A short trip to the Greek islands

Part 1: Santorini

A few months ago my friend Lilly from Bulgaria, who always loves to ask me random questions, asked me if I would consider going on a trip with her this spring. So I asked her what destination she had in mind. Santorini is what she said.

So here we are now: on a beach in Santorini. Lilly is sunbathing next to me with a red scarf covering her face and I'm sitting, no, I'm lying next to her writing this blog post in the little notebook I got as a present when I went to Tanzania to write down my travel stories. Some soothing music is playing on the background, my sunglasses and swimming shorts are on and I'm staring at the sea, which is as blue as you would imagine it to be on a Greek island. I'm dreaming away more often than I'd like to, but that's no problem: I still have the whole afternoon to write.

It's just 4 days ago that, after months of chatting via Facebook, I met Lilly in person for the first time. Some people were hesitant about my holiday, since I would be spending a week with a person I never met before, but we got along very well from the first minute. We spent our first few days in Fira, the capital of Santorini, where one can enjoy the following view around sunset:

I now fully understand why some girls are dreaming of a honeymoon on Santorini.

On Saturday we took a long walk from Fira to Oia. The walk there is long and contains a lot of climbing, but the views are amazing and the village is worth a visit as well.
We decided to spend a few days at the other side of the island, where the views are less stunning. This is where I am now. We are staying at the most lovely place ever: Samson's Village in Perissa, Santorini. And because it's still low-season we were able to book our own apartment here for just 15 euros per person per night! It was a bit difficult to find at first (also due to some helpful locals sending us in the wrong direction), but I really recommend this place.

Before I tell the next story, I should first tell you a bit more about my travel partner Lilly. For example that she is a bit of a naughty girl. So when we climbed up a steep hill for 45 minutes only to find out that the ruins of ancient Thira (which we planned to visit) were closed on Mondays, she insisted on climbing over the gate to visit those ruins anyway. My rational mind wasn't comfortable trespassing and wasn't sure how we'd make it back over the gate without a lock to place our foot on the other side of the gate, so I didn't join her in her impulsive action. Therefore I can only tell the story to you the way Lilly told it to me afterwards.
According to her story, she was walking up the final path to the ruins when she suddenly heard a siren behind her. She looked back and saw a large pick-up truck. Out of the window on the driver's side appeared an arm that was signalling her to walk down again. The man in the car, I imagine him as a middle-aged bald man with big arms and an angry look on his face, got out of the car when Lilly passed by and without saying a word he opened the gate for her to let her out. The fact that the man didn't speak was a bit intimidating, but in the end Lilly was happy he said nothing and didn't force her to pay a fine or take her to the local police station.

Ok, that's all for now. From the Black Beach of Perissa I say to you: Goodbye!

Part 2: Mykonos

Hello! Here I am again! It's the last day of my trip to Greece and today I'm not writing to you from the airport of Athens instead of a sunny beach. A bit of a different environment, but I hope I can write nicely here as well.

The day after I wrote to you from Santorini we left the island and moved on to another island: Mykonos. Mykonos is more of a party island and (I didn't know this) it's also a very popular island for gay people. So when walking around town it happened to me for the first time that both partners of an approaching (gay) couple were checking me out at the same time. They even both moved their head simultaneously when I was walking by (even with Lilly walking right next to me). I wasn't quite sure how to respond to this, but I guess I'll take it as a compliment.

Lilly and I didn't attend any wild parties at this party island though. We explored the cute little streets of Mykonos (see photo below) on the first day and in the evening we watched the first semi final of the Eurovision Song Contest together. Before the show started we had a little argument over who should win, but afterwards we agreed that Sweden should win the contest. And it would have been a lot better for the contest if this prediction came true, if you ask me.

On the next day we rented two quads. That was really something nice. We drove across the entire island and visited many places that one could never see by only using public transportation. Interestingly enough, at the end of the day we were more tired than after our hiking day on Santorini. Probably this was due to the wind that was constantly blowing in our faces. But despite this, we had a very memorable day.

