http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/Ezeur/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Ezeur en-us Tue, 15 Dec 2009 12:24:42 +0000 Tue, 15 Dec 2009 12:24:42 +0000 Every August my mother's family gets together at my aunt Laura's lake house in Washington. I usually don't take many photos but since I'm still in tourist mode from my summer travels I had my camera with me the whole time. I'm not feeling very wordy but here's a plethora of photos to make up for it. http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Washington/Tenino/Offut-Lake/blog-314022.html Bonjour tout le mondeI thought I'd throw in a little French for some linguistic change. I really expected to be able to speak more French here but it is quickly dying out and being replaced with English. Oh well. Today Anisa went to work out and I sat around. Then we went to the big market in town Psah Thmei where we bought loads of exotic fruit. Anisa decided I needed to try everything and I http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Cambodia/South/Phnom-Penh/blog-10117.html I left Lyon in the early morning on the 5th and as always it was very hard to leave.An ode to DromeArdcheI love the narrow streets. I have never driven a car in FranceI love the farmersrsquo markets with picturesque fruits and veggies.I love the smelly unpasteurized sheep and goat cheeses.I love the bright green of the mountains which are covered in flowers even late in the summer.I love http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/France/Rh-ne-Alpes/Lyon/blog-314011.html I haven't update my blog in a couple weeks because surprise surprise I'm on vacationEverything is going wonderfully and life really is beautiful here. I have been able to see quite a few of my friends from when I lived here in 19992000. I lived with Grard and Maryse Montalon who welcomed me back into their family which is still growing. I was at the house at the same time as two of their g http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/France/Rh-ne-Alpes/Cornas/blog-304756.html When I got to Lisbon I felt tired probably from four days in a row of sun and beach and wasn't up for being a tourist in a strange city by myself where I didn't know the language. Sometimes I'm in the mood for that sort of thing but I wasn't when I arrived at the bus station in Lisbon. I've heard wonderful things about the Portuguese capital and I do hope to spend some time there some day but http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Spain/District-of-Madrid/Madrid/blog-300534.html I'm not sure if that title is real Portugese or not. It's my best guess at the translation of the Portugese beach. I spent my days in Portugal alone or with the Spanish girls who shared my room at the hostel so I didn't actually learn more than a few words of Portugese.But I didn't go there to learn Portugese. I went there to relax on the beach and that's pretty much all I did. Like Martil I http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Portugal/Algarve/Lagos/blog-299547.html Coming to Seville was a shock. At first I thought I might have made a mistake. I was so enamored with Granada's small town cuteness that Seville'e metropolitan feel was an unexpected change. But now that I have adapted a bit and gotten a feel for the city I love it here too. It's quite metropolitan but being a big city has a lot to see and do.My first day here I just walked around and tried to http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Spain/Andalusia/Seville/blog-296137.html After Morocco I thought it would be best to start off my travels in Europe with the last stronghold of the Muslims in Spain. I took a boat from Tangier in the evening and took a night bus from Algaciras to Granada. The boat was interesting and I chatted with some Moroccan women on the way over. I saw a couple other foreigners but practically everybody on the boat was Moroccan. After customs I fou http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Spain/Andalusia/Granada/blog-294110.html I had never heard of Martil which was my biggest reason for going there. It turned out to be a small beach town very relaxed and full of tourists all of whom were Moroccan. Once again I excaped the tourist traps created for foreigners and found myself mixed in with tourists from Fes Marrakech Tetouan and Casablanca plus the usual assortment of locals.Martil is a short taxi ride from Tetouan http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Morocco/Tangier-T-touan/Martil/blog-293964.html When I went to the bus station in Meknes to see if I could get a grand taxi or a bus to Chefchouen I found that there arent any direct taxis plus the only bus is at 5am. I didnt feel like waiting another twenty hours for the next bus so I took the first bus that was heading north. It would take me to Tangier and I figured when I got to Tangier I could stay if I liked it or see if I could get http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Morocco/Tangier-T-touan/Tangier/blog-293904.html