The Trip to Andalucia, Morocco, and Gibralter 25-10-11

On Wednesday, the 19th, we left our hotel, and headed for Gibraltar. On the way, we made two main stops; one at Marbella, and one at Puerto Banus. We arrived in Marbella about time for lunch, so we had about two hours for free time, which included finding lunch. As we were pulling in, I almost mistook Marbella for Newport Beach area. Not only was it by the beach, which always helps, but there were little restaurants and shops between the main road and the beach. Not only that, but there were lots of bougainvillea, hibiscus, and birds of paradise- just the perfect reminder of almost any beach in Southern California. I asked Ana, our teacher, who was sitting right in front of me, how to say hibiscus in Spanish, and she said, "hibiscus", except it sounds more like [ee-bisc-oos] in Spanish because the h is silent, and the u makes the oo sound. I thought that was pretty cool- now I knew one of my favorite flowers in Spanish. I wonder how you say bougainvillea in Spanish? That was a joke. Anyways, Josh and I went to a super market, and I bought bread, tomatoes, and cheese, and Josh bought a bunch of bananas; I guess Josh wasn't really hungry right then. After we bought our food, we walked down to the beach to enjoy our food, the sand, and the sun. On the way, we stopped by a Chinese shop; half the price, half the quality. We went in, and this particular shop had an infatuation with male genitals. They were incorporated into everything imaginable from nutcrackers to bobble-heads. Besides all of these rather funny items, there was a bunch of other stuff too, like wallets, sunglasses, souvenirs, swimsuits, and dresses. I heard Eric saying that he wanted a euro wallet, because apparently, all of the euros were sticking out the top of his wallet, and I found a fairly decent wallet for 3.25. Sold. We headed out from the shop, and headed toward the beach. We met up with another classmate on the way, and we all headed out to the beach together.

This beach was very, very pretty. The town reminded me of Newport, the beach reminded me of Hawaii. The water was very clear, the sand was clean, and there were probably 100 skyscraper hotels on the edge of the beach. We weaved our way around a bunch of thatch-like umbrellas and lounge chairs, went right up to the waters edge, and sat down. It was very peaceful, and it was great to just eat, talk, take in the sun, and relax. After about an hour, we got up, and brushed ourselves off. The sand at this beach is actually superior to both Hawaii and Newport because, while it was still very soft, and clean, it was not dusty. When you brush your feet and your rear off, the sand actually comes off; all the way off. We went back to the bus, and were on our way once again.

When we landed in Puerto Banus, again it reminded me of the glitzy side of Newport, but this was about twice as nice. We saw plenty of Ferraris, Bentleys, Audi R8s, and any other expensive car you can imagine.  We saw a mustang there, but the mustang actually looked meager compared to the others. This was a port, and there were boats everywhere, namely, yachts. Some of these yachts could have passed as cruise ships in my book because they were way, way, way bigger than you would ever need a yacht to be. Not only were there cars, and really nice boats, there was a little row of stores there, which I am sure charged about 5 times more just because of where we were. On top of all of the glamor in this area, just above the harbor in the hills were sparkling apartments, and I am sure, mansions as well. This place probably wasn't even for most of the doctors and other white collar workers in  the area; it was probably for royalty.

Our next stop was Gibraltar, and the plan was that we would have three hours there for those who wanted to go see the monkeys; I wanted to see the monkeys. Since Gibraltar is technically a part of England, we had to go through customs. It was scary how easy it was; I barelly pulled my passport out, didn't even open it up, and was waved through. No baggage check, and no trouble getting in whatsoever. Since we had to park our bus on the Spain side, we had to get on city buses to get to where we wanted to go. A few people got on the first city bus, and left; the second bus was filled by our group, and they left as well. There were 5 of us left that didn't make it on to the first two buses, Josh and I included, but there was another bus right behind the last one, so we figured we would only be seconds behind the rest of the group. We boarded, and waited...and waited, and waited. We must have waited about 40 minutes just sitting on the bus, and we had no idea why, where we were going, or when we would leave. I think what happens is the buses don't actually leave until they are completely full. The first, and second one were full, but ours just sat half-empty. Finally, after at least 40 minutes, our bus started rolling. Again, we had no idea where we were going, or where to find our group, but this was a big improvement just to be moving. On our way to who-knows-ville-? we crossed an airport tarmac; we actually drove across an airport tarmac in a city bus, and I have never been so scared and yet excited in my life. The only thought I had the whole time we were crossing the tarmac was, "what if the air traffic controller falls asleep at the wheel, and we are t-boned, and flipped by an airplane going 100 miles an hour down the tarmac?!". We got to the very last bus stop, and waiting for us was Ana, our teacher. I have never been so happy to see Ana; never. When we walked out, I could see the relief on her face as well. She told us that everyone was already gone to see the monkeys, and if we just stayed straight on the main road, and went all the way to the end, we could find the cable cars that take us to the top of Gibraltar to see the monkeys. We started walking about an hour behind, with about two hours until we had to leave. We got about three-fourths of the way to the end, when we saw a sign saying something to the effect of "Personal tours of Gibraltar". We stopped, and saw a man with a minivan by the sign. The man walked up to us and said that the cable cars were out of order today, and going on his tour was the only way to see the cave, the monument, and the monkeys. It sounded good to us until he named his price, 25 euros per person. Normally, I would have done it, even if it was a little expensive, but the problem was we only had about an hour and a half until we needed to be back at our bus all the way back on the Spanish side, including another potentially long bus ride, and a lot of walking. Would I spend 25 euros for an hour and a half of a rushed tour that could possibly even be cut short? On one hand, this is probably our only time in Gibraltar ever, but on the other hand, 25 euros for an hour and a half of a rushed tour in a minivan?

