gone for so long. I apologize for the length although this was just a week. I will work on my selectivity of details in the future.

The forecast predicts heavy snowfall so it might be me hitting the hills of Scotland to go skiing. Oh and I have planned a trip to Milan, Italy on February 15th to visit Jay Free. I am very much looking forward to that.

Italy

My journey to Italy began with a drive from Banchory into Aberdeen to catch a Mega-Bus that would take me to Glasgow. The Mega-Buses were rumored to be about the worst experience one could have but I was surprised with the ease and comfort of the trip. When I got into Glasgow my friend Stuart Glegg met me once I was off the bus. We walked to his flat (apartment). Stu had offered me a ride to the airport in the morning because he had a car to give me a lift in. Neither he nor I knew that the airport was about a 45-minute car drive away from actual Glasgow. To make things worse for Stu, my flight was departing at 7:10 am. I told him he didn’t need to give me a ride but he insisted so we woke up at 5am and made our way to Glasgow-Prestwick Airport.
Once the plane landed I knew I was in another world. I have been away from America for a good amount of time now but I have only been in English speaking places. I immediately noticed I was somewhere foreign and could not read a thing. In my head I kept replaying what my friend Peter Chalmers had told me about what to do to get from Pisa, where I was, into Florence, where he was and I was to meet him. I managed to get a train ticket and got on. I was quite nervous being on a train in Italy and not really knowing what to expect. I had to get off the first train and get on another at Pisa Central to go to Florence. I saw some people who looked “American” and listened in on their conversation to make sure they did indeed speak the English. They did and I found out they were going the same place. We became friends real quick. We found the second train and before I knew it I was in Florence. I stepped out of the train and was met by Pete and two nice Florentine cakes. We made our way to his flat to drop my stuff off and we were on our way to exploring Florence.
That day Pete took me all over the place. He was on a mission to take me to see every inch of Florence. Florence is not the largest city but defiantly no Banchory either. We hiked up to a beautiful look out point to see all of Florence and to take pictures. That first day it seemed like we saw every street, every building and even managed to go in a few churches as well. That night we eat at Pete’s and went out to a Piano Duet recital. It was brilliant. There were two women playing in this little church with a packed house. It was some atmosphere. I felt very cultured and sophisticated but Pete and myself were both humbled when we attempted to follow along with the order of the pieces being played. It turned out that they played the entirety of the pieces rather than just one of the movements, I mean who would have know. It was great cause we heard a lot more than we had expected. The older lady sitting next to Pete was quite tuckered and dozed off onto Pete’s shoulder a few times so that was the comical aspect of the night. We turned in after a fantastic first day of Florence.
We woke up the next day and went to the largest if not also most famous art galleries that Florence has to offer, The Uffizi. It was so cool because the reason Pete is in Florence is to go to galleries and be inspired and then to paint and create art of his own. He earned a scholarship that has paid for his flat, food, art supplies and has also given him a pass to not only get into galleries for free but to skip the lines. I had to pay but was able to skip the lines with Pete and while inside Pete was my personal guide. We did not have heaps of time to spend in the Uffizi because we were meeting his parents and sister in the early afternoon but Pete guided me to pieces that he particularly enjoyed and showed me the ones that everyone goes to see. Even though we did not spend time at each individual painting I felt like I saw it all, couldn’t necessarily take it all in but saw some amazing pieces of art and really enjoyed myself and Pete’s company.
Later that day after Pete’s parents and sister got settled into their hotel we journeyed around Florence a bit more. We visited two different beautiful churches that just took my breath away. The sheer size of the sanctuaries themselves were something to be talked about but how they were decorated in such extravagant ways was just over the top impressive. There were so many things in Florence that were due to the craftsmanship of the one and only Michelangelo, but there were so many other artists that were nearly as impressive to my untrained eye. After the churches we went to see the David. We had seen the David but hadn’t seen The David. Outside the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence there is a replica of The David where The David was standing till 1873 but to see the actual David we had to go to the Accademia Gallery. I hadn’t realized how amazing The David was until I saw it in Accademia Gallery. It was the first time I stood at the foot of David. I was getting ready to describe how I felt and what I saw but felt like I should restrain myself due to the lack of sculptural knowledge, which would cause me to end up sounding like a fool, which is fine but will be left for later. Basically it was BRILLIANT!
An excellent thing about Pete’s parents and sister being there other than either amazing company was I had just about everything paid for. It was such a blessing. After seeing The David we went out for dinner and before I knew it I was asleep at Pete’s flat.
