MAR: Ali Baba & the First Three Days

*A note on the title: one member of our tour group was nicknamed Ali Baba countless times by people we had never met before. We think it was the beard. The story of Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves (and Arabian Nights in general) became a running joke through our trip due to this.*

 

Time for a strong culture change.

 

It’s not often I do group travelling. I’m generally of a mind that solo travel is the best way to go, as you don’t have to conform to an itinerary or settle for plans suggested by a friend.

However, when it comes to a country like Morocco – where I had absolutely no idea what to expect – I thought it wise to look into the different companies that offer tours.

I settled for Intrepid Travel, who offer a wide range of tours all across the world. For Morocco, there were several to choose form. I went for Essential Morocco, mainly because of the price (it seemed the best for getting ‘bang for your buck’, as any dollar-dependent country would say).

The tour lasted for ten days and, as always, I am trying to write this blog from memory (with the help of both pictures and daily notes I made). Apologies if some locations do not match up with their pictures and so on and so forth.

 

I flew out to Casablanca, a city most well-known for the film of the same name. The tour didn’t spend much time in the city – it was more a base for us all to meet and establish the itinerary.

There were sixteen of us in the group and over half were Australian, and only two English (myself included). That surprised me. Perhaps I’m just used to being the dominant nationality.

Anyway, we all went for a meal together to break the ice, which was lovely.

The following morning we did our one activity in Casablanca: a visit to the Hassan II Mosque.

The mosque is the largest mosque in Africa, and the third largest in the world (after Mecca and Medina). It is a beautiful building. There has been a lot of fascinating architecture and patterns throughout this whole trip, and I’m not sure if it’s because this was the first piece I saw, but I’m still very much in awe of this place.

 

Sadly it was only a brief hour spent at the mosque, before we were herded on to a public train; taken to the holy town of Moulay Idriss.

It’s a strange town, built upon two hills with some great views. As a tourist it is interesting to see, but a large portion (the Mausoleum of Idriss I) of it is off-limits unless you are Muslim. Still, we had a guided tour of the rest of the town, full of winding, narrow streets that I have come realise is a staple of any Moroccan settlement.

 

We spent the night in Moulay Idriss, before heading on to the ruins of Volubilis, about five miles down the road.

The ruins themselves are very Roman in origin, yet it is believed to be the ancient capital of the Kingdom of Mauretania.

Now I do love my Roman/Greek mythology. The partly-excavated ruins are rife with references to it, in the architecture, the information gathered, even the few mosaics that remain legible.

The Twelve Labours of Hercules.

We had a good few hours exploring the ruins. I never really thought of Morocco as having strong connections to the Roman invasion but, I suppose, the invasion encompassed most of the world so it shouldn’t really be such a surprise.

 

We also spent the afternoon wandering around the town of Meknes, one of the four Imperial Cities of Morocco. It also used to be the capital of Morocco, back in the 16^th century. The more you know, eh?

Again, we had a guided tour through its streets, being told about its history, the architecture, and all the rest.

It felt like a very traditional Moroccan town, complete with stunning mosaic architecture and plenty of history (that I cannot remember at the moment so cannot share any with you.  Apologies).

 

Next came a rather stressful trip on the train towards Fes, with an over-crowded carriage and far too much luggage.

Fes itself, however, is for the next post. See you there (hopefully).

SCT: Stirling & The Simply Scottish Scenery

Do not worry, friends: the Scottish bombardment shall be over soon.

Stirling, the final destination on this trip (unless you count a brief thirty minutes in Edinburgh on my way back, which most people wouldn’t). Once a gateway into Scotland, due to its strategic position on the River Forth. A site of many battles between the Scottish and the English.

Now, Stirling was also the surreal return of my life to hostel living, albeit only for three nights. Yet still, I have not stayed in a hostel by myself since… Well, since Canada, which was over a year ago now. As I said, surreal.

 

Three main points for Stirling. Firstly, the castle.

Arguably the most popular and touristy destination in the town, I was obliged to attend. And, in fairness, why would I even try resist a castle?

Now, if you’ll cast your minds back to the Edinburgh post (if you don’t remember, do not worry. There is no importance), you will remember that I did not go into Edinburgh Castle, due to the expense and the ridiculous number of tourists about.

Stirling Castle is smaller, less busy, and less pricey. Hence, it just made sense to go in.

Unsurprisingly, I took very few photos of inside the castle… I did, however, have a guided tour of the most notable points. A lot of the information given was about the Scottish beating the English in battle which, as an Englishman, you can imagine was a little awkward. Our tour guide was very adept at skating over the battles that the English one, mind you…

Complete with authentic scaffolding…

Most of the castle is your expected, worn-looking stone. Old fashioned, dating back to the 1500s (and beyond) when it was remodelled to show the wealth of one of the King James’ (I forget which).

