Stars and Stripes

After a decade away it's nice to finally be back Stateside. So far it seems pretty similar to how I remember it... just bigger. Even though I remember everything being supersized, I had forgotten the shear enormity of everything here. The cars, the houses, the portions, the people, the roads and the country itself, for the most part, are all massive!

I've been having a great time here so far. Huge thank you to everyone (and there's a lot of you!) that have put me up, taken me out or otherwise helped me enjoy my time along the way. So read on to see what I've been up to for the last month or so...



Wanna bagel with yaw cuppa cawfee, dawlface?

Ahhhh... the distant relative of the English language that's spoken in NYC. Gotta love it. Of course you're just as likely to hear Chinese, Spanish or any number of other languages in this melting pot. And that's half the reason this city is so cool. A day's walking around Manhattan sees you cross through Chinatown, Little Italy, the Jewish quarter and everything from the arty SoHo and TriBeCa, to the powerhouse Financial District, to the laid back atmosphere of Central Park. And don't forget The Bronx. This place has it all.





Of course, there's plenty to see outside Manhattan too, especially if you take to the water. Liberty Island, Ellis Island and Staten Island (it's free to get the ferry to this one!) are all close by, off the southern tip of Manhattan. So an Aussie that I picked up somewhere along the way and I decided to do some exploring one day. Unfortunately the day we chose was absolutely freezing. I don't mean it was chilly and my toes got a bit cold. I mean almost -30C, including the wind chill! Kind of hard to describe but picture this. I bought a bagel with cream cheese (mmmmmm) and a coffee from a street vendor on the way down to the ferry terminal. By the time I had almost finished the bagel, the cream cheese on it was beginning to freeze, it had gone crispy! By this stage my fingers were protesting too, by refusing to bend...


Of course, there's always a silver lining, and in this weather there weren't too many tourists stupid enough to head out sightseeing. So we didn't have much of a line to get up the Statue of Liberty, didn't have to deal with many visitors at the Museum of Immigration on Ellis Island and didn't have to wait long to get on the ferries. And despite the temperature, we did get a nice blue sky the whole day. Can't complain really.

New York at night is something else entirely. The hustle and bustle of the business districts die down and places like Times Square turn on their lights and come alive. Broadway actors are jumping around outside, trying to get people to fill the theaters, hawkers are trying to get rid of their tickets outside Madison Square Gardens and the multitude of eateries are all vying for your business. But the madness is great!

Capitol Hill

After NY/NJ, I booked in at a really nice hostel (carpeted, big bunks, huge kitchen, but still cheap!) for a few nights in Washington DC. With the primary elections in full swing over here, it's quite an interesting time to be here. And of course DC is the epicentre for all the action, so there was plenty going on. Walking around The Mall (the central strip of DC) is impressive and a little bit strange. There are so many iconic buildings and renowned memorials, it's like walking through a Discovery Channel documentary.

When I was planning my stay in DC, I thought a day or two to check out the Smithsonian Institution would be adequate, despite the fact that it's made up of a series of museums covering just about everything imaginable. So on the first day of museum wandering, I planned to go and see the Air and Space Museum in the morning, then check out the Natural History Museum during the afternoon. By closing time, I'd made it about half way around Air and Space. Apparently I underestimated the time I'd need... by about a week. The museums were brilliant and best of all, they were free!

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End of the touristy stuff...

Well, that pretty much sums up the usual destinations so far. The one touristy thing I'd hoped to do in Cleveland was visit the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Somehow I ran out of time and didn't even manage to accomplish that! Too many people to see and other things to do. However, I did make it to the Cleveland Auto Show, which was a great day out.

Before getting to Cleveland, everyone I met asked the same question when I told them that's where I was heading... "Why?!". Well obviously the main aim was to catch up with old friends and once again explore the land of my childhood. But I also wanted to see some proper snow again. And snow I got!!

Mo'roccan Roll

Marrakech

With a name like Morocco, it seemed only natural that we grow a little facial decoration for our time here. So I opted for some handlebars and Kev grew some Ali Baba influenced finery. Joined by our travel buddies, Fran and Chris, and with our mo's shaved in, we headed out for our first full day in Marrakech.

It's a crazy cool place, full of tantalising smells, vibrant colours and noise galore. At the centre of it all is Djemaa el Fna, a massive square bordered by stalls, restaurants and shops. Running off the square is a maze of winding streets and a seemingly endless trail of souks (markets), which sell everything from spices and dyes to clothes and handcrafts. The craftsmen making the various metal, textile and leather goods can often be found hard at work down little alleys in the souks.

