Que Pasa?

(OK so we have been home for a week now.  We fell just a little behind but don't want to leave you hanging.)

Guess whose back??  You could smell the jet fuel in our clothes by now.   Luckily upon arrival into Spain we were able to check into our hotel and quickly wander about the city the first night without any hitches.  We had dinner and checked in with the other teams and Bill.  Bill then gave us a series of mandatory tasks and bonus trips to attempt.  The only requirement was for everyone to meet in Lisbon, Portugal in three days. 

    The next day we visited several statues that were older than the U.S.  itself.   After viewing several palaces, statues and gardens we decided to grab some lunch.  The first place we had lunch served a very cold Especial beer on tap and wonderful grilled cheese and ham sandwiches.    We then tried another place and we had red wine and my personal favorite fresh sliced ham and cheese plate.  What made this meal so special was the legs (hooves and all) of the pig were hanging in the restaurant  and a guy was carving the meat from the leg as we placed our orders.  Natasha only ate bread and cheese.  I was a stuffed “pig” by the time we were done. 

     We then made our way to a local Segway shop and we toured the city on Segways.  This was fun cause one of the Segways ran out of juice and we were then supplied with an electric bike that was fun to say the least.  You just press a button and the bicycle drove itself.  Here are Zoe and Elizabeth on the Segways.

We then decided to go and see something I have always wanted to see in person.  So we caught the subway to the Plaza De Toro.  Upon arrival one could not help but notice the festive colors  and smiles that filled the area outside the stadium.  There were vendors everywhere.  Not only were the vendors selling beer and chips, but they had all kinds of gummi bears, sour candies and jaw breakers.  We finally made our way into the stadium with chicharonnes, candy and, of course, beers for the beginning of the event.   The event was a full on Spanish bull fight.  This was the first bullfight of the season and the crowd including myself was very excited.  After a  small ceremony , the carnage began.  Instantly, Natasha could not control her emotions and began to weep with a jacket over her face.  The poor bull tried to get the matadors, diving himself to exhaustion.  Evidently, the least experienced matadors go first.  This has to be because this guy could never give the suffering animal the kill stab.  After witnessing this go on for over a half hour and the poor animal finally dying, I was ready to leave.  The fans could see how bothered Natasha was and they did their best to try and make her feel better.   It didn’t help - we left, ate dinner and called it a night.

     Our one mandatory task was to get to a city in southeastern Spain named Granada to see Alhambra.  We took a train to the city.  Unlike the train ride in Indonesia, this train was pleasant and kind of air conditioned.   The train ride was a little over three hours to Granada and another 30 minute cab ride to the museum.  This is now the dilemma.    Once we arrived at Alhambra we found out that all the tickets  were sold out for the day and the tickets were only being sold for the next day.  Prior to leaving Madrid we found out that one of the bonuses was to go to Tangier, Morocco.  That’s right Africa.  Everyone who knows me, knows that one of the things on my bucket list is to get to Africa.  The dilemma was if we stayed in Granada an extra day we would not be able to get to Morocco.  So for the first time throughout the game, we decided to skip the mandatory and continue on the pilgrimage to Africa.  If we skipped the mandatory we got zero points and would come in last place.  After a quick bite to eat we were back at the train station on our way to Tangier.  Once we arrived at Algecira, Spain, we found out the ferry landing was about a mile away.  Keep in mind that by now it is close to midnight.  After walking through the small area through the prostitutes and aimlessly around the port we found a nice man from Senegal who spoke maybe seven languages to translate our needs to get to Morocco.  The last ferry was arriving within the hour and we were going to be on it….  After landing in Morocco we did not realize that Tangier was an hour away.  We then made it to the awaiting taxi and of course Natasha negotiated the proper rate for the hour long ride.    Recently, a bombing occurred in another city in Morocco.  This is significant, due to the random stops along the way to Tangier.  The cab driver told us to keep quite while he spoke to the police.  I was really nervous because I didn’t want the police to exercise a tourist tariff on us.  It was really easy for Natasha to stay quite because she was asleep.  We finally arrived at the El Minzah hotel.  According to legend, Leonardo Decaprio stayed at the same hotel while filming Inception.  After traveling for over 15 hours we were ready to call it a night.  

The following morning we had tasks to accomplish in Tangier before we left for Fez.  One of the tasks was to buy a fes ( a hat) at a souk and to have mint tea at a certain restaurant.  So that morning we were taken by our driver to a local market to buy the fes.  After shopping for a few minutes and fending off the locals, we then made our way to a local restaurant that was out of a magazine.  As you are walking to the restaurant, at first you look and you can’t find anything special about this place.  Then you simply turn around and you can see the Strait of Gibraltar.  The view was magnificent and the mint tea was very good.  It already had a sweetness to it that was enhanced mint leaves.  A local came and sat with us and offered his peace pipe with “home grown …….” 

After saying goodbye to the local, we were on our way to Fez.  On maps, Morocco looks like a desert country.  On the contrary we were pleased to see beautiful rolling hills of crops, cows and goats.  After driving for about four hours we pulled over to a local restaurant.  No big deal you say.  Well the side of beef was hanging outside and the BBQ was being cooked right next to it.  No menus, no forks, and only construction paper for tissue.   The locals at this roadside café never blinked an eye at us and continued on.  The driver placed the order for us.  He ordered “meatballs”, steaks and lamb chops.  All this food was garnished with grilled tomatoes and onions.  Accompanied by bread and washed down with Fanta orange sodas and of course more tea.   

After lunch we were back on the road to Fez.  Finally, we arrived in Fez at our Hotel the Jnan Palace.  A palace this place was not.  It had a cool lay out and a huge pool, but the place needed a lot of TLC.  After a brief check in we got a taxi to the Blue Gate.  The Blue Gate is one of the entrances to a huge market on steroids.  This place is over six square miles big.  It would take a week at least to see everything.  The tasks included for a member of the teams to get a Henna tattoo.  Natasha volunteered for that and to take a tour of a tannery.  After getting Natasha’s tattoo we began to look for the leather tannery.  Several  “I am not a guide” locals volunteered to take us to the tannery for small fees per person.  One kid would not give up and lead us deeper and deeper into this maze.  Finally, we asked another local of the location of the tannery and he let us know that it was closed for the day.  So for the last thirty minutes we were lead around looking for nothing.  Anyway we made our way out of that situation and back to our hotel for the evening.  The next morning we caught a flight to Lisbon, Portugal.