However, in the 1990s, the Great Hall underwent a restoration project, intended to restore it to its former glory. The idea was right. Historians established the original colour to match the surrounding buildings, passed it on to the masons, etc… The only issue, being that, over time, the colour of stone fades. So, instead, we are left with the yellow Great Hall that sticks out like a sore thumb.

I also quite like the fields below, which is where tourneys used to be hosted for the knights to compete in jousting, melees, and the like.

 

The further tourist spot, is the National Wallace Monument.

Anyone who has seen or even heard of Braveheart, will know the name William Wallace. This, rather large building/monument, is a homage to his dedication to Scottish history and culture, as well as further dedications to other important Scottish figures.

It is a standout location, with a great view from the castle towards the monument. I feel both the weather and time of season I went helped, what with the leaves in the process of turning brown/orange, and the further blue sky I had most of my time there! Truly a Scottish miracle.

The views from the top were, of course, stunning. Nothing can beat Scottish scenery (except for maybe Canadian scenery which, in truth, is quite similar).

Now, going back to the many many (many) battles between the Scottish and the English, one of the most notable was the Battle of Stirling Bridge. The Scottish, led by William Wallace and Andrew Moray, defeated a vastly larger combined English force by trapping them on one side of the River Forth, and blowing up the bridge on the other. This, is the battlefield, seven hundred years on.

 

As a final port of call, I did something rather fun.

About forty minutes out from Stirling is a town called Doune. Now, it is not a very exciting place, yet it is home to a notable castle called… Doune Castle.

What is so special about the castle, I hear you ask? Well, it is where a large portion of Outlander was filmed (a TV series I’ve never seen and never plan to). It is where some of the internal shots for the pilot episode of Game of Throne was shot.

BUT, most importantly, it was where Monty Python and the Holy Grail was filmed.

What I like most about this, is that there are many scenes at castle throughout the whole film, and each and everyone was filmed here at Doune, a different room for each scene. Smart, eh?

 

Thus concludes the Scotland. There is much more of the country I want (and need) to explore, so you can expect that in the distant future.

There shall be radio silence for a while now, until I head off on my next adventure!

HI: Black Sand, Volcanoes, and Pearl Harbour

I feel as though this blog title is pretty epic. Then again, anything with the word ‘volcano’ in it is going to be epic no matter what it’s about… unless it’s very scientific, in which case it sucks.

But yes, during the second half of my holiday in Hawaii with my sister, we ventured across to the Hawaiian Island (also known as the Big Island, or the Island of Hawai’i) in order to see the MOST ACTIVE VOLCANO IN THE WORLD. Sadly no one was killed in the making of this blog post.

We got up at an insanely early time in the morning (4:30am for those of you who doubt me) and caught a bus to Honolulu airport, where we then caught a plane, along with six other people in our group, to Hilo, the capital of the Big Island. There, we were met by our tour guide, and we drove round and all over the Big Island, seeing what sights were to be had.

Our first stop: a beach… with an unusual twist. I’m sure there is a technical name given to this beach, but to me it is/was simply called Black Sand Beach. Why? Well… it was a beach, with sand, and it was black. Weird, right?

Oddly enough, the following day, one of my friends on Facebook posted a picture of a Pink Sand Beach… it was a rather strange coincidence. But either way, the black sand was awesome. There was also a strange swamp right next to the beach for some reason… tropical places will never cease to amaze me.

After the beach, we got back on the bus and probably stopped at a few other places, but I don’t particularly remember any of them, so I’ll skip ahead to the next decisive stop: a waterfall.

This waterfall is known as the Rainbow Waterfall and I’m still not entirely sure why… still, it was pretty, and there was an enjoyable Polynesian Gods story revolving around it, which I’m sure you all know by now I am quite partial to. Plus, my sister and I divulged in our first selfies of the day… a risky thing.

 

I could rant and rave about all the stops we made, but that would make this post excessively long, so I’m going to have to cut to the main point: the volcano.

I must say, I was not quite as excited as my sister was at the prospect of this. Obviously I was excited, but due to her being a crazy science freak, she seemed to take a much bigger interest.

Our tour guide was a lovely man called Steve, who was very informative… only I didn’t listen to half of it, due to it mostly being about science or geography. Still, I’m sure the others (such as my sister) appreciated it!

Our tour took all the way up the volcano to the big crater right at the top. Of course, selfies were obligatory:

One of my all time favourite selfes.

