Home Sweet Home

I've arrived safe and well back in Sydney. I spent my last day in London getting drunk in the pub with my mates. By the time I had to catch my plane it's safe to say I was pretty sloshed! I decided that continuing to drink was probably the best way of dealing with a long haul flight, so on the plane I downed a few more red wines and a beer. I fell asleep/passed out and when I woke up again I was feeling very thirsty. The lady next to me had a big bottle of water, and she was asleep. I quietly took her water bottle, drank it all, then put it back. I went back to sleep and when I woke up again, feeling a lot more sobber I remembered. She must have known it was me, and thought I was a bit of a freak for stealing her water, especially as its free anyway, but she didnt say anything.
My parents didn't know I was coming home, they got the shock of their lives when I walked through the door, Mum said that it was like seeing a ghost!
I guess this is it for this blog, apart from a few more pictures that I'll be putting up soon.

Back to London

Well here I am back in London! My last night in Madrid was a bit of a disaster! I lost my wallet and phone, Im not sure if I just lost them in my drunken state, or if they were pinched from my bag. I only realised this after all my friends had gone home and I wanted to get a taxi. So I was stuck in the city drunk and tired. I sat down somewhere and people thought I was homeless someone actually threw 10c at my feet! People kept coming up asking me if I was ok and I would tell them I only speak a little spanish and they would ask me where I was from and I'd say Australia and I think they were confused as to why an Australian girl would be homeless in Madrid. I left where I was sitting because I didnt like people thinking I was a beggar (it is the third time I have been mistaken for a beggar this trip, the other two times ladies came up and gave me food!!) I went and sat in Plaza Mayor and ended up having a conversation in (very bad) spanish with two homeless guys, then I left and somehow got into a screaming match with a bunch of spanish guys I was swearing at them in english and they were swearing at me in a mix of spanish and english. I am going to get my head punched in one of these days I have to much of a big mouth when I drink.
In the end I just went into a pub and a man bought me a drink and we chatted in spanish because he didnt know english, but then he wanted to come home with me I was like "ahhhh no!" By then the Metro had restarted and I hopped a train and went home to bed! So yeah, not the greatest night ever, and Im pissed off about my phone!
A few nights before that though, I went and say Real Madrid play and I saw David Beckham. Ok so I was sitting right up the back of the stadium and Becks was just a distant blob, but technically, I have seen David Beckham (i didnt see posh though!)

Madrid - Mullet City

Well it appears that I do not have an apptitude for learning foriegn languages as I have had to move DOWN a class from level 1A. "Is there actually a level lower than 1A", I hear you ask? Well yes there is, I think it is called spaz level. They didnt make me move down but I have been so lost in class the last few days with everyone raving on in spanish that I almost cried, so today I went to the office and said "please move me down a class!!!" but even if it takes me until the year 2020 I will speak spanish one day!!
Apart from my sloooow learning life in Madrid is awesome. Its such a party city, I´ve been going out a lot. I went out with my friend Mathew on the weekend, he was living at my flat but he moved, we ended up hanging out with a group of mad south Americans and I was drunkenly singing AC/DC songs with a guy from Chilie, but he didnt speak english so I sang the words while he mumbled along.
Tonight is my friends 25th birthday so I´m going to a party at her place. She is from Chilli and doesnt speak english and clearly, I do not speak spanish, but we get along great.
Nearly everyone in my school is German, last night I went to an "intercambio" night where we are supposed to practice our spanish with spaniards and they practice their english with us, but I ended up sitting at a table with people from my school all of whom were German. We´d start talking in spanish, but the conversation would revert back to German which doesnt do me much good so I went home!
Oh and just a word about the title of my post, the mullet reigns supreme in Madrid. Men, women old and young, there are more mullets here than in Mount Druitt!

Madrid

After a few days in Spain Katie and I hired a car for a week. Let me tell you something for nothing, driving a car on the opposite side of the road is not easy. Im not a great driver at the best of times and for the first day that we got the car I drove like an L plater behind the wheel for the first time. I nearly turned onto the wrong side of the road a few times and between us Katie and I managed to piss off a lot of Spainards. I almost had an accident with one car and they went ballistic, but as they say a miss is as good as a mile.
We took the car up to Valencia for La Tomatina. La Tomatina is held in a village just out side of Valencia but what should have been a 40 minute drive took 5 hours (Im not kidding!) because the names of the towns on the map were in Spanish and the names on the signs were in Catalan which made things just a tad confusing.
We did eventually make it and it turned out to be the best day of my life. La Tomatina is basically a massive food fight where 30,000 people converge onto Buena, a small village and spend a few hours throwing tomatos at eachother. It was unreal, the street where its held was packed like a mosh pit, boys were grabbing girls and ripping their tops off. I got my top ripped off but luckily I had my cozzie underneath! I saw one girl storm out completly topless with a face of thunder! A big truck then drove through and dumped tomatoes for us to throw, from the moment that first tomato left my hands I thought "I love throwing stuff!!!" and I got right into it! Afterwards I was encrusted in tomato juice (so was everyone else) but I think it did something for my hair because the next few nights when I went out it looked fabulous!
Anyway now I´m in Madrid. Katie left to travel some more, but I´m staying to study. I had my first class today. I am at a beginer level, but the entire class is in spanish and by the end I felt like my brain was going to explode! I´ve got three weeks here though so hopefully Ill be seeing an improvement soon!
Adios

