Barcelona

Fresh off of the plane from Morocco, Jon and I capped off our spring break with a weekend in Barcelona, one of my favorite cities so far.

Our time in Barcelona was very limited. We got into town in mid-afternoon on Friday, and our flight was first thing Sunday morning. However, I quickly soaked up my favorite thing about Catalonian culture: the architecture.

The most famous works of Spanish architect Antoni Gaudi lie within Barcelona. He's designed everything from apartment buildings to a park to a massive church. We toured the later two: Parc Guell and Sagrada Familia. Instead of attempting to describe, Gaudi's incredibly beautiful and distinctive style, I'll load a few pictures of his work I took.

Sagrada Familia, still under construction

Close-up of Sagrada Familia

View from Parc Guell

Morocco

Meandering through Morocco

My roommate Jon and I embarked one Sunday morning for a trip of lifetime. My first visit to Africa was very unplanned, but all the more adventurous...

We flew into Fes, a large city in central Morocco. About five minutes off of the bus from the airport, Jon and I learned firsthand the unpleasantness of the self-appointed tour guides sprinkled throughout every urban center in the country. He was very aggressive, and Jon and Not use to the non-solicited help, I assumed the man to be shady. After shrugging him at the expense of our already dwindling self-confidence, we quikly found a place for lunch. Here over a couple of huge bowls of couscous, we were recharged with energy and excitement.


Our first major gauffe was deciding to take the first available mode of transportation to Chefchoen, our first night's stop. By electing to take a six hour train, we were forced to leave Fes only about an hour after arriving and had to forgo seeing the city's medina. Once we got off the train in the coastal town Asilah, we realized we'd have to take a two hour bus to Chefchoen, and then have an even longer commute in the morning. So, we decided to stay the night in Asilah.


Breakfast at a Moroccan café

The next morning we woke up an hour earlier than we meant to—we forgot about the time change. We had a nice breakfast in a cafe between our hostel and the train station.

All the cafes Morocco are about the same. Picture about a dozen or so men dressed in djellabas sitting at tables—often by themselves—drinking coffee and smoking cigarettes. Now picture Jon and me walking inside. We both have on jeans and t-shirts with our The North Face backpacks strapped on. Jon's got The Rough Guide to Morocco sticking out of the back pouch of his. So you can imagine how foolish I felt walking into a quiet cafe with every customer drinking espresso to ask (in broken French) if they had any food. The guy at the bar looked at me funny for a second, but quickly picked up a piece of flat bread and said "avec fromage?" (with cheese?). I eagerly agreed to the proposal, and Jon and I took our seats at the nearest table.

We watched Al-Jazeera on the cafe's television while the made our breakfast. At one point during an ad break, a picture of Bush flashed on the screen. Jon and I looked at each other uncomfortably.

A man brought over our food. He put down Jon's plate first, and then turned his back to us quickly as he wiped off a smudge of dirt from the side of my plate. But I didn't care, I was famished. What would be considered a meager breakfast anywhere else was quite good in Morocco. The flat bread seemed very fresh, and the cheese had been melted just perfectly .

As we paid our bill, I asked the man for directions to the train station. In Morocco, it was more of a challenge to find someone I could understand, than someone who knew how to get where we were going. This time I understood the guy.

Outside on the patio of the cafe, I stopped to ask a man for a light. He offered me his cigarette to use to light me own. I'm pretty sure he had a lighter, but I guess that's just another aspect of the Moroccan cafe...

Rabat, capital of Morocco

No Casa in Casablanca

I'm standing next to Grand Marche on the corner of a busy street during Casablanca's rush hour. Cars, motorbikes, and people are whizzing by. I'm tired and dirty, but still in great spirits. After leaving Asilah in the morning, I've seen a chunk of the Morocco countryside, had a nice lunch in Rabat and first exposure to a real Moroccan medina.

"Wouldn't it be funny if Yasim arrived on a motorbike and was like 'hop on guys'?" Jon asked me as we saw one whiz by. I glared at him. He laughed, and as we looked back to the street we saw another motorbike approach us. It was Yasim.

Yasim, a friend of Jon's girlfriend, was a great tour guide. He was very nice, and, having grown up in Casablanca, was extremely well-versed to the city. We met friends of his along the way as we traversed the streets of Casa. We ate at a nice Lebanese resaurant at the edge of Nouvelle Ville, just outside the Medina. There he told us his sister was in town, and he would not be able to house us for the night. Tired and hungry, I was mad. Now we'd have to find and pay for a hostel. However, the meal was good. So good, that I left a little less anxious about the whole "not having a place to sleep" detail.

