Yes Thank You - Istanbul

Istanbul turkey was quite overwhelming. It is large city and stretches quite widely. Istanbul actually has two sides, one half that is considered Asian and the other half European. Out of all the cities in Turkey, I am told that Istanbul is the most westernized and prices parallel those seen in Europe. I hopped on a bus to the Sultanahmet, which has all the famous sights of Istanbul.



I meet up with Matt and Ennes, two Australians also arriving in Istanbul and heading to Sultanahmet area. The Blue Mosque and the Hagia Sophia are directly across from one another. I walk in between them to get to the Antique Hostel in Istanbul. This hostel is directly to the side of the Blue Mosque and has a balcony area that overlooks water. Matt and Ennes are staying at another hostel next to mine. After checking in I meet up with Matt and Ennes to grab some Brunch.



The first day I ended up hanging out with some of the other people at my hostel. We all headed out to the new area of Istanbul to check out some local spots. There is a local gathering area setup with giant bean bags and tables. The place is filled with groups of people chilling out and smoking water pipe.



All the people that I ended up meeting the first night all left the following day. So I was left to explore Istanbul by myself. While walking around the city, I randomly ran into a person from the hostel and we both decided to go visit the two mosques. The Blue Mosque is free to enter. You must take off your shoes and enter the correct tourist entrance.




The Hagia Sophia cost considerably more to enter, but there is more to see. This mosque is multi level unlike the swift walk through of the Blue Mosque. The Hagia Sophia use to be a patriarchal basilica full of mosaic artwork. When this basilica became a mosque, the tiles were plastered over and then painted over. Today the Hagia Sophia is a museum and some of the plaster has been removed to reveal the intricate mosaic tiles. The Hagia Sophia is still behind held up in the center by a huge scaffold.

London, Again

Before I leave London I visited Leah who just moved to London for school. After taking several buses I met her on the south bank near Kings Cross station. The last time I saw Leah was at my goodbye party and it’s nice to finally see a familiar face after all this time. We decided to check out the Bridge Festival on the Thames River and miraculously the weather in London was nice and sunny.



One of the nights we explored London by bus and got back pretty late. Since neither of us really knows the area that well, we got lost on the way back. Instead of getting off at the right stop we sat on the bus all the way back to Kings Cross station and ended up walking back using tall buildings as a landmark. After we finally got back to the house, her flatmates all told us, that we walked through one of rougher areas of London, who knew?



The next night we went out to a pub bar and I had to catch early morning flight at Heathrow. We headed back around 1 or 2 am and took the bus. On the bus there was a group of French guys. They were harassing everyone on the bus and one of them went and grabbed a girl. The girl was with a pretty big Russian guy and naturally an argument started. Next thing we know a drink is thrown and all the French guys start fighting this one Russian guy. It was ridiculous one of the Frenchies even jump ninja turtle kicked the Russian guy. It got to the point where the Russian guy was on the floor of the bus and the Frenchies were stomp kicking him. Finally other people on the bus stepped in and pushed and fought the group of French guys off the bus. Leah and I quickly got off at that stop and watched the entire incident from away.

Appleshaw: Proper Village Life

My next stop is London. There are many factors in this decision. To get to Turkey from Morocco one way flights cost between 800-1000 USD, while a flight from Gibraltar to London and also London to Istanbul totaled less than 300 USD. In addition, somehow my credit card information was stolen and charges started to appear from Miami, FL so my replacement card has been sent to James’ house in Appleshaw.

The Emilie Hostel in Gibraltar is perhaps the worst hostel I've stayed at in my 6months of travel through Europe. I am not at all reluctant to leave this place. In the morning Nick, Paulina and I set out on foot to the airport. They are flying to Spain and I will fly to Gatwick, London. Gibraltar’s airport is quite unique. There is a major road and pedestrian walkway that cuts right now the middle of the airstrip. So we walk across the land strip and say our goodbyes at the airport.




