Cinque Terre

Cinque Terre is an area in western Italy on the coast. Its actually 5 small fishing villages all next to each other. Until recently there was no train or roads so you had to hike in or take a boat. Now the train goes through but they are still too small for cars. Last time I stayed in which is the largest city and is on the north end. This time we started at which is on the south end and hiked through to the north end.


















Above is me sitting on a bridge on the path between the cities. The path can take as much as 2 hours to hike to the next city. Below is me swimming in the Mediterranean at one of the cities and us just getting in to one.














On the path there was a puddle spanning it so instead of getting their feet wet John, Tom and Jeff decide to walk the top of the wall with the 100 foot drop. Smart huh. Also pictured is one of the villages from a distance.


















Here is me next to 2 of the towns.

Ibiza/Barcelona

Though it is true Ibiza is basically a party island and almost just one big club with famous people and bubbles dropping from the ceiling there are many other things to do. During the day we got scooters of course what else. Jeff had gone another way so it was just the 3 of us. Once we got the scooters we just went from beach to beach all over the island. This time mine was the fastest so we just raced everywhere we went. It was a lot of fun. I have been to Puerto Rico, the Bahamas, Cabo, and here in the Mediterranean before but never have I seen water like this. I am posting a lot of pictures to try and convey at least a fraction of what it looked like though my camera does not even come close to doing it justice.















We really didn't have any idea where we were going so we would just ride forever and end up driving along these dirt roads up on cliffs overlooking the ocean till we would find the most beautiful beaches I have ever seen. We would swim at a lot of them with it being so hot and the water so warm so as you can see I just had the board shorts and shirt on. Well since the shirt was off so much I kept putting the shirt on so I would not burn but since I did not have the G's that triangle spot where the collar was now exposed that was not usually got fried. I actually got really tan except that one small V. Sucked.


















You can kind of see where water changes color. It stars this amazing turquoise and then turns a dark dark blue once it goes out aways. You can see the line but the color doesn't come through like it looked in real life. I would show more pictures of the beaches which were amazing but this is Europe so I better not.














This picture on the left is of the fortress in town. Ibiza used to be mainly a stopover for Pirates on their way back to Spain. it is actually really cool walking through. It is just like they turned the lights on in the Pirates of the Caribbean ride and it was real. Seriously one night we were exploring and walking down some back streets which were all stone and had to be hundreds of years old I felt like I was in Tortuga with Jack or something.













Pretty sweet helmet huh. I wont say why we are stopped or where Tom is. Montizuma had nothing to do with it this time. I would love to come back and do that all again and hopefully I will be able to come back some day on a boat and someone will take a picture of my boat like the one on the left.














Barcelona is a pretty sweet town. We didn't have much time but I have been there before so it wasn't a big deal. We spent a lot of it on the beach. Barcelona has some really nice beaches right down town. Here is La Sagrada Familia and the Spanish version of the Arch De Triomphe. I will put the French Arch and the original one in Rome up later.


















Next up Cinque Terre which is one of my favorite places on earth. Seriously I love this place.

Ronda/Madrid

Madrid is not my favorite City in Spain. But as you can see we found something to do there too. Anyone see Vantage Point? Look Familiar?

This picture is in Ronda. Ronda is a beautiful town in the south of Spain. As you can see it is built on this ginormous cliff and there is a huge canyon which splits the city and an old stone bridge which connect the two sides. See below.














This is a nice Ronda sunset from the cliff. The other picture is from our train ride from Ronda to Madrid and just a random small town with a Castle on the hill over the town. I thought it looked cool.













Here is a picture of the bridge spoken of before. It looks a lot cooler in person. When you are there looking at it you feel like you are in the Lord of the Rings movie. The other picture is of the Ham museum in Madrid. What trip would be complete without a trip there?













Here is a random lantern that were all around the city. Spain beat Russia 4-0 while we were in Ronda so it got pretty crazy plus it was a Friday night. Jefe at the bottom looking up at the bridge.































Next up Ibiza

Rabat/Tangier

Casablanca had to be cut out because of an unexpected 9 hour train ride. In Rabat we saw a Jazz concert in the Chellah which is a castle like place with a bunch of old Greek ruins inside. Pretty sweet. This other wall is in the town square.














This picture was of the exit as we were leaving the concert. This other picture is of a guy who tried to sell us some t-shirts. Seriously this is a full grown man he spoke English well too. K so maybe he was just a kid on the street.


















This is the Beach in Rabat at night. The Atlantic is behind me. This sunset is on the beach in Tangier.













This is John and I just taking in the view of the straight between Europe and Africa at Tangier. Tangier is the site of the recent movie The Born Ultimatum. Every corner we went around Jeff was like this is it this is where the chase was. I heard that phrase about a million times. It looks just like the movie it is pretty sweet.














This is Tangier in the background and me on the ferry that took us to Spain.















Check it out I match the wall perfectly. I couldn't have done that better if I tried. Weird huh.
Here is the Rock of Gibralter. Its bigger than I expected. This is taken on UK soil. Also weird.



















Next up on the trip Ronda.

Marrakech

The first city in Morrocco was Fes even though this picture of me is in Marrakech.

These lights and fountains are kind of the city center in Fes and seemed to be the hot spot for the night life. I loved all the fresh fruit stands they have everywhere especially with the weak dollar finally not killing me.



















Here is just a picture of me by our hostel in the old Medina of Marrakech. The old medina was a way cool part of town. The markets just covered these old streets. They just spilt out Djamaa el Fna. Jamaa is the name of the big square where the market is. We call it FNA for short. It could be very easy to just get lost. We heard about some cool waterfalls in the Atlas Mts which are not far away so we took a cab out there. The canyons are a lot like the ones in Utah but there are houses all up in there with people living in them. We had to hike to the falls and I was not really impressed with them that much. I have seen way better in the Gorge but I guess the really good ones are a few days hike.



















I have to admit I ate at McDonalds more in Europe then the last 8 years in the USA combined. The picture on the left was a kind of fruit smoothie. It had like 12 different kinds of fruit and was probably the best $1.50 I have ever spent in my life.















On the way to the Falls Tom and John took the opportunity to catch some sleep. We had gone like 3 nights on a Train or in an Airport so we were pretty tired. This was a Corbra in FNA square. They are really aggressive. Not the Snakes but the charmers. They grab you take your Camera put Snakes all around you and take your picture. Then demand a lot of money and if you don't pay they erase the pictures.















We didn't have a lot of time but we couldn't come to Africa and not get to ride on a Camel.















Here are 2 pics of FNA one in the daytime and one at night. It is a huge square and there is tons to do. I really like Marrakech and the square is def the coolest part. It is also famous for its Orange Juice. There are I would guess probably 60-80 large carts which are for the most part identical all spread out but most right next to each other that are just stacked with Oranges. For 3 Dirhams or 35 cents you get a glass of freshly squized Orange Juice. It is pretty good.














Tarjines is the special way to cook things there and they are really good. This is just one of many carts set up with spices. They stack those things so high. Fes was cool and Marrakech was Awesome there is a lot more there but I don't have room for the pics so once again you have to see it for yourself.














next up Rabat and Tanger