Home Articles Posted by Izy Berry (Page 114)
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Gibraltar Rocks
Maybe that was a bit of a hyperbole, but it is cool.
We took a road trip from Rota, Spain, to Gibraltar. After finding a car park on the Spanish side, with barely a blink at our passports we casually walked across the border. The first hint that we were in another country? Tacky taxi vans with faded photos of the Queen’s Jubilee. The second sign? An abundance of public toilets, something Spain just doesn’t seem to understand.
It seems weird to base an entire country around a rock, but it is a pretty grand rock.
After walking through the centre we decided to take a little mini bus part way up to the top of Gibraltar. Instead of taking the cable car, which I had deemed too expensive, we clambered to the top of the caves, paying the 10 pound entry fee. I didn’t find the caves to be particularly exciting, perhaps if you were more knowledgable about history you would find them more interesting. I was holding out for the monkeys, perhaps the only motivation for me climbing up the hill. There was a beautiful view over Gibraltar and the tip of Spain.
Because Gibraltar is so small and space is so precious, the airport’s runway goes across a main road, completely closing it off when a plane is due to take off or land.
I made the mistake of assuming there would be water to buy near the caves, but there wasn’t. So we slowly dragged ourselves further up the rock, preserving the little water we had left in the extreme heat. By the time we made it to the cable car’s cafe, I’m certain all three of us were on the brink of heat exhaustion – not our finest hour.
The view were incredible and I got my cute monkey fix.
As the evening melted into sunset, we made our way to a beach where I tried to take a belated siesta (also known as a homeless nap on the beach).
I think a day trip was long enough to enjoy Gibraltar and I don’t feel a pressing need to return. Have you ever visited?
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Men In Morocco
When you walk around the streets of Fes or Marrakech, you don’t see as many woman as men. When you do see woman, they’re usually covered from head to toe, sometimes so much as to only see their eyes peering through colourful scarves. It’s a conservative Muslim society, where from the outside woman don’t seem to have as many rights as men. It is surprising when you see tourists walking around in short shorts and tiny vests, complaining about the attention the men give them – I wonder what they expected. As a general rule, men in Morocco are much more conservative than their Western counterparts, and as such, you should dress accordingly.
So my travel friend and I decided to make a conscious effort to cover up, to be respectful of the locals so that we could command respect ourselves. We tried, despite sweltering temperatures sometimes exceeding 48 degrees, to keep from ankle to wrist covered in fabric. Still the attention came, but I think it was muted by our efforts. Rarely annoying, except one pesky ass-grab, we began to see the humor in the oddly worded “compliments” that were being thrown at us. Some highlights include:
Take care for your eyes
You smell good and have a good heart, so a good price for you
You have a Moroccan face
Five thousand camels for you
You are a lovely size
Best of the best
My absolute favourite:
I can’t give you a camel, but I’ll give you my heart.
Damn. I was really hoping for a camel, or two.
I think if you look on the bright side of the attention it’s absolutely hilarious. What’s the funniest thing you’ve been called overseas? In Thailand I was always called Marmite (a New Zealand/Australian breakfast spread)
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A Good Complaint
How did I go from walking around a little expensive garden in Marrakech to being taken to a local Berber house in the Atlas mountains by a Moroccan man? It all started with a complaint.
I’d heard great things about Yves Saint Laurent’s gardens, Majorelle Garden. So my friend and I decided to venture to that side of town to check them out. Our guide book had suggested it would be 30 Dirhams, just shy of 3 euros – expensive for Morocco, but not too bad for lush gardens. Once again, the two year old book was way off, leading us to be disappointed again. For 50 Dirhams I knew that it was not a place that local Moroccans would visit and wondered if it was worthwhile. I asked some girls who were just leaving whether it was worth it and they couldn’t really say, but said it was very lovely.
“It’s so expensive” I said, in the general direction of some Moroccan men, but mostly to my friend. We decided after traveling to see the gardens, it would in fact be a shame not to see them. So we went in, walked around, and while it was lovely and quite beautiful we came to the conclusion I had suspected; it simply wasn’t worth the price.
We sat on a seat and decided to spend some time just enjoying the peaceful contrast to Marrakech, when eventually a man, Jamal, came up to us and asked whether it was worth the price we paid. We were frank and told him although the gardens were beautiful, we would never come again and never suggest out friends would too. Then I asked him a question, he hadn’t thought of before. I asked why the gardens weren’t a more reasonable price, one that the average Moroccan could afford? Shouldn’t they be able to enjoy their own gardens? He agreed and from that comment stemmed a conversation that stretched the edges of our culture.
