How do I feel about Morocco?

I think it's Mo-Roccan.

Ha ha ha I'm sorry.

The post I meant to make last night before I fell asleep absurdly early--

Morocco is incredible.  I don't think I can come up with a better word for it.  No description I can give you will be accurate enough for my liking, so I'm just going to not and pretend I did.

We flew into Casablanca and immediately boarded a bus for the four hour drive through Rabat to Fez. We didn't get to explore Rabat, but man was it beautiful.  We drove along the edge of continent and watched the sun set into the Atlantic Ocean.  My phone was dead at this point, so I don't have any pictures to describe how magical it is, but it's like Harry Potter World cubed.  The waves were crashing over the rocky edges of the shoreline, the sun hidden behind orange and pink and red clouds. Perfect.  That's it.  Perfect.

Ignoring just how morbid this is, I'm really fascinated by cemeteries.  I'm not going to get into just how interesting the concept of burying your loved ones in a place where their souls, bodies, or both will reside for an extended period of time is, but think about it sometime.  ANYWAY.  We turned the corner away from the shoreline and into the city, and I saw this massive congregation of people on a hillside.  I couldn't understand what they'd be doing on a Friday at 6:00pm congregating on a hill, but that's when I realized they weren't people.  They were gravestones.  And it was a cemetery.  I've been comparing the cemeteries here to the ones back home, and it's interesting to me just how differently they're laid out.  At home, it's very structured, row by row, even unnamed burials having a very specific place.  I always know where to step to avoid being on top of someone.  Here, not so much.  Everyone has a place, but there's very little method to it.  It seems more beautiful, in a way, to have so many generations of people on top of each other.  Clearly I put too much thought into this.

I think my favorite part of Morocco thus far is how the city continues to exist within history, instead of growing up around it.  The medieval medina is still a thriving community, it's not just a place for tourists to come and bask in the Moroccan sunlight.  Sure, tourists are here too (what really where), but it's not JUST a tourist destination.  You get to see a lot more this way.

I'm still struggling with being a tourist.  Anyone who has ever gone on a trip with me knows how much I hate it, but it's kind of unavoidable here.  It's a group of 25 United States citizens riding around on a large blue bus and stopping in the middle of the road to take pictures.  We're told not to drink the water or eat the chicken (broke that rule, and it was delicious) or eat the fruit (oops) or eat anything we can't wash/peel by ourselves (also whoops) and so on.  I desperately want to talk to people and learn more about what it's like to live here, but it's kind of hard to do when you're being herded around like crazy Americans.  We'll see what happens.

Next post:  Chefchaouen and Darby gets angry.

The Packing Post I Postponed Posting

4 hours, 41 minutes.

You know how I said I was going to post about packing when I did that last night?  Well, clearly I didn't.  But that's okay because I didn't pack either.  LET'S GO!

I have this nifty packing list:

1. 3-5 shirts
2. 1 sweater or fleece
3. 2 pairs of pants
4. 1 pair shorts
5. 5 pairs undies
6. 5 pairs socks
7. 1 pair walking shoes (uh)
8. 1 pair sandals
9. 1 rainproof jacket with hood (uh)
10. scarf
11. sleepwear
12. money belt (uh)
13. debit card
14. PASSPORT
15. driver's license
16. student ID
17. guidebook
18. journal
19. daypack
20. plug adapter (uh)
21. book
22. toiletries
23. ziplock bags (uh)
24. bug spray (uh)

All the "uh"s are things I don't have or haven't thought about that are probably pretty important.

Fun fact:  it's really hard to fit everything in a carry on.  It's like expert tetris, but with higher stakes.

Right now I'm trying to fit all of the tiny liquid bottles into a quart sized ziplock bag while talking to my mom on the phone about how I should be able to fit more tiny bottles in a ziplock bag and it doesn't make sense why it's not working.  It's actually making me a lot angrier than it should be.  I just want to bring shampoo.  I promise I won't do anything bad with the shampoo.  I just need shampoo.  PLEASE. 

As far as fitting clothes in the bag goes, pretty easy so far.

This is not how I expected this to go.

I thought I'd be freaking out and throwing clothes all over the place but instead I'm picking the clothes that have already been thrown all over the place off of the floor and stuffing them in a bag.

4 hours, 10 minutes.