So now the trip is over and I will catch my flight home soon. I have had an amazing week here. It was less of a backpacking holiday than I am used to, but this kind of holiday was nice for a change. I can't wait to go on another big backpacking trip though. I have no idea where I will go yet, so people who have suggestions are more than welcome to share those with me.

Eurovision 2014: my top 5

In a few weeks time it will be time for the Eurovision Song Contest again. 10 years ago this would have been a really exciting moment with a lot of pleasant (and unpleasant) surprises on the day itself, but nowadays it's very easy to listen to all songs in advance and pick your favorites. And that is exactly what I did. Here is my top 5:

5. Switzerland (Sebalter - Hunter Of Stars)

I can't help it: I just like all Swiss entries for Eurovision. Maybe it's due to their extensive selection process, maybe I just like Swiss music in general. Anyway, the past 4 years Switzerland has been in my top 5 of favorite Eurovision songs and this year is no different. I doubt that this song will win finish top 5 in the real contest as well, but the whistling adds something extra and makes the song stand out. My prediction is that Sebalter does have the potential to make it to the final with a good live performance, but if they do, they're probably going to end in the bottom regions there.

4. Sweden (Sanna Nielsen - Undo)

I already knew Sanna Nielsen and liked her music (and so did you guys, since she finished fourth in ISC#3 with her song "Empty Room"). And now not only the readers of my blog but Eurovision fans from all over the world will get to know Sanna's music. Her song "Undo" is among the top favorites according to the bookmakers. I'm afraid that there is too much competition on the sad love songs-department for her to win the contest, but she will certainly get a good result with this beautiful love ballad.

3. Finland (Softengine - Something Better)

After Switzerland, Finland another country that is often in my personal top 5. I realize that this song is just my personal taste and I'm afraid that these guys are going to struggle to reach the final. But I will certainly be enjoying their performance in the semi finals.

2. Denmark (Basim - Cliche Love Song)

The host country of Eurovision will be represented by a young man named Basim, who is singing a very catchy pop song. He is showing that a song doesn't need to be complicated to be a candidate for the victory.

If you ask me, Denmark may well go for a second victory in a row.

1. Latvia (Aarzemnieki - Cake To Bake)

Cakes seem to be an important topic at this year's edition of Eurovision. Teo from Belarus sings about how he's tired of being called "sweet cheesecake" by his girlfriend and Jöran is singing for Latvia about baking a cake as well. This song is my personal favorite in the song contest.

They are the least likely to win the contest according to bookmakers, but for sure they will give a happy, summery feeling to the viewers of the Eurovision Song Contest.

The musical journey continues!

And here I am, back after an amazing summer and an even more amazing travel to South America. I am currently writing down my travel stories and plan to post them next weekend. First, I will continue the musical journey around the world that I started at the beginning of this year. In this post I will share some nice songs from all over the world.

Indila - Dernière Danse (France)

The first song I'm sharing with you is a huge hit right now in France. Even though it's not really my kind of music, I can understand why. Even though she's well in her thirties, this is only the first solo single by Indila (real name: Adila Sedraia) and there's not a lot of information available about her online. Hope you will enjoy the song by this French mystery woman...

Satellite Stories - Scandinavian Girls (Finland)

Through my own International Song Contest I've already shared some of my favorite music from other countries. Satellite Stories (3rd place in ISC #4) has really become one of my favorite bands now. They make that typical kind of indie music that I like. Their songs remind me of bands like Vampire Weekend, The Wombats and Two Door Cinema Club. In February these guys were coming to the Netherlands and I saw them live. They were amazing. :)

Celeste Buckingham - Never Be You (Slovakia)

You may also remember the Slovak entry in ISC#4: Celeste Buckingham. I listened to some more songs by her and also became a fan of this young woman. Buckingham was born in Switzerland (from a Swiss mother and an American father, which explains her non-Slovak sounding last name) and has been living in Slovakia for the biggest part of her life. She barely reached the top 10 in the Czechoslovak version of Idols, but I'm glad that she kept on singing. Just listen to the song below and you will see why. 