Our adventure following dinner further distanced my thoughts from sleep. Yasim took us all over the city. We were led around the Medina through a friend of his that grew up in the Medina. We walked along the coast and saw the giant port. Yasim even knew where to take American tourists: Rick's Cafe. (I've never seen Casablanca, so I don't know what else to say here. We didn't go inside. We just snapped a couple of pictures.)

Then we set off on our hike through the quiet city to the world's second largest mosque. It was an incredible site. Of course, we couldn't go in or get too close because of the fact we weren't Muslim and it was late, respectively. But, it's presence from 2o minutes away by foot was eminent enough.

As we walked through the streets from the mosque, amidst young boys playing soccer in the street, we talked about the cultural differences between Morocco, Europe, and the U.S. Yasim held an incredible sense of curiousity in our culture and was just as willing to enlighten us about his. As we passed by the American embassy where, years earlier, a suicide bomber had detonated in the street, he spoke candidly about the incredible conservativeness of his Islamic parents and even about his own embarassing trip through airport security in the U.S.

Professionally, Yasim was interested in talking about our academic interests. He respected us as journalists and encouraged us to continue to see the world and explore its many cultures. He asked our advice on if and where he should attend graduate school after he gets his degree in information technology.

By the time we made our way back to our hostel, I wasn't ready to sleep anymore. My initial frusturation of not having a free place to stay had been replaced by a sense that I had learned more about Casablanca (and Moroccan culture in general) in this one night that I had learned so far on the trip. Yasim said he didn't want to say "goodbye" to us. He didn't believe in it. So, we departed with a "see you soon."


Essouira

Jon and I agree that Essouira was by far the highlight of our Moroccan adventure. This small resort town was once home to Jimi Hendrix. And I'm surprised more celebrities haven't flocked to this relatively unknown paradise.

The riad we stayed in was incredibly nice. We had our own room on the second floor with easy access to an often deserted roof terrace. On the first night we looked out from our table on the terrace to see camels on the sun-soaked beach less than a half of a kilometer away.

View from our Riad

Besides enjoying the warm beach, we made our way to the medina a few times throughout the two days we were there. I had my best meal of the trip in Essouira: chicken pastilla and 'avocats crevettes' (scooped out avocado with coconut shrimp on top).

One of the highlights of Essouira—and therefore the entire trip—was meeting our Welsh friends. Back at the riad by the pool, Jon and I struck up a conversation with three elderly Welsh couples. Intially, we talked exclusively about tranatlantic politics and our futures as journalists.

As the afternoon wore on, Jon and I soon found ourselves invited up to the terrace to share a few drinks with our new friends. With obviously no set agenda, we gladly accepted the invitation. The six adults were very pleasant and interesting to talk to. They told us about their own families, careers, and shared Welsh culture—except for Mauris, their 'token English' friend.

Our Welsh friends: Jeff and Jen, Dave and Sue, and Mauris and Ganor
A snapped this picture the first evening (prying paparazzi-style)
a day before we even met our Welsh friends

After tapas and a few drinks, they encouraged with us to join them for dinner. Once again, Jon and I gladly accepted. Dinner was even more enjoyable then the afternoon and evening. We shared great food and wine, and all talked with great excitement about everything from traveling around Morocco to the cultural differences between the British and the Welsh. Jon and I spoke especially with the youngest of the three couples—Dave and Sue Simmons. By the end of the night, I found myself learning invaluable life lessons from these individuals who had been complete strangers only half a day earlier.


Last Impressions

Unfortunately, the slight hangover I woke up with the next day was the best part of my last day in Essouira. Constant rain throughout the last day kept us from taking the camel rides we had reserved the previous days. To make matters worse, we missed the earlier bus to Marrakech—our final destination—and had to remain moping around the wet medina. However, we made the best of the situation by reexploring the medina when the rain subsided.

In the early evening we finally boarded our bus and left our beloved paradise. When we arrived to Marrackech following the five hour bus ride, we were quite tired. In addition, the weather was still dismal and our flight was early in the morning. As a result, we went straight into our hostel. Where Essouira gave us the best hostel imaginable, Marrakech gave us wet smelly beds in a 'private' room that shared a stain-glass window with a 20-man barracks. At 2am, a group of Dutch and then later eastern European (my guess) travelers turned the neighboring room into a post-game party. I couldn't sleep. Jon couldn't breath and had an asthma attack.

