Marseilles

We met up with our new friend Jay on our way to France like we had planned and rode a series of trains to Marseilles. We also met up with Keian, another friend made in Barcelona, once we got to the train station in Marseilles. We all crammed into the McDonald's at the train station which seems to have become a standard operation. I hate to admit it but considering the euro saver menu is glorious and they have free wifi. Unfortunately, Keian had to split before our French Canadian girlies arrived to bring us to their dorm. Alex had given us an invitation to come visit the university she had been attending most of the year and stay with her while we were in Marseilles. She also offered to show us around and introduce us to a few of her friends she had made while she was taking classes at the Euromed School of Management. She was accompanied by her best friend Crystal who was going to be staying with us as well.

We all crammed into Alex’s dorm, which is only meant for one person. We managed to get five in there. They are not supposed to have guests stay in the dorms but fortunately for us, the managers we gone for the evening. Originally we were going to camp on the tennis courts out back and have a shindig out on the courts but Alex insisted we stay in her room. We hung out in the main kitchen with all of the remaining students and friends, chatting and dancing all night long.

The next day we had to do some sneaking around to keep clear of the mangers. Unfortunately, we had to pay for a room for the following nights. It wasn’t bad though considering it was only €25.00 for the five of us. Alex had our entire day planned out for us. She wanted to take us to the Calanques to meet up with the classmates again. This was the most beautiful place I had seen since being on this trip. It was quite the walk to get there but once we were half way down the mountainside we were presented with a breath-taking view. Once we reach the cliffs I couldn’t wait to throw my clothes off and jump in. There were several different heights you could jump off of and several spots to do it in. All of us jumped at least once. Everyone managed to cut themselves up somehow as well. Lots of sharp rocks. I jumped till my arms were black and blue. It was too much fun not to.























Afterwards we went back to the dorms to get showered up and headed downtown to hit up a bar. It took a while to find a place to accommodate the lot of us but we eventually did. I don’t remember the name of the bar but they put all 30 of us out on the patio. It was so much fun. We stayed till they closed up and caught a couple cabs back to the dorms.


Today Alex was not in a good mood. She had to get all of her things in order for her trip back o the Canada within a couple days time and had none of it done. We decided to go do some touristy things with Jay and Crystal while she got organized. We jumped on a bus and rode off to the pier area to catch another bus up to Notre Dame de la Garda. We spent a while looking out over the city. One thing I wish I would have seen up close was Chateau d'If from The Count of Monte Cristo but we had to get to the train station to reserve our train to Switzerland.






We spent the last evening with all of our new friends on the beach having a candle vigil in the sand. It was such an amazing night just sipping on wine and making more friends. I wish I could have stayed in that moment forever but we had to catch a train at 5 a.m. and still hadn’t packed our things yet. We left the beach and caught a bus filled with a bunch of drunken French guys singing their beloved drinking songs which was awesome to watch. Before we knew it we were already at the train station waiting for the doors to open so we could board the first train out of Marseilles. Swiss Alps… let’s do this.

Barcelona

€33.00 for a night train to Barcelona is kind of a bogus situation if you ask me, especially when you already dropped over $600.00 for a Eurail pass. Oh well, we made it! We made it to Barça pretty early in the morning. We were all somewhat out of so it took a while to get our bearings and figure out where the heck we were going to stay. We chose the Barcelona Mar hostel. We were too early to check in but luckily they let us hang out and use their internet while we waited and even eat some of the free breakfast.

We decided to kick off Barcelona right and just jump on a random bus to see where it took us. We ended up getting off at what appeared to be a giant swap meet. It was a huge square with tons of vendors selling and trading books, movies, music, collector’s items and souvenirs. It was fascinating looking at all of the different booths and tables of items. The collector’s items, especially the gaming cards, were the center of attention. We hovered around for about an hour and then decided to jump on the closest metro to our next destination wherever it may be. We ended up getting off right next to the Temple Expiatori de la Sagrada Família. This was the monument I was to see the most in Barcelona. The next sight we saw was Arc de Triomf. Very cool.