We decided to turn it down, so instead of seeing monkeys, we had an hour and a half in an overpriced street of camera stores, handbag stores, and souvenir shops. I didn't really want anything, but I figured I might as well buy a few postcards, so I went to a shop, found two I liked, and walked up to the cash register, and asked how much they were. The man told me they were .70 euros each. Ouch! Just down the street I saw them for .45 each. I thanked him, walked back outside, and put them back on the rack I'd found them on. Since his store was the very last one on the street, Josh and I stood there about to turn around and walk back. The man, who was actually quite large, came out to the street where we were, and asked, or rather demanded to know what the problem was. I think at first he thought I stole them, but when I told him I could find them cheaper elsewhere, and didn't want to buy his. He told me rather rudely that this couldn't possibly be the case, and said that the cheapest he could give them to me for was a euro for 2. I really didn't want to buy them from him, buy I felt like I really didn't have a choice at this point. I reached into my little pouch and found about .93 cents. I told him this was all I had, because even though I had bills in my pouch, I sure wasn't going to pay more than .93 cents, especially after he was really, really rude. He thought about it, and took the money, and we were on our way. What did he have to think about? Those stinking postcards probably costed him .05 each, and here he is thinking about the .07 he would lose in a 1 euro purchase.


We kept walking, and unfortunately, everything was pricey, and all the stores looked the same. After about an hour of walking just for the sake of walking, we headed back to the city bus. As we were boarding, there was a man just across the way a little bit that fell down, and was convulsing. Despite the small crowd that went to help him, we could still see everything. When he was done convulsing, he stood up, pushed away all of those trying to help him stand, took two steps away, fell again, and kept on struggling. That is the kind of thing that I would normally laugh at on America's funniest videos, but there is nothing funny about watching a guy that has probably taken meth, crack, or some other highly illegal drug, and is hurting himself. About literally 30 seconds later, the ambulance arrived, and that was just the time we were leaving on the bus. For being such a crummy town, at least the ambulances are quick in Gibraltar. The only thing that could have made that day worse happened. Not only did Josh and I not have the best afternoon, but everyone who did go see the monkeys and caves came back with a plethora of stories and photos of how cool it was to be with the monkeys. I felt happy for them, but I also felt like I had been jipped. Now I think of Gibraltar as a crummy place, while everyone else has wonderful memories and photos to share. Josh and I had bad luck on the buses at the beginning, and that translated into missing out on an afternoon of some good times which will make great memories.

That whole evening, I was a little bit down from what happened with the monkeys and all, so I decided that the next day, I was going to do everything I could, and take as many pictures as I could.

What a day to decide to take lots of pictures and do whatever I could, because the next day was Morocco. In the first two hours of being in Morocco, I had already ridden a camel, been inside of a huge cave, and had a snake of unknown venom levels placed around my neck (really, unknown level- could have been harmless for all I know, but it looked mean, and that's what counts on camera). The "snake charmer" had two snakes, a hooded cobra, and that other big green snake we used for photos. This guy must have a death wish because he was playing with that cobra like he was Steve Irwin or something. He picked it up, and lifted it up to his head level, with its hood fully out the whole time.
For lunch, we went to a Moroccan restaurant...in Morocco. Who'd have thought? The food was absolutely delicious; there was cus cus, bread, soup, tea, and other eats. There was live music, and it was nice, but to be honest, it sounded a lot like mariachi to me, and I am not the biggest fan of mariachi. When the musicians were done, one came around with a little plater for tips. I still had a few American dollars, and since it is so touristy where we were, they accepted American. I put $2 on the tip tray, because it looked like they weren't doing to well with tips since we were college kids. The guy thanked me, and the person next to me put a few coins onto the tray. What made me surprised, and a little bit mad was that the man left the euro on the tray that the student put, but picked up everything less than that euro, and put it in his pocket. The only thing on the tray was euros and dollar bills, and maybe one 50 cent piece; nothing less. This guy was making it seem that the tip needed to be at least a euro. If I had known that before hand, I would have put only 5 cent, and 1 cent coins on the tray; a lot of them. What made it even worse was that before he even started collecting tips, there was a 5 euro bill on the tray! These guys are ridiculous! Once he went all around collecting tips, the tray was emptied, and all that remained was that 5 euro bill. Here I thought these guys were not getting tipped well, but all of their tips went straight into their pockets! I got played, but it could have been worse.

