the town of split

Split

10/27/04

the following morning, i decided to go w/ damian and ira to the town of Split. croatia is mainly comprised of two parts. there is a lrage wide part in the north (and zagreb, the capital, is in the middle of it) and then there is a thin strip going down the coast for hundreds of miles. this strip is filled w/ coastal towns and beautiful islands. Split is croatia’s second largest town, and is about 7 hours by bus down the coast from zagreb. it’s a really really old city, and the most important part of it is the old town built over the remains of ancient palace used by a roman emperor.

on the way down the coast, i read up on the history of croatia. so crazy!! unfortunately, i’m usually very unknowlegeable when it comes to history,a dn although i knew that there was a war here etc, i didnt really know why it happened, or anything about it. it was actually super interesting to learn about the history of croatia (along w/ the history of serbia and bosnia). i’ve never much been interested in history, but over the last several weeks i’ve become very fascinated by it. it’s just so interesting how things cause each other, and just how many changes happened to each country. unlike america, that has only been either part of the uk, or it’s own entity, so many of the countries here have changed hands countless numbers of times. also, reading all this really made me want to explore more around here… to see eastern europe, and also to see bosnia, serbia, albania etc now thta these countrie are finally accessible and safe.

wehn we got off the bus, we were virtually attacked by all these old yelling croatian ladies tryin to rent us a room for the night. “rooms! rooms!! close to center!! CENTER!!” they all screamed, while thrusting their fingers at maps to show that indeed, the rooms were close to the center of town. we tried to escape the old ladies, but they followed us “CENTER!!! close…. CENTERRRRR!!!!!” it as madness! finally, after getting past the old ladies, another woman came up to us, and just to be different said “room!! center!!! close, CENTER!!!”. sheesh! well, she was persistant, and even after we said no and walked off, she just followed us. to make a long story short, we ended up staying in her room, which was actually not all that far from center (although it was of the map!). we actually got a really good price, the room was clean, and they gave us turkish coffee. we ended up being very happy w/ our choice.

after walking around a bit to explore (in the dark), we went to this locals restaurant on the coast. this place didnt even have a menu, instead the waiter just rattled off hat we could choose. ordering was confusing, and in the end, we werent sure what we would get. in the end though, it was all very good: a bean stew w/ roast pork to put in it (very traditional in croatia), black squid risotto (it’s black from the squid’s ink), and a variety of fried fishes. all of it, along w/ 2 large .5 liter beers each, only cost us like 10 bux a piece. not bad!! croatia definitely isnt dirt cheap as i hoped, but it is realitvely inexpensive. i’ve paid about 13$ per room most of the time… but the internet here is wayyyy bank… 5$ per hour!

during dinner, ira and i had a pretty intense discussion about religion, the role it plays in the modern world, and along w/ it, the upcoming elections. i’ve been trying to read up on the election stuff as much as i can while traveling by buying american magazines or british newspapers. it’s all so nuts. i really really hope that i can be in a place where i can watch tv when the election happens. maybe i’ll get a room w/tv specifically for that. although, ečlection results will probably b announced at like 4am here!

10/28/04

unfortunately, i have a very short time here in croatia. only 5 days ince i spent 2 days out of 7 on budapest. there’s so many places i want to see though! one of the things i wanted to do the most, was go to this small island Vis, and it turned out that the ferry to go there left at 4:30pm today, so i only got several hours to see Split by daylight. from what i sa though, it’s really really cool. the town is super super old, and the maincenter looks just ancient. it’s a trippy contrast to see this ancient stonework that surrounds totally modern stores selling nikes etc. it’s pretty crazy to me that people actually live in a place like this. a lot of this town seems lie it should be roped off in an archaelogical area, and not inhabited by people! sure, there are parts of SF that are *kinda* old, but nothing like this:

in the central palace area, there is this huge tower and we climbed to the top to look out over the city. great views of all the red roofed houses from up there.

soon enough, it was time for me to go. it was kinda sad to leave the group. i’ve never traveled w/ random people that i didnk know before, and it was actually really fun. both fo the guys were cool, and we all had a good time. heh, ira had a laptop w/ him, and he downloaded all these hilarious short clips from the net for us to watch. i guess this guy on the net chopped up and modified the old giJoe public service announcements (remember “and knowing is half the battle”?). we would watch these over and over again laughing hysterically. if you’re interested, check ’em out at: http://www.fenslerfilm.com . theyre kinda odd the first time you see them, but get funnier each time.

