The caves of Interlaken

I decided to go on the trip with the ESN student exchange to Interlaken, the visit of the caves sounded perfectly. So, I got ready in five minutes on a Sunday morning and ran to the metro station to catch the group.

Merely, we sat in our private train car and ate all sorts of sweets. We hoped on another train in Bern, and soon came to Interlaken. The hiking path went alongside the river of glacier water with an amazing turquoise color. The clouds in the sky really made the scenery perfectly lighted, check out the pictures:

After a while, the path lead to the forest, where we sat and ate our quick lunch. It was amazing sitting with such an international group of people, listening to sounds of different languages and laughing to comparisons of mule festivals in Utah and camel festivals in India. We were all laughing so hard, that we didn't even notice that it started raining. 

By the time it started pouring, we were on our way running up the hill to catch our appointment with the guide for which we were already late. Fun times. The ten thousand stairs would be appreciated by Rocky, but not us. There we were, great big international bunch, with soaking wet clothes on our backs, with couple of broken umbrellas faced our awaiting guide in front of a kilometre long cave. 

The cave was an amazing experience. It is super. The reflections in the little focks of water, the sound of tumbling water and the creative names of each cave with sculpture like stalactites and stalagmites (first ones are hanging from the ceiling and the latter sticking up from the floor). We were informed that the cave goes on for another 14 kilometres and the speleologists were making it ready for the public.

While we got out of the cave it stopped raining, so we went down the balustrades to catch our special bus back to the station. We crowded the small bus and in 20 minutes we were back in Interlaken. 

The crowd decided enthusiastically that they wanted to see Thun city as well, but all I could think of was cuddling in my blanky and drinking some hot tea. Thun is an amazing city that deserves a whole afternoon for itself. I'll definetly do it soon. Hope you enjoyed the photos. I do enjoy taking them.

Witty London

We spent just a couple of days ni London, unfortunately. It is a beautiful city, and it is not constantly raining (at least considering January). Streets are packed with people shopping, hoping of double deckers and into Harrods, Selfridges area, with only making a little pause to recover in a nearby pub, eating oversize delicious pub food. 

Of course, we blended in right away, tasting the famous fish and chips, disregarding the fact that it was only 11 AM.

Look at the deliciousness:

After visiting the Birmingham palace, it was time for the theatre. Les miserables at the Queens theatre. This was the first time I ever saw it live, but from the distant upper balcony. I have to say the actors were extraordinary, bringing tears to my eyes, and surrounding audience was cheering them. I've come to conclusion that this is the way I want to spend my weekends. In the theatre.

And during the pause enjoying some red wine:

Next stop: the Big English breakfast.

We could call it breakfast, lunch and dinner, all in one. It makes the hungriness go away for a longer time. Filled with energy, we went to the Hide Park corner where we saw this bunch:

The sight so much reminded me of the past times which I read of in all my Victorian era books. Walking towards Trafalgar Square I saw a blue hen, actually a blue rooster in the distance. It was standing on a bronze lion, at least it seemed so. Right in front of the National gallery, with the bluey mountains, the rooster was singing its morning song in his blue way. It even has its own fb page, the big blue cock:

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Big-Blue-Cock-Trafalgar-Square/518715508198749, with the most interesting name.

Ah, yes, the famous London Eye. I wasn't very convinced. It gave me an opportunity to take couple of pictures, but next time I would rather climb the Shard building, the tallest one in London. Anyways, here we have some pictures:

There we were, on our last day, taking the boat trip to see the sights up close and soak up the rest of London. We took the local line, payed with our Oyster card ( http://www.tfl.gov.uk/fares-and-payments/oyster?cid=fs076 ), the easiest way to travel around.

With the beautiful graffiti war ship, off we were to the final Indian meal (which was extremely not tasty, really different from the super one we had last time, the Roti Chai, recommended by friends 

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Roti-Chai-Indian-Street-Kitchen/140020139423196, go visit it when in London!!!

Kisses and goodbyes to all the travellers out there. See you soon.

Three kings, 6th January 2014

Beautiful tradition is held,

For you have to eat the bread,

Of seven pieces,

Sharing the joy.

But for the one,

That finds a treasure,

Within the lucky piece,

Is of kindly manner rewarded great.

For he,

The crown of a day,

Proudly wears,

As the company cheers.

The music of Marrakesh

The main minaret; pink and green colors that dominate the whole city

Taking the bus through the peaks and slopes of High Atlas was simply amazing.

Coming to Marrakesh, and being prepared with the advice from wikitravel, we had to face the taxi drivers. Not to mention it was 36 degrees Celsius and the asphalt was burning. Strangely enough, most of the people were wearing jackets and winter shoes.

Woodsman shop in Medina

Medina street

The butcher and the hungry cats

Inside the market

So, here we witnessed taxi drivers being more aggressive than anywhere else (but still, it was too hot to look for another one and negotiate on the burning asfalt). They shout at you for giving them more, and it is impossible to get them to turn on the taxi meter. They pretend they don’t hear. Since everything is so close there, I would suggest walking. And the other benefit is that you experience so much more while roaming the streets then simply taking the taxi and arriving to your hotel or riad. On the way you can see some of the fine restaurants you can wine and dine at (well wine part not so much, while there isn't a place serving alcohol almost anywhere). Oh, and the desserts, indescribably amazing.

Marrakesh has lots more restaurants than any other city

Pastilla with chocolate

Couscous dish (usual Friday dinner dish)

Marrakesh is amazing:

Biggest street in Marrakesh, filled with hotels, spa- hammams, operas, thater

The main tourist attraction square, noisy, colorful, comes alive in the evening time

Snake guy at the main square

Some lady with a monkey at the main square (she was trying to free it)

Potter's wagon (his name is not Harry)

Art of Marrakesh: 

The photography museum (Berber lady)

Caligraphy

Nature of Marrakesh:

And so we ended our Marrocan experience, we took the train to Casablanca (before the flight we took a walk through the streets of Casablanca for the last time)

Film Ouarzazate

A six hours trip through the Middle Atlas mountains to Ouzarzate was peculiar. It was in the middle of the day, thus it was extremely hot. It should have lasted for a little bit more than 4 hours, but there was some troubles with the engine. Spending three nights in the desert got us fully equipped with patience and we didn’t mind it. The driver didn’t inform the passengers of any strange activity, he just slowed down driving down from the mountain.

We entered in the city with broad asphalted streets, colorful buildings (red and apricot were the dominant colors). It was all very familiar, I suppose from movies. Lots of productions took place in the city, Mission: Impossible, Game of Thrones, Lawrence of Arabia, and others. So, of course, having two days there we went on a mission of visiting all of the studios and film museums. Funny enough, our mission was impossible, since all of this places were occupied by film crews, filmg something. Some film, I presume. We were given no information.

So, we decided to turn to the sights. It is a little charming city. I started noticing how the color of everything is arranged to the detail in every city. At first, I thought it was all chaos and dirty, but now I started to see the difference between the cities. For example, in Casablanca, the main color of the houses is white with green roofs and mosaic colors that are found everywhere in the city are blue and green. The taxis are of red color, which gives a nice contrast. In Fes, the houses are mainly yellow or beige, with dominantly blue mosaic decoration and red taxis. During our bus trip, we passed through Meknes, where taxis are bright yellow, and now, in Ouzarzate, you are souronded with bright red, pink, orange hoses with mostly white decoration, and the official color of the taxis is beige. The Moroccan way, seemingly disorganized, nut everything carefully matched.

Having spent the second day, I was looking foreward to yet another bus trip through the High Atlas Mountains. Seeing the pictures of steep slopes and narrow roads, this should be interesting.