The boarding process took 2 hours, but we were patient, and ended up getting on with the very last dozen of passengers. We somehow found our cabin(mostly by luck), then quickly went to the top deck as the ship left the harbor. It was a little anti-climatic (not like the Love Boat) and it was dark, but Mom and I took pictures of each other and waved goodbye to Italy.
Sunday Nov. 21, 2010
We spent the day at sea traveling towards Spain. We had sacrament meeting with the other 80 Mormons in the tour group and spent the afternoon getting to know each other. That night was the formal Gala Dinner and we all dressed up for dinner and put on our "bling". We are assigned a table in the restaurant for dinner and became great friends with our companions.
I'm showing off my dinner of duck with mashed potatoes. The lady behind me is Sister Kay Wallace.
Monday Nov. 22, 2010
Malaga, Spain
After a good nights sleep I got up at 8am to go exercise at the gym. I tried to run on the treadmill, but with the rolling of the ship and watching the waves out the front window, I soon started feeling seasick. I opted for the stationary bike and did just fine. A little Brazilian lady was leisurely riding the bike next to me and started talking to me non-stop in Portuguese. I figured out she thought I was riding much too fast. My new friend, Cleonice, was next to us and she told me the woman was concerned I would hurt my heart to breath so hard. I tried to tell her I was young and had a strong heart, but she said back that she was 72 and also had a strong heart. She continued to yak on and on in Portuguese for nearly 15 minutes. It was very funny. She was sincerely concerned about my exercise habits and was not to be deterred from being my personal trainer. I ended up just talking back to her in English and just kept smiling. She really made me laugh.
We spent the afternoon in Malaga, Spain. Here are a few pictures of the sites.
This is a few of my new best friends in front of the Cathedral.
Me, Dora Mae, Mom, and Carol. Carol and Dora Mae are sisters and they live near each other in St. George, Utah. We had a lot of fun together over the next 3 weeks playing card games and laughing.
Mom talking to the carriage horse.
This is Alf Gunn and my mom as we re-boarded at Malaga. Alf is from Gig Harbor and was our tour guide. He lives in my Stake and was the man who invited me to join the cruise.
Self portrait of me and the city of Malaga. I enjoyed Malaga because I could actually somewhat communicate with the people in my limited Spanish. I was even able to ask a lady on the street for change for the pop machine.
November 23,2010
Casablanca, Morocco
WOW, how to describe Casablanca! Exciting, eye-opening, culture shock, fun, tiring, too many stops to big fancy buildings for the King, and WONDERFUL!
I was a little nervous about going into an Arab city, just because of all the safety warnings everyone was talking about, but was anxious to see a new culture.
Here is a glimpse of a woman walking across the gigantic courtyard of the mosque.
Pictures can not capture the scope of this building. It was built in 2002(?) and took 5 years to complete with builders working 24 hours a day. It is the second largest Islamic mosque in the world.
Just inside the entrance hall. They gave us bags to carry our shoes while inside the main prayer hall.
Our tour guide was very polite and spoke very clear English. I enjoyed learning about the Islamic religion.
This is the second lower level in the mosque. It is called the oblation room. It is where everyone must preform a ceremonial wash before coming to prayer(or something like that).
The third level down is the washing room. It was more like a pool people could walk into. The tour guide joked it was nice "like a spa" to come relax at the mosque.
Outside the shop my Mom had her picture taken with traditional water bearers. These guys would traditionally sell water to people. Now they sell pictures. If you get your picture taken you have to pay them a few dirham(dollars). They are persistent on collecting too.
The shop was really fun, but we only had about 30 minutes to shop. As you walk in there were shelves of copper goods and ceramics
This guy was decorating tin plates. He stamped any design you wanted by hand.
I did not get to see very much in the shop because I got distracted by the beautiful leather coats. I spent my whole time trying to dicker down an Arab to sell me the most amazing, orange colored, goat leather jacket. I was happy to strike a bargain for $150 US dollars instead of his original asking price of $220.
It was a huge splurge, but I will treasure this jacket for the rest of my life, and always remember Casablanca when I wear it. Don't I look good?
Next we drove about an hour to the the Capital city of Rabat, where we stopped for lunch a local restaurant. It was a small (what I call a "whole in the wall") place and very authentic. I was having a fantastic time just soaking in all the differences and living in the moment. It was funny to see the culture shock on some of the other faces though. People were confused about what to order and some seemed a little uncomfortable.
I decided to just pick something off the menu. The funny thing was they actually had menus printed in French. I don't speak French, but could pick out a few words enough to know I was ordering chicken with citrus. This is what I ended up getting "Tagine de Poulet aux Citrons". Accompanied with a warm bottle of coke and fresh bread. The Piggy was my companion through the whole trip. The kids started a new tradition that it travels with Tracy when he is away from home, so I had to bring it with me too.
Then we stopped at the Mausoleum of King Mohamed V and his son King Hassam II. Our guide kept re-enforcing the idea that they were very good and great kings, but one of the guys in our group lived in Casablanca in 1970 while serving in the Navy, and he told us some stories that he witnessed that could prove otherwise.
King Mohamed V.
Guard outside the mausoleum.
Crazy tourists.
It was here I finally got to use the public facilities! I found it all very exciting to do as the natives, but most people just call me nuts. Oh, and don't forget to either bring your own paper, or else tip the attendant on the way in.
Our next stop was to the walled city in the right background of this picture above. I don't remember the name, but it was a very old place that had little allies wandering in every direction. I actually got separated from the group, and nearly got lost inside. We only spent a half hour here, and I could have spent the entire day.
There were little shops and street musicians playing for the tourists. I took a wrong turn and ended up at the wall overlooking the coast. It was amazing, but I knew if I got lost I could be in there for hours. I decided to just follow the crowd till I came to a side street with a small door at the end. I followed the prompting of the Spirit to turn here and was relieved to find my group just around the corner.
I love this picture of the local men sitting around playing what appears to be checkers and chess.
