Go Back a Page

¿Dónde está Parker?

Page 5

March 5, 2007 - 10:30 PM Alicante Time (EST + 6)

This weekend, we had yet another trip. This time, we travelled to Madrid. We saw some pretty cool stuff and ate some pretty good foreign (Thai, Turkish) food while we were there.

Our first tour was the royal palace (Palacio Real). The royal family does not currently reside there, but it is used on a weekly basis to for the family to meet with foreign visitors, etc. The highlight of the palace, for me, was its collection of Strattivarius-made instruments: two violins, a viola, and a cello. They were very ornate and pretty amazing to see first-hand.

Saturday evening, we visited el Estadio Santiago Bernabeu, where the Real Madrid football (soccer) club plays its home games. It's a pretty impressive stadium, built around 1955. We went on a tour and got to see the field, the fancy seats for important visitors, the "bench" where the players sit, the trophy room, and the press room.

That night, some of us visited the Reina Sophia art museum, home of many paintings by Picasso and Dalí. The most important piece, in my mind, is "Guernica" by Picasso. Unfortunately, we weren't allowed to take photos, but a quick Google search will remind you what painting it is. It is a mural, around 20 feet by 40 feet, by my best estimate. Like the violins, it was incredible to see in person. I really enjoyed many of the Dalí paintings as well.

Sunday morning, we visited the Prado art museum and el Parque de Buen Retiro (the park of good...something). The Prado contains many paintings from medieval times and the renaissance, including many by Velázquez, El Greco, and Goya. It also contains a painting called something like "The Garden of Earthly Delights," which is pretty famous. Most of the paintings were portraits, though, which got kind of old. I enjoyed the other museum more. The park was really nice, sort of Madrid's Central Park. It contains, among other things, a monument to the victims of Madrid's March 11, 2005, terrorist attacks, in which 192 people were killed in trains around Madrid.

Madrid Pictures: I borrowed all of these from my friend Jerry's pictures, except the press room photo, which is from Michelle.
  Worth more than your life... well, most of your lives
Remind you of anything?   See if you can spot Ally McBeal
  Yeah, they've done pretty well
over the years		 My sweater looks a lot like the
goalie jersey
I even have the haircut...  
Reina Sophia Prado  
Memorial to 11-M Victims  
 

February 27, 2007 - 5:30 PM Alicante Time (EST + 6)

This weekend, I went with four friends to Morocco. We visited Casablanca (the largest city) and Rabat (the capital). The whole experience was incredible (I wrote 7 or 8 pages in my travel journal), but I'll write a little to give you a taste of what we saw.

First fun experiences were in trying to get from the Casablanca airport to Rabat. We had to buy a ticket from a guy who only spoke Arabic and French, which was fun. We took the train (about an hour), on which we accidentally sat in first class and had to move to second, then had to stand because all the seats were full. At our "layover" train station, Casablanca Gare de Voyageurs, we had to wait about an hour. We were a little confused, but we saw a pale-looking guy, so we thought we'd give English a try. Turns out he (Jeff) was from Canada, studying for his Master's in Scotland, and in Morocco for the week. We had some pretty good conversation with him, and he helped us with the trains the rest of the way. The train from Casablanca to Rabat was almost completely full, so we had to stand in the aisle outside the compartments for the whole (about 2-hour) ride (see photo below).

Next adventure was Saturday afternoon, when we headed into the medina of Rabat. It's the old Muslim part of town (pre-French colonization) and consists of a ton of shops and some housing and such. We bought a bunch of crafts and goods there. The highlight, though, was meeting a shop owner and going to lunch (we all had tajine, a typical Moroccan stew-type food) and spending half of the afternoon with him. He spoke good enough English to have conversations with us, and helped us find an ATM. After that, he showed us a couple more shops and a roof where we could see town really well.

After this, we walked around the kasbah, a Muslim castle in town. We didn't really see many "sights" in it, other than the Andalucian garden, but it offered a pretty good view of the ocean from its corner. Afterward, we had some pop/soda/coke by the beach and chilled for a bit.

After walking back through the medina, we found our way back near the train station for dinner. We ate at a chawarma (similar to kebab/kebap/pita) place with a waiter who spoke just enough English to be funny.

Sunday morning, we woke up early to head back to Casablanca. We got on the early train, which had plenty of room in its compartments this time. We nodded off most of the way there. Once we arrived, we took a cab to the city's gigantic mosque. Its minaret is about 200m tall, and it's supposedly the second-largest mosque in the world, next to Mecca. We were able to tour it for a small fee, which is unique in that usually non-Muslims are not allowed inside mosques. Afterward, we hopped another cab back to the train station and found a tajine place nearby for lunch. On the train to the airport, a couple of us met a Turkish guy who lives in Scotland and complained that he was treated like a terrorist in the airport, even though he has a British passport, and it's a Muslim country. Interesting conversation.

Anyway, way more happened, but that's about all I can make myself write, and probably all you can make yourself read. If you want to know more, email me. And now for the pictures...

Morocco Pictures: I borrowed some of these from my friend Sara's pictures.
The crew with our Canadian friend, Jeff Cramped is an understatement  
Rabat
  Our Moroccan friend, Khalid I traced my roots to Morocco
 
Casablanca
Casablanca train station (1 of 2 or 3)   Our great lunch of tajine
  We're not in Roselle anymore  
 

February 26, 2007 - 4:00 PM Alicante Time (EST + 6)

Two weekends ago was Carnaval. I have a bunch of homework this week, though, and in order to get the web site "caught up," I'm not going to say much about Carnaval or edit the photos much (not that I usually edit the photos much). Friday night, there was a huge parade, of pretty good scale and very entertaining, although no candy was thrown. Highlights were a bunch of groups satirizing things in Alicante and a marching band that played YMCA.

Saturday night was a ridiculously crazy city-wide party. Someone compared it to Halloween in Madison, Wisconsin, although I've never been to Madison for Halloween. Jerry and I dressed as local cops (very realistic--my host brother is a police officer, so we borrowed some of his clothes, and many locals wondered if we were actually cops). We pretty much stayed out drinking (largely in the streets) until about 5:30 AM. After helping another American get home, I arrived at my house around 7:15 AM. Nothing too crazy, though, other than the extreme lateness of it all. I didn't take my camera with me on Saturday, because I didn't want it to get stolen.

Carnaval pictures
  Churros: one of Spain's finest foods  
  Yes, mullets are in style in Spain. Not for me.
  Reflective jackets = bad photos  
 

Go to Next Page