We returned to the hostel just as it began to rain and called Vanessa, one of our stellar cruise-mates, who was staying in Barcelona at the time. We also made a ton of new friends while we were waiting for her arrival. Little did we know that these new friend would influence the remainder of our trip significantly. We all journeyed down to the beach to hit up all of the cheap deals that the bars had going on. It was nice to be able to drink for next to nothing. All night too!

The next day we went back to the beach Vanessa to catch some sun and do some swimming. We even swam out to the huge wave breakers just off shore which was very cool. It was like our own little island. We then proceeded to journey through a parade that was taking place and then onto the Santa María del Mar. This was the first church I visited along this epic journey. It was well worth it. We then had a bite to eat and said fare-the-well to Vanessa. We went to the travelers bar to get a free diner and met up with our crew from the night before. We went with them to The Black Sheep to get some sangria and then headed off to the bust stop to catch a ride to the mountain behind the city to lie out under the stars and sleep in our sleeping bags. We missed the bus so we decided to bum on the beach since we were already so accustomed to doing so. This was a bad choice. Thieves were everywhere. The guys went to sleep right away while I stayed up and watched. I couldn’t fall asleep knowing someone was going to try and mess with my stuff as soon as I was out. I eventually did fall asleep making sure my stuff was packed in the bottom of my sleeping bag. We were awoken by Ramsey talking to some dude about what just happened. His camera had been jacked! Needless to say, this brought the group morale down a bit and put us in a pissy mood for the rest of the day.

We headed to the train station soon after the rude awakening and boarded our train to Marseilles, France.

Adios Algarve... Hello World!

This was a pit stop for us on our way to Barcelona. In order to catch a night train to Barcelona we had to catch a bus out of the Algarve to Seville so we stayed the night in Faro once more (on the beach of course) and then caught a bus early the next morning to Seville.

We spent the entire time walking around trying to soak in as many of the sights. We first had to catch a bus from the main bus station, where we arrived, to the main train station so we could store our stuff in the lockers. This took waaaaaaaay too long. We got all sorts of turned around and ended up turning a 10 minute bus ride in to about 45 minutes.

We found a grocery store and then had a little picnic beneath the Monumento a Colόn. There is nothing like cheap sandwiches and cake on a warm sunny day in southern Spain! We also saw Plaza de España, El Postigo, and the Catedral de Santa María de la Sede. One of the most fun things we did was spinning round and round of some sketchy playground equipment we found behind the Plaza de España. It was basically a couple steel tubes welded to a pivot point that allowed you to rotate until your world was doing cartwheels. Considering my low tolerance to circle spinning, I didn’t last long.

After our brief tour of Seville we went back to the train station and hopped on our train to Barcelona. Let the Euro trip begin!

Beautiful Bensafrim

We arrived at our second workaway on the 20th of May in Bensafrim, still in the Algarve region of Portugal and not too far from our previous location. This time we were staying with a couple, Willam and Sol. Willam is from Holland and Sol is originally from Portugal. They had just finished building an enormous house that is one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen. They had a lot of land full of fig trees, almond trees, and olive trees. They had three Portuguese water dogs and another Dutch couple staying in one of the guest houses. They prepared an awesome meal for our arrival that consisted of salad potatoes and fish, heads and all. That was the first time I had eaten fish heads and I must say it was no different from eating the rest of the fish. You just have to deal with an eye watching you while you munch.

The work consisted of a ton of gardening jobs and field work. We had to trim up all the undergrowth by the trees out in the fields and get it in the right condition so Willam could use the tractor to plow the hay. They also had a few citrus trees and a big garden which is where Lindsey spent most of her time. I had to dig a trench to bury an electric cable and ended p puncturing one of the main irrigation tubes by accident. Oops! Willam wasn’t too happy but what are you gonna do? $#it happens. I also got to do some painting and a butt load of weed whacking.

