End result of 2 months on a train?

9 MONTHS WITH A BELLY!

Yes March 17 2006 the child we smuggled across many borders was born in San Francisco California.

Here is a picture of the 9 month bellied Mommy - hidden of course by a poncho!

Mi Casa est Su Casablanca

So here we are in not so romantic Casa as the locals call it. After the first taxi refused to take us to town we got a little worried but the next taxi agreed - they run meters here so maybe we wont get ripped off. The taxi dropped us off across from the tourist info but when we finally made it across the street - which has no sensible way to cross - it was closed. So we turned to our trusty guidebook for a place to stay - closest and cleanest hotel - Gallia here we go. Luckily Casa is a small city and we found the hotel sooner than we expected. No cockroaches - its a winner!

No Nap :( off to wander the streets of Casa. Ok gross does not begin to describe the trash on the street but it gets better the further you go from our hotel. Found the pedestrian zone - again Sharmin's navigating. Ate some burgers - definitely not McDonald's but definitely not coming back. Lots of fresh fruit juice stands - we had kiwi and banana - not combined. walked some more saw a billboard for McDonald's - halal McDonald's - if we ever find the actual restaurant I think all bets are off. Found a sculpture of a pair of breasts. Impressionistic but they were definitely breasts. No one seems to realize this because men and women are all over just chilling like it was not even there. Back to the hotel just in time to see a bar fight from our balcony. Gotta love Casa!

Checked out of good old Gallia and headed for breakfast and the mosque in that order. Lo and behold, halal McDonald's is right down the street! Ok so breakfast consisted of burgers and fries but we were hungry and it was halal!! (we asked). Walking along we got lost in the old Medina - no map can help you here - no street signs or real streets. Finally caught a glimpse of the famous Hassan 2 Mosque and headed in the approximate direction. Had to ask directions at the Fuji store but we found it. Really beautiful - very modern - only 12 years old. The mosque is the 3rd largest in the world - and right on the Atlantic! Ok cool points - retractable roof, heated floors in the winter, speakers hidden in the pillars, wudhu room is a bunch of fountains, almost all materials are from within Morocco, built in 6 years with 10,000 craftsmen working 24-7. Not so cool - architect was French, cant pray in the main prayer hall - even if you're Muslim!!!

Taxi to the "beach" - 20dhm no meter - so much for not getting ripped off. Beaches are artificial built on cliffs at the edge of the ocean - all privately owned. Saw Prince Abdullah's palace - more like a vacation house - right next to the fancy Saudi mosque, and across the street from none other than McDonald's. See even the Arab Prince can't resist halal burgers!

Truth be told we stopped at McDonald's again - its our last chance before we go back to Spain, plus they really do have the cleanest bathrooms!

Are We Really in Africa???

Ok so here we are in Marrakech with no hostel reservations, maybe not the smartest move but blame hostelworld.com. Walked around the city with Luis and Fernando - not our turtles but the Australian guys from the train. We ended up at Hotel Ali which was quite popular in all of our guide books and right next to the Djema al F'na (Bazaar). They didn't know if they would have room for us so we waited, a long time - finally they offered us dorm beds on the roof!!! We declined and told them to save us a room for tomorrow. So Fernando found us a place for 200dhm which sounded good, we took it and after meeting our first 4 cockroaches we decided to forget budget travel and upgraded to a more pricey hotel with the promise of no cockroaches!

The bazaar in Marrakech is a trip! people everywhere, food everywhere, snakes and monkeys everywhere! We decided to be cautious tourists tonight and just watched the scene. We saw some interesting events, acrobats, musicians, henna application, tarot card reading & child boxing - not as violent as it sounds - thank God. The food was an event in itself! stalls and stalls of fresh squeezed orange juice, tables and benches lined up with skewers of meat and other animal parts, vegetables and side dishes, and the favorite...sheeps head! The whole thing! We lingered long enough to take a picture and then ran before we got pulled onto a bench!

Interesting observation...the abaa is a sham! Sharmin went to an esthetician and the lady removed her abaa to reveal not much more than a bathing suit! Short shorts and a tank top!! Maybe this hijab thing is not so bad after all!

The next morning we moved to Hotel Ali which was good as the book said. We got a great room with a private terrace overlooking the bazaar. The only problem was with the breeze came the overwhelming stench of pee! Everywhere in Marrakech smelled like pee! maybe it is because of a poor sewage system or maybe it is the garbage but it's strong and almost caused some lost meals.