8 Days. 1 Carry On Bag. All of Morocco.

In an exciting turn of events, I'm getting the opportunity to follow in my fore-smather's footsteps.  Starting tomorrow night, I will be flying from RDU to Detroit to Paris (throwback) and finally touching down in Casablanca, Morocco.  I'm deleting everything I can off of my phone to make room for pictures, so prepare yourselves.

In addition to the super cool things I can't wait to do (Spoiler:  there are camels involved. Am I allergic? Find out on next week's episode of Darby's Possible Near Death Experiences with me, your host, Anaphylactic Shock Girl.) I'm pretty excited about one tiny aspect of this trip: one carry on bag.  Every other time I go anywhere, my bag of stuff becomes massive.  Partially because I have a lot of stuff, and partially because I'm so indecisive that I end up getting stressed out and packing all of my stuff so I don't have to decide between one stuff or another stuff.  This time, I actually have to limit my stuff.  Within a 21x13x9in bag.  Fun fact:  the U.S.'s ability to supersize everything didn't forget to pack.  My bag is 13.5in (they didn't sell anything smaller, okay) and I am exactly 0.5 inches of unadulterated rebel.

I, for one, can't wait for the packing catastrophe blog post scheduled for sometime in the next twelve hours.  Get ready.

1 day, 1 hour, and 31 minutes remaining. 

The final pun of the day (CERN edition)

CERN

Finally, we spent two days at CERN, the Center for European Nuclear Research (more or less, the actual name is in French, which I do not know, much to my dismay).  We learned all about quarks and muons and positrons and other various things.

On the first day, we visited two of the experiments at CERN:  ATLAS and the original Syncro-Cyclotron. The presentation at the SC was among the coolest I've ever seen. They projected on the SC itself. It was amazing.

We then went into the wooden globe outside of Reception, whose inside is oddly similar to the inside of the Alain head in Mission to Mars. 

We also visited plenty of other places, like this one:

On the second day, we did two totally amazing things:  we went 93 meters underground to visit CMS,

And we made cloud chambers (which I will hopefully have pictures of soon).

Also, it started snow-hailing.  Switzerland weather, man.

More details on CERN to come as I remember them. It was an information overload.

...with the sound of music!

For our second and final day enjoying Switzerland, we had a and early start, leaving my favorite hotel and person (Gilbert, is his name) ever. We love Gilbert. I'm going to write Gilbert a thank you letter.

On the way to Geneva, we stopped in Bern, the Capitol city of Switzerland.  It is apparently the second happiest place in the world to live and costs almost as much as London. The food was very, VERY expensive. Very.

The name of the town has sometime to do with bears. Bear, Bern, I mean, it's similar. The city also has a really cool clock and a a statue of someone eating children, which has been aptly nicknamed "Darby."

For lunch, Maggie and I searched around for food and successfully found a sushi place. This place has the most delicious sushi I've ever had in my life and if I never get to go back for anything else I want to go back to that sushi place.

We then proceeded to wander around until we were able to go into the Einstein House. We learned:

1) Einstein was a player,

2) His house was very small,

3) He made his most important discoveries in Bern, and

4) He had a child before he was married that no one really knew about (sadface, poor baby Einstein).

Finally, after we finished, we all traveler to our hotel in France, which was insanely sketchy and smelled of cigarette smoke and dead things. 

Yet another pun of the day

The hills are alive...

After hour obnoxiously long drive to Switzerland, we finally got to spend some time doing interesting things.  In the morning, we spent an hour in Lucern, during which we got Swiss Army knives, chocolate, and investigated European McDonald's (which is surprisingly expensive for the not so surprisingly same "food"). Afterward, we boarded a boat to travel to the highlight of the day:  Mt. Rigi.

The train up the mountain is one of the steepest in Europe, and also slightly disconcerting. It's not that I don't trust the thing, it's just that it's SO CLOSE TO THE EDGE. But regardless, it offered some really great pictures.

On top of the mountain was cold. Very cold. With lots of clouds and snow hitting you in the face and my ears hurting because of the pressure change. It was pretty, trust me, but I didn't really get a chance to enjoy it as much.

The ride down was in a gondola, featuring a few sketchy drops. We fit approximately 50 people in it. And took a selfie.

We take a lot of selfies.

But the REAL highlight of my trip was our hotel:  the Alpenhof. The family that owns the hotel is the sweetest group of people I've ever met. They are incredible cooks, and we did not go hungry once. Each meal was to die for. The hotel itself is exactly what I would have expected from a ski lodge, the ice cream is amazing, and the view is even better. If you get a chance to stay there, do.

Another pun of the day (sponsored by Vishnu...again.)

