That’s Arabic for “Merry Christmas,” at least according to the Internet, which is always right. We’re in Tangier, Morocco, where they call Christmas “Friday.” I can hear the mid-afternoon call to prayer through the window, and it’s raining so much that some of the streets downtown have turned into lakes, which doesn’t stop Moroccan drivers from attempting to float their cars across them.
Our week in Portugal was extremely enjoyable, in that we spent more time sitting on the couch than we did doing all other things combined, which is exactly what we wanted. More… »
The Guggenheim Bilbao is closed on Mondays. And yet here we are on Monday in Bilbao, a place that would be much better to take a day trip to then to spend three nights in. Unfortunately Bilbao is six hours from anywhere one would want to spend three nights in. Regardless, this isn’t an oh-fuck-it’s-closed story, because Sophie and I knew the museum would be closed. Which is why we planned to spend our extra day here in Basque country doing two other things: sleeping late, and laundry.
And so we arrived off the train from Barcelona last night at 11pm, walked the kilometer to our hotel, and told the guy at the reception desk that we had a reservation. He said, “No.” He seemed confident that settled things and turned back to his computer. Back in September I might have assumed that he was right and just headed back to Barcelona. But now I have 11 weeks of hardcore travel experience under my belt. So I replied, “Yes.”
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I haven’t posted many pictures of us lately, and since my mother and mother-in-law are the only people still reading this blog and that’s what they want to see, here are a bunch. (We’re having a lovely time in Barcelona, by the way. It’s like New York with LA’s weather.)
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Suomenlinna, Helsinki, FInland
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Narivk, Norway
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Piazza San Marco, Venice, Italy
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St. Peter’s Square, Vatican City
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Krakow, Poland
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Suomenlinna, Helsinki, Finland
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Sagrada Familia, Barcelona, Spain
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Rome, Italy
Categories: Madejcal Mystery Tour | Tags: around the world, Barcelona, Finland, helsinki, Italy, krakow, narvik, Norway, Poland, Rome, Spain, vatican city, VeniceClick here to comment
My apologies to Civitavecchia which is not in fact the “dingy outskirts of Rome” but actually a rather tony suburb filled with restaurants and hotels and even a block full of carnival games and Italian teenagers. The ferry ticket office, tastefully positioned between the shipping containers and Ms. Bikini beachwear outlet, had enough tickets available not just for us but also for the entirety of the Swiss Guard and their tailors had we happened to bring them along.
The ferry ride itself was pleasant enough, though I was forced to watch most of the video for Sting’s “We’ll be Together” in the ship’s bar. We arrived in Barcelona and over the last four hours have found it to be warm and full of delicious Catalonian food and weird Modernisme architecture and with an easily navigable metro system with ticket machines that are eager to take our money. And that’s all we could ask for.
That’s Arabic for “Merry Christmas,” at least according to the Internet, which is always right. We’re in Tangier, Morocco, where they call Christmas “Friday.” I can hear the mid-afternoon call to prayer through the window, and it’s raining so much that some of the streets downtown have turned into lakes, which doesn’t stop Moroccan drivers from attempting to float their cars across them.