If you liked this song and want to hear her duet with the famous Slovak rapper Majk Spirit, click here.

Ziyoda - Kun Tong (Uzbekistan)

Up next a song from the relatively unknown but very beautiful country of Uzbekistan. Ziyoda (or as her passport says: Ziyoda O’tkirovna Qobilova) is a famous singer and actress in Uzbekistan. She has a voice that reminds me a bit of Shakira. This song may not be the most special song ever, but it's always nice to hear what kind of music people listen to in a country like Uzbekistan, right?

Being a woman online: a social experiment

The internet has made it a lot easier to get in touch with new people from other countries. This has many advantages. One can learn a lot from other cultures and meet many interesting people online. However, there is one disadvantage. Every horny and dirty-minded (or just lonely and hopelessly romantic) man has the possibility to contact thousands of women all over the world as well.

A couple of weeks ago a friend from Interpals, a website created for “meeting penpals, language partners, travel buddies or just plain old fashioned friends” online, told me she recently received a marriage proposal via this website. After joking a bit about what would happen if she would actually say yes to this proposal and marry this man from an undisclosed Arab country we came to the conclusion that it’s not always easy to be a woman online. I got curious and wanted to experience what it’s like to be a woman online. I came up with the idea to do an experiment. I would create a fake profile on Interpals for a few days to see what it’s like to be a woman online.

Experiment setup

First, I needed to fill in some fake personal details for my profile. I decided to call myself Maria the coming days and chose to be born on 25 June 1990 in a city in the center of Poland. Why Poland? No idea. It just came to me. I googled a casual picture of an ex-Miss Poland which could be my profile picture. Next, I had to write an “About me”-section. To keep this fake girl as boring as possible, I just wrote “Hi, I’m Maria from Poland.”. There are thousands of Polish members on Interpals who actually put in effort to make an interesting profile, so this profile should not stand out based on what was written there.

I was going to test 2 hypotheses:
1. A beautiful woman gets many messages, even if her profile is boring
2. Even when a woman writes bad things about herself on her profile, men will still be interested in her if she's beautiful.

And of course I was also curious how all those men try to impress a pretty woman.

Let the experiment begin...

To test the first hypothesis I had to do nothing but wait. And I didn't need to wait for a long time. Many people, all of them male, visited the profile of beautiful Maria. In just 20 minutes the profile was visited by 16 men and I got 3 responses, none of which were interesting. They were only writing things like “hi” or “you are cute”. Messages kept on coming in at an extremely high pace. Even if I would have wanted to reply to all these messages, I wouldn't have had enough time to do so. Within just 24 hours after creating this profile I had received 38 messages and the profile had been visited by more than 100 people. In comparison: my own profile with pictures of me and some, without bragging, interesting information about me gets me around 15 page views on a day that I spend a lot of time online and if I'm lucky I get 2 messages from new people on such a day.

The hypothesis that pretty girls get many messages even with a boring profile has been confirmed without a doubt.

Let's be a bad girl!

Now for the next phase of the experiment. I wanted to see if guys actually read the text on a girl's profile or if most of them only look at the pictures. To test this, I added the following text to my profile: I like shopping, maybe a bit too much because I never have money and always have to borrow money from my friends haha. I like to party often, I can drink a lot haha. Also I can be a bit temperamental and jealous sometimes, but if people don't like me for who I am they are not worth it to be my friends, right?

Any rational guy would know to avoid such a girl. She's a golddigger, an alcoholic and has some anger management issues. Not really marriage material, I would say. Ahmet from Turkey had a different opinion though and sent me a message a few hours later with nothing more than the text "will you marry me". Yay! My first marriage proposal! I could have a double wedding together with my friend!