I asked what he thought about all the tourists who were wearing skimpy clothing, short shorts and crop tops that showed off their bellies, and to my surprise he said it didn’t bother him too much. There was a line of course, where it became a little bit too much and a little too disrespectful, but for the most part he didn’t mind when tourists didn’t cover up. I was surprised, because the Moroccan woman I have seen have been covered from shoulder to toe, right down to the palms of their hands. I asked him what he thought about covering a woman’s face up so only her eyes are visible. It turns out the average Moroccan man isn’t so interested in that kind of dress anymore and often it’s the woman who has grown up that way who wants to follow her tradition.
As he was leaving the gardens, he gave me his email address and said if we were interested he would be happy to take us out to dinner later this evening. We decided to walk to a supermarket and a few minutes later he drove past asking if we wanted a ride, we obliged. He said he was going to do some business and would be traveling back the other way and could give us a lift back to the central square. Mid way through our walk back we heard tooting and saw his enthusiastic face in the car waiting to help us once again. He dropped us off and suggested we meet there again at 6.30pm that night for dinner.
And we did, and the dinner was nothing short of amazing. He ordered vegetarian things for us to try, as Ava is vegetarian and compared to the bland dinner we had the night previous, everything was so flavorsome and delicious. He told us that he was writing a book about himself that could only be released after his death. Intrigued, we asked him to tell us stories that would be included. He shared one that made our eyebrows raise involving a German man which he ended up staying with for two weeks. He stressed that he’s not rich, but travel is his absolute priority. He collects experiences, not things. He spent four years teaching French and Arabic in Japan and has really been all over.
Our dinner stretched out past 11, where tiredness crept in before we could have ever got bored and we decided to go home. He invited us the following day to join him on a trip to a Berber village and we did. I’ll write a blog post about that in a few days, but for now I just wanted to show how travel can be when you’re open. When Jamal first approach us about whether we were enjoying it, we could have easily answered his question and then brushed him off. When we were at dinner, I laughed at the simple fact that we were enjoying a dinner at a place we’d never known about because of a simple, passing, complaint. I also suggested that if complaining would bring me such great fortune, I should do it more often.
Maybe because you have more free time, or maybe because you’re more open, when you’re traveling these kind of experiences tend to happen more often. These deep insights into the lives of others, people you would have never met otherwise. I love meeting locals, it is one of the main reasons I travel and this experience was nothing short of wonderful.
Have you ever been invited into the life of a random on a trip? I’d love to hear more about it.
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Travel Lessons
Morocco is almost entirely what I imagined, but in a way it’s very different too. Expectations are a tricky thing, especially when it comes to travel, because they can easily lead to disappointment. You spend so much time, energy and money when planning your adventure and all you can base your expectations off is reviews online, guidebooks and what people tell you about a place. Sometimes it’s spot on and sometimes it’s not. Dealing with disappointment on the road is really hard, but it’s important to get past it and make the most of your adventures.
As I’m really at the end of my travel money now, I’m cautious about money. I’m quite simply happier when travel is cheap. My trip to Morocco was part curiosity: a new country, continent and way of life. But if I’m honest there was a big part of me that picked it out because it’d be a good opportunity to slow down and save some money. I had heard it was really cheap from fellow travelers and read everywhere of bargain prices. So when I arrived at the train station in Tangier to find that the train ticket was over twice the price quoted, I felt deflated. 350 Dirham was a lot more than 160 Dirham and it just seemed to be a long line of things being more expensive than I planned. The ferry from Tarifa to Tangier was 36 Euros, we had read that it should be around 24 euros. We went to a supermarket in Tangier and paid more for groceries than we would expect to in Spain… what was going on here? What happened to my affordable adventure to Africa?
After an hour of feeling a bit sad that the prices had been so wrong, I finally clicked. After realising that yes, it is more expensive than I thought and yes it’s going to make my upcoming few weeks of travel a little more difficult. I finally realised that I am in AFRICA and tried to think of when I’ll next be here, which is probably at least a few years away. So, the cost of not enjoying this trip and not doing it properly will far outweigh the cost of dipping into my overdraft a little in the coming weeks, if I need to.
