*Most of the pictures and videos in the blog are not mine, I am thankful for always traveling with people who think to take pictures and take better ones than I ever could. Just want to give credit where credit is due.*
India
There really are no words to do justice to my amazing week in India. While the vacation did not start out very smoothly (Note to anyone traveling to India, DO NOT, I repeat, DO NOT leave the airport to go outside and look for your ride before you have done everything you wanted to do in the airport i.e. get money, maybe get a SIM card, etc because they will NOT let you back in once you step outside.....lesson learned).
I felt like a rockstar the entire time and it wasn't even my wedding. To anyone who is ever lucky enough to be invited to an Indian wedding GO. UD's and Megha's families (the groom and bride) completely outdid themselves with their generosity towards their guests.
Though I was in India for almost a week, the actual wedding and all its events took place over two days.
The first big event that we (and when I say "we" I'm referring to the other non Indian Americans that UD met when he lived in the States) all went to was the Mehendi Saturday morning/afternoon. It was also our first experience with timing at an Indian wedding. Just in case you don't know, you should show up about 2-3 hours later than what is printed on the schedule. We, the ever so punctual Americans, showed up on time at 10:30 am....everyone else pretty much started wandering in at noon. It actually worked in our favor though because we were the first to get the Mehendi henna done on our hands. The designs were absolutely amazing, and what was even more amazing was how fast they did them. The picture to the right is of one of my hands and it didn't take them more than 10 minutes.
The decorations from this afternoon were my favorite of the whole weekend. I don't know it they just stuck with me more here because it was the first event and therefore my first taste of what to expect, but I just remember loving all the colors! There were flowers everywhere, beautiful tents with brightly colored silk clothes hanging down.... I already said I can't do this weekend justice with my writing so here's a few pictures to hopefully paint a better picture.
It was at this event where I also realized that in no way would I go hungry over the weekend. There are no pictures of all the buffets where we gorged ourselves but take my word for it when I say there were many and they were plentiful. I don't think I ever made it through a single one able to try everything on the table. I've said it before and I'll say it again, India is the only place where I could be a vegetarian and not miss meat. The food is just too delicious.
Sunday during the day was filled with a lot of small ceremonies and blessings before the Baraat. Oh the Baraat. How do I describe you? I think I'll just let Wikipedia do the job for me:
"Baraat is a bridegroom's wedding procession in North India and Pakistan. In North Indian communities, it is customary for the bridegroom to travel to the wedding venue (often the bride's house) on a mare, accompanied by his family members.The baraat can become a large procession, with its own band, dancers, and budget. The groom and his horse are covered in finery and do not usually take part in the dancing and singing; that is left to the "baraatis" or people accompanying the procession. The groom usually carries a sword. The term baraati is also more generically used to describe any invitee from the groom's side. Traditionally,baraatis are attended to as guests of the bride's family.The baraat, headed by a display of fireworks and accompanied by the rhythm of the dhol, reaches the meeting point, where the elders of both the families meet"
What Wikipedia fails to mention is that the Baraat is hella fun and that the main point of it (at least from the point of view of the groom's friends and family) is to have the procession last for as long as possible. The distance of the procession is a little over 300 m or so but it takes about 2-3 hours for the party to get to the end because everyone is having so much fun celebrating and dancing. The "elders," aka UD's dad and uncles, continually pay off the drummers to slow down the pace to keep the party going.
What was probably the highlight from this part of the wedding was the fact that this was our bar area:
That's right, all drinking occurred by the side of the rode, next to what I believe was a sewer, out of the trunk of a car. Now the hotel was in a great area, I think this was just a service rode and hence the sketchy appearance. And to be quite honest, it really enhanced the experience in my opinion, made me feel nostalgic for the days when sneaking alcohol still gave me rush......
The Baraat ended at about midnight, I hope you forgive me if my memory is somewhat hazy after this point, but I believe there was a gift giving ceremony of some sorts, dinner, AND THEN the actual marriage proceedings began, maybe around 3 am. Could have been earlier, could have been later, I don't think the details matter anymore when it's that late.
Now I regret to inform you, after all this celebration and dancing that I was not able to stay awake until my friend actually got married. I went to bed around 4 am and from what I heard (only one person of our group was able to stay awake until almost the end) it finished around 6 am. Below are some pictures of the couple during the ceremony and if you ask me, they both look exhausted.