I landed in London early in the morning and booked a train ride from Gatwick to Central London. I bought a slow ticket since it was much cheaper than the Gatwick Express, fast train. Then I accidentally got on the Gatwick Express and didn’t realize until the train had already departed and tickets were being checked. The girl checking tickets wanted me to buy a Gatwick Express ticket, but after much bargaining she let me off with a warning.

I got to Central London and made it to Victoria Station well ahead of the departure time of my bus to Appleshaw. I end up at the same Library near Victoria Station as several months back to relax and do some reading. After taking the bus I end up arriving at James’ pretty late at night.



James wasn’t kidding when he said I would be staying at a proper village. The country side of England is cold this time of the year. Everything is green and roads are narrow. We were able to check out a proper village pub where, like cheers, everyone knows your name. Or in this case James’ name. The next day we checked out the Salisbury Cathedral.



The next day Cheri made a trip down from Leeds on her way to Whales. She stopped by for a night and we took a trip to Stone Hinge. Stone Hinge was one of the sights I missed on my original path through the UK, but now I get to see it. We got the audio tour of Stone Hinge with the tickets and from all the audio we came to the conclusion that no one really knows how the site was constructed and the physical feat of lifting such a big and heavy stone from whales to its current location is about as amazing as the Pyramids of Giza. On our way back from Stone Hinge we saw a tank.

Gibraltar Monkeys

To end my Moroccan I jump on a ferry from Tangier to Gibraltar. If you remember from my previous post I can’t really go to Europe because of the Schengen visa 90day limitation. Well luckily Gibraltar is considered part of the UK so it completely separate from Spain or Schengen. From there I have a flight back to London to visit James in proper village of AppleShaw. But before I leave I have a couple of days to check out Gibraltar.





Gibraltar is a tax haven and huge duty free shopping destination. It is also home to the only monkeys in Europe. They live on the rock of Gibraltar which has history of sieges throughout the centuries. There are numerous tourist attractions on the rock and we were able to check most of them of them. The most interesting thing about Gibraltar is that the airport has a road running through in. Thus we have to walk across the airstrip to get to the airport. Every time a plane lands or takes off the road has to be entirely blocked of car and pedestrian traffic.

Paradise Beach @ Asilah?

Now that my British friends have left Morocco, I am traveling with two Aussies, Nick and Paulina, that I met in Cef Chaouen. Nick use to work in the UK as a software guy as well and they are doing some traveling before heading back to Australia. It is interesting to hear about someone with my similar work profession and what their experiences are compared to mine.





The three of us head from Chef Chaouen north to Tangier. The only buses that go to Asilah, a small sea side town, is from Tangier. From all the backpackers that I’ve talked to as well as the guidebooks, Tangier is a rough part of Morocco. The local there prey on tourists that come via ferry from southern Spain and some of the most elaborate rip off schemes take place there. With that mind, we get into Tangier with the one goal of going straight to the bus station and to Asilah. The funny thing is that the bus from Chef Chaouen actually doesn’t take you to the bus station. Instead, they drop you off at Ferry gates so we had to negotiate a taxi fare to get to the bus station.



From the bus station we realized that all the buses, running on limited Ramadan schedule, had already finished their course for the day. Thus we had to grab a grand taxi. Grand taxis are different that regular city taxis in that they transport you from city to city. Usually they wait for a full carload before leaving. We crammed two passengers in the front and four in the back before we set out for Asilah. The ride, luckily, was only an hour.



Asilah is famous for its paradise beach. The first goal is get out of the old city area which is maze of small streets. Like Chef Chaouen this town is painted in blue and white. However the colors are bolder. It almost reminds me of some of the islands of Greece that I’ve seen pictures of.