Today we ate. Sharmin was craving a chicken pastry - sweet and savory at the same time - the best thing in Morocco (debatable but who will argue with me?) We had to order it special and it came from another restaurant - interestingly, the other restaurant charges 80dhm for the same dish that we paid 40dhm for at our Hotel Ali - we should see what else we can get at a discount.

The bazaar tonight was earlier - or we found it earlier, however the snakes and monkeys were in full force and we got trapped. First the snakes - we made them swear not to touch us with the snakes but we got some good pictures. Then we got reeled in by the monkey men - this was not so easy to avoid as they put the monkey on you right away! 2 of them on Sharmin! Great pictures but we basically paid them to leave us alone! Total cost 250dhm, Snakes - 50dhm, Monkeys - 200dhm, pictures, facial expressions and experience of being ripped off priceless!

Back to the bazaar after cleaning off the monkey dust - really gross - sat down to try some meat brochettes - 18 skewers later we pried ourselves away from the table - too bad we weren't brave enough to try this yesterday! Sharmin found a cola bottle fishing game that she couldn't win at yesterday - today 5dhm got her almost 30 minutes of play and she finally ringed a bottle!!! Huge accomplishment! The prize was the warm bottle of coke - no thanks the picture was enough of a prize! Now we venture off to find some souvenirs in the back alleys of the Medina.

Ok so when we say alleys we mean a bunch of tents almost squished together and you walk among trash and goods for sale to find your way through to the things you are looking for. Finally with the help of a man - who wanted to trade shirts with Aamir in exchange for his help - we found the stores which sold tajines (and the main road) looked at a few but many stores were closed so we'll see tomorrow morning when we have more options. PS. Aamir still has his shirt.

Last stop before bed - crazy cymbal players with their crazy Fez hats - more pictures and possible lice infestation - there's a souvenir - unwanted but unforgettable.

Ok so today we leave Marrakech but we have to go back and buy the tajines. We take the long way around to avoid the snakes and monkeys - no plans of repeating last night! we find what appears to be the best selection of tajines and start selecting the ones we want - maybe we should have figured out a price beforehand but that would have been too sensible. So we decide on 8 assorted tajines and his price (open to negotiation) is 780dhm = 78Euro - obviously too high so Aamir decides to be the negotiator and starts at 400dhm - they go back and forth the salesman drops by 20dhm and Aamir raises by 50dhm - you can see where this is going. Finally we shell out 600dhm for some clay pots that you can make in high school and we run for the train hoping not to break our valuable merchandise. What we learned: NEVER take Aamir to an auction - EVER!

For some reason, everyone thinks Aamir is an Arab - nb. Moroccans don't like Arabs - this could explain why we keep getting swindled! To the locals we are worse than tourists! The last salesman kept calling Aamir a Berber man - I can only assume that Berbers are cheap.

Next stop Casablanca!

We Rocked The Kasbah

Here we are in Morocco after a 3 hour ferry ride across the Gibraltar Strait (between the Atlantic and the Mediterranean). Lots of Arabs, and most of them were sleeping!

In Tangier we were picked up by a "tour guide" who offered to take us on a walking tour of Tangier for 20 Euro we were lost and he seemed to be our only way to the city (and luggage storage-none at the train station for fear of unwanted explosions) so we went with him. The luggage place was a bit sketchy but we didn't have any choice - fingers crossed.

Our "tour" started in the new city where there was a McDonald's (we didn't go in) it was quite new looking. We walked to the entrance of the old city (the medina) and then hailed a taxi to go to the top - our guide was not very young so he didn't want to walk up. At the top we found ourselves in the Kasbah which is not very glamorous but an old castle wall and some residences - albeit pricey for Tangier. We started our descent down the hill and came upon a great lookout over the ocean/sea! Walked some more and came to the not so pleasant discovery that the people here just throw their trash on the street - of course Aamir found the one trash can in the city. We walked past a shop with some antique furniture - one piece caught our eye - it was a door - a really big door with ornate designs and stones and bone "jewels" it was beautiful and we wanted it for our wall - the price??? 2,000,000 dhm which = 200,000 Euro which = too much for the wall!