Megha's clothes were beautiful though, she really was stunning with every outfit change over the course of the weekend. Speaking of clothes, they were amazing. Nadia had a friend in London gracious enough to lend her some clothes for the weekend which we both wore and UD's mom lent me the beautiful sari you see in the above pictures. I think we all enjoyed wearing the traditional clothes over the weekend as well as seeing what everyone else was wearing. Indian women (and men) know how to dress!
And I think that just about sums up India. It was extremely difficult to come back to my normal life after that weekend, even though that life was here in Spain. I had to make my own food again, give up that 5 star hotel bathroom for the world's smallest shower......life was tough.
Of course, I have memories like these to remind me of how awesome it was:
(Just in case you're wondering, that was for a competition and I won)
Morocco
I was home for about a week and a half before I decided it was time for vacation again and left for Morocco. I think I'd only had one class start before I took off again so I was still not missing any school. I went to Morocco with my everlasting travel buddy Nadia, Amanda (one of my old lacrosse buddies from UT), Adil (Nadia's coworker), four of Adil's friends, Natalie (Nadia's friend) and her husband Patrick. It was quite a hodgepodge group of people which Nadia had put together. Normally, I don't like traveling with big groups because they can get tiresome but now that I look back on the trip I couldn't imagine it any other way.
We rented an Airbnb Riad (the traditional Moroccan style house) in Old Fez with it's own married couple as the house staff. I forget their names but the wife made amazing tangines every night with all the classic Moroccan sides and her husband helped organize tours. I arrived the morning after everyone else and was very quickly introduced to the labyrinth of the Fez medina as I was guided to meet up with the others. The Fez medina is the original old walled city founded and built between 789 and 808 AD. No cars are allowed in the medina and it is an absolute maze of small winding streets lined by small stalls and riads. Donkeys and hand pulled carts are the primary way to move large items from one neighborhood to another and the place is absolutely overrun by feral cats. As far as for tourism, it's a gold mine because to walk around the place for the first time ever you really need a guide unless you're prepared to get utterly lost. When I was being guided to meet my friends I think I lost my bearings within the first couple of turns. It's nuts, an assault to your senses (mainly smell) at times, but a fantastic experience.
I arrived and met up with the group in the middle of their walking tour at a spice shop. As I said before, the place is a tourism gold mine because we were really at the mercy of the guide. Not surprisingly, many of the stops on the tour were at the the tourist shops, the spice shop, the cloth shop, the silver shop, and probably the most expensive restaurant in the medina for lunch. You just want to roll your eyes whenever they tell you they're an "authentic" shop with "fair" prices because 1) if the prices really were fair you wouldn't have to say that and 2) where the hell were the Moroccans? Oh, that's right, shopping at non tourist traps. I mean, they should at least pay some locals to stop in every once in a while to pretend they shop at these places too. I think it would really increase their sales. It wasn't all bad though, because I did get to practice smiling with my eyes......
And except for the lunch, it was still a pretty good day just being able to walk around the medina. Also, guide did talk about some of the history of the area and we went to this beautiful old school.
The camel ride out to the camp was only about 30-40 minutes so we didn't dive too deep into the desert which I thought would be comforting but once we got there I wished I could go further. It's almost like the Sahara hypnotizes you. You can't stop staring out onto the vast empty landscape and wonder "what's behind that other sand dune?" You know the answer is more sand but you still want to go look just to make sure. I'm sure if I ever got lost in the desert my opinion would alter slightly...
We got the camp and it was actually pretty plush as far as camping goes. There were several sleeping tents with beds and heavy blankets, a kitchen tent where our guides cooked our dinner, and a dining room tent. The guides started cooking as soon as we got there and made a pretty good tangine for dinner.
And drank some mint tea made by a a genuinely friendly tea shop owner who might have been the only Moroccan we met that actually gave us a Moroccan price for something.
And I discovered that the camera on my phone now has this "photobooth" feature which I really should use more often.
Also, when I finally saw our riad and the view from its terrace, it made me forget a little bit about being hustled all day.
The next day we took a trip into the desert to stay overnight. The drive was about 6 hours through the craziest landscape changes I've ever seen for such a relatively short drive. We left Fes and within an hour or two we found ourselves in the "Little Switzerland" of Morocco. I was really not expecting green mountains with patches of snow on the way to the desert. We didn't stop, but there were several places to pull over and sled if one felt so inclined. We passed through more mountainous areas with green gorges and valleys, drove around a beautiful, large clear lake, until we finally found ourselves on the edge of the Sahara desert. Interesting little tidbit, don't be afraid of the meals served at the gas stations in Morocco, two of my favorite meals came from those stops!