The amount of messages i received in the next day, 16, was significantly lower than the amount of messages I got on the first day of my experiment. What interested me the most was that I only received one funny comment on my profile (so those other men probably didn't read what I wrote or were too lazy to write me a personal message) and that suddenly I got a lot of messages from men in Poland. Maybe the phrase "I can drink a lot" on my profile made me more attractive to them? Anyhow, this second hypothesis was also confirmed: a lot of men don't seem to care what a girl writes on her profile, as long as she's pretty.

What do men write to pretty girls?

Though nobody wrote dirty things to me, I was still a bit disappointed by the kind of messages I received. Most men write only about themselves and don't ask me questions. Only very few people asked me questions about me, even though I wrote nothing about myself on my profile! In total there were about 2-3 messages out of more than 50 messages that might have been worth it to reply to if I were a real girl. That's a disappointing score and I have to admire the brave girls who maintain a profile on Interpals for putting up with so many uninteresting messages. I wouldn't be able to go through 50 uninteresting messages just to find that one message that is actually worth it...

Funny messages I received

Now for the most fun part of this post, here are some of the most memorable messages I've received:
- One man from Pakistan sent me a video of himself playing guitar.
- One older man from the USA wrote to me his entire life story in three paragraphs and then just finished with "have a nice day", without asking any questions about me. How would he expect a woman to reply to that?
- A man from Germany understood that I would get a lot of "hey how are you"-messages and wanted to be different: he just wrote to me "truth or dare?".
- One man from Poland wrote me a standard message in English. Apparently he hadn't even noticed the flag next to my photo.
- One man from Turkey asked me to marry him without any further comments.
- One guy from Pakistan apologized at the end of his message for his creepy message and admitted that he just didn't know how to start up a conversation with a girl.
- A creepy man from United Arab Emirates wrote me that I had the perfect body to be a belly dancer. And this was my lucky day that day, because this guy was a coach who would love to teach me how to belly dance on Skype... I wonder how many girls will fall for such tricks.

And what surprised me the most: when I search for new penpals myself, I often see the name of one Mexican guy appearing in friends-lists. He must be friends with more than 1000 girls on Interpals all over the world. This same guy actually wrote me a message within 24 hours after I created my profile, stating in Google Translate-Polish how much he wanted to learn Polish and how beautiful he thought I was. Some men are really pathetic and tell all kinds of lies just to impress a girl...


Disclaimer: Some people may think it’s disrespectful to create a fake profile, let men write to you and then never reply. However, the kind of men that would reply to this kind of profile is not really entitled to receiving a nice treatment. Most of them would have forgotten all about Maria already 1 minute after sending this message anyway. By that time they are already way too busy checking out the pictures of the next pretty girl.

How to travel on a budget? Seven tips from an experienced low-budget traveller

People often ask me how I manage to travel so often. The answer is very simple: I try to spend as little money as possible on my travels. You may think that this goes at the expense of having a comfortable travel. This is not necessarily true, but I admit that sometimes it is more comfortable to go for the first available option than to spend time looking for a cheaper alternative. However, most of the times it's also fun to find those cheap alternatives. An additional benefit is that you are more likely to get in touch with locals or other travelers with a similar mindset.

In this post I will tell you seven tips on how to travel cheaper and have more fun while traveling. I hope they will be useful for you.

1. Book your flight as cheap as possible

You can already save a lot of money before your travel even starts. If your destination is close, consider low-cost airlines such as RyanAir, EasyJet, GermanWings and WizzAir when purchasing your ticket. The seats in these planes are fine, so why pay more for the same flight at another airline? The only difference is that you don't get a free meal with most low-cost airlines, but food and drinks are available during the flight. Even if you decide buy the most expensive meal on board your total fare would still be cheaper than the cheapest alternative in most cases. The best thing though is to eat something at home or to bring food with you on the plane. You are not allowed to bring liquids on board, but you are allowed to bring your own sandwiches, cookies and chocolate on the plane.

If you are flexible with your travel dates or departure/arrival destination, it pays off to check out www.skyscanner.com. This website allows you to compare your options very easily by allowing you to type country names instead of airport names in the "from" and "to" fields and by allowing you to choose the option "whole month" or even "whole year" instead of inflexible travel dates. Another advice is to regularly check websites that often have lists with discount tickets. I know that in Holland we have www.ticketspy.nl and in Czech Republic they have www.akcniletenky.com. It can be useful for you to know a similar website from your own country, especially if you are flexible with your destinations.

