Strong Words, Softly Spoken

So remember that time I said that I tried out Twitter but didn’t really get the whole point of it?

Sigh. I must say that I’ve now fallen prey to it and thinks everyone else should sign up too.

www.twitter.com/siobhansullivan

Follow me. Do it. You know you want to.p:

I didn’t have a whole lot of time to write the last few days, but I’ve posted all the rest of the pics up online. I actually moved all of the pictures to a different website so you can now see them all at www.photobucket.com/kss1026

Today we went to Morocco. All I can say is…INSANITY. Glad I got to go there but not a place I’d ever want to vacation. If you’ve ever seen pictures of celebrities being swarmed by the paparazzi, well that’s basically what it was like except they were trying to sell us stuff. But they’d chase you down the street and wouldn’t really take no for an answer!

We had to take a big boat/ferry over and then we took a bus tour through the city and then got off the bus and took a walking tour through the Kasbah and into the Madina, which just basically means the old city of Morocco. I got to ride a camel, and we saw a snake charmer and I got a picture holding a snake. We had lunch at this Moroccan restaurant, which was very good, and got to see some Moroccan performers, including a belly dancer. After lunch we walked down through the souk, which was where we were bombarded. I couldn’t imagine going there alone or without a guide. It was unbelievable. Alex tried to get pictures to capture just how insane it was, but they don’t do it justice. It was so bad that at one point one of the ladies with our group actually fainted.

After a little shopping and haggling we got back on the boat/ferry for the worst boat ride of my life. SO rough and rocky…lots of sick people on that boat. Then we came back to Marbella and Alex & I just had a late dinner at this little Spanish restaurant. Our waiter was great…he didn’t speak much English and we didn’t speak much Spanish but he made us feel so welcomed. That’s the first good server experience we’ve had while we’ve been here.

Tomorrow we don’t really have anything planned other than a little shopping so I’m not sure how many pictures we’ll have tomorrow, but we have 200+ from today so, enjoy!

http://community.webshots.com/album/570600293yODeQo

Three things about the pictures: #1) Some of them are out of order because they came from 2 different cameras. #2) There are a couple of pictures from last night on the boardwalk outside our hotel room (aka the sunset pictures) and #3) There are a few pictures of Spanish windmills that are along the highway outside the port city of Tarifa. They power the southern area of Spain and were pretty cool to see alongside the road as they were.

Don’t have much time to write at the moment, but today we went to Gibraltar, which is a British province known for the big, giant limestone Rock of Gibraltar and the famous monkeys that reside on it. I liked Gibraltar alot actually. It had a very British feel to it, everything was in English and you could pay in Euros or Pounds.

We took a tour through the city and up the Rock and stopped off and saw St. Michael’s Cave, then stopped and saw some monkeys. It’s amazing how comfortable they were around humans. One thing I’ll say for Gibraltar, it’s the windiest place I’ve ever been, as you’ll see from the pictures. The first stop we made on our tour was by this lighthouse and the wind was blowing so hard there that it was hard to stand upright. You had to plant your feet in the ground and hold on.

We had lunch in a British Pub called “The Horsehoe.” Alex got fish and chips and I got a cheeseburger which tasted like a Stoeffers salisbury steak on a bun. Which I guess goes in line with the pasta I had last night that tasted like it was right out of a packet of Lipton noodles sold at Walmart.

Anyway, here are the pictures from Gibraltar. Enjoy the monkey pictures. We’re about to head out to Old Town Marbella so I may have some pictures from that when we get back.
http://community.webshots.com/album/570575554EtQnkQ

Day 2. Today we woke up early and had breakfast in the hotel. You know how in the U.S. hotels have a continental breakfast? Well, here in Spain theirs are nothing like what we have at home. Each guest is welcome to have free breakfast and it is pretty much anything you want. Cereal, yogurt, fresh fruit, pastries, breads, bacon, eggs, omelets….just so much to choose from. So we had some breakfast and then hopped on our tour bus and drove up to the small village of Mijas. Mijas is what they call a “white village” because, well, everything is white. It’s an older village up in the mountains, so as you can imagine (and as you’ll be able to tell from the pictures) it was very cold and very windy.

The village itself was pretty interesting. They had donkey taxis! We didn’t ride one but you could take a donkey taxi around the town for $20 Euros. The donkeys were cute though. Lots of history in Mijas. They had an old bullfighting ring that they’re now turning into some sort of mini-amphitheater. Lots of churches. Lots of small, locally owned souvenir shops. Which is funny because almost every shop we walked in was playing some sort of Celine Dion, Prince or other popular American song. They haggle here in Spain too. Alex was looking at a leather racing jacket that he really liked and the guy said the price was $600 Euros (roughly $780 American) and Alex said no thanks. The guy kept dropping the price until he got down to $100 Euros and Alex took the bite. I’m curious to see what he may have been able to get him down to if he had said no to that. The guy who sold the jacket to him asked where we were from and I said The United States and he looked at me and said “Really? You look Irish.” I thought that was so odd since I AM part Irish, but have never been told before that I have Irish features. Interesting.

After we had a little time to walk around and shop, we met back up with the group and had a tappas lunch and wine tasting at a local wine museum. Tappas is basically a “small plate” lunch. Pretty much finger foods on trays. Alex took some pictures of the various choices we had, as you’ll see. The wine here is very, very sweet. Or at least the wine we had today. Can’t say I’m that much of a fan.

After lunch we headed back to the hotel and at that point it was siesta time. Every day the Spanish business close down from 2-5 for siesta. I AM a fan of this. I think it should be implemented at home ASAP. So after a short siesta we headed out with my co-worker and her husband to Puerto Banus, a big marina area with expensive shops and restaurants. This area is known for all the big yachts that the wealthy Spaniards dock there. We had dinner at a little pizzeria there. It’s funny because even here everything is Americanized in some way. The pizzeria sold hamburgers and french fries and one of the salads was “Texas-style.” So, we had dinner and then headed back to the hotel and now it’s 11pm and we’re just relaxing.

A couple of other things I wanted to tell you all: Spanish TV is very……..American. Right now we’re watching CNN. They also have FOX which shows re-runs of House, Bones, Ghost Whisperer, and other shows ALL DAY LONG. Yesterday when we first got here Alex found the Spanish Simpsons. Then he found the American Simpsons on FOX. Like I said before, everything is Americanized.

The tap water here tastes like it came straight out of the Mediterranean Sea. Not a fan of that either. I had to drink some to take my medicine last night and just…no thanks.

The hotel staff comes in the room twice a day. They come in the morning and make up the beds and then they come back sometime in the evening and turn down your beds and place these matt type things by the bed so you don’t have to step out of bed onto the cold floor. The bed is also 2 double beds pushed together. Very odd.

I think that’s all for today. Tomorrow we head out to Gibraltar so it’s going to be a long day but I’m sure I’ll have lots of pictures!

Here are the pictures from today from Mijas and Puerto Banus.
http://travel.webshots.com/album/570572365zolket