The Continuation of the Continuation Continues...Part II

We had made it to Fez last time we spoke, so that is where will we start today. We settled into our room and decided to get some dinner on a rooftop patio, a little relaxation before the flight in the morning. We ate a camel burger and a lamb burger, both of which were excellent and a nice change of pace. With our bellies full and the sun setting, we decided to find the internet to print our boarding passes for the next day... but we had some issues with finding them and soon realized it was because the flight had left that afternoon, not the following day. Our time in Morocco was immediatly extended by a week, which, considering the cost effectiveness of Morocco, wasn't a bad place to miss a flight on a budget....so we settled in and decided to enjoy our time til the next flight left, what else can you do. We ended up meeting some other travellers that were currently living in Germany as ballet dancers but were originally from the states. We spent a couple nights hanging out with them and strolling the gigantic medina that lies in the heart of Fez. The next day we were sitting in the sun eating some sandwiches when a guy walked by and recognized us from Essaouria. We started talking and ended up hanging out with him and a guy named Stephan from Germany for the rest of the day. (Abdul was in Fez to help Stefan around as Stefan is dating Abdul's wife's best friend...kinda crazy connection). We were invited to eat couscous (the food so nice they named it twice) with Abdul and his family at their house. It was excellent! Everyone eats from the same bowl and drinks from a single glass, it really has a communal feel to it. They get together every Friday to eat as a family after the daily prayers. Abdulthen took us around the hills surrounding the city and we just relaxed in the sun. We hung out with some of his friends in the Medina and drank mint tea. He invited us to hang out with him and friends that night for a drum session and were parted ways til dinner. We all ate at a restaurant in town and hung around til late that evening for the drum session, it was a lot of fun...everyone just having a good time. It was really refreshing to just hang out with local people outside of the usual circumstance of a merchant/consumer situation. Once you become a friend with one person in a group the rest take you in and say that you are family now. The next few days were spent hanging out with the peoe we met and being shown different sights around the city....oh, and checking put the local medical services (those kidney infections don't like to go away and they bring quite a bit of pain with them) We decided to go to the local hospital to get antibiotics...if there was any doubt we were in a developing nation in Africa, they were erased completely at the hospital. It seemed more of a building/complex that could have been abandoned and then turned into a temporary ward for patients and doctors. This experience along makes you realize the incredible gap between developed nations and impoverished nations. Through broken French and hand gestures we got the idea across and were sent to an offsite lab to do some tests...48 hours later we had the results and were able to get antibiotics. They worked and the infection subsided...very good!!! After a few days in Fez we headed for Tangier, where our flight left from. We pretty much just laid low until our flight to Milan, Italy. Funny thing though, at the airport in Morocco, the security guy was just sitting in a chair, smoking a cigarette while the beeper went off at every single person that passed through the metal detector. He just kept waving us on without any expression at all. I figured they might askme to open my bag as I have sand from different places stashed in astic bags in our cooking pans...but they didn't seem to care at all. Same thing At the border check in Italy, couldve smuggled in all sorts of stuff, not that we were looking to. So, we had made it to Italy (bergamo) to be exact and headed via train and bus to Venice. Talk about a change, going from Morocco to Venice! Not better or worse, just vastly different. Venice is a beautiful city though and can be enjoyed just walking around and admiring the twisting walkways and blue green canals that slice through the city. The sun was out and we were smiling. After two days of taking in the sights, we decided to make our way to Florence to see Michelangelo's David. The first quote for the train was outrageous, 40 euros a person, so we headed to the main bridge off the island a put our thumbs up...without much luck...so back to the train station. This time we found regional trains for a total cost for two for less than the original cost off one, nice! Off to Florence, with a few connections and a few extra hours we got to Florence and caught the bus to a local campground, overlooking the whole city...really beautiful. It felt great to be camping again!! It's our own little house on the road! We went to see David the next day, it was really amazing to see in person....we had no idea the dude is like 40 feet tall or so...really well preserved too. The following day we decided to head for Rome and set up camp along a busy roadway with a sign to Roma in our hands....6 hours later we hadn't gotten a bite (hitching in Italy is a bit more difficult than France). So we camped another night and caught the regional trains to Rome. We found another campground just outside the city and relaxed in our tent under heavy rains. We spent the next few days under sunny skies seeing the Trevi Fountain, the Colosseum, the Pamtheon, the Spanish Steps, all sorts of ruins, the Vatican, and the Sistine Chapel....it was really great to see all these places in person. Some truly incredible works. We are still camping and will be looking to move on tomorrow, either into Croatia, Albania, Greece or Turkey, we have yet to decide where we will start....until the next story time!!! Wa hoo!!