We went on a tour to Meknes, Volubilis, and Moulay Driss. Our driver picked us up at the post office at eight o’clock, and in about an hour we arrived at Meknes. At Meknes, we looked at a mausoleum, strolled through the medina (picking up some chocolaty, pudding-y pastries on the way, and were shown around a building that used to house thousands of horses. Back on the road, we went to Moulay Driss, the oldest town in Morocco. (Fes is the second-oldest.) Ethan bought some nougat and we tried some. I didn’t really enjoy it, but the locals seem ...
We sort of slept in this morning, leaving the house at 10:30 for breakfast at Café Clock. Mom and Dad chose pancakes with orange juice. Ethan originally ordered pancakes with Fanta, but changed his mind and selected orange juice. I ordered Berber eggs with orange juice. Eventually, our orders food arrived. The fruit with the syrup-saturated pancakes today included strawberries, bananas, and kiwi. I had half the Berber eggs and one-and-a-half pancakes. Mom ate the same. We decided we needed to spend the afternoon (yes, it was after noon) doing something, so we decided to find the wool funduq. Ethan ...
“You took a lot of pictures today?” I asked, trying to keep the surprise out of my voice. “On our walk,” Dad replied. “Our walk” is, of course, the tour that I took my family on. (Think: Dad navigated and I just read from the guidebook.) Our walk took us through Fes Jdid, or New Fez. We started at Point 1, which was a long walk from the nearest Medina gate. It was warm (first time in two days), and my down jacket with the guidebook in a pocket was hanging over Mom’s arm to protect her sore, swollen, sensitive ...
Khalid was our tour guide of the medina today. He started off by telling us a few new facts about our neighborhood before we hit the Bou Inania Madrasa, which was built from 1350 to 1357. The marble came from Italy, the cedar from the Atlas Mountains, and the tile patterns from Spain. In fact, many of the patterns look familiar, as we have a card game from Alhambra, Spain. It was raining hard, and Ethan and I discovered that our rain jackets aren’t as waterproof as we thought. Because of this, our down jackets underneath were getting wet—not a ...
After Mom’s Physical Torture session this morning, the parents returned to find me done with my schoolwork and Ethan in the shower. Once the shower was done and Ethan had gone back to his room, Mom and I set out to the modern grocery store for groceries—the most important of which was chocolate. Dad has found that there is a definite shortage of chocolate in the medina, and he requested that we bring back enough chocolate to last us a while. We returned with seven bars. Besides chocolate bars, we also got Mom a shirt, a lighter for our stove, ...
“Where are you from?” “The United States.” “Ohhhh—Barack Obama!” “Yes.” “You like Africa—he is pure African.” It’s been a while since we’ve had a conversation like this (about seven months, since this happened on a daily basis in India), and I’d forgotten how entertaining they are. Last night, while eating at Thami’s, our host, upon learning that we were Americans, exclaimed, “Oh, yes, you like Morocco! We were the first to see the U.S. as a country!” I wasn’t expecting anyone to know that fact—much less bring it up—but they did. We were on our way out to breakfast at ...
Our apartment is very vertical: one corner is devoted to the staircase. On the ground floor is the dining table, which is the only thing in the center of the apartment. Also, there are three little nooks for sitting and relaxing on couches as well as a full bathroom and a kitchen. Up a few feet is a landing that is unused, and then turn a corner and, up three steps, is the exit to my room, which has a balcony that looks into my parents’ room. Their room’s entry is up a few stairs from mine, but the floors ...
“I’m sorry, sir, but there’s a problem.” Where have we heard those words before? Oh, I know! At the Bangkok airport when we didn’t have our Indian visas! Well, this wasn’t as dramatic: “Do you have cash?” “I can’t pay in cash,” Dad replied. “Okay, let me see what I can do.” A few minutes later: “Do you have cash?” “I can’t pay in cash. I don’t have enough.” “Okay, I need to make a call…” the woman at the front desk trailed off, grabbing the phone and speaking rapidly in French. Eventually, she asked, “Okay, where’s your credit card?” ...
I’m not sure if I should be glad, disappointed, or relieved to say this, but I’ll say it anyway: the first time I ever had a burger at McDonald’s was in Casablanca, Morocco. I don’t get the McDonald’s hype—I can say that now, too. What’s so good about a tiny burger with a little bit of lettuce and ketchup with a chicken patty between two pieces of soggy bread. Seriously. I don’t. We had McDonald’s for breakfast. After we searched in vain, we moved on to Hassan II Mosque, the seventh-largest mosque in the world according to Wikipedia and the ...