*v

finally, a post on croatia

sheez, i feel like it’s been forever since i updated. due to me only having a short time here and there being so much to see, i havent had much of a chance to get online. here’s what i’ve beeb up to:

Zagreb
10/25/04

after a long train ride from budapest, i arrived in Zagreb at almost 11pm. unfortunately, i was never able to buy a guidebook for croatia, and arrived in Zagreb armed w/ only a phone number for a local hostel (described online as “filthy, disgusting, smells like piss, and is run by the angriest man in croatia). i had no idea where this hotel was, how to get there, and also i didnt have any of the local currency. i went to an atm, and quickly realized that i had a slight problem: i had no clue how much their currency is worth!! should i get out 200 kunas, or 500, or 1000?? i didnt want to end up taking lie 300 dollars out accidentally, but at the same time, i didnt wnt to end up not having enough kunas once i got to the hostel. i ended up checking the price tag on a bag of chips, and trying to guestimate how many bags of chips would equal a room in a hostel. heh, i ended up getting way too much in the end, but at leat it sounded like a good plan!!

after buying a phone card from the nice lady at the stand, i was on my way. btw, the few people i ended up asking questions to in the train station, were all really nice and helpful. and also, for the next several days to come, i would find pretty much everyone i talked to in croatia (other than the hostel owner) very nice. it made me so glad that i wasnt in budapest anymore!! anyways, when i got to my hostel room, i found out that i would be sharing my room w/ two americans: Damian, a vegetarian from L.A. who, funnily enough, quit being a vegetarian for 2 years in college cause his roommate paid most of his rent in meat; and Ira, a theology major originally from oklahoma city, who now lived in Chicago. they were both traveling through europe for a long time (6 and 8 months respectively), and we ended up talking for a while about our random experiences while on the road.

10/26/04

the following day, we headed out to explore town, and on the ay out of the hostel, found out why the hostel owner got his reputation. he immediately started yelling at us for not having paid before 9am,and demanded money from us. when we kind of chuckled, he yelled at us that it wasn’t funny, and if we want to continue staying there, we have to be sure to pay in advance. not only that, but he absolutely refused to take anything except for exact change, and got all pissed that we wanted to pay w/ bill that really werent all that much larger than the cost of the hostel. sheesh!!

anyways, we headed out to get some food. it turns out, that both of these guys usually for breakfast, and sometimes lunch, just go and grab food at mini-markets or pastry shops. now, i hadnt really done any grocery shopping since france, where i had an apartment to cook in, but now i’m kicking myself for not doing this before. it’s a great way to eat really really cheap, and the food is actually really good. for instance, today, i asked the deli guy to cut me off 3 pieces of turkey, 3 pieces of cheese, and 1/5 of a loaf of bread… even after adding the cup of coffee i had at a cafe while eating my food, i only spent 2 bucks on this meal!! i’m definitely planning on doing this as much as i can in the future!

after dropping off some laundry (all the way across town, ugh!), damian and i went on a walking tour of zagreb. there was a lot to see, and it was nice that pretty much all of it was very close to this square i the center of town. the interesting part of zagreb is fairly compact, and we were able to see a lot of the sights i just a few hours. although zagreb may not have as many crazy buildings etc as budapest, i still really enjoyed the town.

when we went to pick up my laundry, the lady handed it back to me in a basket… without my compression sack that the clothes was in originally. uh-oh! i tried to make hand signals to indicate that i wanted my bag, to which the lady just went and got me a plastic bag to put the laundry in. crap. i tried to say that i needed *my* bag, that it was a special bag, and that i definitely needed it back… but she didnt know any english at all. how do you hand-mime compression sack?? luckily, i found my bag in this closet, and got a weird look from the lady who i’m sure was wondering why the hell i was so particular about what to her looked just like a random plastic bag.