This trip to Florence was supposed to be a shared time. I was planning on visiting with Pete for a few days and then hanging out with my friend from home, Nick Gross. I thought that Nick was spending the semester in Florence and it was just going to be perfect. However I found out two weeks before flying out that Nick actually was in Rome. After hearing that I still wanted to see him and hang out with him so decided I would take a train down to Rome and then back up to fly out of Pisa because I had already purchased the tickets.
The train to Rome was a long one but a good one. I had plenty to do and lots of Italian countryside to look at. I arrived at the Rome Termini Station and expected to see Nick…He was nowhere to be scene. I started looking for him, 30 minutes passed. I continued to look for him; an hour went by, still no Nick. The whole time all I could do was laugh at this ridiculous situation I had gotten myself in. I was alone in the middle of Rome at a train station. See the major problem here was that Nick had lost his cell phone. There was no real way to communicate with him. The only way I had communicated with him at all for the little planning this trip to see him was through Facebook. I decided to take a stab in the dark and texted my friend in Scotland, Craig for him to go on Facebook and see if Nick had tried to contact me. He had! Craig texted me back saying that he was looking for me but couldn’t find me so he went to and Internet café. I told Craig to tell him I was below the McDonalds sign in the middle of the station. Yeah, good old McDonalds coming through when it really counts. Nick had given me his roommates cell phone number so I called it but he had no idea where Nick was but told me he would try to find out and for me to call him in ten minutes. Ten minutes passed and I called him back. No answer. His phone had fan out of batteries but right before it shut off Craig had called him. Craig texted me saying that Nick’s friend was coming to look for me and he was in a pink shirt and that he would Facebook Nick to tell him to go home. Right when I get the text I saw a guy in a pink shirt and knew it had to be Nick’s roommate. It was and we made it back to their apartment.
The first meal I had in Rome was McDonalds. A super good way to experience Rome, I know right. We didn’t really do that much that night other than go to an Irish pub that showed all American sports. This pub was one of the weirdest I’ve ever been to. The price for a 30-ounce beer was 3 Euros and the price for a 20-ounce Diet Coke was 4 Euros. Although I have never been to a bar in the states I have been in my fair share of pubs in Scotland and have only ever ordered Diet Cokes and every single time I have ordered a Diet Coke it has been a bit over priced but has been about a third of the price of anything alcoholic. But I guess when in Rome…I know it’s quite funny being in Rome and going to an Irish pub to watch American sports, but that’s what we did. We watched a lot of football and went home to sleep.
We woke up the next morning and went to the Vatican. It was pretty sweet other than the massive lines and people cutting those massive lines to make even massiver lines <(I do realize massiver is not a real word and Word helps me out with the little red squiggly underneath it but I feel it does justice here). Again there was laughter. We had to go to Nick’s “school” because they were taking a course photo. I got in it, which was pretty cool. We went and had lunch and I had a nice Roman pizza. Very good. But Nick had to get to class so I was left to wonder Rome with my tourists map to see the sights. The map wasn’t the most helpful and Rome is quite large but I ended up seeing some pretty cool things. I saw the Pantheon and Fontana di Tervi. Both very cool and very worth while. I took my time getting there and back and then it was nighttime. It was Nick’s roommates birthday so we went out to dinner with him and some other people in Nick’s school. It as a fine meal and after we went back the apartment and went to sleep.
Nick had classes the whole day basically the next day so I woke up and made my way to the Coliseum. Again I waited in a massive line and again people blatantly cut the line, and again I laughed. The wait and the fee were well worth the extraordinary spectacle that was the Coliseum. I felt very touristy taking a billion pictures and even pulled the most famous loner tourist move by turning my camera around to face me with my arm extended and took photos of myself with the Coliseum as the backdrop. I felt very cool…
I left the Coliseum a satisfied man and made my way back to Nick’s school to meet him before his next class. We hung out for a bit but Nick had to get to class I was again left to explore Rome solo. I made the long walks from Nick’s school to Castle Saint Angelo. I got there and looked in my wallet and decided it was cool enough on the outside and that I didn’t need to spend money to see the inside. So I hung out there by the river for a while and headed back towards Nick. I got back to his school and said goodbye and was on my way back to Pisa.