As a result of the day and (mainly) the night before, Jon and I were very excited to board our plane our of Marrkech. However, less than a couple of days later, and I found myself missing such a unique country. In a culture that valued many different ideals compared to Americans or even Europeans, I still managed to find myself happy and content for the most part throughout the trip. More so than their Christian counterparts, I feel like the Moroccans have an innate sense of hospitality. Unfortuntately, coming from a society where everything comes at a price, I approached Morocco incredibly cautiously. However, I'm confident that next time I travel through Morocco—and there certainly will be a next—I'll approach the trip as an unique, spontaneous joy ride that I'm only partially in control of.

ENDS Europe

The biggest complaint I've heard from other people on this trip was that their internships either worked them too hard or too little. I've had the perfect amount. I'm able to set my own pace for the work I do.

I have a variety of duties. On a daily basis, I go to the Commission's daily midday press briefing. Typically, there is no news that ENDS would follow, but it's good to be there just in case and to keep an ENDS' face in the press corps.

Francois, my editor out of London, checks in with me everyday. Often he'll give me either a brief or a small story to write. This can be anything from rewriting and summarizing a press release to going to an event and writing up a story.

Another ongoing project is the Country Monitor, an online tool that lists environmental legislation that has been implemented in member states. I finished my first Country Monitor batch a few weeks ago, and Nick, ENDS' editor in chief, was impressed with my work.

I've steadily been doing more and more work, and I've received good feedback with each story I write. This week I've talked with co-workers about accompanying them to conferences in Marseilles and maybe even Iceland!

Lyon

One weekend I visited my friend Jolene in Lyon, France's second largest city. I went with my Brussels friends Jon, Patty, and Marissa. We arrived on Monica's birthday and went out to dinner almost immediately to celebrate. The three-course meal was delicious. I had a salad with a piece of goat cheese inside that was excellent. Afterwards we went out to a pirate-themed shooter bar. The place was very crowd, but nonetheless fun. Lyon certainly lived up to its legendary nightlife.

The next day Jolene led Patty and me through the city. It was rainy, but we enjoyed walking the streets of the city. After we met up with Jon and Monica we went to the Lumiere film museum.

After a delightful dinner on Saturday night that Monica made, we went out to a club on a boat on the Rhone river. It was very fun, but expensive. The next morning we went up to the Notre-Dame de Fourviere, a cathedral perched on top of a will that overlooked the entire city.

Frankfurt

After a few weeks in Benelux, some friends and I finally mustered the courage to venture out of our comfort zone. We chose to go head to Germany: Frankfurt specifically.

Why Frankfurt, you ask? Honestly, I don't know. Almost every one of the six people that went on the trip (including myself) was asked why of all Germany's cities were we going to Frankfurt. I responded first with a practical answer: "It's the closest big city in Germany." And later, with a more lazy answer: "Why not?"

Well the answer, more or less, turned out to be simple: the food.

After a long evening of travel and our hostel's unfortunate proximity to nothing notable—save the Red Light District—our group decided to have a pint and turn in early to our very nice hostel. We woke up the next morning and headed to the zoo. The zoo was very similar to one you'd find in the States. (Although unlike the St. Louis Zoo, it was not free and it did not have a train.)



Following the zoo, we went to have lunch. I tried the schnitzel grüne soße, a Frankfurter specialty. I fell in love, and still today in March, it may have been my favorite meal here in Europe.


After we left the restaurant we wondered into an outdoor market. Despite our stomachs already being stuffed full of schnitzel and beer, we stopped to get waffles and glute weine. The market was bustling with locals and we met a few that suggested areas to see in the unknown city of Frankfurt.



On Sunday we walked around the city in the frigid cold, fighting off snow flurries at one point. We crossed the Rhine, apting out of taking a river boat tour, and went the Old Rome area of Frankfurt. We went through some of the shops off the main square, and we stopped at a really neat cafe to have a coffee break.

Our end of the weekend schnitzel dinner was interrupted by the King and Queen of Frankfurt. Well, at least the King and Queen of apple wein in Frankfurt.

Never Say Never

Well, I've been here in Brussels for a little over three weeks now, and I'm only now getting this blog up and running. I'm not quite sure how often I'll be posting on here. Hopefully, a weekly post at the least. The internet connection at my flat is as unpredictable as Brussels weather, so I may have to do most of my posts from work. Like I am now...



