Continuing On!

Finishing off Morocco, I was in Fez, Chefchoaun, and Tangier. Fez was incredible. It had a music festival going on, as well as the biggest medina in all of Morocco to get lost in. One a jaunt, I decided to pop into a non-descript alley due to a sign that said "Cafe Clock". This turned out to be a cool little gem of a cafe, but also I met a couple from NYC there, who own a home in Fez and commute there often. David is an IT guy pretty far up in IBM's echelon, but is a crazy guy to speak with. Very funny guy, kind of a cross between George Carlin (God rest his soul...)and Chris Rock. Anyway, they invite me back to their riad (home). To say the least David had a great insightful comment that behind these doors lie palaces. The alleyways are lined with old wooden doors that really belie what they hide. Which is immense, ornate, palatial homes, most 4 or 5 stories high and graced with beautiful tiling done hundreds of years ago. You can have one for about $35,000, literally. Anyway, I had dinner with them and their friends and also watched sufi dancing, which was a spectacle of lights, music, singing and dancing. Chefchouan is known as the Blue City, which is apt, as its doors and streets are lit up in radiant blues of all shades. Really picturesque town. Tanger was mainly a port city used to get over to Spain by way of ferry. Didn't see Jason Bourne there, nor did I kill anyone with a towel, which was one of my main reasons to go. Guess I will have to return at a later date.

Making my way to Spain, I was really a sad soldier looking back from the ferry at Africa receding away into the distance. My feet not on its soil for the first time in 6+ months, I realized just how much it meant to me and how much I had grown accustom to its unique blend of craziness and excitement. Certainly each country had its own distinct flavor, but to me it is all AFRICA. Only death can keep me from returning for more.

My first moments in Spain truly made me feel like an immigrant, fresh off the boat, as it were. Shiny cars, well-dressed people on clean sidewalks waiting to be picked up by a new bus that was on time to bring us along a well-paved road to our destination efficiently and comfortably, was a new experience to me at that point. Creature comforts and their beckoning call, utterly familiar all my life, were hidden at that time, completely out of sight. I feel sad that in only a few weeks they have strengthened their hold, awakening a dormant beast of wanting and "needing" this, that or the other.

But, then again, I like my new clothes.

So far, I saw Picasso's home and museum in Malaga, Alhambra in Granada, Cordoba's wonderful mosque/church/synagogue, which I think they should call a Murchagogue, and Seville. Seville was extra special because the European Championships, which Spain won, were going on while I was there. Watching a game in an Irish pub in Seville with a ton of crazies all around was just the sport fix I needed.

From there, we went to Porto, Portugal, home of port wine. Yummy. It also is an amazing place full of narrow streets winding up and down hills with the Douro River cutting through the middle. It is on this river where all of the port wine houses make the beverage du jour. Beaches as well. I am now in Lisbon enjoying what I have seen so far, but mainly waiting for my sister to get her butt here! We will be touring Lisbon and Madrid and Ibiza together, finally in a foreign country together! 5 years in the planning...