that night, for a chnage of pace, and to explore croatian culture, the three of us went to the opera. the opera was called… err, well, actually i’m not exactly sure what it was called, but it was about…. err… well, i actually am not exactly sure what it was about either! after act 1, the three of us were completely baffled and had no idea just what it was that was going on. so i went up to one of the employees downstairs, and asked if she spoke english and whether she could tell me what was going on. i felt kinda dumb asking her (hat were we doing there if we couldnt even understand what we were seeing), but she was nice about it, and let me read this snippet in english about the plot. that definitely helped us decipher the next two acts, but we were definitely still ometimes baffled. the plot was basically about this ego maniac war leader from anciant rome, that went around pissing everyone off, until, in the last 10 minutes of the opera, he sees the error of his way and decides to not be evil anymore, afterwhich he is promptly killed. the building that the opera was in was simply amazing! large chandeliers, statues, paintings, and for some reason we actually ended up w/ box seats!!

after the opera, we went out to get some drinks. we first went to this pretty cool bar that was playing some good music:electric 6, peaches, etc. there was a list of all the various types of alochol they sell, and beers, and a bit lower down, there was something called a “sendvic” which was a bit more expensive than the rest. we decided to try it out seeing as it was their speciality… but when damian went up to order it, it turned out that it wasnt a speciality at all, and a “sendvic” was just croatian for sandwhich. oops!! the bar closed fairly early, at midnight, and then we couldnt seem to find anything else open. when i asked this random young person what there was to do at that hour, they replied “nothing, there’s nothing to do!!” and when i said that it was only midnight, they said “but you’re in zagreb! theres nothing here after midnight”. hrm, so much for nightlife!!

*v

bye bye budapest

10/25/04

this morning i set out sightseeing again. i dont know why, but i’m super confused here in budapest. more confused than i’ve been elsewhere on my trip. i think a big part of it is probably the language. i really cant decipher it whatsoever and all of it just sounds so bizarre. so far, traveling in france was kind of easy since i knew some french… at least enough to barely scrape by. in morocco, i didnt know arabic, but french is their second language, so once again, i kind of got by. in spain, although i never took any spanish, i still know a handful of words… gracias, hola, uno, dos, treis, chalupa bell grande… you know, just the essentials. but here, i had absolutely not even the slightest idea what absolutely anything meant.

this made riding the metro quite difficult. i’m sure if someone just explained it to me once, i’d understand it right away, but the kiosks were a bit confusing. instead of other cities where you just buy a ticket and ride the metro anywhere you want, here they have like 5 types of tickets!! from what i was able to decipher, i think they are:a ticket for one ride on one train, a ticket for a ride where you can transfer once, but only for a limited time, a ticket where you can transfer once for an extended amt of time, a ticket where you can transfer up to 3 times, and another ticket which i wasnt sure what it did (unlimited transfers?). not only that, but the tickets have to be vaildated in between trains at these little boxes.

so i bought a ticket, validated it and went. on my way out, i was stopped by the metro police. i nervously handed over my ticket, praying that i had done everything right. i had read in the guidebook that tourists get fined all the time, and that the police dont take “i didnt know” for an answer. the lady looked at the ticket and then looked shocked and a little disgusted… but she gave it back to me and waved me on. errr, huh?? so, did i do it right? if so, what was the glare for? the thing is, i would have defintely been sure of geting the right ticket if SOMEBODY WOULD HAVE HELPED ME OUT! but… nobody would.

everyone that i’ve tried to ask for help here, has just brushed me off and been not very nice about it. when i ask people politely if they speak english, they usually just shake their head angrily and turn away. even policemen! now, i dont expect everyone here to speak english obviously… i just want them to be a bit nicer when they say no! when i’m back home, and people on the street try talking to me in spanish, chinese, or whatnot, i usually try to shrug and make a face that says “i *really* wish i could help you, but i cant! sorry!!” as opposed to making a face that says “please go jump off the nearest cliff you filthy piece of crap”.