It's been three weeks to the very day that I arrived to my new home on Rue Gray (or Graystraat if you prefer the ugly Flemish version). My flat is very nice. In addition to a full modern kitchen, my roommate Jon and I enjoy a flat screen TV with surround sound, two La-Z Boys, and even a nice terrace with a koi pond. The other six men of the program live in other apartments above and below us in the same small building.

Unfortunately, the eight girls of the program were less fortunate. I'll just leave it at that.

In addition to lodging, I am one of the fortunate few who commutes to work strictly by foot. Most interns need to take the Metro, with one girl having to endure an hour-plus a way commute each day. (As a result, she's elected—with the program leader's permission—to only work three days a week instead of four.) My internship is directly next door to the main building of the European Commission, the quasi-executive branch of the EU. My internship is at ENDS Europe. An arm of the ENDS Report, an environmental news service out of the UK, ENDS Europe focuses on reporting environmental policy news on the European level. (If you click here, it will take you to the website, but unfortunately most of the content is protected by a subscription.) I came at an awkward time for ENDS Europe. The veteran editor—who not only bears quite a resemblance to Paul Krebs, but shares his first name—was in his last week when I arrived. With his departure, I'm left with only two colleagues in our small office. The rest of the team is based out of London.

Last week one of the editors from London came over, and we discussed in further details some responsibilities I'd be taking on. In addition to daily stories, the website has a few other features that I will be updating throughout my stay here. There's a Best of the Web section, an EU Law Tracker, and a Country Regulator. The last tools deals with which member states have implemented the legislature listed in the second. In addition, I'm going to spend a week on each of ENDS' policy focus 'channels' (e.g. climate, energy, chemicals, transport, etc). Throughout each of these weeks, I'll be reading up on these areas, and helping my colleagues in reporting in any way I can. For the remaining weeks, I'll select an area that interests me the most and hopefully write a feature of some sort.

Between working and enjoying my flat, the rest of the group and I are exploring our strange new world. Brussels is like Washington D.C. in it's diversity and strong foundation in bureaucracy. However, I've found navigating through Brussels—and Europe in general—to be much more difficult than anywhere in the U.S. Street signs are infrequent and streets themselves don't like meeting at 90 degree angles. However, the charm of the city is undeniable. The cafes and restaurants are excellent, and it's not too difficult to find something within a student's budget. There's a world-renown friterie directly between our flat and the nearest Metro stop that offers what many Belgians consider the best frites (fries) in the country—and therefore the world. I'm tempted to agree. Ketchup is a secondary condiment here in Belgium, where mayonnaise is king. (Don't knock it till you try it.) The frite stand is quite cheap and offers a selection of other delicious fried food. (Really, I'm shocked Europeans are as thin as they are.)

The winter weather here is heard to pin down. The closest I can come up with is a hybrid of St. Louis temperatures with Seattle precipitation and Chicago strength, but not the cold, wind. When we arrived three Mondays ago there was snow waiting for us on the tarmac—an anomaly I'm told. However, the temperature has steadily increased, and the only precipitation we've seen has been primarily light rain. Where D.C. is prone to those sudden heavy downpours in the late afternoon, Brussels typically prefers to draw out light rain. However, the wind could be the worst. While it doesn't so much affect the temperature, the wind comes in strong sudden gusts and sometimes even adds noticeable walking difficulty and resistance to someone of my size.

My travels outside of Brussels have been underway as well. We took the train into Amsterdam for a weekend, and the group has also done day-trips to Bruges and Antwerp, two of Belgium's biggest cities. I've found all of these places to be both beautiful and fascinating. In Amsterdam, bikes outnumber pedestrians, and they tend to enjoy narrowly dodging cars and people alike. The churches of Bruges are very interesting. One church—which we were too late to get into—has a vial of Christ's blood that is said to liquidate once a year, while another contains one of the few of Michaelango's sculptures outside of Italy.

As one of the top commercial centers in Europe, Antwerp was bustling last weekend because it was the last full weekend of sales in Belgium. As opposed to the U.S., I've been told that Beglium regulates sales to only two months out of the year—one month being January. I have yet to discover the reasoning behind this.

My travel agenda is growing by the hour. I'm booked through the end of February now with weekend trips to Frankfurt, Lyon (to see Jolene, a roommate from last year), and then the Netherlands. For spring break, I'm looking into taking a week in Morocco at the northern tip of Africa, and then a weekend in Barcelona. I've got a flight booked to Dublin the weekend before St. Patrick's Day, and I'm going to London a few weeks following that.