2. Never change money in advance when traveling to a cheaper country

This tip is very useful for people who live in a western country, like the Netherlands. When you exchange your money in a western country you usually pay a fixed service fee AND you get a bad exchange rate, especially if the currency you are looking for is rare in your own country. The best thing to do then is to bring euros (or dollars, for some countries outside of Europe) to your holiday destination and exchange the money there. If the euro is not your own currency: ALWAYS change the money you have left at the end of your holiday back to euros instead of your home currency and keep your euros in a special box at home so you can use them on another travel.

Another piece of advice: NEVER change money on the streets. People may come up to you and offer you good exchange rates, but most likely they will still rip you off in one way or another. Always exchange your money at an office that has its rates written down outside and count your money while you are still at the desk. Even if the cashier counts it for you, do your own recount to make sure that the amount is correct.

A final piece of advice: if you are arriving in a new country on a Sunday, make sure you don't have to look for exchange offices. It happened to me once in Ohrid (Macedonia) that I could find no exchange office at all, but I was lucky enough that I could pay for my accommodation in euros and get enough change back in the local currency to buy a cheap meal at the local McDonald's.

It's also recommended not to use ATM's abroad very often and to get big amounts when you do. Most banks charge you a fee of 2-4 euros per transaction, on top of the bad exchange rate they are offering.

3. Save on accommodation!

When you are traveling alone, it's ideal to stay in hostels. Hostels are a great place to meet other travelers. For those of you who have never been to a hostel: hostels are hotels with big dorm rooms where 3 or more people can sleep. You pay just for your bed and because you share your room with other people a hostel is a lot cheaper than a hotel. If you want to book a hostel, just go to www.hostelworld.com, enter your destination, find a hostel you like based on your requirements and just book it. Alternatively, you can just write down the names and addresses of your favorite hostels and not book anything. I prefer to do it this way, because it gives you the flexibility to change your plans while you are traveling if you get some advice from locals, other travelers or hostel staff. Another advantage is that if you can't find your most preferred hostel, you don't need to search for it and can just go to another hostel.

An even more fun way to save on accommodation costs is to go Couchsurfing. Via www.couchsurfing.com you can find people at your destination who are offering you a place to sleep for free (traditionally a couch, but there are also many people who have beds or inflatable mattresses). Usually your "host" will take you out to see the city, or at least give some advice. Which brings me to the next tip I have for you:

4. Meet up with and talk to locals

The best and most awesome way to travel is to meet many locals. They can tell you about all the good places in their city (including the ones tourist guides usually won't tell you about!) and explain everything about local food and traditions. Moreover, they can give you advice on how to use local public transportation as well. Compared to eating only in tourist places and joining expensive city tours for tourists, meeting up with a local (or just talking to them in a bus, on a plane or while you both are waiting for something) can definitely save you some money. But more importantly: these meetups are often what you will remember most about a trip. I will never forget how talking to a random man at a bus station caused me to make an 8-hour road-trip through the desert in Oman with 3 strangers. Or how I ended up spending an entire evening in a pizzeria in Kenya with 4 students I met on a local bus. So my advice: don't be shy or scared to talk to strangers while traveling. Be open-minded about meeting new people. This attitude might just give you a memory that will last for a lifetime.
Please do use common sense though and try to figure out whether this person is genuinely curious about you or just wants something from you.

5. Eat local food in small restaurants or on the street

A lot of tourists eat most of their meals abroad in big restaurants. They eat regular meals that they are used to eat in their home country or go to the touristic places where they sell local food for a high price. The best idea is to look for a place a bit more out of the center that has many local people inside. Getting advice from a local could help you with this. The receptionist of your ho(s)tel may also be able to help you, but you can never be sure whether he has ties with a certain restaurant. For sure you should NOT go to touristic restaurants that offer really cheap meals (especially if you ever find yourself in Aguas Calientes) or restaurants where nobody is sitting inside while it's dinner time. In both cases eating there would most likely not be good for your health.