It was hard leaving Rebecca and Maryam but it was time to hit the road. Yesterday I left the house early in the morning and took a shared grand taxi to Ben Guerir where I caught a train north to Meknes. Hotel Maroc had been recommended to me and it's nice though after being used to the cheap hotels in Marrakech any other city seems expensive.This morning I got up early again early on this vacati http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Morocco/Mekn-s-Tafilalet/Meknes/blog-291242.html After a week of skirting around Marrakech I dove into the city for an afternoon to have lunch with my friend Kamalrsquos family. They welcomed me in true Moroccan style actually it was a much more impressive meal that Irsquom used to even after all the homes Irsquove been welcomed in. Moroccans are experts at hospitality which can be really intense for somebody whorsquos not used to it. http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Morocco/Marrakech-Tensift-El-Haouz/Marrakech/blog-289532.html I decided to visit my friend Rebecca who was in Peace Corps with me and is still here since she extended her service a year. Becky lives in another town close to Marrakech and I used to travel from Kelaa to her site in Ait Ourir almost every month.Maryam woke me up in the morning around 1130. It had been another hot sleepless night. When I looked out the door of my room into the central living http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Morocco/Marrakech-Tensift-El-Haouz/Ait-Ourir/blog-288456.html I suppose Irsquom still at the starting line. Irsquove spent the past few days lazing around Maryamrsquos house my old home playing with her daughter Salma catching up on the events of the past year talking with the neighbors who stop by and reading a travel memoir about kayaking in the Arctic. Irsquom not headed that far north but in a week or so I do need to start heading north.For http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Morocco/Tadla-Azilal/El-Kelaa-des-Sraghna/blog-287562.html This is the most suspenseful part of any journey getting to the beginning. Somehow airplanes don't feel like travel it's more like a time machine that whisks me through time and space. I can never get my head around time zone changes and distances when I'm in an airplane. I'll feel much more comfortable when I'm on the ground in Marrakech and I can start my journey by land. This blog is mostly http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Idaho/Boise/blog-285507.html I had never spent any time in Khemisset before just been rushed through on the accidental road trip with Maryam in January 2006. There are a couple other volunteers in the area and one who works with artisans in Khemisset itself. I hadnrsquot heard very glowing reports of the town but when I first got there I was so happy to see green fields and tall trees that I didnrsquot care what other http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Morocco/Rabat-Sal-Zemmour-Zaer/Khemisset/blog-151437.html The day after spring camp ended and I got more than five hours of sleep for the first time in over a week two of my uncles and a cousin arrived in Marrakech. I had just enough time to catch the train down from Rabat and arrived at the hotel less than a half hour before they did. My motherrsquos brother Charlie and her younger sisterrsquos husband David had brought with them Isaac Davidrsqu http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Morocco/Marrakech-Tensift-El-Haouz/Marrakech/blog-151442.html After my uncles and cousin left on Saturday to go back to their respective homes I got back on the train again and rushed up to Rabat to play a softball game. Unfortunately the game was cancelled due to tightened security at the American School. As far as I know the Rabat American School has the only baseball diamond in Morocco. Anyway people were understandably nervous about the bombings that h http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Morocco/Rabat-Sal-Zemmour-Zaer/Rabat/blog-152160.html This was the biggest trip I have yet to take around Morocco. My dear friend Jesselyn brought Liz another Peace Corps Volunteer with her from Togo. The arrived in Casablanca and took the train down to Ben Guerir and from there came to see my town Kelaat Sraghna. After a few days in Kelaa and several giant meals with Maryam and my various hospitable neighbors we went on to Marrakech. I knew they http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Morocco/blog-159783.html Looking at my blog it seems like I am always on vacation. Peace Corps can be a lot of fun and I am so lucky to live in such an amazing country that has so many tourist attractions. But I am most often in Kelaa and usually doing something productive. This was a big weekend for me. On the 19th the womenrsquos association Irsquove been working with El Ghad Al Bassim organized a ldquocultural http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Morocco/Tadla-Azilal/El-Kelaa-des-Sraghna/blog-160638.html