Hello! I am now safely in northern Africa! In between the 3 AM car ride to the airport and the moment Laura and I were finally at her house was about 32 hrs of traveling, including a car ride, four plane flights, a city bus ride, two taxi rides, and a walk to my sister's house. I am now thoroughly sick of airplanes and am happy to see them as jetstreams in the sky, and no closer! :) I met a few interesting people on the "long" flight to Madrid from Philly, and I felt very attached to the people in my flight by the end - we were 2.5 hours longer with each other than anticipated since our plane had a problem with the wheel that needed fixed so we were that much longer waiting to take off. I was concerned this would complicate my Ryanair connection in Madrid, but there was a nice couple sharing the row with me, and the man was from Spain. He knew the airport well and explained to me how to get to the Ryanair luggage desk easily so that helped calm my fears. :)
It was so good to see Laura! We walked a ways to the city bus stop that would take us to the taxi cab place. Before catching the bus I really needed to use the bathroom, so we found a place I could use - of course it was a "squatty"! That was a fun experience! No, really, it was! :) It was fun to travel like the locals, even though we got mixed up on the bus and had to pay twice since we got on at the wrong point. Then we went to the grocery store near the taxi cab place (I was so hungry that it was the most divine grocery store I've ever seen!), and after buying popscicles, we found a taxi that would take us to Laura's town. They wanted to fill the taxi completely (meaning 6 passangers in the Mercedes), and there were only 5 of us going to the same place, so we had a bit of a wait. I dozed and Laura played with an alleycat. Finally we found someone who also wanted to go where we were going (yay), and two ladies stuffed themselves with Laura and I in the back seat of the car and two men sat in front with the driver. The journey would take 4 hrs. normally, but since taxi drivers are fast, it only takes 3 hrs. by taxi. Other than feeling slightly cramped at the end, it was not a bad way to travel. For one, you don't need a seatbelt since you're so crowded and for two, if you're sleepy, it's more comfortable to doze in the car while being smashed since you won't roll around very much. It's quite beautiful here. We went through some mountains and it looks a lot like Los Angeles. I kept expecting to see "Hollywood" on one of the mountains.
Once we made it to Laura's town, it was dark and we were still a half hour walk from her house, so we found a taxi that would take us to her house, but we only had enough money to make it most of the way there, so we finished the journey by foot. Even though it was dark, it still feels very safe around here. Actually, everywhere we were felt safe to me. People look out for each other a lot here. Laura said to walk around in the dark after 9 isn't a good idea, but other than that it is quite fine. Of course the traffic around is crazy (esp. in the main town I flew into), with people jaywalking everywhere and horns honking and bikes and motorbikes going as fast as they can. Makes crossing the street a little more complicated, but again, it's not as scary as you might think....people are actually expecting things to be crossing the street, so they honk at you and give you just the amount of space you need.. :)
Laura has a nice little apartment. Our popsicles didn't go very far, so we were starving when we got home! We had water and peanuts and popcorn and oranges grown locally! Yum! They were good!. Then we got out the nutella because nutella spread on popcorn is great (read: a great way to get nutella in your mouth..). I slept very well (hope that happens again tonight!), and now Laura is teaching the kids school as I write this. There was just some drums and singing goin on in the street. They were all dressed up. Very fun.
Well, I'll try to keep you all posted. It's going to be a grand time already, I can tell. The kids Laura teaches are so cute, and the parents are very nice. I already don't ever want to come home! :)
Karen
It was so good to see Laura! We walked a ways to the city bus stop that would take us to the taxi cab place. Before catching the bus I really needed to use the bathroom, so we found a place I could use - of course it was a "squatty"! That was a fun experience! No, really, it was! :) It was fun to travel like the locals, even though we got mixed up on the bus and had to pay twice since we got on at the wrong point. Then we went to the grocery store near the taxi cab place (I was so hungry that it was the most divine grocery store I've ever seen!), and after buying popscicles, we found a taxi that would take us to Laura's town. They wanted to fill the taxi completely (meaning 6 passangers in the Mercedes), and there were only 5 of us going to the same place, so we had a bit of a wait. I dozed and Laura played with an alleycat. Finally we found someone who also wanted to go where we were going (yay), and two ladies stuffed themselves with Laura and I in the back seat of the car and two men sat in front with the driver. The journey would take 4 hrs. normally, but since taxi drivers are fast, it only takes 3 hrs. by taxi. Other than feeling slightly cramped at the end, it was not a bad way to travel. For one, you don't need a seatbelt since you're so crowded and for two, if you're sleepy, it's more comfortable to doze in the car while being smashed since you won't roll around very much. It's quite beautiful here. We went through some mountains and it looks a lot like Los Angeles. I kept expecting to see "Hollywood" on one of the mountains.
The sun was in my eyes. I was happy that I had packed my sunglasses, until i pulled them out, and found out they were broken...sniff...
They still work!
Once we made it to Laura's town, it was dark and we were still a half hour walk from her house, so we found a taxi that would take us to her house, but we only had enough money to make it most of the way there, so we finished the journey by foot. Even though it was dark, it still feels very safe around here. Actually, everywhere we were felt safe to me. People look out for each other a lot here. Laura said to walk around in the dark after 9 isn't a good idea, but other than that it is quite fine. Of course the traffic around is crazy (esp. in the main town I flew into), with people jaywalking everywhere and horns honking and bikes and motorbikes going as fast as they can. Makes crossing the street a little more complicated, but again, it's not as scary as you might think....people are actually expecting things to be crossing the street, so they honk at you and give you just the amount of space you need.. :)
Laura has a nice little apartment. Our popsicles didn't go very far, so we were starving when we got home! We had water and peanuts and popcorn and oranges grown locally! Yum! They were good!. Then we got out the nutella because nutella spread on popcorn is great (read: a great way to get nutella in your mouth..). I slept very well (hope that happens again tonight!), and now Laura is teaching the kids school as I write this. There was just some drums and singing goin on in the street. They were all dressed up. Very fun.
Well, I'll try to keep you all posted. It's going to be a grand time already, I can tell. The kids Laura teaches are so cute, and the parents are very nice. I already don't ever want to come home! :)
Karen
3 comments:
What fun! Glad you made it safely, and that you get to spend Christmas with your sister. Looking forward to more updates!
I'm thankful for God's provision at just the right time! He is so good to give us just what we need! Soak it in for me!!!!
Please do come home. :) I can't believe how amazingly awesome you both are! sniff sniff :)
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