LIMA, Peru- March 21, 2013, 01:16- Eryn is startled from her sleep by the sound of her parents packing and showering 01:33- Eryn and Ethan are forced out of their beds and into their traveling clothes, packing quickly 02:05- The van is packed and ready to head to Lima’s international airport 02:31- Four people, four suitcases, four backpacks, and two hats are unloaded onto the curb at the airport 02:49- Checking in is complete: everything that is needed to get to Casablanca of Humphrey Bogart fame is in the hands of the foursome 03:18- Earbuds are bought so that Eryn ...
After more-or-less three months in South America, we started to get the hang of Spanish and customs. We could go into a heladeria and order ‘dos bolas de chocolate y fresa,’ or go to the supermercado and buy huevos, leche, pizza, lechuga, choclo, chocolate, y pan. When Mr. Gooey in Arequipa told us a bunch of things about Arequipa and Peru in general (such as food, customs, etc.), we found that we already knew a lot of what he was saying. We started off South America in Buenos Aires, Argentina, after a ridiculously long set of flights from Dubai, UAE ...
We got to Lima at around three in the afternoon after a short flight. We spent last night at another hostel in Cusco. When Dad and I went back to Pantastico to get our laundry, the owner said that our laundry would be ready by this evening. We pointed out that we were leaving Cusco at one in the afternoon, and she handed us our two bags. In Lima, we got in a taxi and rode for half an hour to our lodgings. After a short while there, we dropped off laundry and went grocery shopping. We decided to eat ...
We had breakfast this morning at The Meeting Place, where all of us had waffles. Ethan and I had fruit (cantaloupe, pineapple, and banana) waffles while Mom and Dad selected Monkey Business Waffles, which had chocolate sauce and bananas. We were there to drop off our Spot, which kept track of us in the Amazon (just in case of emergencies). We had gotten it from Mr. Gooey back in Arequipa, so we’ve been carrying it around for two weeks or so. Ethan and I played Scrabble and, even with my wonderful word “queleas” (which are birds we saw in Namibia), ...
We’re back to cell phone service, chocolate ice cream, and Cusco! We started out our day at Reve’s dad’s lodge at five in the morning. We loaded up the boat and left at 5:30. At around seven, we had breakfast (kiwi, papaya, and cantaloupe with muesli and strawberry yogurt). Using the tea bag wrappers, Reve taught Ethan and me how to make origami tea-shirts and swans. I was not very good at it. In about an hour, we arrived at Colorado, where there were five bars of 3G—that’s very good service for being in the middle of nowhere! Reve found ...
We woke up early this morning to see the macaws at their clay lick. Usually there is a path to the hide from Rio Madre de Dios, but it was under about six feet of water. So instead we took Amazon Trals Peru through the “little stream.” At least, Reve called it a “little stream.” However, since this is the wet season, the “little stream” was forty feet wide and ten feet deep. We arrived at the hide at around six in the morning. After several hours, during which we ate pancakes with honey and butter, the forty to fifty ...
Wow Eryn! you really are going all around the world!!!! LUCKY!!!! I’ll miss you @ school though 🙁
Eryn! Have a safe trip! I miss you already. And post a lot of things, cause I’ll be checking;) Love you TONS!
Good Morning Miss Eryn, Did you like bowling? Did you put the ball down the lane or were they gutter balls like I manage? I’m glad y’ll made it safely to the country of Siam. I’m assuming you have gotten warm, thaughed out or otherwise melted? You’ll get used to it as the days go by. Enjoy everything to the fullest. Laters, Love Grandma
Bowling was okay. Not my favorite … “sport”. (Honestly, I prefer minigolf.) Umm… it seems like half-and-half, but I think it was 1/3 gutter balls and 2/3 “good” balls. Oh, yes, we’re very thawed, and we’re melting through the back of our shirts. 🙂 I love you! Tell Grandpa and Zoie “hi” for me, and tell Grandpa I send my love!
Good Morning Sweetie, Well guess what…its raining. should be in the mid 60’s today. Did u get my reply from yesterday? when I pushed the Post Comment button it said the server was down or some such nonsence!
I’m getting ready to go to Curves. Today is the Garage Sale and its raining. Should have it on a different weekend.
Have fun today. Love you
Good Morning, Ethan!
The things and places you have already seen and enjoyed are very interesting and will be remembered for your life. But even more interesting to me is what you see when compared to the other scribes’ reports on this ADVENTURE. Keep up the good work!
Your discription of the Buddhist shrine/Temple leave me wondering how odd Christians must look to Buddhists.
I am really enjoying your notes.
Love, Gramps
Hi Eryn,
Wow! Is what I have to say! You have a great writing style, informative and entertaining 🙂 I look forward to your continuing sagas.
Happy trails!
Eryn.. it most certainly seems like you and your family are having a wonderful time
(so Jealous!) Love your stories, especially about your mom ! Thanks for keeping us posted.
Yes… but I tone down the stories of my mom a lot. 🙂 And, yes, we’re having a good time here in South Africa.