I got to the Rome station and found my train. This train was way different form any of the other trains I had been on. There was assigned seats. I was so lost and just confused but found an English-speaking woman who directed me to where I needed to be. The train was a clear shot from Rome Termini to Pisa Central, but there was a question as to how I would get from Pisa Central to Pisa Airport. There was a family from Brazil who was doing the same thing as I so we tried to find out together. In route to find the transport to the airport I found out that they were going to Scotland as well and were even going to Aberdeen. It was really cool to have some people to chat to while waiting. It turned out that there was a bus that took us to the airport so that was great. We got to the airport around one in the morning and I was so ready to lay down on the airport floor and sleep till six in order to take up and get on my flight. My plan was shattered when we approached the front doors of the airport and they didn’t open. There were about 10 of us who had gotten off the bus and we all looked at each other. In disbelief we walked to the side door to see if it would open, I mean there might have just been something wrong with the front door. We get to the side door and I don’t even try it. I see when I rounded the corner about 20 people sitting on benches and the ground. I began to laugh. This time my laugh was softer; it didn’t have the force it had the previous three times. I was tired and I was discouraged. I took a seat and began to read. Oh, I hadn’t mentioned up until this point that the weather in Scotland during my week away in Italy was nicer than Italy. The funny thing is that I packed like I was going to be in 75-degree weather. I had one sweatshirt in my bad and I was in shorts at the time. And needless to say it was cold in Pisa at one, two, three and four in the morning. I was met with met with a great deal better surroundings when it struck 4:01am when the Pisa Airport officially opened for service and I was able to walk inside with my 30 new friends and take a seat in a heated building.
Around six in the morning I saw Pete’s parents and sister who just happened to be on the same flight as I was so I told them about my adventures and we were soon on the plane to Scotland. I was so ready to be back in Scotland. I had had enough of Italy, for now at least.

September 11th till October 14th

I realize it has been quite some time since I have had an update from Scotland. I apologize. Well not that is out of the way I will attempt to wrap my past month into a nice little email sharing what’s been going on in my life.
I got back to Scotland on September 11th. It was quite weird flying on September 11th and really didn’t realize until I was in the air what was going on. So I got back to Banchory and started to get into the swing of things with my job. As a reminder of what I am doing in Scotland, I am a youth worker for the Church of Scotland and more specifically two churches in Banchory. I work with a girl named Caitlin and Reverend Tony Stephens. We call him Tony. As a team we plan the Rock (middle school age youth group, about 40 kids show up each week) and the Edge (high school age youth group, about 15 kids show up each week) and a bible study on Sundays for Edge kids. We also get opportunities to work in the schools and be part of different Christian school groups. The one that Caitlin and myself are involved in is a group called 2020.
2020 meets every Thursday during lunchtime at the secondary school called Banchory Academy (equivalent to a 6th to 12th grade school). This group is cool for many reasons but some are because Caitlin and myself do not have to plan anything for it. It is also good because there is about half of the group that either go to the Edge or the Rock so we already know them and is awesome because we get to know the other half. There are on average 20 kids who go to 2020 each week. This is an improvement in numbers from in the past so the teachers who lead it are encouraged by the growth.
We just had a weekend away with kids and teachers from 2020 and it was brilliant. It was such a great time to hang out with the kids, get to know them a bit better, worship God and learn about Jesus, goof around and do awesome activities the camp offered such as; ropes course, archery and screaming fast zip-line. We also had free time for the kids to choose what they wanted to do and I was the “adult leader” in charge of the gym area, which was so cool. We took out some basketballs and shot around and messed about and I had a good time challenging the kids to try to steal the ball from me by which they were amazed (only cause they had never really seen anyone play basketball before, but it was cool). I spent the two and a half hour ride there in a mini bus full of 14-year-old girls singing songs at the top of their lungs. The ride back was quite different although the same girls were present. They were a bit worn out and ready for home and were very curious about how I pronounced different words and letters. The big hits were the letters h and z, they pronounce the letter h as haych and the letter z as zed. Weirdoes!
The first weekend I was back Scotland was playing France in football (soccer) and its not on regular TV and I wanted to watch it so a bunch of us went to one of the local pub called the Burnett. They had a big screen with a projector showing the game. It was good. By the time the game started the pub was full with people. If you’re talking about a real Scottish atmosphere your talking about what I was sitting in the middle of. Some of you might know that Scotland went up 1 to 0 and when that goal was scored the place went crazy. It was the most excitement I have seen anywhere. From then on every single thing Scotland did was cheered. The defense cleared the ball, the goalie collected a shot, and each pass received was cheered.
The next weeks were great planning the Rock and the Edge and Bible study. We were getting into a great rhythm and I was getting acquainted with what “normal” weeks looked like. Just about the time that happened my boss Tony took his allowed two week leave, leaving Caitlin and myself to do everything by our selves…well it wasn’t exactly but at times it felt like it. Tony and his wife, Fiona were expecting their second child so Tony took time off to be with their daughter of four, Erin and wife. It was great though because we didn’t have anyone to fall back on when we didn’t get something planned and couldn’t ask Tony to make things better if we messed up. While Tony was gone things may have taken a bit longer to plan or get prepared for but everything went well and was quite good for us to get everything out on the table and realize that we could do all the things we were being asked to do.
