Adventures Abroad

Our (poorly planned and researched) time in Morocco left us with a smorgasbord of fantastic memories, gaudy gifts, desert sunsets and a taste for tagine to say the very least. It was a truly wonderful experience in which we only just got to experience the very very tip of as we only had 10 days in the entire country.
Little did we know that public transport wasn't exactly the country's strongest point. Having just come from Spain where no matter where you are it is practically impossible to get stuck in a city due to lack of transport to your desired destination....even if your destination is half way across the country. Now we carefully studied Morocco's size on google maps and quickly came to the conclusion that yes....it will be far far easier to transport ourselves from one end of the country to another purely based on it's size...right?
Miraculously this assumption was entirely stupid, none of us knowing anything what- so- ever about Morocco's transport system....or even if they had any at all?? For all we knew people got around on camel drawn carts...or something...?
Anyway this is what travelling is all about and up untill Morocco we had really been living the high life for a bunch of backpackers anyway. Not particularly challanging ourselves in any way at all apart from who could obtain the darkest and most evenly distributed tan...yes tough times indeed when this is the most difficult decision of the day.
So the lack of transport meant staying in a few unexpected cities overnight and discovering things we may not have otherwise discovered AND venturing into the Sahara desert which was never really on the cards and one of the most amazing experiences I have ever had.
I also know have a full understanding of the phrase 'In African time...' (which actually I had never heard of so when I say 'I' I really mean Maree and Jac). Anyway the phrase made perfect sense when we boarded a public 12 hr night bus 5 minutes before departure time and 1hr and 45minutes later it was two blocks down the road filling up on petrol in which everyone gets out taking a 20min smoke break......this continued every hour for about the first 6 hrs....What can you do but laugh ay!!!

Our first destination was the beautiful mountaineous town of Chefchauen. Our hostel run by a Scottish couple was perched way up above the town centre it was practically in the clouds:

Evening glow of Fez. The spiritual capital of Morocco where we got a 1 hr Hammam - traditional bath house experience in which old women watch you strip naked then proceed to scrub your entire body inside and out with a harsh exfoliating glove whilst applying various goo looking things to your body. It was amazingly relaxing....we also got a 45minute oil massage and clay massage with sauna time in between. My hard earned tan was all but gone after all the scrubbing....thank you Thailand for bringing it back.

Venturing into the Sahara for a night on camel back:

Moroccon Spices:

Marrakech - The bustling markets come to life when the sun goes down exposing all kinds of delicious eats including you're average garden snail!!! Yes that is me sucking them down like they are a Cadbury's Cream Egg.

10 days wasn't nearly enough and hopefully I'll go back to Morocco one day but sadly for now my travels have come to a halt as I'm writing this from Little Lochinvar which means I shall see you all very very soon.

AAh San Sebastian...what better place to first experience Spain. Beautiful surf beach ahead of you and the Pyranees mountains behind....wow. We fell in love with this town and stayed much longer than intended but was well worth it as the sun didnt show its face untill the 4th day. This did however give us a good chance to get to know the local tapas bars!

Our glorious beach outside our hostel:

The view from atop the Jesus mountain:

Cruising around the beaches:

A blow hole created from the tide underneath which sucks the air through the holes then bursts ir back out when the waves come in:

Our first Sangria (traditional fruity drink of Spain)

Other random moments:

Rather than taking the standard ´Smile stupidly in front of important monument´ photo, we have decided to perfect our jumping around the world as this is much more fun and breaks up a day of sightseeing with a silly interlude of ridiculous jumping trying to obtain the perfect jump. Some things we have discovered so far...

- Line up the shot so important monument is actually in view.

- Bend legs whilst jumping otherwise it looks like you have been superimposed into the shot.

- Don´t bend legs TOO much or it looks like you don´t have any legs at all.

- Don´t concentrate too hard or your face looks stupid.

- Most importantly get someone that can actually take photos to time the shot....i.e not Maree.

Anyway this is the best of the best so far.... Stay tuned regularly for updates.

Example No 1: Can´t actually see famous monument.....Was actually on top of the Arc De Triumphe with Eiffel tower in Background:

Best synchronized jump shot so far:

Example No 2: Concentrating too hard and therefore face looks stupid:

Possibly one of the best so far in San Sebastian:

The beach right outside our hostel:

Look it´s a backwards ´C´!!

The tiniest lift ever in Bree´s Prtment.......yeh right it fits three people!!

Notre Dame....everyones seen it before i know..

Beers in Montemarte, recovering after a sex shop experience!

The Louvre:

Our dinner every night:

Snaily staircase Arc de Triumphe:

Night at the Eiffel tower:

Brees apartment

After a long day:

Dinner cooked for bree with delicious french seafood:

Trying to be so French and so chic:

Champs Elysees!!!!

Dinner and Lunch every day:

Our favourite street:

Biarritz...first sign of a beach in a long time...let the sunbaking and sunset watching begin.....

Well I finally managed to squeeze Wales into my trip thankfully as the scenery was just amazing. Cruising down the river in the sun surrounded by lush greenery and cute, grey baby swans with a bunch of friends can't really be beaten.

It has been ages since i've been camping properly and god it was good to sit around a campfire and watch the stars....I COULD SEE STARS!!! I had forgotten what they looked like.

The weekend all in all was just really great. One of the canoes capsized over some rapids sending both Ben and Tamara tumbling away in different directions whilst the canoe was slowly but surely filling up with water and sinking down the river, their water tight barrels went tumbling along in another direction and most of Ben's possesions were never to be seen of again. He had sadly forgotten to put his bag with his phone and Tamara's wallet and car keys back in the water tight barrels after we stopped off for lunch so these unfortunately were never to be seen of again. Luckily Tamara had put the keys for the car we hired INSIDE the barrels so thankfully we didnt have to spend hours diving to the bottom of the riverbed in search of them....THAT would have been truly upsetting.

So here are some snaps of the weekend, mostly of the river I just realised actually I failed to take many of us but oh well....