anyways, regardless of all this, i tried to make the best of it and just walk around and enjoy the city. like i said earlier.. budapest is amazingly beautiful architecturally, although unfortunately, a lot of the buildings are marred and blackened from all the polution in the city.

well, despite the beauty of the city, i knew i had to get out of budapest… and also i was excited to get to croatia, so i took the 3pm train out. on the thrain i read this book called “the curious incident of the dog in the nighttime” by mark haddon. it’s really good!! if any of you is looking for an easy read that is funny, heartfelt,and a bit sad.. you should check it out!

*v

Budapest

after getting practically no sleep last night, i stumbled into a taxi at 6:40am this morning to go to the airport. apparently, the taxi guy had been waiting for me for 10 minutes, so he glared at me the whole time that he drove me to the airport. nice. i got to the airport to see a *huge* line for my flight to check in. nice. after waiting about an hour, i finally was able to board my flight. a few hours later, i arrived in a overcast, cloudy, and gloomy looking budapest. nice. i had read in the book that hungary was about to join the EU, so i was hoping that it would have switched to the Euro by now so i wouldnt have to deal w/ a new currency… but it hadn’t. i had to take out a crapload of “Forints” since it’s 200 of them to the dollar. the first few hostels i called were already booked, so i had to go w/ my fourth choice… which ended up costing 23$ just for a dorm bed! dude, i thought hungary was supposed to be *hella* cheap. i was under the impression that i could get by here on practically next to nothing and according to lonely planet “get away on about US$25 a day without scrimping”. i also had to pay 11 bux to take the minibus into town from the airport. hrm, 34$ and i hadn’t even eaten yet… somehow i started doubting i’d hit LP’s 25 dollar estimate.

the hostel i’m staying at is pretty trippy. instead of the room just being a wide open room w/ a bunch of beds strewn around haphazardly, there are huge dividers up all through the room, so each bunkbed has it’s own private little area. i guess you get more privacy that way, but it seems like it’d be harder to interact w/ others in your room like that. anyways, after checking in, i finally go to go eat. i was starving!! from what i read, hungarian food is usually a whole lotta meat, thick sauces, sour cream, and subsequently is not the healthiest food around. oh, and they’re really big on paprika too. i decided to try the paprika chicken, and it was actually really good… and very similar to what the guidebook said was typical: chicken in a thick creamy sauce w/ gobs of sour cream and paprika on it.

i was planning on doing this walking tour of budapest that i had inmy book, but unfortunately, the bridge to cross the danube was closed to foot traffic. why? i dunno, the guard wouldnt say. nor would he suggest a productive way fo getting across the river (he just told me to go to the next bridge which was *hella* far). not very helpful! actually, it kinda seems like everyone in this town isnt very helpful. or hapy for that matter. i dont know if it’s against the law for people here to smile, but they sure act like it is.

anyways, the town itself, is extremely beautiful. most of the buildings are huge and grandiose, built out of gigantic stone. in a way it’s similar to the buildings you see in paris. actually, budapest also reminds me of paris in the way that there are huge monuments, statues, and churches around every single corner. even without using the guidebook at all, if you just walk down the stret, you’ll see so much stuff. it was hard for me not to start just taking pictures of every damn building i saw!

so, the area i was heading to was old town in Buda (it turns out that budapest is actually made up of two old cities on opposite sides of the danube: Buda and Pest). the old town was really cool. first off, it’s autumn here (yeah, that should be obvious, but i just came from the summer climate of morocco), the leaves are changing colors and it’s just a realy nice time to be walking around outside. also, the architecture of the old town is really interesting and a lot of it is from mideval times. the most famous thing in the old city is fishermans bastion… an area high on the hill used for defense back in the day. it has tons of cool spiral staircases, archways, etc.

