How not to pick a present

So after staying at a 50 euro a night hotel which was way above our budget we decided to check out a day early and find something that matched our budget better. We ended up finding a hotel across the street that had a big pool and was only 10 euro a night. I was a little skeptical at first as the owner reminded me of a used car sales man that was on vacation in Hawaii (little moustache and Bermuda shorts just to give you an idea).

That night Maria got really ill and we needed to get some help (don't worry she is doing much better now). My first instinct was to head to our original hotel and get someone to recommend a doctor. I arrive at the hotel and I can't find a single person working there that could speak english. This was very unusual as the days we were staying there we were hounded by "can I help you sir" and a concierge that was exactly like the butler from the movie Mr Deeds (very, very sneaky and turns up every where we go). So I head back to our new hotel and find the manager and explain our predicament. He tells me he has a "friend", just like every other person in this country that seems to be connected, and calls his doctor to come check Maria out.

By the end of the ordeal the manager had done a lot to help us and we ended up staying an extra 2 nights. As we were leaving the next morning I thought it would be good to leave him a little present so I left a bottle of wine for him at the front desk as we checked out. It wasn't until we were half way to the airport that I realised 99% of the population in Turkey is Muslim!......oops.

Guess my nationality.... Korean? Japanese? Brazilian?

Guessing nationalities is one of the favorite pastimes of the shop keepers at the Grand Bazaar in Istanbul. As you my guess they have a pretty tough time guessing mine. It is just one of the many ways they get you talking and browsing their little shop.
We have made our way from Istanbul in the north west of turkey to the south west coast and are now pretty much in the dead center of the country.

Istanbul is a crazy place with some even crazier taxi drivers. So far we have had four taxis racing formula one style against each other to see who could get their patrons to the night club faster and a taxi driver that when I showed him the card to our hostel he told me he couldn't see! There was also the driver who had two cell phones, one for each of his girl friends so he wouldn't get them mixed up.

The coast is awesome but the interior is just plain bizarre. They have an area named Cappadocia which has a series of underground cities and man made caves cut into the rock. The underground cities are no longer in use but some of the caves are still being used and one of our hotels was using them as the rooms for guests... it was nice and cool but a little eerie.

We have another week here before we hit the Czech Rep. Not sure what the plan is just yet but it is back to Istanbul for now.

This blog is rated PG

"Real fucky fucky!" That' s one of the first greetings we got in Amsterdam as we made our way out of the hostel and into the red light district. After walking past a few more establishments (in succession) and getting a variety of pitches thrown our way "sucky and fucky only 30 euros", "Live fucky and sucky" and so on the shock factor wore thin pretty quickly.

As we arrived at the hostel front door to check in Maria turns to me and says "By the way this is a Christian youth hostel and there is at 2 AM curfew"..... What were you thinking Maria! We walk in and the receptionist was preaching to some girl that was checking out, I almost turned around to walk out, not that I'm against any religion but I hate having it forced on me. Once we got passed the staff the rest of the folks were pretty cool.

So we had 24 hours to make the most of Amsterdam. What better way to learn the city than by bike. We rented these cruisers with big curvy handle bars and hit the streets. These guys are totally nuts on their bikes, it was a race for pole position at the traffic lights against these blonde haired dutch girls that will run you over in a second with out giving it a second thought.

The rest of the day consisted of stomping the grounds of the red light district, hitting the coffee shop and taking in some theatre. For those details you will have to email me. Let me just say the gymnastics routine and banana eating at the theatre were a sight to see.

Morocco in summary

Amazing place. I would definitely come back again, the people are very nice but be ruthless when haggling as they will try to rob you blind!

Cheap eats and hotels but what you save in money you sacrifice in hygiene. For instance in consequence for eating in the market for $2.50 with all the locals we were made to stay within 2 minutes hobbling distance from any toilet for 2 days. Also towards the end of our time in Marrakech I decided the $30 we were paying for accommodation was too high and found a place for $15 a night for both of us. I΄m not sure if it was the remnants of the food poisoning or the smell of that hotel room but it was not a good experience.... I΄ll save you the details.

Aside from being sick the Mountains and the desert are worth coming back for. I would also say the beach but women be warned I only saw two girls wearing swim suits while the rest were covered head to toe sitting on the sand in 40 degree heat.

Maria is an eating machine

Since we left I have been out done by Maria when it comes to eating and as many of you may know it is a hard thing to accomplish. I can barely take a bite of my baguette when Maria is passing me the last bite of hers claiming she is too full to finish. She says it΄s because she used to eat small meals all day long and now that we only stop 3 times a day she is famished. I don΄t believe it though as the way she consumes the pastries and baguettes with out even looking up seems like she is enjoying them way too much.

Faux Guides

When visiting Morocco beware of these "faux guides". We have had two of these approach us and we took one up on his offer. The first was a guy named Hassan, he approached me in the train station in Tangiers which is known for its dodgy people and drug tade. He insisted that my name in Morocco is Abdul and he wanted to take us on a 4 day trip into the desert for music and parties as his brother had just started up a touring company. Aparently there were only two spots left in the jeep and we were lucky enough to meet him as this is a once in a life time opportunity (I'm sure it would have been, stranded in the desert). Digging deeper I found out from other backpackers that he was going on a train to Marrakech but he told me he was bound for Casablanca and according to a traveller from Finland there was only one spot left in the jeep which was very lucky for him!

The second guide had a much better sales pitch. There was no questioning him he was going to be our guide whether we liked it or not. He was only 6 years old and the only english words he knew were "I'm your guide". He took us on an impressive tour of the town and when it was over I didn't know how much to pay him so I decided to pay him 1 dirham (10 cents) at a time until he was happy. After the first dirham he gave a small smile and was about to walk away when I give him a second dirham he had a huge smile then a third dirham and his eyes were like saucers and after a fourth dirham I thought he was going to passout. He quickly ran away after we had concluded our business (a total of 40 cents) and was showing all his friends how much money he had just made.

Turbo Daily

No that is not the pace of life which actually seems to be more like low idle and that is a good thing. Turbo Daily is the model of the mini van that drove us out into the Sahara desert. Our driver made sure to make full use of this fact and was passing vehicles on blind corners with a 1000 foot cliff on one side. Only once did we nearly get run off the road by a semi but not to worry we were getting close finishing our crossing of the Atlas mountains and there was only a 200 foot drop next to us. Every other group we saw out in the desert had a big Land Rover 4x4 which was a little worrying once we lost the pavement.

The desert is amazing. There were sand dunes that were like small mountains but 100 times as hard to climb..... trust me we did it and got all red in the face like we had just finished a marathon, we were racing against the clock to catch the sunset. At the top you can access the other side of the dune which has not been wind blown and is as steep as any double black diamond run I've seen, if only we had a snowboard or crazy carpet!

See Maria's blog for photos of the desert.