When it came time for free shopping time, A group of us just wandered around a little bit, and made some new friends- unintentionally. Shopping in Morocco is very different in Morocco; you don't even need to go into any stores, because the vendors come out to you and beg you to go looking in their store. The entire day, no matter where we went, people were coming up to us and asking- no, pleading- for us to buy their stuff. Granted, their stuff was beyond cheap, who wants to be suckered into buying all of these useless things? At one point, I had one guy come up to me with an armload of stuff, and asked if I wanted to buy a wood camel, "no gracias", then he offered a keychain, "no gracias", then he offered a little guitar. Now, I had my eye on those little guitars, because they are not really guitars, they are a really cool looking instrument that was played like a guitar. When he offered, I was almost a little bit tempted... then he strummed it. Nope, not interested anymore. It sounded worse than a guitar I bought from Walmart when I was 12, and even that sounded awful; hopefully you get the picture. I said once again, "no gracias" and kept walking. We had been walking the whole time, and he followed me for about a block or two. Those people are intense. The worst part about it is that there is really no where you can go to get away from it- they would probably follow you into the bathroom if you tried to go there to get away from them. I walked past many shops, and all of the merchandise looked the same. I went into a little bigger shop that sort of looked like an Arabian Pier 1 Imports. The only thing I found remotely interesting was a seat cushion like the ones at my Grandpa's house; the kind stuffed, and circular, and have designs on the top. Of course the shop worker was quick to approach me, and told me $25 dollars, but I told him I didn't like it enough to pay $25, and I wasn't kidding. He asked me how much I wanted it for, and I told him $10, and that was 100 percent honest- I didn't want it enough to pay more than $10 for it. Of course he went down to $20, and $18, and I just stuck to $10. He said no, so I walked out.


My mother has taught me many things, and one of them is that if you want to barter, and get the best possible deal, you have to be willing to walk away, and in that spirit, I marched out of the Moroccan Pier 1. The more I thought about it, it would be kind of nice to have one of those cushions in my room, but I sure wouldn't pay $25 for it, and with all of the stories of Moroccan sellers jipping tourists, I didn't want to be just another tourist getting ripped off because I didn't know any better.  Since all of the stores had exactly the same things, I figured it would be beyond easy to find another cushion just like it, and since most shops weren't as classy as the Pier 1 imitation, it shouldn't be too hard to get it for the price I wanted to pay, $10. My plan was simple; go up to a cushion, look just interested enough to make the salesman come over and make a bid, tell him I didn't really want it, and say that I only wanted to pay $10. I told Josh to come with me for moral support, and went about executing my plan. The store right across from the Pier 1 had a cushion on display in front of the store, so I went up to it, looked at it, touched it a little bit, and out comes my salesman friend. Amazing, all it took was for me to touch it, and out comes the salesman to make an offer. When he got there, he told me that he had many nicer ones in the back, and invited me to have a look. I followed him to the back where he had probably literally 100 of them in all different colors. He said $20, and I started my speech, "It's really nice, but I don't really want it...I have no use for it...Yes, it is very pretty, but it is not worth $20 to me...thank you for making that generous offer, but I don't want to pay $18, I only think it is worth $10... ...I understand how nice this cushion is, but I really don't think I want to pay more than $10...No, not $16, $10...No sir, I would not like to pay $15, I would like to pay $10", and so on and so on. After about 5-10 minutes of this, he finally gave it to me for $10. When I was paying, I only had 8 U.S. dollars left, and a 1 euro coin in my pouch, so $10 actually turned into just a little bit more than $9 by accident. I actually didn't mean to cheat him out of about 70 American cents, but it just kind of happened that way. With my one souvenir from Morocco under my arm, I headed out of that store, out of that street, and out of that town back onto the boat. The day in Morocco was fun, but I would never go back unless I had a reason to. It was really draining with all of the salesmen, and everything we did was very touristy. Nevertheless, it was fun anyways.