*v

in transit

10/23/04

unfortunately, getting from casablanca to our next destinations wasn’t exactly an easy thing. there aren’t any cheap flights out of morocco, so we searched for flights from spain… but there aren’t even any cheap flights direct from spain, so we had to go via london using 2 different cheap airlines. in the end, my final plan was this: 6 hour train from casablanca to tangier, 45 minute ferry from tangier to tarifa (spain), 15 minute bus from tarifa to algeciras (spain), 30 minute bus from algeciras to gibraltar (in spain, but owned by UK), 2 hour flight from gibraltar to london, and then finally a 2.5 hour flight from london to budapest. quite a mess, eh??

the train to tangier was pretty uneventful, and once there we were able to plow through all the touts etc without much difficulty. it was a bit confusing trying to get a ferry ticket, since there is no central office and each of the separate ferry companies tells you their own version of when the ferries leave (in order to get you to buy from them instead of the competitors). we were able to get one of the highspeed ferries which is good since caryn gets seasick and she was hoping to spend as little time aboard the ferry as possible!

after arriving in algeciras and checking into our hotel, we went out excited that we might get some great spanish food. i ordered some “rice w/ 3 delicacies” and caryn got “cuban styled rice”. the waiter came back to let us know that it would take extra time to make caryn’s dish. nice!! that must mean that hers will be extra special right? well, when he brought it out, it turned out to be just plain rice w/ some ragu-esque spaghetti sauce dumped on it! it’s funny how getting food in other countries can be so hit or miss. so many times we’ve gotten food that was absolutely nothing like what we thought we were gonna get!

10/24/04

the following day we got up and spent the last remaining euros we had to take a bus to gibraltar. it actually ended up being quite confusing trying to figure out how to get on this bus and even the people living here were a bit confused as to where to catch it. the bus ride was fun since caryn made a friend of this highschool girl and they talked about life back home vs life in algeciras. eventually, we finally made it to gibraltar, or “the rock” as it is known.

oh yeah, before we got on the bus, when we were walking down the street, we heard all this crazy yelling… a real commotion. we peaked around the corner and there was this hella pissed of guy waving a tire iron, whicle three people tried to hold him back from this other yelling group. it was totally crazy! at this point, the other mob starts storming off, and the tire iron guy jumps in his car, and punches the accelerator trying to run them over… but the people hopped on the sidewalk just in time.. after which tire iron man jumps out of the car w/ the tire iron again, and all hell breaks lose… everyone’s yelling, women are screaming practically crying… it was seriously insane. as we walked off, it seemed like everything settled down though, and i think no one got hurt.

anyways, back to gibraltar. gibraltar is kind of this weird anomaly town. it’s techincally part of the UK, but it is on the south coast of spain. they use pounds… but not british pounds, gibraltar pounds (which arent always accepted in the uk we later found out). the town itself is tiny, so tiny in fact, that it’s only runway for the airport actually crosses it’s major street!! the street actually has the typical railroad crossing bars and lights to not let traffic pass, but instead of a train going past, it’s planes! it was really weird to walk around town and feel like all of a sudden we were back in england again. all the signs etc were all in english, but the people in town were probably like half spanish and half british.

most of gibraltar is taken up by the rock, this huge mountain that is filled w/ caves used by the british military for top secret stuff. there’s all sorts of cool stuff on top of the rock like a nature preserve, tail-less monkeys, and other non-top secret caves. although we had very little time before our flight, caryn and i went to the top of the mountain in this scary cable car. dude, there were so many monkeys up there! they kinda have free reign up there and we hung out for a while watching them chase each other, do flips, and other cool stuff. the monkeys would even hitch rides on passing cars by jumping on the roof and riding for a while before jumping off later.

we were within a minute of missing the last cable car down the mountain, but luckily we made it just in time, and then took our fligh to london. unfotunately though, instead of flying into london’s main airport, we flew into Luton, this small suburb of london. we tried to call a few cheap hotels only to find out that all of them were booked. finally, we found a bed and breakfast, and took a cab there. the cab drove several miles to get to this place and dropped us off in the middle of residential nowheresville. we got out and started ringing the doorbell to the b&b… and no one answered. we continued ringing the bell for a long long time… still no answer. the owner must have fallen asleep.