Around dusk each night the square really comes alive. As the sun begins to set, dozens of restaurant stalls are set up next to the dried fruit stands (the dates and figs are amazing!) and the fresh orange juice stalls. Groups of people surround the storytellers, snake charmers and musicians that crowd the square. It's a great place to find some delicious food for dinner or just enjoy a mint tea and some people watching.

Sahara Expedition


We really wanted to get into the desert and decided the best way to do it would be an organised tour. So we booked in for a three day trip and headed off the following day. There was a lot of driving but some fantastic scenery and interesting stops on the way to our hotel in the mountains for our first night. It was freezing up that high and there was no heating but they did serve us a great dinner.

Not long after setting off early on the second day, our van got a puncture. No worries though, we put the spare on and were back on the road before too long. At the next village we had to stop off to fix the spare wheel carrier (and possibly a tire, we're not too sure) but soon enough we were off. Twenty minutes later, the same tire blew again! So our driver got on the phone and got the tire guys from the village to come out and get us on our way. An hour later, in the middle of nowhere, the van gave the telltale dive to the side... yet again. We couldn't believe it, three punctures to the same wheel in one day! No spare still for some reason so it was a bit of a wait while the other van turned back to get us a new one. By this stage we had had to skip two of the planned stop offs for the day and were still late getting out to the desert. Turned out alright though, as we got a starlight camel ride to our camp for the night. The following morning we got up in time to see the stunning sunrise, nestled amongst the dunes of the Sahara. It was an absolutely magic spot. Such a shame to leave it but there was a day of travel ahead to get us back to Marrakech.








Essaouira


After the hustle-bustle of Marrakesh we took a bus out to the coast to a small port town called Essaouira. The place is fast developing into a resort town, but for the moment it has a really nice chilled-out feeling to it, which was nice after Marrakesh. It was the middle of winter, yet people were still out surfing and swimming in the water and it was nice enough weather to just sit around and soak it all up. Which, apart from a fairly tame boat ride round the harbour, was pretty much all we did. One of the highlights was the fish stalls, where you select your own fish (freshly caught) and watch it grilled for you on the barbeques. Delicious!

This ended up being our favourite place in Morocco, unfortunately we only spent a couple of days there.

Rabat

If you go to Morocco you could probably skip Rabat. There were some cool waves. And some good fruit shakes in the medina. That's about it.

Middle Atlas Monkey Mayhem


Possibly one of the best days of my life, we took an excursion into the Atlas Mountains, our ultimate destination: Snow Monkeys. The trips are done by local taxi drivers who you can hire for the day. Our driver had obviously been a contestant on "Pimp My Ride - Morocco". The late 80's Mercedes sedan that is the standard for taxis in Morocco had been kitted out with tinted windows, racing seatbelts, stereo system, video screen and to top it all off, a strobe light!


So we drove into the mountains listening to some compilation CD that I can only imagine had a title along the lines of "Annoying Dance Anthems of the mid 90's - Vol 4". We stopped along the way at some villages and so forth, but screw that - I was there to play with Monkeys!


Finally we reached a spot up above the snow-line, got out of the car and were immediately greeted by a huge Monkey who obviously knew that tourists meant an easy feed. We'd brought some bread so spent the good part of a next hour feeding monkeys of all shapes and sizes. Awesome!

Fes

Fes is the religious capital of Morocco, the highlight being the huge Medina which apparently has over 9,400 streets. The locals warn you that you must go in with a guide because otherwise you'll get lost. But that's half the fun, so that was what we did! The area was huge and impossible to navigate and within minutes we had a fairly limited idea of what direction we were heading in. Our goal was to find the tannery where all the leather is dyed. It wasnt exactly obvious or sign-posted, we suspect partially because a lot of the locals make their money by guiding tourists to go and see them.

We saw some people walking along with dyed leather on their heads and spent about an hour trying to figure out where they were all coming from. Finally when we were close Fran brought a scarf from a nice guy who took us to a spot that overlooked the dye pits. It was really cool, all the dye is made from natural materials, one of the treatment substances being pigeon shit!

End of Part One...

Well after a year being around each-other pretty much 24-7, sharing money, beds and pretty much everything else, we're going our own ways for a little bit. Marcus is heading to the U.S.A to travel and spend time with friends/family while I'm going to stay in London for a few months to find some work. This wont be the end of our travels, not by a long shot, so stay tuned and hopefully in a few months we'll start on Part Two!