I’m sort of struggling to remember the order that we did things, so forgive me if it is not chronologically correct. I just remember we went up and down the volcano a few times…

Ooh! Next was definitely the coolest bit. We went through a LAVA TUBE. I don’t know if I was being naïve (most likely I was, it does seem rather improbable when I think about it now), but a lava tube to me involved red-hot lava trickling along next to you as you walked through a tunnel that had been created by the magma. I was partly right… there was just no actual lava.

It was awesome to see the solidified lava, though, especially as it had made a walkable tunnel. The texture of the rock was interesting as well… plus the surroundings of the tube were quite pretty to be pictured. No selfies this time I’m afraid, but we did get a picture taken of the both of us before we went in.

Now comes the part that I like to call the Desolation of Smaug (any chance to make a Tolkien-related reference and I’ll take it). The reason, is that we stopped at the side of the road and quite literally walked onto devastation. There was an entire field that had been wiped out of vegetation, and there was solidified lava covering everything. The tree roots that had been covered in lava made cool patterns as well.

My second favourite selfie…

There was another stop, which just involved some impressive landscapes:

And then we arrived at the bottom of the volcano, and found ourselves next to the sea. There was a cool-looking arch that was made mandatory to take a picture of, and then we went on to the final point that I took pictures of.

One of the main roads that had been existed prior to the volcanoes explosion… now covered in solidified lava (there’s a lot of that around the volcano, funnily enough). There was something exceptionally intriguing and mesmerising by a half blacked out road. Not only could you walk along the road (obviously going up and down, depending how much lava had decided to settle), but you the pictures were cool, in my opinion.

I also got a shot of the solidified lava running down the hill/slope, though, I don’t think the picture came out very well.

That about concluded the volcano. We took the bus back to the airport, said goodbye to Steve, and caught our flight back to Oahu (the island where Honolulu is). A short bus-ride back to our hostel, and we crashed out as soon as we got there.

A couple of days later (after enough time to recover) we decided it was time to see Pearl Harbour. Now, we had an absolute nightmare getting there. Our taxi driver dropped us off at completely the wrong place, and so we had to walk for what was meant to be two miles. We walked for about an hour and a half. And I don’t walk slowly. So we think the sign lied to us. Still, we weren’t in the best of moods when we arrived, and I can’t say Pearl Harbour is the most uplifting place to visit. Still, it was educational and moving, so I was glad of that.

We watched a 30-minute long video describing the prelude to the Pearl Harbour disaster and what it meant and so on (the narrator was Rizzo from Grease, strangely enough). After that, we took a short boat ride across to the memorial of the U.S.S Arizona: the ship that was sunk and claimed the lives of 1,177 lives as it went.

I actually really enjoyed the experience. Maybe ‘enjoyed’ isn’t the right word to use… but you know what I mean. It was insightful, and I was glad for that.

I have to say though, the whole tourist side of it did not appeal to me. I cannot abide the fact that people take pictures in front of the memorial. They seem to care more about showing that they’ve been there than actually learning and mourning the fallen. Plus seeing people take selfies in front of the memorials just seems plain rude and disrespectful. But I shan’t rant anymore.

This, unfortunately, almost entirely concludes my Hawaiian adventures. It has been delightful. The weather has been incredible (perhaps a bit too incredible some days), and most people I met were friendly and courteous. Oh, actually, I’ll leave you with the story regarding our taxi driver on the way back from Pearl Harbour.

He was a devout Christian. That much I was able to tell from the outside of his car. There were Jesus bumper stickers all over it (not just on the bumper… as they’re meant to be) and inside he had at least two bibles for show. In all fairness, he seemed like a really nice and friendly person when we first set off, and I suppose he was. He was an extra in the fourth Pirates of the Caribbean film, which was exciting and made him instantly more interesting. Except then he had to go and ruin it by trying to give me a sales pitch regarding some gold investment scheme he had going on. Safe to say, he failed miserably. Then, he made things even worse, and neither my sister nor I attempted to make conversation afterwards. The subject of gay marriage being made legal all across America came up. Much to our annoyance, his words on this, and bear in mind this is a direction quote, were: “we’re all going to feel God’s judgement”.

I have no issue with religion, but people like that infuriate me. I’m not going to explain why (I’m sort of hoping its self-explanatory) but yeah. I didn’t agree with him one bit.

All-in-all, our Pearl Harbour visit was a strange day: first, we got dropped off at completely the wrong place and had to walk for ages in foul moods; then we experienced the tragedy of Pearl Harbour, which is always going to be a strange experience; and then we had to endure an extremist who was avid on forcing his opinion upon us. Very strange indeed.

Next stop: Los Angeles and the infamous Hollywood!