Morocco and Spain- The story so far

As I always say, the worst part about travelling is the travelling ! Katie and I took the train from Marrakech back to Tanger. We had bold plans of going from Tanger to Spain on the same day but that just wasn´t going to happen. The train was hot as hell and kept stopping for half an hour at a time so we all had to get out because it was to stifling inside. I still dont know why it kept stopping but I was ready to kill someone!
On the upside I think Moroccans are probably the nicest people in the world. People kept offering us food and at one point a woman let me hold her baby! When we got off the train (finally!) a boy that we were sitting near said we could stay at his place. As it turns out he lived with his auntie and uncle and their four children, none of whom were the least bit phased by the apperance of two white women with backpacks rocking up at ten at night. They fed us and made up some beds for us, then gave us breakfast the next morning! I love Moroccans!
The next day we got up early to get the boat to Spain. Its a thirty five minute boat ride but the getting there took about hours. First of all customs was a shit-fight which meant we missed our boat. Then we had to wait two hours for another boat. On the other side there was one part of customs for EU and one for non-EU. Katie being half pom just waltzed through the EU side, while me and fifty million Moroccans had to wait forever in the non-EU line. Everyone kept saying to me "Europa" and pointing to the other line but I´d say "no no I´m Australian", and they´d say "Ahhh Australia kangaroo kangaroo!"
We stayed in Tarifia that night where I went out with a girl we met named Natalie and partied a bit to hard. My last memory is of me dancing very badly on the bar. Katie says when I got home I kept trying to hug her. She said she thinks I thought she was a man!
Today we tried to hitch hike to Granada but as it turns out Spain is a shit country for hitch hiking. We managed to get about 100kms in four different cars over about 5 hours! We even put on short skirts to help our chances but all that would happen was men would drive by and beep and whoop but not actually stop! So I guess we are taking the bus from now on.
I was so hungover all day today I vomited in a bush.

Ok thats all for now!

More Photos from Marocco

Here I am in a scarf and kaftan
We ate one of these I spat it out I would not recommend!
Here I am standing behind the orange juice stand pretending to work. I was calling out to tourists ´hey hey you want orange juice´

Marrakech

Here I am in the market
Katie and I in the main square
Katie with monkeys
Me in a spice shop with chamelions climbing on me! (I still dont know how to turn the photos the other way!!!)

Morocco Photos

Here are photos from the dance festival we went to in Morocco.


This is the view from our tent
Me in the lake
Katie and I in the camping area
This is me and Willy, a Swedish guy we met on the bus who ended up staying in our tent because he didnt have his own but that was ok with us because he was cute!

Marrakech

Katie and I have left the dance festival and are now in Marrakech. Marrakech is unreal, we are staying near the main square where there are street performers, snake charmers, monkeys and thousand of people. We spent the day weaving our way through the market being dragged into shops. Some of the things for sale are shocking, like real leapod pelts and falcons in cages. I wanted to buy a falcon so I could let it go! I bought a kaftan and I'm running around dressed like an Arab girl in my kaftan and scarf over my head At night it becomes a big food market. Last night we got a bowl of snails I ate one and spat it out it was fucking disgusting I dont know how they can be a delicacy!
We wanted to go to a pub last night but Im not sure where to go to find rocking Marrakech night life. Lots of guys stopped us and invited us to smoke some hashsish with them but we declined!
Morocco is awesome but I think we are here at the wrong time of year, I want to come back in a few months before I go home when it is cooler. Katie and I are heading back to Spain in a few days. Ill be putting up photos in a few days of the festival and Marakech so come back and have a look.

Morocco

Im in Morocco It has been such q mission to get here but we made it I a, camping at a festival on the beach. We met a Swedish guy who didnt have a tent so Kate and I said he could sleep in our tent. He is pretty hot so neither of us mind!
The festival is awesome, the beach we are on is nearly as nice as an Australian beach and its a surf beach which I havent been to in awhile. There is a big outdoor dance floor, food stalls and market stalls; and camels and donkeys on the beach.
After the festival Katie and I are doing a quick whip around ?Morocco then back to Spain for the to,*mato festival