We got to a hotel and were quickly ushered out to the camels waiting for us so as not to miss the sunset on the way to the camp in the desert. My favorite moments of the entire trip were when I was riding that camel. But to be fair, I think I'm just a fan of animal transportation in general because I also love riding horses and I'm sure I would enjoy riding a donkey if giving the opportunity. The best parts of the ride, in my opinion because I think it scared others, were when the camel got up and down so you could climb on and off. I need to go to Dubai and ride a two humped camel now, I hear they're larger!
We made it just in time for sunset.
The camel ride out to the camp was only about 30-40 minutes so we didn't dive too deep into the desert which I thought would be comforting but once we got there I wished I could go further. It's almost like the Sahara hypnotizes you. You can't stop staring out onto the vast empty landscape and wonder "what's behind that other sand dune?" You know the answer is more sand but you still want to go look just to make sure. I'm sure if I ever got lost in the desert my opinion would alter slightly...
We got the camp and it was actually pretty plush as far as camping goes. There were several sleeping tents with beds and heavy blankets, a kitchen tent where our guides cooked our dinner, and a dining room tent. The guides started cooking as soon as we got there and made a pretty good tangine for dinner.
After dinner the guides, who were from a nearby Berber group, serenaded us with some local music.
And later on into the even we stared at the stars as one of the guides told jokes in Spanish. It was an amazing evening and I only have two regrets:
1) Next time I go into the desert I'm bringing some wine. Not that I needed wine, just would have been nice to sip on some red in the Sahara. (our Berber guides definitely seemed like the were used to hosting rowdier groups, most likely the Spaniards from the jokes he was telling.....)
2) I need to stay up until the moon sets so I can really see how amazing the stars look. I was still impressed by the night sky that I saw because my city girl eyes hardly ever get to see so many stars, but Patrick was awake right before sunrise and captured this photo of the Milky Way. It's my favorite from the whole trip:
Our drive back was fairly uneventful, just a few scenic stops here and there.... saw some monkeys in the forest. We were all pretty tired but still had enough energy to take my second favorite photos.:
All in all, while the trip was great my feelings about Morocco remain mixed. The food was delicious, the people generally friendly, I never felt uncomfortable walking around, the country was beautiful, and you can tell its economy is definitely on the rise. However, I definitely grew weary about how much the Moroccans were always shaking us down for money. Hell, my cab driver to the airport airport tried to make an extra "site seeing" stop to which I had to firmly say no. It's hard to trust anybody when you know they're trying to rip you off while wearing a smile. I know haggling is a thing, and I've done it before in other countries, I just got the feeling that whenever we went anywhere people just looked at us with $ in their eyes. I've never really felt that in another country and it really wears you down. And it's not like I'm unwilling to buy stuff, I'm a very good consumer when I'm in the mood, I'm just saying they should try a little harder at not making me feel like a walking wallet. With that said, I'd have no problem going back. I really enjoyed myself and I'd love to see more parts of the country.....and ride a camel again.
The vacation ends.....kind of
After I returned from Morocco my classes FINALLY started. I was ready to rejoin the real world, constant vacationing is exhausting. It's so weird being the only student for half my classes, and making up 50% of the students for the other half. The classes are very informal to say the least. It's good though, I have a structured schedule, I'm doing assignments, and it's nice to be learning again. Since I'm the only person in several courses, those professors decided to join forces and I'm going to be doing a big project with them rather than formal lectures. I like that idea more because I think it will help to apply a lot of what I've already learned to practical studies of the coast.
Even though my vacation is officially over, I still have a lot to look forward to over the coming months. Lots of people are coming to Spain for visits. Who would have thought that more people want to travel to Spain in the spring than Norway in the fall? Bizarre.
My parents and aunt Neva were here all last week. It was great, and not only because we ate and drank our weight in delicious food and wine, but also because I got to experience rock star status once again at their hotel. I'm pretty sure they had one of the best views of the city from their room. I couldn't spend much time with them for the first part of the week because of school but the latter part I joined them on a couple day trips out of the city. We went to the Montserrat Monastery and a local vineyard one day and Girona and the Salvador Dali museum on the other. I was really nice to go out and see more of Catalonia because I know I really should travel around Spain more while I'm here. This weekend I'm headed down to Andalusia to visit with my aunt Gaby who has hopped over the pond with some of her students from school for a spring break trip, and in less than two weeks I will be reunited with Nadia and my two friends Kim and Ashley. So excited to see them all! Oh, and I'll also be going on vacation again because the first week of April is Santa Semana and school is closed.
I know, life really is tough. Thank goodness there's cheap wine here to keep all the stress at a minimum.