Paradise beach is really far walking along the jagged cliffs along the sea shore. The walk goes over numerous hills and we always looked forward to seeing an actual beach over the next hill and were frequently disappointed. Fishermen are sitting along the rocks the entire journey over and finally we the beach. The walk took several hours and we decided to stay at the beach until sunset. That idea was great for sunset pictures, however we had to take the local roads back by foot since the jagged rocks along the beach were a definite bad idea in the dark. The walk took a lot longer since it was more of an indirect path back. All in all paradise beach did not live up to its name.



We get into town well after dinner time and get a chance to walk through the not so touristy part of Asilah. Here people live in shacks made out of metal panels. The slums are packed together pretty tight. I was able to get a peak here there of the insides and I was quite surprised at some of the conditions these people live in.

Chef Chaouen

The town of Chef Chaouen is just north of Fez and my way to Tangier. The entire mood of Morocco has changed for Ramadan. During the day, there is not much going on. Tired shop owners sit on stools outside their shops. They no longer make an effort to try to get you into their shops. They are barely staying awake most of the time. Only tourists can be seen eating. If you're not in a restaurant and eating in public people get mad at you.



All the buildings follow the same paint motif in blue and white. It is chalky and rubs off easily as we unfortunately learned. There is a football (soccer) game on the hills outside of the city. We walk by it on our way to the hill with a mosque overlooking the city. The entire city slowly lights up as the calls of prayer echo in the distance.



After the evening prayer call the city comes to life. A giant feast goes on in the main square area. You can only see guys out at night drinking tea. Moroccans drink mint tea with a more than ample dose of sugar. That is the activity of choice for post feast activities for Moroccans. The activities don’t end until early in the morning. Throughout the night there are sounds of drums and bugles. The bugle or trumpet sounds start around 3 or 4am. The first bugle blows and then throughout various parts of the city other bugles join in. It almost sounds like a prehistoric war/attack signal.



It is here that the three Brits and I part ways. They are leaving for tangier and heading to Gibralter to fly back. This is also my route but my flight is much later than theirs. At the hostel in Chef Chaouen, I find two Aussies that are also on my travel plan. We are both heading to Asilah to check out the beaches there before heading to Tangier, overland to Gibraltar.

Ramadangry Starts @ Fez

After relaxing in the cool climates of Essaouira, we head east to Fez with a stopover at Casa Blanca. The train ride was cheap and at the station we couldn’t figure out why people were scrambling to get on the train before some of the other passengers even go off. We were probably the last group on the train. As it turns out buying a ticket on a train does not reserve a seat. All the isles and area between the carts are full of people. The saying “sardines in a can” is quite fitting for our situation.

Fez has probably the largest and more confusing Medina in Morocco. Most people hire guides just to get around. Our hostel was able to book a guide us at a reasonable price. However to be honest, it was really disappointing. We got see some cool things and learn some interesting facts about Fez, but most of time we were just led to his friend’s shops where a salesman gave us a pitch about buying leather, antiques, carpets, etc.



The doors here are really interesting. They usually have two knockers. One is for male visitors and the other is for females. This allows the woman of the household to know whether to cover up when answering the door.



One of the gold and bronze shops we visit has a wealth of handmade items. One of the works was currently making a plate. This is all done by hand without the aid of a stencil. This method makes every plate or item unique. The worker has been doing this all his life and you tell his eye sight has been severely damaged from staring at such intricate work for so long.



The Fez tanneries are the famous ones that all guide books usually talk about it. It is a lot bigger than the ones in Marrakesh and much more tourist-friendly. You don’t actually get down on the ground level where the smell is. The leather shop is above the tanneries and you have a bird’s eye view of the entire process.





Ramadan started on the last day that we are Fez and the entire feeling of the town changed. Most shops are closed and there are limited numbers of people on the street. The month of Ramadan is a time where all Muslim people fast from sunrise to sunset. This act of fasting teaches patience, sacrifice and humility and is done for the sake of God. It makes all the locals crankier than usual and all public transportation is now running on a limited basis. We coin this new attitude “Ramadanry”.