España

Finished up Morocco by visitng Fez (way too hot to do anything but eat ice cream, which was delicious) and then Tangier (only there for one night so didn´t see much).

Took the ferry across the Straight to Tarifa which is great. A small, laid-back kite surfing town with narrow streets that open into nice plazas where people sit outside and eat tapas and drink sangria. Not a bad way to kick it.

After a few relaxing days there I parted ways with Kdub and headed up the coast to Malaga. Another beautiful coastal city. Joined up with a group of international spanish students (like my program in chile and Argentina) and went to a col disco outside of the city at this big marina. Enjoyed more great tapas and then headed up the coast again to almeria for one night.

After that it was on to Alicante where I am now. Super relaxed with great beaches. Liking it a lot. Tomorrow it´s of to Valencia for some Paella and then maybe to Ibiza before making it to Barcelona.

Lot´s of moving around, but I only have a month left and still want to see so much.

ciao

Sans Plomb

Here are a few stories/observations from Morocco that may make me appear to be an unsophisticated/unintelligent American. Nevertheless...

- In Morocco there are tons of cats but very few dogs, from what I've seen.
- Many Moroccans touch their hands to their hearts after shaking hands. I think that's pretty cool.
- Speed limit sign are spaced very far apart in Morocco and if you go 9km over you get a ticket. No fair.
- Apparently Sans Plomb means unleaded. Yesterday Kristina and I drove up the coast to Casablanca. When we neared the city center we stopped for gas and to try and ask for directions to our hotel (a difficult feat since hardly anyone speaks English - Only French and Arabic). We told the guy to fill it up with the cheapest one (our Hyundai rental doesn't exactly need the super premium stuff). The writing was in Arabic, so we didn't know what kind it was. We paid and drove off. Not two minutes later I tried stepping on the gas and the car didn't respond. I downshifted to second gear...still nothing. Eventually the car completely died. With some help from a group of passing boys, we were able to push the car off the highway. Wondering what could be wrong, I quickly came to the conclusion that we put in the wrong kind of gas...and the car was not happy. Kdub stayed with the car and I walked back to the gas station. Luckily we hadn't gotten very far. When I tried to explain to the attendant what happened I could hear him laughing with his colleague, "Ha, these Americans put diesel into their compact car that can only run on unleaded."
Well, yeah, I thought, but he's the one that put it in. I don't speak Arabic and this guy works with cars and gas for a living. You think he might know which ones typically get diesel (they call it Gas Oil) and which don't.
Anyway, after pleading my ignorance with his boss they rounded up a crew of people and we walked back to the car. Pushing the car back to the station wasn't very difficult, but getting all the bad gas out of the car was another story. The guy who filled it up in the first place began syphoning out the gas by sucking on a hose to get it flowing out. This didn't look like fun as he spit out the gas that went into his mouth. But it worked and the buckets began to fill up with gas oil.
Then the scary part. The attendant went inside to grab...a cigarette! This guy's clothing, hands and mouth were all full of gas and he was smoking. Not only that, but there were over 30 liters of gas in open containers right next to him. Kristina and I backed away slowly.
Luckily there were no explosions and after 2 hours, the tank was empty. We filled it up with unleaded, turned the key and....nothing. The car sputtered but never caught. We pushed it around the lot trying to kick start it into gear, to no avail.
Finally, after another half hour, the little Hyundai Accent that could, began coughing back to life. Even with our attempts to poison the little sucker, she still held strong and made a dramatic surge back to the world of the living. We were saved.
I have to mention how nice all the guys were to us...and so happy the whole time. Whenever I looked under the car to see them working, I would get a gas covered smile in my direction. I wish we spoke French, but we were able to gesticulate that we were all happy with the outcome.
A few hours after the whole thing began, we were on our way to the hotel. I won't soon forget the experience though...especially the words "Sans Plomb".

Fun Times

So the bike tour was fun and informative. We stopped at a huge beer garden which made it tough to get back on the bike. The pub crawl was also a lot of fun. Munich has a solid nightlife. I never made it to Innsbruck because all the places I wanted to stay were full.
In Zurich I met up with my friend Daniel who I met on my Galapagos Cruise boat back in November. It was great to see him and have a local show me around the city. Really beautiful city, as was Lucern.
Switzerland looked just as I imagined it would...especially Interlaken. I will definitely be going back there again at some point. I did some nice hiking, went Hanggliding again, still my favorite activity, and also went swimming in a beautiful lake.
After Interlaken it was time to meet up with my friend Kdub. After taking a train from Interlaken to Bern, then Bern to Biel; then Biel to Geneva and then flying from Geneva to Casablanca and finally on to Marrakech, I met up with Kristina. We had a lot of fun walking through and exploring the main market in the medina. So much energy there.
Today we rented a car and drove to the west coast town of Essouaira. The old town is very nice with a great vibe.
After this we're going to head up the coast to Cassablanca and then finish up in Fez before heading to Spain.
Looking forward to all of it.