Gibraltar

Meanwhile, back to the last trip. From Granada Mark and I made a mad early morning dash to the city of Algeciras, Spain to catch the ferry across the Strait of Gibraltar to Tangier, Morocco.

Of course the Strait of Gibraltar is well known for that big rock. You know, the Prudential logo. Gibraltar is kind of an interesting place. Turns out it's a British Territory. Instead of Euros they use Pounds. You can drive all over the rock. Which we did.
From atop the rock we could see Africa.

So to Africa we went...

Peace Corps Update

Yeah, I know. I know. I haven't finished posting about my last trip. I'll get around to it. Sometime. Maybe. Maybe not.

BUT, things are moving on the Peace Corps front. FINALLY I think I've cleared the last medical hurdle. It wasn't much of a hurdle actually. They wanted the doctor's statement about my PPD test (Tuberculosis) to be more detailed. It took me fifteen minutes to get and mail.

I got a call yesterday from the main office checking to see if I'd done that. Now this morning I get an e-mail from them with all kinds of forms and information telling me how it's going to go down.

When I was on the phone I tried to get a line on where I would be invited to. No dice. They play by the rules. Their rules. I couldn't get a hint.

So I still don't know. Maybe by this time next month. Or sooner.

It would sure be easier if I was rid of this house.

Anyway, here are a couple pictures from the last day of my last trip:

In the Red Sea off Jeddah, Saudi Arabia

Aboard the good ship "I don't know what the name of the thing was."

All I know is I'm going away for a long time.

Granada, Alhambra and Albaicin

This was the coolest part of the trip. We got to Granada in (what we thought was) plenty of time to find our hostel. We would book the hostels via internet each day for the next night. The average hostel cost about $25 per person. Sure, you had to share a room, but that's how you meet the most interesting people. Mark and I were usually the oldest folks in the hostels. But we were always made to feel welcome. Hostels invariably feature free internet, local tours, an open kitchen and a homey atmosphere. This compared to the "Five Star" places we stay in during the recruiting tours where the internet fee alone costs more than a stay at a hostel. Different kind of travel.

The Makuta backpacker's hostel in Granada took us FOREVER to find. It was in the Albaicin neighborhood, hard against Alhambra. Here is a picture of the neighborhood taken from the walls of Alhambra. Our hostel is in the picture, but I'll be switched if I can find it.

So Alhambra. First off, in Arabic "Al" means "the." So calling it The Alhambra is like saying The The Hambra. Just like Chai Tea Latte. What do you think "Chai" is?

Oh, and Hambra means red, for the color of the bricks.

Anyway, the place stood against the Spanish reconquest for over two centuries until that fateful year of 1492 when the last Moorish King, Boabdil The Unfortunate ceded it. As he fled toward the south and still existent, but dwindling, Moorish territory he paused on a hill to look back one last time at his beloved Alhambra. His mother, ever the supportive parent, was quoted to say "Weep as a woman for that which you could not defend as a man." Thanks mom.

It was while walking the narrow cobblestone ways in the palace I heard a disturbance behind me. Kind of a rumbling, bumbling, stumbling sound. I need not have looked. It was my erstwhile companero rolling down the sloping path. I didn't even have to look. His claim was he was distracted by a certain pair of pants.

I saw her too and I didn't fall! (Grace under pressure.)

We spent six hours there and could have spent another day. If you go either book tickets online a couple days before you intend to go or get up early to queue for the limited number of tix they sell each day. We got lucky.

Playing Catch-Up

I've been remiss in keeping up with my last trip. So I'll attempt to bring everything up to date.

When last we saw our heroes they were marveling at the Chapel of the Bones in Evora, Portugal. From there we made a mad dash to Seville, Spain. We had a heck of a time finding our hostel in Seville. It was dark and the Spanish are not very good about posting street signs. In fact, they barely do it at all. Of course the roads were created as donkey paths about a thousand years ago, so they aren't very conducive to automobile travel. I guess that explains the lack of Hummers in Europe. But, as luck would have it we ran into a kid from Brazil (Rodrigo) who was doing study abroad in Portugal and spending a couple weeks exploring the Iberian Peninsula. By coincidence he was looking for the same hostel as we were. With his help we found it. Even though it was only a few yards from where we were standing we would have NEVER found it alone.

Nonetheless, we didn't spend much time in Seville. Just enough to snag another UNESCO World Heritage site and see the Espana de Sevila, which was pretty cool.

Here are the pictures.

Granada and the Alhambra were calling and we were running short of time. But not before we made a twenty mile detour to visit an unusually named village. You'll see it in the pictures.

More tomorrow on Granada and the Alhambra. By the way, to call it THE Alhambra is like ordering a Chai Tea Latte at Starbucks. I'll explain later.