at this point, we realized we were pretty screwed. we were in the middle of nowhere, it was almost 1am in the morning, we had no place to stay, there were no taxis (or any cars) around as far as we could see, there was no phone in sight, we had no map, and basically we had no way of getting out of the predicament we were in. crap! oh yeah, did i mention that it was cold and sprinking as well? perfect! so we just started walking… and walking.. and walking. luckily, eventually we found a street that was somewhat major and actually had some cars on it, found a cab, and had the cab take us to the red lion inn.

well, things were a bit crazy at the red lion. the red lion is also the location of the most popular bar in luton, and it ws a saturday night. at first, the guy at the door didnt want to let me insince i was wearing sandals, but finally he made an exception since i was planning to stay at the hotel. once inside, i walked up to the reception desk that was covered w/a heap of beer bottles and tried to get helped. basically, after a whole bunch of crap, and paying (90 bucks!!) , we finally got a room. i would probably have been down to go check out the bar, but unfortunately i needed to wake up at 6:15 and it ws already 2am.

after two whole continuous days of travel, we finally made it… well, we didnt make it to our final destinations yet, but we made it to london at least.

*v

the split

THE WHY:

there’s definitely something to be said for trying to travel on your own as it changes the traveling experience completely. it’s not easy and you really have only yourself to depend on. plus, all of a sudden, you are left w/ only yourself and your own thoughts to deal w/ so it definitely helps you get in touch w/ your innner self. in some ways, it’s a test of your own independence. for me, in a lot of ways, testing that is really difficult. i’m a very social person, and back home i pretty much spend no time alone. i try to fill almost all of my would be alone time w/ my girlfriend, friends, and family. which is partially why i do have the urge to travel alone. i want to test myself. i want to push myself and try something new. last time i traveled for a while (to thailand for 6 weeks), even though i had the choice of being w/ friends the whole time, i chose to spend half the time traveling by myself to see what would happen.

and there’s also a second side to the equation. when you travel alone, not only is a good chance to spend some “alone time”, but it is also a really good way to meet random strangers and make friends. if you’re on your own and not part of a group, you become more accessable. the problem is, i’ve really never been any good at talking to people i dont know. actually, to say i’m not good at it is an understatement, i’m actually insanely shy. though i have no problem talking a mile a minute w/ people i know, and i *love* to socialize… put in me in a room w/ strangers and i end up usually not saying a word. when i went to thailand, i thought i would finally break through my shyness. i thought of it as a “sink or swim”… if i was all alone, and had no friends to talk to, and the only options were talk to strangers or dont talk at all, i thought i’d end up forced to sociallize. unfortunately, when put in the sink or swim situation, i sunk, and sunk way deep… all the way to the bottom. the half of the trip that i traveled solo, i dont think i talked to a single other person (other than waiters etc obviously). i failed and failed miserably.

so, in 2 more days, it’s test number 2. caryn and i are splitting up for a week, and we’ll see how it goes. for a week i’ll be split between two scenarios: being alone, and being w/ only people i dont know. not only will i be far from home, but i’ll be out of my element. we’ll see how it goes…

THE WHERE:

when we split up, caryn is going to go to greece for the week, and i needed to figure out for myself where it was that i wanted to spend that week. it was time for me to sit down and research different countries, weigh pros and cons, look into prices, etc. well, in typical vlad fashion, i did none of those things. instead, i decided to base my decision solely on some offhand random comments i’ve heard from a couple of other people. after hearing no more than three sentences about it (all three of which were that it’s “nice”), and opening up lonely planet for 2 minutes, i decided to go to croatia. yes, croatia.

i had to check on the map where it was (american geography class didnt teach me much), and as it’s fairly close to greece, i decided, sure why not? so now i have 1 plane ticket, and 0 expectations. i really have no clue as to what i’ll find when i get there… other than that it’ll probably be “nice”. what i’m kind of expecting (if anything) is half mediterranean and half eastern europe. oh wait, but there’s more :). there were no cheap flights to croatia, so instead i’m flying into budapest. so now i get to try out *2* countries that i wasn’t planning on going to!!

so that’s it. in a couple of days i’ll be winging it in croatia and hungary. wish me luck!!