Today I was called a princess told that I “look like Lady Gagga” and that I have “beautiful eyes and a big ass” – they’re a bunch of charmers here. And there are snake charmers, too.
I think I’m going to slowly fall in love with the winding streets and bustling markets of Marrakech.
Have you been to Morocco? Where did you love? Suggestions, please!
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What Are Hostels Like?
Before I went traveling I had never stayed in a hostel. I had the idea that a hostel was a seedy place to stay and the only time you’d choose one was when you couldn’t afford anything else. I imagined uncomfortable beds and dingy bathrooms. The idea of staying in a hostel was really unappealing, until I actually did and really enjoyed it. Now I recommend hostels to anyone who is planning travel. In some parts of the world they are not so practical, for example in smaller cities in Asia, such as Ubud, you’ll be much more likely to find guesthouses than hostels. So sometimes it is not possible to stay in a hostel, but when it is it can be a really great experience.
Hostels, like the tourism industry, are evolving. Particularly in modernized cities, you will be likely to find trendy and cool hostels. I’ve noticed that the difference between a high-end private room in a hostel and a low-cost room in a hotel is usually just the price tag. During my time in Lisbon I stayed at a really great hostel called Downtown Design Hostel and wanted to use it is an example to show you what hostels are really like.
Convenient Location:
Because hostels are almost always smaller than hotels, it’s much easier to put them in central locations. The Downtown Design Hostel is in the perfect location; most of the central tourist attractions were within walking distance, which in turn saves you money on the metro. But above and beyond that, there was an amazing view of Praça de D. Pedro IV one of Lisbon‘s most important squares. Not a bad view to enjoy while you’re sipping on your morning coffee.
Rooms:
When staying in a hostel it’s often possible to choose between a private room or a dormitory. When I was traveling in a group of four, sometimes we would book out a dormitory and it would be like our own private room. If you’re traveling in a couple, private rooms tend to be great value as for a few more euros/dollars per person, you can enjoy the comfort of your own room. If you feel like splashing out a little more, often you can find yourself with a private bathroom, too. If you’re traveling solo, sharing in a dormitory might be the best option for you, both in terms of cost, but also to meet new people. When I first started traveling I used to pick the largest dormitories available, not just because they’re usually the cheapest, but also because it meant I would be likely to meet the most people.
Kitchens:
Almost every hostel I’ve stayed in has had a kitchen. There have been a few exceptions, but I’d say around 90% of all the hostels well equipped with decent kitchens. They are usually stocked with at least the basic cookware and utensils. Often there is fridge and sometimes there are spices, oils and condiments; it varies widely between hostels. Having a kitchen means that you’re able to prepare easy, healthy and cheap meals while on the road.
Social Areas:
This is probably my favourite thing about hostels, is the fact that they encourage you to be social and to make friends. In order to achieve this, there’s usually an abundance of comfortable common areas to hang out in. Downtown Design Hostel in Lisbon had the most comfortable couch I’ve ever sat on, coupled with a giant tv (handy for watching the olympics) and a computer with internet for the guests to use. There were tables and chairs scattered around, too. When you’re traveling alone, these common areas can be seen as places of opportunity – you can meet new friends to travel with, or talk to different people about the places you’re going to get suggestions of what to do. This is probably one of the main reasons that I prefer a hostel over a hotel, because it is so much easier to meet new people.
Friendly Staff:
Because hostels are generally smaller businesses, it is not uncommon to have the owners actually working in the hostel. This leads to a really personal experience, because they go the extra mile to ensure you really enjoy your stay. Hostel staff generally tend to be younger people and sometimes fellow tourists are employed during the busier months to help out. This is really great because they are happy to give you their opinion on the best thing to do and the best places to eat. It’s much more personable than the service you get in an average hotel.
Who Stays In Hostels?
Really, it varies so much depending on the city or the particular hostel. But in the hostels I’ve stayed I’ve seen entire families with young children, old people, business people, couples, pregnant ladies, interns, and fellow backpackers. Families and business men tend to have their own rooms, but everyone else I’ve seen in dorms. Now that the standards of hostels are rising, I think there will be an increase in families who are taking advantage of their incredible value. The majority of people staying in hostels are still young backpackers, which is great if you’re looking to meet other backpackers.