We got to travel quite a bit while we were at this workaway. We went into Bensafrim a couple times to explore. We also went to the city of Lagos a couple times to hang out at the amazing beach it had and watch the creeper juggler man. Lagos was one of the better beaches we got to enjoy in our Portuguese past-times. We took a mini vacation in the middle of the workaway stay. We took the advice of John the chef from Poco Barretto and went to Fuseta. We went to bar he used to work at, Cubanito. We slept on the beach that night in our sleeping bags. A little different but the sunrise was so beautiful. We got to experience some more amazing beach as well. We spent the next night in Faro, the largest city in the Algarve, asleep on the beach once again. This beach was huge! It didn’t take long for it to fill up the following morning. We hung out till it started to get dark and then we called a cab to come and take us to the train station so we could get back to our workaway.

We were going to say in Bensafrim for a couple weeks but we decided to cut it short because we were running out of time to use up our Eurail passes. We decided to leave on May 29 so we could tart our European extravaganza. Willam was a little disappointed that we were leaving early but we had to do it. Oh well… world… here we come!

Lets Go Poco!

This next chapter in my journey is the beginning of the workaway experience. It takes place in the small town of Poco Barretto in the Algarve region of Portugal. It is with a woman name Patricia from the U.K. who had been living in Portugal for many years. She had a gentleman by the name of George staying with her, her “handyman”. He was also from the U.K. and has been in the Algarve for 20 years. Not really sure how they met?

Our first impression of this place was not a good one. Besides the fact that I was sick as a dog when we first arrived (I brought some sort of bug back from Morocco with me. Worst four days of my life!), she was not even around when we got in. We hitch-hiked half-way to the closest beach in Armacao de Pera and walked the other half. We got a ride from a Dutch woman who owned a B&B in Poco Barretto.

We got back into town around 9 p.m. and got a ride from George up to Pat’s place. She showed us where we were sleeping and we were all speechless. It was a little shanty next to her pond. It had no floor and threes walls with a few shingles hanging out for a roof. We all got our sleeping backs out and laughed ourselves to sleep with the accompaniment of a hundred frogs screaming for no damn reason. Slimy little bastards!

Once we awoke we were blown away! Her property was gorgeous! There were flowers and citrus trees everywhere, not to mention all of the animals she had. There were a few dozen love birds, some parakeets, a macaw, a cockatoo, two Shetland ponies, coi fish, and three shitzus. She even cooked all of our meals for us! She was a great cook, plus there was “John the chef” from Scotland staying on her property who cooked some of our meals as well. Very good :P!

Our first job was to finish the shack we were staying in. Put up the fourth wall, put the floor in, latch the roof down, and paint the place. This took us a couple of days to do. It was fun work. Much better than weeding which some of us did have to do at times. The other major jobs we had to do was putting up an electric fence for a new horse pasture and hauling rocks for a waterfall she was going to make for the pond next to our shanty.

The highlight of this part of the trip was going to the local dance at the train station (The train station and a bar were all that made up the town of Poco Barretto). All of us made out on the dance floor at least once to try out the local dance. Very fast pace. Lindsey and I kept bumping into people. The second highlight of the trip was coincidentally meeting the English girls at the bar in town. They just happened to be there when we went in for some burgers. They were only in town a few days visiting one of the girls’ parents. We went out with them on our last night. We went bar hoping in the beach town of Albufeira. It was soooooo much fun! We did it all from dancing to karaoke. Amazing!

Moroccing Out!

We left Madrid at 11 a.m. and arrived in Tangier at 10:30 a.m. Very strange time zone difference considering Tangier is directly south of Madrid. Sarah was waiting with Nate for our arrival. It was so good to see ol’ sista again. A big piece of home away from home. We didn’t linger long before we hopped into a cab to take us to the town of Chefchaouen in the North Atlas Mountains. We had a nice cab driver who brought us to a roadside restaurant along the way where we were able to mow through the buffet and taste some kefta as well. We three tourists were in such aw by the scenery that the 3 hours in the cab only felt like 3 minutes.