In some countries you can also buy good food on the streets. This food is in some cases even better than the food you are getting in restaurants, but you should always be careful about hygiene. Make sure that you see how the salesman is cooking the food and that you agree with his methods before you buy anything from him.

6. Do volunteer work during your holiday

Many people are interested in doing volunteer work abroad. Most of these people drop out when they see the high prices that most organisations are asking their volunteers to pay. I have one organisation they need to know about: Service Civil International. At www.workcamps.info you can find more than 500 short-term volunteer camps abroad (projects usually last around 2 weeks). As a volunteer you are expected to work 5 or 6 hours per day together with other volunteers from all over the world on a charity project. You can search for a project yourself, so you can also choose the kind of work you will be doing and your destination. You are required to pay a sum of around 100 euros (depends on the local branche of SCI in your home country) and all meals and accommodation are usually included. In the weekends you have free time to visit nearby tourist attractions or enjoy some relaxation together with the other volunteers. And you book your own flight ticket, so you can have as much time as you want before or after the project to visit the country or travel around a bit. So if you were ever interested in doing volunteer work abroad but never followed through, then this is your chance.

7. Be creative: use your own talents

This last one is a difficult one for me to describe as every person has different skills and expertise, but let me give you some examples of how other travelers managed to travel cheaply using their own talents.

- One Dutch man has traveled to Africa many times and it didn't cost him a penny. How did he do it? Simple: he bought an old Mercedes or Toyota (both very strong cars) in the Netherlands and drove them to Africa. Once in Africa, he could sell these cars for high prices because these brands are very popular in Africa. Moreover, this guy had a story to tell, so he was often invited by locals and offered free food and a house to stay the night.
- It can also help to learn more than just a few basic phrases in a language. Especially if you travel to a country where the people are supposed to be quite hospitable, it can pay off if you speak the language of locals (actually in more than just a financial way).
- One time when I was abroad I met an woman in her forties who told stories of her travels around Latin America when she was younger. She stayed in a touristic city in Mexico for a longer time when she ran out of money. She had to find a way to make money quickly and decided to try out being a "living statue" in a touristic place. According to her story, she was among the first people to try being a living statue and she earned so much money that she even had to take some of the money home at the end of her travel.
- If you are handy or good at gardening/farming, you can find very cheap working holidays at websites like www.staydu.com or www.wwoof.net.

That would be all from me. Do you have any more tips you want to share? Feel free to write them in a comment!

100 blog posts

In the summer of 2009 I opened my own weblog. From the very first moment I promised myself that I would only write on my blog when I had time and inspiration for it. Having a blog should never be an obligation for me. This also explains why there have been some long pauses between blog posts from time to time. But I always got back to writing here and here I am writing my 100th post.

Today's post is going to be about music again. My favorite music, to be precise. Lately I haven't been searching for new music that much, but I do have a few songs I'd like to share with you today. So let's start.

77 Bombay Street - Oko Town

77 Bombay Street is one of my favorite bands at the moment. This band exists of four brothers from Basel, Switzerland. In 2001, their family moved to Australia, where they lived in Adelaide. Their address over there was 77 Bombay Street and that explains their somewhat odd band name.

If you have been a really loyal follower of my blog over the years, you may remember these guys for finishing third in the third edition of my International Song Contest with their amazing song Long Way. Back then they weren't looking very fashionable, but I'm happy to tell you that they now changed their outfits, especially for their new video. The abandoned the old strange-looking uniforms and replaced them with... garbage bags and rubber boots. Fashion is clearly a topic these guys will never understand.

Ryan Star - Start A Fire

I have just searched my entire blog and discovered that I never shared a video by Ryan Star. This is going to change soon. If you ask me, Ryan Star has certainly one of the best and most powerful voices in the world. That's also why I like pretty much all of his songs. Today I will share the song Start A Fire with you guys because it always gives me new energy, but if you like this song, be sure to check out Right Now, Last Train Home and Breathe as well.

