Then we went back and made a feast of chili and guacamole. Later that night we made about 5 dozen sugar cookies, but with only knives to work with our cookies were a little, let's say, creative.
Christmas day we went out shopping for our feast, we cooked (not me) all day and by the evening we had a great spread of food to devour. Though it was very unorthodox it was a Christmas to remember. The next morning everyone left except the people going to Germany. We stayed around and went for another hike. We went up to this amazing ledge that looked over a small village next to Tafraout. We even got to do some rock climbing at the top. It was amazing.
Thursday morning started our BIG trip. We made it about 2 hours down the mountain when I freaked out about forgetting my passports and had to rip through my bags on the bus, oops. They were there the whole time and we continued on to Agadir. We spent the night there and the next morning took the 'cheaper' rout to Marrakesh, which included a rickety old bus that could barley make it up a hill that took about 2 hours longer than needed. We bargained for a 'taxi' to the airport only to get in a decrepit van thing that took us almost the whole way there but kicked us to the curb saying he wasn't allowed in the airport parking lot. Oh well we made it on time. The second we crossed out of Morocco we high-fived, we made it!
When we landed in Berlin we all looked at each other, we had no idea where our hostel was. Oops, we had to pay a few euros to use the internet in the airport and google the hostel. We finally made it there and found food. The next day we set out to explore the city. We ended up at a Christmas market and found mulled wine, it wasn't delicious, but it did warmed us up nicely.
That night we ate some of the most delicious mexican food I've ever had, after our first dinner of street sausages.
On our second day we were determined to see some of the history of Berlin and made it to the Berlin wall, and the Holocaust museum that is there.
There was so much to see there, that's all we could accomplish. It was quite an amazing museum that left us all a little despondent. We called it an early night after some delicious burgers and headed back to the hostel for some baileys and hot coco and sleep.
The next day was New Years Eve, we got an 'early' start and headed to the DDR museum. It was all about the Berlin Wall and what life was like on the Socialism side of the wall. It was a really interesting museum and I learned a lot about the wall, Berlin's history, and life in socialism. Then we walked around an area called museum island. We didn't go into any of the museums there but the buildings were beautiful.
On our way back from there we walked through everyone setting up for New Years. It was crazy and it was only 3.
New years was a blast. We went to some local's house where we met a ton of people from all over. They took us to a park with a hill that overlooks the city. We climbed the hill and watched the fireworks go off at midnight from there. It was incredible. It was pretty surreal to see all the fireworks over Berlin. We all made it back to the hostel in one piece, though I'm not sure how and passed out.
The next day, not so ready to face the world, we made the trek to the train station where we caught a train to Prague. We arrived pretty late and went straight out to a late night dinner of crappy but delicious chinese food.
The next day we were off to explore the city. After getting more turned around than we thought possible we took a taxi to the old city. Everything there was beautiful. All the buildings and architecture were fascinating and we walked around all day, over the Charles Bridge and up to a castle and cathedral.
Prague was extremely cold and a little rainy so we headed back early. The hostel in Prague had a ton of people from all over and we stayed there talking to people from Sweden, Australia, Finland, and more for a long time.
The next day was our last full day of vacation. We were all pretty tired and spent a good portion of the morning eating subway and already missing not having it in Morocco. We took a late bus back to Berlin and stumbled back to the hostel dead on our feet.
After a leisurely morning we quickly realized we may miss our flight and had to run from the subway stop to the check in counter. Somehow after a small miscommunication I ended up in the wrong area of security and had to wait over 40 minutes for security. I ended up running through the airport (again) to the flight showing up only 2 minutes after the gate closed, they were luckily still checking passports and I slipped in. It can never just be easy.
The transition back to Morocco has been interesting. It has a lot less excitement landing when you've already been here for 9 months. It's easy to forget what being under constant observation is like but I'm readjusting quickly. And remembering that I need to wash my clothes in a bucket, dress in many layers to go to bed, and heat my water on the stove for a bath.
Next stop, London in June.