*v

casablanca

yesterday we took the train up the coast to get to casablanca. we came here partially because we wanted to see this huge crazy mosque and partially just cause the word casablanca is world famous and we thought it must be a cool city. most people in the states couldnt name a city in morocco, but everyone’s heard of casablanca. well, we got here, and the mosque ended up being way cooler than expected, but the city was much less interesting than we thought it might be.

the mosque is the Hassan II mosque, one of the biggest in the world and it was just completed in 1993. this thing was so impressive looking. it has a humongous minaret that towers over the square (and we here the minaret has lasers shooting out of it at night pointing towards mecca), and the architecture of it is so crazy impressive. we were totally awestruck by it. i guess the place cost 600 million dollars to build, and it shows! the other cool thing about the mosque, is that it is one of the very few mosques that actually allows non-muslims to go inside it, and we were excited to check out the inside… but unfortunately, we got there too late for the last tour.

other than that, there really isn’t all that much to see in casablanca. in fact, in a lot of ways, it almost doesnt even feel like morocco. most of the city is very modern and seems just like any other large city in the world w/ just a splash of morocco-ness added to it. so all in all, we’re rather unimpressed here. today we ventured into the medina, and the medina here is way less crazy or interesting than the ones in fez or marrakech. on the flip side, we got hassled like *crazy*!! people just wouldnt leave us alone… it was sooo frustrating! one guy followed us forever asking us to come to his shop, gave us a business card, kept babbling on and on… when he finally got the drift that we werent coming to his shop, he yelled “give me back my card” and snatched the business card from my hand angrily and stormed away muttering. sheesh! after spending a bit of time in the medina, we started getting really frustrated about just how much we were being hassled… and then… i think i got pickpocketed.

here’s what happened: when i got to a particularly crowded area in the medina, this weird guy came up to me from the left and started totally fucking w/ me. he kept putting his foot infront of me and purposefully stepping on my foor over and over again while laughing all crazy-like. wtf?? and he just kept doing it and doing it… i couldnt tell if he was trying to step on my foot, or trying to step on the cuf of my pants to unroll them or what, but after like 20 seconds of this i got fed up and just shoved the guy hellza hard… but instead of reacting to that, the guy just laughed and waled away. afew seconds later, this other guy walked up to me and handed me my little notebook that i always keep in my right pocket, and walked away briskly. wtf? i can only assume that the first weirdo distracted me on the left, while my pocket got picked on the right, and when the guy discovered that it was a nbotebook and not a wallet, he handed it to me. i dont know how else he could have gotten the notebook… seeing as it was uber-crowded… if the notebook had just fallen out of my pocket, there’s no way anyone would have seen it fall in the mob. so i dunno… maybe it wasnt a pickpocketing… but the first guy was acting so weird that i just cant see it being a conincidence.

so, i think that caryn and i both are pretty ready to leave morocco. it’s from a combination of all the people hassling us, the not so exciting food, the icky hotel room we had last night, and our lack of enthusiasm about casablanca. dont get me wrong, we both totally loved morocco, enjoyed ourselves while we were here, and are definitely psyched that we came here… but i think we’ve had our fill. tomorrow, we take the train outta here and head northwards to cross back into europe.

oh, one more thing… one of the things that make dealing w/ the people who hassle you particularly difficult, is that you never know iof they may be genuine or not. we’ve had some people come up to us from out of the blue and help us for absolutely no reason at all!! we never even asked for help, and they were sooo nice to us! so when people come up to us in the medina, we dont want to just automatically shoo them away, just in case they are really only trying to help. but then, 90% of them just end up trying to yank you into the next shop if you aren’t harsh to them. argghh!

anyways, check out the new casablanca gallery i uploaded.

*v