Chefchaouen was an astonishing little town. We stayed on the roof of our hotel while Sarah and Nate shared a room. The stars were beautiful from up there. The highlight of Chefchaouen was the hike we took into the mountains on our second day. It was Brandon’s first time hiking in the mountains. Even for someone who is a well seasoned hiker, this hike would have been a challenge. Brandon dominated it. We all did. It was very beautiful from our perch near the summit. There’s nothing I love more than sitting atop a mountain staring out into the world below, truly an amazing feeling. The hike down was much quicker than our ascent since we had found a better trail to follow down. A little “seven Bridges Road” sing-a-long helped the time go by as well. Hitting the valley below was like Little Foot and friends finally reaching their valley in the “Land Before Time”. It was so green! The air was crisp and the smell the spring foliage was delicious. There were to younger boys at the bottom of the mountain hollering at us for taking pictures. Sarah obliged them with some Mega-choc cookies and they let us click away. They even took us to a fresh spring for a cool drink.

The next day we departed Nate as he went off to Rabat and we headed to the town of Oued Lau. It was a small beach town on the Mediterranean. Not very impressive. The beach was a very grimy beach. We kept getting asked to stay in houses as well. Sarah would blow them off for us. We spent most of the day there and then we had to head back to Tangier so we could get up early the next day to catch a flight back to Madrid. Tangier was actually a pretty amazing place at night. We found a cheap place to stay and had a great meal. The guys went back to the hotel to sleep and Sarah and I found a small corner bar to have a few cocktails and a good talk before we had to part ways once again. It was sad to say goodbye again to dear sista. She is the last family member I will see for a while.

One Way Ticket to Madrid and Back

We had probably the worst night train in the history of night trains. There was no room and the arm rest did not go up at all which was the worst part. We at least had a plethora of vino for our travels and some good cheap sammies to compliment. Once we arrived in Madrid we jumped a cab to the Cat hostel near the center of town. It was a nice place with a stained glass courtyard and a dungeon bar. We were in a room with 6 others. We only met two of them. There was Charlie from Australia and a girl from the Czech. We spent the afternoon exploring the city with David while Spencer went off to do his own thing. We had an amazing afternoon. The highlight of the day was walking through Parque del Bueno Retiro. It was filled with beautiful flowers and trees along with a few fountains. There was a big pond in the center of the park where you could rent row boats by the hour but we all cheeped out and never rented any boats.

Our last stop of the evening was at the Almudena Cathedral. Luckily none of us burst into flames upon entering:). It was so peaceful. We spent a good hour inside and then headed off back to our hostel, stopping at a supermarket for some cheap baguettes and cheese. It was the beginning of a long relationship with cheap bread and cheese. We spent the remainder o the evening in the dungeon bar chatting it up with Charlie about his adventures in travelling. He had been on his trek for over a year and was currently on a walk across northern Spain and Portugal. I also got to talk with Alley (met her earlier in the day when she was in panic mode about a wallet she had stolen) about Morocco. Her and her friends were going to be there around the same time as Brandon, Ramsey and myself. It wasn’t long before I was off to bed. We had to be up at 8 and to the airport so we could catch our 11 a.m. flight to Tangier. We spent the morning eating breakfast, checking, and double checking with Lindsey about meeting plans for our return. It was sad to say goodbye but it wouldn’t be long until we saw her again.

It's Lisbon Darling!

We got to Lisbon on May 5th, 2009. We ended up staying with two of the coolest people we met on the cruise, Marcia and Desiree. They let us (Me, Brandon, Ramsey, Lindsey, Dave and Spencer) crash on the floor of their hotel room and the Marriott. It was pretty fun. We went out on the town and ended up hanging out with a couple of the locals who led us to two gay bars. Not really my kind of scene but luckily we had girls in our group to fend off the hordes of homos. It was an incredible night out. Andre was our ring leader. He was a very flamboyant individual, with a great personality. He definitely made our night. We spent the next day at the mall and oceanarium and ended it with me, Lindsey and Ramsey jumping through a huge fountain outside of the oceanarium. We then went back to the hotel, gathered up or things and headed off to the train station to catch a train to Madrid. Spencer and Dave decided to come along since it would be part of their travels anyhow.