Our guide then took us to see his friend, a carpet merchant. Not knowing we were expected to buy something we accepted his invitation to tea and a carpet show. First of all let me say that mint tea is highly underrated! The American teabag type is crap, the authentic Moroccan brewed mint leaves are the real deal. So after serving us our tea, this man proceeded to unroll carpets for us to admire (and choose from) of course he started with the biggest ones and after about an hour got to some smaller ones. We did see some Kilims that we liked but with only our two small bags we had no way of carrying it back with us. It appears that our guide Abdul needed a nap which explained the long stop at the carpet store.

We then went to see more of Aamir's doors and some mirrors but hunger took over and we asked to stop for some food. Abdul took us to yet another one of his friends, the restaurant was in a good location overlooking the street bazaar, and had a nice ambiance, however as we later learned, 10 Euro is too much for a one person menu.

Finally we headed back for our bags - which were still there and over to the train station. We met some nice Moroccans at the station who spoke Spanish so we had a conversation about all sorts of stuff from racist Arabs to bloody noses from the fast ferry, to the generosity of Pakistanis during the birth of a child.

Our couchettes on the train were nice - small but nice - our berthmates were two Australian brothers - friendly guys - you'll hear more about them in Marrakech.

Running With The Bulls

Red, White and Wow! Thousands of people dressed the same (white with red neckties) flooded the streets of Pamplona when we arrived from Madrid. I assume the hype wasn´t for us. We made our way through the city looking for a place to stash our bags. The common place to sleep here is the park - although there isn´t much sleeping going on this week in Pamplona. We lucked out and found a hostel with a vacant room, so we dropped our bags and went looking for some white and red to match with the rest of the festival goers.

The running of the bulls is the major attraction of the Festival of San Fermin here in Pamplona. It lasts for one week starting on a Thursday and doesn't seem to stop till the following Thursday. We arrived on Tuesday so we are right in the middle of the festival.

We came back to the hostel to sleep at around 2am and prayed that we would wake up for the bull run at 6. It was a struggle to get out of bed but we managed - the run took place a short distance from our hostel and we found the best spot - Devil´s Turn - by following some red and white. Our exact location was a little less exciting as Sharmin had to peer through the legs (and butts) of two guys from Miami. It was a tight spot, and with everyone clamoring for a view, one that had to be protected.

Ok so I know the burning question is did Aamir run like he said he would...... Well by some unfortunate coincidence, Aamir chose not to bring his running shoes on the trip and did not feel it appropriate to bleed all over his new Birkenstocks so the answer is no he did not run. But after seeing the run I don't think it would have been wise to partake in the crazy tradition that has gotten so much attention.

Since we had a pretty good spot, it was clear to see the terrified runners trying desperately to escape the horns of the pissed off bulls. It was pretty obvious when the bulls were getting close because there was a mad rush to go over, under or between the fences to get out of the way! We saw a couple of war wounds being cleaned up on the way to the bull ring and they didn't look fun.

At the bull ring the runners and some lucky bystanders were allowed to enter the ring to ¨play¨ with the baby bulls. Now these baby bulls are not small they are still quite big and very fast. The only precaution taken is the horns are covered with a rubber tip to prevent any broken skin. Again we were not in the ring but in the stands watching. It looked like fun until people started flying in the air and then landing on the dirt under the hoof of an angry bull. There were a few stunt men who would jump the length of the bull every so often (head to tail) but for the most part people were just trying to stay out of the way. There were mostly guys in the bull ring but one of the few girls who ventured into the ring got a surprise ¨tap¨ from a bull and had to be carried - rather quickly - out of the ring! The bulls like to attack more than once and once you´re down you become an easy target till the bull gets distracted by another victim.

The whole event was rather exciting even though the bull run itself was really short. What we saw was 5 seconds out of 2.5 minutes. But it was worth it. Now its time to relax a little in Sunny San Sebastian!

Paris

So here we are at the end of June and finally out of Scandinavia! It was cold but beautiful.

Paris has been hot! Then wet, then hot, then wet, then cold, then wet ... You get the idea. Our hostel was in the slums, and we realized this after we started walking to the center of town - what we learned: Walking in Paris is best done from the metro to the monument not from the train station to downtown!!!

Best ice cream - they give you different flavored petals on your ice ream!!! It is way cool and very attrative - like eating a frozen rose.