Scouting For Girls - Millionaire

A few years ago I was a really big fan of SFG and even followed their YouTube-channel very actively. Roy, Greg and Pete seemed to be one happy trio that seemed to have lots of fun together and they made exactly the kind of music I liked: British indiepop, sung by a singer with a huge British accent. I went to their first concert in a small room with only 50 people and it was a really nice atmosphere. Unfortunately they went commercial with their second album. I still liked most of their music, but wasn't a big fan any more. When I went to their second concert in the Netherlands, I was standing among screaming teenage girls, which was not a good experience.

Now they are back with a song that is a great mix of British indie and commercial pop. It may not reach the top of the charts, but I'm very glad to see that these guys are going back to their roots now. Maybe one day I can enjoy a concert by them again without the screaming girls all around me.

In the coming weeks I will continue my musical tour around the world, but up next will be a post about budget-traveling. I started writing it already and expect to publish it here next weekend.

My winter trip to Morocco

I never really understood why Dutch people (who are not limited to school holidays) always travel in summer. In summer the weather is good in the Netherlands, so why would you need to go to some other place then? For me it makes much more sense to go on holiday when the weather in my own country is bad. Then I can go on holiday to a place where the weather is good and by doing this I maximize the amount of days with good weather in my year. This is also the reason, besides being eager to visit yet another new country, why I booked a holiday to Morocco in February.

Getting acquainted with Moroccan culture in Marrakech

My plan was to visit the most important cities in the country and to experience what it's like to live in a North-African country. My trip started in Marrakech, where I was supposed to meet my Couchsurfing-host Oussama at the airport. He was a lot later than we initially agreed and I wasn't able to reach him over the phone so in the end I left on my own to the city center and stayed in a hostel. It turns out that he did send an e-mail that he would be late, but since there is no wifi at the airport of Marrakech I only read that e-mail when I was already at the hostel. Luckily I met some very nice people there so I still had a good time in Marrakech. It was especially interesting to be at the main square (Djemaa El-Fna) at night, when there are so many things happening at the square. There are snake-charmers, circus acts, musicians, people with monkeys and a lot of food stalls. It was a really interesting - but very touristic - experience.

The only bad thing about Marrakech (and all other touristic places in Morocco) is that you are constantly harassed by people who just see tourists as wallets with arms and legs. Since I don't want the story about my trip too long, I have written a seperate post about Moroccan culture. In this second post(see below if you are on the homepage of my blog) you can read more about how I was harassed during my trip by these annoying men.

Follow the backpacker!

After visiting Marrakech for one day it was time to move on. I skipped the hectic city of Casablanca because there is not much to see over there and stopped at Rabat: the capital and economical heart of Morocco. As usual I didn't book any hotel in advance and since I also had no clear preference for a hotel I played a little game called "follow the backpacker". When getting off the train in Rabat I saw a tiny girl with a big backpack walking in front of me. I decided quickly that she would probably be better informed about the ho(s)tels in Rabat than I was, so I followed her to see where she was going. After stalking her for 5 minutes I felt like a creep and also I was curious about her, so I walked up to her and started talking to her. In a huge French accent she told me she had been traveling together with her friend for one month already, but he left this morning and now she was on her way to a hotel that was mentioned in her Lonely Planet-guide. We decided to go find the hotel together and even shared a room that night. Together we visited the city for one day, but after that I had to leave her in Rabat and move to the next city because otherwise I would not get to see everything I wanted to see. I now understand why people told me one week is not enough to see Morocco.