Sail Away with Me!

The cruise set sail on April 26th, 2009 from the Fort Lauderdale for a ten day journey across the Atlantic Ocean. There are way too many details to write about here, so I will try to sum it all up with a few bullet points.

• The dinners were amazing every single night. You had a choice of three or four appetizers, entrées, and deserts. You could ask for them all if you wanted, which was the best part. There were also buffets, cafes, and bars open around the clock anytime you got hungry or thirsty. All free! Besides booze :(.

• We participated in as many dances classes as we could. We are now seasoned in the Merengue, Tango, a little salsa, and some line dancing. We made a lot of new friends doing this. It was pretty fun. We kind of fizzled out of it toward the end of the trip but that’s just because of all the activities that were going on. We watched gameshows, had scavenger hunts, trivia competitions, worked out at the gym, attended tea time (my favorite aftenoon activity), and I even got to partake in a ridiculous boxer competition were I had to go against someone in boxing gloves and see how many pairs of boxer shorts I could put on in a minute.

• Ramsey and I participated in a sexy legs competition. We were pulled aside after watching a Bar Wars competition in which two teams had to try their best o create a drink concocted by one of the bar tenders. I was the first to go for sexy legs and had a fun time shaking it around the pool. I never placed but our new pal Dave took second and Ramsey brought home the gold! He never heard the end of it.


 

• The friendships we made were the best thing that happened to us on board, I think. We met people from all over. It didn’t take long for all of the younger crew members to get to know each other. I was one of 11 people under 30 years. It didn’t matter though. Everyone we met had a spirit that was just as young, if not younger, as ours were. We also met some people from England who said they would be pleased to have us come and work for them in their restaurant. This is when we started contemplating extending our adventure to a year.


 

• We spent many nights participating in the Princess Pop Star competitions. Princess because that is the name of the cruise line, not because it was for woman and fairy boys. Lindsey, Ramsey and I sang every night. I got into the finals by singing Bon Jovi’s “Dead or Alive”. Lindsey had the most hysterical and fun performances out of everyone. They had eight people in the final competition. I thought Crystal was going to take it with “I Can’t Make You Love Me” by Bonnie Raitt. I was shocked when they called my name at the end of the competition. It was a great feeling. I guess the crowd just happened to be in a “Piano Man” mood that night.

• Skywalker’s Bar. What can I say? We spent every single night up at that place. There was a lot of dancing and good ol’ fashioned fun going down. It may have been a little empty on the dance floor at times, but we still managed to keep the place rocking. Lindsey and I got somewhat hypnotized by the hypnotist one night up there. He tried to make me smell something very gross. I crapped my pants by mistake… j/k. I couldn’t smell a thing.

• The pool deck is where we spent most of our days. Just lounging, swimming, and meeting more of the passengers. We had built quite the reputation for ourselves after all the dancing classes and random competitions we participated in. On the rainy days, we would either go to the casino for a little while or hit up tea time and enjoy some amazing hour derives. They also had movies playing every night that you could watch out under the stars or in one of the performance halls. I watched Slum dog Millionaire and Grand Torino.

• We had one excursion during the cruise to Ponta Delgada in the Azores. It was not a very long excursion but it was nice to get off the boat for a few hours. It seemed that most of the passengers lined up tours for the excursion but not us. We decided to hoof it through the city for a while and then found a bargain with a couple of cabs to take the lot of us around part of the island four a couple hours. I got to climb my first mountain here! It wasn’t actually a mountain, more like a giant rock off the coast but it was still awesome. We then proceeded to sneak booze onto our cruise. Mission accomplished!