Hostels are great value for money, so long as you make an effort to pick the right one for your needs. I always check out the reviews on the booking sites, just to read what other travelers are saying about it. When I was picking a hostel for Lisbon, I spent a bit of time reading the reviews and looking at the photos to ensure that I was picking the best hostel in Lisbon – and I ended up having a great stay. If you’re in Lisbon anytime soon, be sure to check it out.
Have you ever stayed in a hostel? If so, where has your favourite hostel been?
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Magical Sintra
Travel in Europe is just different to Asia. Being a first world nation means we have all those comforts and luxuries we’re used to, clean water, flushing toilets, and a high standard of living. But with those conveniences, it seems we’ve constructed another thing; walls. I can’t decide whether it’s because people are too busy living their own chaotic lives, or whether it’s because developed worlds are just less friendly, but there are bigger walls between tourists and locals in Europe. It’s a lot harder to find yourself welcomed into their world, particularly in Western Europe.
One of my favourite things about travel is meeting locals. Although Europe has a lot of charms, history and amazing sights, I feel myself yearning for that openness and warmness that South East Asia presents you with. I’ve spent a lot of time in Europe, while loving it, “sort of” wishing I was in Asia. I guess I’m just missing those special people, with giant smiles, that welcomed me into their lives.
When I was in Lisbon I was riding a very busy tram, it was crowded and filled to the brim with tourists and a few locals. I had a comfortable seat, that had taken me a while to earn. A little old lady, who was maybe 70 or 80 got on the tram. I was shocked as she moved down the tram, no one got up to offer her a seat. So, as soon as she approached me I sprung up and offered her my seat. She thanked me with one of those entire-face-lit-up smiles. As she went to sit down, she gently pulled me in close and planted the biggest kiss on my cheek. It was a brief, but lovely, moment where I felt a little more connected to an actual Portuguese person (a rarity in Lisbon).
As I start planning my next adventures, for 2013, I’m going to work my plans around places where I imagine there are less barriers between people. I want to meet locals. I want to fumble in a foreign language. I want to share smiles and giggles with complete strangers. And above all, I want to see a little more of their world and in turn learn a little more about my (wider) world, too.
I spent a day in Sintra, just a short train ride out of Lisbon and it was absolutely charming. Little cobblestone streets, a beautiful old castle and it was very unpretentious. A day is probably long enough to enjoy Sintra, but it’s certainly worth a visit and the views from the hike up to the castle are really something special. I wasn’t supposed to be in Lisbon as long as I was, but it was so difficult to leave. The next time I’m in Europe I’ll definitely be dedicating a lot more time to Portugal, I’d love to explore both North and South of Lisbon, especially the beaches.
Now I’m back in Spain for a few days, before I embark on my adventure to Africa – I’m so excited!
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I’ll Miss Madrid
I’d never been to Madrid before I decided I wanted to move here. Somehow I just knew I’d adore it. Madrid quickly rose to the top of my favourite cities, at least in terms of places I’d like to live, rather than just visit. Six weeks was only enough to scrap the surface of Madrid, I know there’s so much I haven’t seen, so many churros left uneaten and so much tinto de verano to be consumed. Oh well, next time, because I know there’s going to be a next time.
In no particular order, these are my favourite things about Madrid:
The Markets
Mercado De San Antonio y Mercado De San Miguel markets are my favourite. The first two photos are of San Antonio’s market and the third is of my favourite tasty treat from San Miguel. Both are trendy, high end markets where you can eat very socially. They’ve got quite a different feel to them, so I’d suggest making time for them both. Mercado De San Antonio is in Chueca, one of my favourite areas of Madrid. It is the “gay area”, so of course more beautiful and trendy than all the rest of Madrid. There’s some great cafes, restaurants and bars lining the metro station there. The walk from Chueca down to and through Tribunal is awesome – the whole area just oozes cool, especially down the side streets just past Tribunal station when heading towards Gran Via. There’s also an awesome weekend market on at La Latina metro station.
Sangria y tinto de verano
This one’s simple. Yum. I don’t think there are many things that provide better value in life than a bottle of sangria that costs a whopping euro fifty. Especially when that classy plastic bottle of sangria is taken to your favourite drinking spot, in the park. I probably spend about 20% of my time in Madrid at Templo De Debod drinking sangria or some other cheap Spanish beverage. While in some ways it’s hard to avoid the seedy side of drinking in a park, the Spaniards do well to make it fun. On any given night you might see in this park a combination of the following: people playing drums, a “punk rock cult” reunion, people making the future spaniards, people being drenched when the sprinklers turn on at 3am (haha, suckers), a group of people practicing tai chi and a man who looks exactly how I imagine jesus to.