Chefchaouen

My next destination was Chefchaouen: a beautiful city in the Rif mountains in the north of Morocco. There was only one bus per day from Rabat to Chefchaouen and it left at an inconvenient time (3 in the afternoon), so I decided to change my schedule a bit and go to Meknes in the morning. I read somewhere that Meknes is called the Versailles of Morocco because there are many beautiful gardens, but overall it's a boring city if you ask me. After walking around for 2 hours I went to the bus station to catch a bus to Chefchaouen. Unfortunately the last bus of the day had already left at noon, so I had to take a grand taxi to Ouazzane and another grand taxi from there to Chefchaouen. A grand taxi is an old Mercedes-Benz 240D which is shared by 6 passengers traveling to the same destination. You wonder how you can fit 6 passengers and 1 driver into one car? The answer is very simple: remove the cabinet between the driver seat and the passenger seat to make room for two passengers in front of the car and squeeze four people on the two back seats of the car. Comfortable traveling is not the highest priority here.

In Chefchaouen there are two things that are impossible: not to get lost while walking around in the old center for the first time and not to get offered some marijuana by secretive men on the streets. The city is located in the area where a lot of marijuana is grown and you can see quite a few stoners in the city. It's not an unsafe place though and I absolutely loved this place. To get an idea of what the city looks like by night and by day, here are two pictures:

In fact, I loved Chefchaouen so much that I wanted to buy a painting from there in one of the many shops. I'm not at all into arts, but it just seemed like a great way to bring a bit of the atmosphere of Chefchaouen home with me. You can read my experience of buying this painting in my other post about Moroccan culture.

My last day in Morocco

On my last day in Morocco I decided to enjoy some typically Moroccan delights. The day started with a Moroccan breakfast with some delicious tea at my hostel in Fez. After breakfast, I went to a hammam (a Moroccan bath house) to wash myself and to get a massage. In my mind I always picture a massage as something that should be done by an young attractive woman (she may be a bit older as well, as long as she makes up for that with massaging experience) with soft but firm hands. This is not what a massage is like in Morocco though. When entering the hammam I was approached by a chubby, 50 years-old bald man with a moustache. He offered me a massage and full body scrub. With a confused look in my eyes I quickly scanned the room for other people who could give me a massage. There were no attractive women around (in fact: there were no women at all), so it was either getting a massage from this man or getting no massage at all. I did want the full hammam-experience, so with hesitation I agreed to let this man give me a massage.

The massage started with some experiences that could be described as a bit gay-erotic. We were both sitting on the floor, the man behind me with his legs pushed against my legs. The chubby was pulling my arms and body in every possible direction to warm up my muscles and while doing this he pushed his fat belly to my back from time to time. I felt a bit uncomfortable now, but up next was another stretching exercise where I was told to bend over and hold the toes of this my massage-man while he stretched me some more. I felt even more uncomfortable, but I had promised myself to have a real Moroccan experience today and did everything that the man wanted from me. Despite the uncomfortable feelings, the massage was very good. Then the body scrub started. It was a strange experience for me: I never did something like this before. After 10 minutes of scrubbing the massage was over and I was given some time to wash myself with the ultra-warm water of the hammam and to relax in the steamy area. I must have sat there, still on the floor, without any movements for like 5 minutes in some sort of trance. After my visit to the hammam I was feeling extremely peaceful and relaxed.
There was still one thing I needed to do before going home. My hair was a bit long and I hadn’t shaved for a week, so it was clear I needed to go to a barber as well. Unfortunately the barber didn’t speak any English or French, so I really did not have any control over the situation and was forced to watch the barber do his business to me. To my surprise he didn’t shave off my “beard”, but rather made it look more stylish. I wasn’t quite sure what to think about my new look, but decided to “wear” this stylish beard at least for the rest of the day. Unfortunately for you guys I forgot to take good before- and after pictures.
With my new haircut I went into the medina one last time to have a warm lunch. Unlike on most other days, the food was not that good, but that didn’t really bother me any more: I had enough good food in the past week to know that Moroccan food is delicious.

After lunch it was time to go home, so I went to the bus station to catch the bus to the airport. I had to wait for more than 1 hour for the bus to come, not knowing if and when it would come, because there is no fixed bus schedule for local buses in Morocco. But I’m not complaining. This only added to the experience of my Moroccan day.