On our first night here we booked a tour of Paris by night and a show at the Moulin Rouge. We were quite surprised when we boarded the bus that Aamir - in his shorts and Birkenstocks - could not get into the MR. Ironic? The girls at the MR wear very little yet they want the patrons to cover up???? Our only option was to skip the city tour, go back to our hotel, change and meet the tour at the MR. This unfortunately was the first time we ventured to use the metro so we got lost but thanks to Sharmin's excellent navigating made it to the show in time.

We thought we were going to Bruxelles the second night but they closed the ticket line before we got to the station so we couldn't get our reservation, so we were stuck in Paris for a night without a place to stay. This worked out I guess since we got to see the Montmartre and the Tour Eiffel by night! Absolutely spectacular! There was a huge crowd at the Montmartre at 12:30am singing and just hanging out. So Aamir thought we were going to walk around all night and sleep on a bench somewhere but it was cold and Sharmin was tired of walking - sore feet!!! So we walked to find a hotel - cheap hotel - well the best we could get was still pricey but at 2 am we were desperate - what we learned: Always make your train reservations during the day - even if there is a line!!!

After a very expensive sleep we headed out again for a third day of sightseeing. Today we really used the metro but we should have bought a book of tickets - individuals get expensive!

Monuments we saw (over three days):

Madeline: Church - really huge and beautiful!
Eiffel Tower by day and night
Notre Dame from outside (also kilometer zero)
The Louvre - said hi to Mona, also some great Islamic art!
Arc du Triomphe
Montmartre - far by day close by night
Pantheon from far
Mosquee de Paris - under construction but still a beautiful mosque - we said our afternoon prayers here - yes we are praying!!!! The restaurant is not halal!!! Can you believe a restaurant attached to the mosque is not halal?????
Lots of Places (place is like a square)
Trocadero
Opera
Grand Palais
Petit Palais

Paris has been interesting - dirtier than the cities in Scandinavia but full of surprises. Tonight we leave for Vienna - Bruxelles will have to wait.

Amsterdam, Rotterdam and Den Haag (Netherlands)

The first stop on our European tour - so far getting around seems really easy. Eurail pass is validated and we are ready to go. Train to downtown from the airport no problem. Found our hostel pretty easily in the red light district!!!

First dorm room - 2 bunk beds and a mattress on the floor but we got our own bathroom - big + in hostels!

Halal food everywhere - open till 3am! (later than the bars!)

No windmills - disappointing.

Not too much to see in Amsterdam - lots of museums but nothing original - for a small city there was a lot of walking and it got really cold at night!

Smell of marijuana everywhere - makes you feel sleepy! Aamir chickened out - he said he would try hash brownies (space cakes) but when we got to the cafe he wouldn't do it.

It didn't get dark here till 10:30pm nice for walking around - confusing for figuring out the time.

We walked through the red light district and Sharmin was propositioned by a school teacher - time to eat some halal ribs!

Next day we ditched out bags at the train station - the luggage lockers are a great concept! Took a trip to Rotterdam - finally saw a windmill!! Rotterdam is known for its architecture and its shopping but Aamir was not impressed by the architecture. The shopping looked great but with two small bags we were not planning to do any shopping.

Dutch menu at a restaurant left Aamir with meatball soup - which left him hungry - nice waiter - didn't charge us for the soup.

On to Den Haag (The Hague) supposed to be the political part of Netherlands - we went specifically for the MC Escher museum. The museum is housed in an old palace - very beautiful. The architecture is nicer here than in Rotterdam.

Tonight we leave for Denmark - there is going to be a train strike starting tomorrow so everyone is trying to get out of Amsterdam - mad rush at the train station. Lucky for us we had first class seats reserved on the high speed German ICE train. Our train car was almost empty - apparently the rest of the train was a sardine can!

We fell asleep in our comfy leather reclining seats and missed our connection in Duisberg, Germany - luckily we woke up before Koln, Germany and managed to catch our connecting train there! Crisis averted - what we learned: keep an alarm clock for 30 minutes before the train is scheduled to stop at the station you need to get off at. Silver lining - Koln had a beautiful cathedral right outside the station which we wouldn't have seen if we didn't sleep through Duisberg.

From Koln, we got a 2nd class couchette - 6 bunk beds to a cabin - met some cool folks from Australia and a man from Iran. Tomorrow we arrive in Copenhagen!