On Friday the 11th of October Christine (my host mom), Sean (my host brother, 17 year old one), Craig (friend from Banchory and driver) and I drove down to Edinburgh to do a variety of things. First we met Calum and Meg (my host brother (22 years old or something) and his wife (who is actually from Seattle)) at their flat (apartment) to hang out there for a bit. We also met up with Kate (my host sister (middle child)) and her, Christine, Sean and myself went to dinner. After the nice dinner we went back to Calum and Meg’s flat. Once we were all there we walked to the venue of our friend Steve’s band’s CD release party/concert. The concert was brilliant although not necessarily my favorite genre of music. That pretty much rounded out our Friday night.
Saturday was an early wake up call to eat some breakfast and drive to a field to play for Calum’s IM football (soccer) match. It was pretty boring for me during the first half being that I didn’t get in and even at the start of the second half I was a bit eritated to not get in. I think they had seen me warming up and realized my level of ability. Finally five minutes into the second half I was subbed in. Forward was the position I was told to play. There had been three passes my way and one where I had to fun hard to track down. I was getting into the game. Loosening my legs up and starting to breath hard and feel good. Some how our goalie got injured and couldn’t play on so Calum knowing I play a bit in goals yelled for me to put the gloves on and stand between the posts. I was semi-relieved to be in a position I knew so I put the gloves on and started to play. The other team was yelling, “Lets test him!” “Lets see what he’s got.” After being tested three times with shots on goal and me showing off my drop kick the other team’s tone towards me changed. I was asked to just let one go in and to not try so hard. With my response to all being a big smile. It was brilliant. The game ended and the score was 4-0, us. We shook hands with the opposition and thanked them for playing. My team basically jumped on me and told me how well I had played. It was really funny for me to think about how I had gone from being a bum on the team and the only one who didn’t get in the first half to being celebrated as a good player, and was asked to play in more of their games. The goalie on our team who got hurt was telling me that he thought he was out of a job. After assuring him that I wouldn’t be making the two-hour commute to play an IM football game every Saturday I gave him his gloves back and told him he still had his job.
Although that morning was heaps of fun the second half was about a billion times better. After getting washed up and got a bite to eat we made the journey from Edinburgh to Glasgow where the Scotland, Ukraine football match was being held. In the car were Ian (my host dad), Calum, Meg, Kate, Sean (all of who you should be familiar with by now) and myself. We got near the Stadium and parked. We got out of the van and saw seas of blue and white. I was pumped. What an atmosphere it was even just outside walking to the stadium. There were people with Scotland strips (jerseys), kilts and Scotland flags or scarves, singing and chanting already. We got in and sat down. That would prove to be the last time we would be doing that for the rest of the game. The electricity of the cheering/singing/chanting fans was incredible. I loved seeing how passionate this group of people was about everything Scottish. The national anthem was not sung it was shouted from within each and every one of those fans. The match started and like I said no one sat down and for that matter there was rarely silence. It was just nothing that I had experienced…ever. Scotland went up 1-0 early and we were shocked, amazed and ecstatic. The place went crazy. Everyone was jumping and cheering and going nuts. Shortly after that we scored a second goal. Again no one could have fathomed going up 2-0. Ukraine scored and that rare silence I was typing about was right after they had scored. The two Scotland goals were right in front of us because we were on that side of the field but the Ukraine goal was way at the other side and just eerie that they scored. We though it surely had to be off sides or something. There was no way Ukraine could score, but they did. They put it on the board. That was the first half. A brilliant display for the most part of what football should look like. The second half was fairly uneventful but was quite nerve racking because we were only up by one goal. That problem was solved when James McFadden, the same James McFadden who scored the only goal against France, scored Scotland’s third and final goal. The match ended and it was amazing.
We drove back to Edinburgh and had a great meal because it was Kate’s birthday the next day. It was a fantastic meal and a great time to just chat, eat and drink. We woke up the next morning (Sunday) and went to a church we had heard. It was a good service but started with the Preacher not using a microphone, so I thought he thought his voice was loud enough to full the sanctuary but later realized that the microphone was just out of batteries and got some new ones. It was amusing. We left the service when it ended and started home. One the way home we stopped at Rosslyn Chapel. Rosslyn Chapel is a 15th century absolutely beautiful church. Its recent claim to fame is being included in the book The De Vinci Code. Supposedly there was a big boom in visitation after the book came out. Funny what people are drawn to. We poked around there for a bit and continued on our journey home to Banchory.
That was the beginning to my two-week holiday (vacation). It was such a great start. Also on my holiday I went to Italy, specifically Florence and Rome. I will leave that story for another email being this one is absolutely massive.