The next day, we drove out to Sevilla, and we would stay there for the next few days. We arrived at the hotel, and it had a certain Opryland feel to it. Opryland is a hotel in Nashville TN that our family stayed at in 2006 for the teachers convention. This hotel is a 4 star hotel, has the same huge glass dome feel to it, huge lobby, and little flower plants everywhere.

After we go settled, we went to go see the Cathedral de Sevilla, the third largest cathedral in the world. The cathedral itself was cool, but what got my attention the most was the huge tower that could be ascended. Eric and I went up, and got some amazing shots from the top of the tower, but the view wasn't what impressed me the most; it was the bells, because this was a bell tower. There must have been at least 30 huge bells in this tower, and all were controlled with step motors, gears, and bicycle chains. Of course I took lots, and lots of pictures of the bells.  After we saw the tower, we decided to go into the town and look around. The rest of the day was free time, so after we grabbed a bite, we just walked, and walked. Josh had joined us by this time, and he walked back with us to the hotel. Our plan was to hang out by the pool, but once I put my head down on the bead, it was over, and I was out for the next three hours. I woke up just in time for bedtime, so I went right back to sleep. End of story.

The next day, we all went to breakfast in the hotel, and it was more like a feast. They had everything; pancakes, eggs, meats, fruits, cereals, sweets, and our favorite part, orange juice. This wasn't just any orange juice, not Simply Orange, Minutemaid, or Florida, oh no, this was the real deal. This was a machine that took whole oranges, sliced them in half, and juiced them right before your eyes! No human work necessary! Whole oranges went in, orange juice came out. Simple as that. It was the best orange juice I have ever had. Period.  Since it was Sabbath, we all went out to the park for a little worship. Each class, A,B,C, and D had to prepare something for worship. Class A did charads, class B picked their favorite Bible verse and explained why it was their favorite, C did music, and D did testimonials. I was asked to say why I am an Adventist, and even though I accepted, I was really scared. I have never thought about why I am an Adventist. I had probably 20 minutes to think, and I couldn't think of any specific religious argument, or anything really wise to say in favor of Adventism vs. others, so I went up with almost nothing prepared. While I was up there, it just started coming to me, so I started talking. I truly believe that God was helping me through that, because it turned out amazingly well when I had just about nothing planned. I said that I didn't think that the argument for being an Adventist, or even a Christian wasn't as important as the simple reality that I am a child of God, and so are you, so is your family, your friends, and your enemies. The whole thing was smooth like jazz- it went too well for it just to have been me talking up there.

When church was over, we had free time. Eric, Josh and I rented a four person bicycle for a half hour. I drove, Eric sat up front with me, and Josh was in the back. This bike was configured like a car, and meant to be driven very slowly and cautiously, being careful of its surroundings. Whoever built this bike didn't see Eric Mathis coming. Eric peddled away furiously, and we must have hit 15 mph at one point- in something that was meant for probably about 5 mph. I was driving, and I used a lot of break, and a lot of the bicycle bell on there. I almost hit a horse-drawn carriage, due in-part to my good friend, Eric Mathis, and his cycling withdrawal. Now we know what happens when Eric is deprived of his daily rides; what are we going to do when we are gone a month on Christmas?!

By about 5, we headed back to the hotel, and "chilled" for the rest of the night. We went to the supermarket for dinner, and got  bread, sliced turkey, canned fish, and other goodies, and ate out by the pool.

On Sunday, we went to see the Alcazar Real, which is almost like the Alhambra; smaller, but prettier in some ways. It had many, many different beautiful gardens and buildings with beautiful Arabic architecture. After we left the Alcazar, we had some free time, and the we left for Cordoba.

Cordoba isn't a very big town, so there isn't a lot to see...or so we thought. Ana personally took us on a tour of Cordoba, and just when we were almost done, a flash flood started, and everyone got soaked. For dinner, we went to a Kebab place, and after, returned to the hotel.

On Monday, we saw a Mosque in Cordoba which was very interesting, but at that point, everyone wanted to just go home, so we were a little bit less excited about this than we probably should have been. We arrived home just after dinner, but the cafe was nice enough to stay open an hour extra for us.


It was a great trip with many memories made, and it really makes me look forward to Christmas travel. There are so many pictures I could download, but it would be better if you saw them all,

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.2198242431945.2111538.1123793029&type=1&l=8642f0865a

If this link doesn't work, just go to my facebook page, they are all there.

Hasta la proxima vez...