Parks 
I didn’t even know Madrid had giant parks, let alone how many there are. Because Madrid is so, so, so far away from a beach, parks get a sort of beachy vibe to them. It’s not uncommon to see people sunbathing in their bikini in a park. My two favourite parks in Madrid are Templo De Debod which is my favourite evening park (it’s a wonderful place to watch the sunset) and Retiro. Every time I go to Retiro I’m always surprised by how big it is and each time I visit I seem to discover a little more of it. It has it all; beautifully groomed grounds, an abundance of fountains, a large lake in the middle that you can paddle boat in, areas to roller blade, more fountains, venders and artists and lovely shady areas where you can avoid the forty degree plus summer heat.
Art 
There’s so much art in Madrid, especially around Tribunal. If there’s even an inch of spare space, it will be plastered in a poster or some kind of gorgeous street art, even windows are not spared and turned into quirky pictures. Beyond the street art there’s also some great museums that are often free, including Prado and Sofia. I was fortunate enough to be in Madrid while the Photo De Espana was on and got to enjoy a number of free photography exhibitions, lucky me!
I will look back fondly on my time in Madrid. I think these past six weeks will embody me as a mid-twenty year old senorita, living half way across the world, stumbling in Spanish, all while falling in love with a different culture and country. I walked around the streets last night with a little pang in my eyes, if I had blinked too suddenly a few tears would have fallen. I know when I board my bus for Lisbon tomorrow, there will be an ache somewhere inside of me, a little, loud part of me that doesn’t want to leave Madrid. I’ve written before about missing things and the weight of it all. Thankfully I have the allure of adventure and fresh travels to pull me away, else I might never leave. There’s also two handsome men waiting for me at home, one of them is my brand new, little Nephew! I’m officially a member of the “aunty club” now.
And so it begins, my latest adventure the wrong way home.
Have you got any Summer (or Winter) adventures planned? I’d love to hear them!
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I Hated Laos
I hated Laos – with a strong emphasis on the ending of that brief sentence. I remember my mug, “intrepid” face as I met people in Northern Vietnam, after spending a little over a month in Thailand and Laos I was a self proclaimed backpacking expert. In the usual conversations with new, one-night-friends, some of them would mention their travel plans to Laos and I’d scoff “ha! I wouldn’t even go back there, it was awful”. Almost two years on, I was scrolling through my photos of Laos and I really failed to find evidence of what I hated so much. Maybe because I’d only taken photos of things I loved, or maybe because there wasn’t really that much I didn’t like about Laos. Maybe I had just made a mistake.
One of my favourite bars in Asia, Utopia bar
It’s hard, when you travel to new places, not to pigeon hole them. Hoi An, one of my favourite places in all of Asia, became the better version of Luang Prabang and Prague is the much more beautiful and charming sister of Bratislava. In the beginning of all my travels, I was so set on finding my new favourite place, that I forgot to take places as they were. I never arrived in a new city or country with a fresh mind, instead my mind was clouded with comparisons.
Like sniffing ten different perfumes in a row, with nothing to break them up my senses were overwhelmed.
I needed to find my travel coffee beans.
I needed to cleanse my travel palate: I needed time. [Tweet This]
When I think back to all that I hated about Laos, trivial things come to mind. I didn’t like the food, the horrible food poisoning I got in Vang Vieng, the coldness of the people and while tubing was fun, I hated the tackiness of it all. Drunk, barely clothed westerners using one of the most beautiful rivers I’ve ever seen as their boozy playground. In the dodgy cafes, there was a constant stream of Friends and Family guy reruns and it felt like a place entirely built for disrespectful westerners to get annihilated. But, there was so much beauty there and I am sure there is so much to discover.
After leaving Laos, almost two years ago, I swore that I would never return. There were better places to go, I was certain of it. But now, after so long away, there’s a part of me who is curious if I returned, would I feel the same? As a slightly older, hopefully wiser person, maybe I could find the sparkle there that I perhaps overlooked. So many people loved Laos, and honestly, I wish I had too.
Have you been anywhere that you’ve sworn not to return?
I’m also curious to hear what other people thought of tubing. I had such mixed feelings about it.
