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The Babbling Backpacker: Blabberings from a travel addict

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New Zealand Musings

Ten months in New Zealand was well worth it. So many fascinating people live on the beautiful islands, and I had the privilege to meet and live with some of them.

Mark the Crazy Goldminer, March 1 2012

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About Me

I’m a California native who has spent the last 6 years exploring the world. After college, I backpacked around New Zealand for year, spent 8 months volunteering and traveling in Southeast Asia, and worked for a year in Australia. During that time I was volunteering on farms using helpx.net and finding odd jobs to pay my way. Then I leveled up and worked as an English teacher in Japan for two years through the JET program. With a new goal to learn Spanish and travel in Europe, I’m currently teaching English in Malaga, Spain.

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I’ll be back in Tangier for sure! I loved Morocco. This is my last Moroccan post until my next trip there! It’s so close to where I live in Malaga, Spain. Its inexpensive for me to travel there, and the culture and languages are fascinating to me.

I made really good friends in Rabat and ended up speaking a lot of Spanish there! It’s a gorgeous city with beaches, the Medina, inexpensive and amazing food, and more... Now I’m back home in Málaga but still reliving my trip with my students. I made a presentation and am telling them about it. One or two students from every class is Moroccan and it’s fun to see which cities they are from.

For any history or animal buffs, I highly recommend the Necropolis of Chellah. We saw storks (I think that’s what they are?) that reminded me of the cigüeñas in Almendralejo... @margarita_listisima @aocarinapr @jessicaisgro Also cats, lots of cats everywhere.

I’m really impressed with Rabat a lot more than I originally anticipated. I was going to skip it but then I ended up staying for 5 days. 😂 I love how spontaneous solo travel allows you to follow your heart. Next stop Tangier! Then I’ll take a ferry and BlaBlaCar back to Spain. (BlaBlaCar is a ride sharing app. Someone start it in California!)

Not pictured is the camel head (still attached to the spine) that I unfortunately saw in Casablanca. One of my most challenging and exhilarating travel moments of my life (so far haha) was transporting myself across the city to another neighborhood where I was going to stay. In the streets I encountered people selling everything imaginable, from socks to electronics to huge slabs of meat hanging from hooks to cactus fruit and pomegranates to snails still in their shells... Many spoke to me in French: mademoiselle bonjour! A man with no nose approached me asking for money. Old women and men toddling in the streets, some blind and some with missing limbs, with their hands outstretched. Women wrapped in headscarves of purple, green, yellow, pink, white. Children playing in alleyways unencumbered by the strange sounds and sights that overwhelmed me. I waited at a tram that wasn’t running before asking a share taxi for help. No one spoke English but the other passengers came together to help me in Arabic and French. One woman gave me some dates and tried to teach me some Arabic. My phrases are really coming in handy!! (Shokran- thank you. Zween- beautiful. Sbah helhir- good morning. salam - hello) No pictures of the chaos because I didn’t want to risk my phone being stolen. Guess how long I lasted in Casablanca? One day 😆 but it’s a day I’ll never forget! Also pictured is the Hassan II mosque which was paid for by public taxes in the 1980s. It’s a gorgeous building totally worth visiting. I also went to a hamam or a traditional Moroccan bathhouse which was lovely. I had no idea what I was doing but of course the women helped explain to me what to do (in sign language hahaha.) Someone loaned me a bucket and a scooper which you use to pour water on yourself. Each person fills their bucket with water of the desired temperature and brings their own soap to clean themselves. Some women had a kind of black salt scrub too. Later I learned that there are 3 rooms of varying temperatures. Casablanca, I can’t promise I’ll come back, but thanks for the experience.

Esauira is a beautiful beach town in Western Morocco with a population of 77,000. Part of Game of Thrones was filmed there. The medina (every city in Morocco has a medina, or a big central market place in the old part of the city) is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. I felt quite safe wandering the streets there and I even went running on the beach one morning (which I wouldn’t do in some other Moroccan cities.) There are lots of tourists and it had a very relaxed, hippie vibe. Orson Wells, Winston Churchill, and Jimi Hendrix spent time there. I even made some local friends who showed me around. Thanks @abdou_surf_lessons and @simo__wydadi!! We even squeezed in a jam session!

Countries Visited:

USA
Mexico
Canada
Argentina
Chile
Israel
New Zealand
Australia
Thailand
Cambodia
Vietnam
Taiwan
Indonesia
Malaysia
The Philippines
Japan
France
Switzerland
Austria
Germany
Italy
Portugal
Spain

Categories

Categories

Interests/Hobbies

Music:
ukulele, flute, piano, guitar, singing
Sports:
ultimate frisbee, via ferratas, rock climbing, acro yoga
Dance:
swing, salsa, bachata, contact improv
Food:
vegan, experimental
Art:
drawing, watercolor painting
Languages:
English, Spanish, Japanese

Copyright

All all text and photos © Amberly Rose Young. Please contact me if you wish to use one of my photos or republish any text.

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