The 20 Swiss franc bill has music notes on it.

Another name for a bill is a note.

The bill itself is a pun.

Change is nature.

Three things of note happened today:

1. We stopped in Beaune, France, found a Romanesco Broccoli/Cauliflower, and had ratatouille. (IT WAS SO GOOD MINE WILL NEVER LIVE UP TO IT.)

2. We drove through the Swiss Alps.

3. I took a ceiling selfie.

There is nothing like a dream to create the future.

The Les Mis quote had to happen sometime, what better than our last full day in Paris?

There were two things I wanted to do in Paris:  1) go to Montmartre, and 2) visit he catacombs.  I did neither of those.  However, in doing so, I discovered other things that I wanted to do.  Because I do not have the words to describe how much I have fallen in love with the city of Paris, I am going to leave you with pictures and the knowledge that I will find my way back to this beautiful city, I swear it.

A Tale of Two Cities

Okay, so, -5 creativity for that title, I know but give me a break, it practically wrote itself!  

This was our earliest morning to date, having to get up and out of the hotel by 5:30. It was gross and sad. But we did it.  We got to take the Eurostar into Paris, which was an interesting experience. Instead of coral reefs and fish, we saw fog and tunnels. Also, the ear popping was horrendous. All in all, utterly anticlimactic.

To waste time on the train, we played cards against humanity. Maebelle beat me. MAEBELLE BEAT ME. Let that sink in. *cough* the card game for terrible people *cough*

...

When we arrived in Paris, we picked up our tour guide and spun off into the fastest tour of Paris that has ever taken place. We hit every pick stop, including this one:

The Eiffel Tower was originally not supposed to be a permanent fixture. In fact, some people were so opposed to to that they are lunch on the tower. Why? Because anywhere else in the city, he could see it, and they lost their appetite. Zing!

We were able to see many other places as well, like Concord Square (I feel the need for a Les Mis quote), Moulin Rouge, and the place where Marie Antionette lived her final days.

Finally, I'll end with pictures taken while in the roundabout around the Arc de Triomph:

A Tale of Two Cities

Okay, so, -5 creativity for that title, I know but give me a break, it practically wrote itself!  

This was our earliest morning to date, having to get up and out of the hotel by 5:30. It was gross and sad. But we did it.  We got to take the Eurostar into Paris, which was an interesting experience. Instead of coral reefs and fish, we saw fog and tunnels. Also, the ear popping was horrendous. All in all, utterly anticlimactic.

To waste time on the train, we played cards against humanity. Maebelle beat me. MAEBELLE BEAT ME. Let that sink in. *cough* the card game for terrible people *cough*

...

When we arrived in Paris, we picked up our tour guide and spun off into the fastest tour of Paris that has ever taken place. We hit every pick stop, including this one:

The Eiffel Tower was originally not supposed to be a permanent fixture. In fact, some people were so opposed to to that they are lunch on the tower. Why? Because anywhere else in the city, he could see it, and they lost their appetite. Zing!

We were able to see many other places as well, like Concord Square (I feel the need for a Les Mis quote), Moulin Rouge, and the place where Marie Antionette lived her final days.

Finally, I'll end with pictures taken while in the roundabout around the Arc de Triomph:

A pun of the day (sponsored by Vishnu)

"Despite pressure to clean up their act, most dirtbags live in a vacuum."

Am I back in NC? Oh, no, it's a better Bath.

London is by far my favorite place to be at any given time. In fact, I hope to live there/study abroad there. I can dream, right?

Today we actually didn't spend all that much time in London-we went to Bath and Stonehenge.  If you've never been to Bath and have any sort of interest in architecture/history, go right now. It is one of the greatest places ever.  It's the place where the Romans built their baths over top of thermal springs. It's the place where pride and prejudice was written. It's the place where the layout of a modern town originated. Please go. I beg you.

As someone who is incredibly obsessed with archaeology, I loved the Roman Baths. It is quite literally like wandering through history. While you stand above the Baths, you can see the minster of Bath, gazing through not one, but two incredibly amazing parts of history.  In fact, here, have a picture:

Now, my favorite part of the day was going to Stonehenge. I went to Stonehenge six years ago on a People to People trip. Two years ago, when Stonehenge became a world heritage site, an agreement was made that the site would be returned to it's former glory--removing the road up to the site, moving the visitors center, and putting the road next to the site underground.  The goal is that when you visit Stonehenge, you will see it as it was meant to be seen. The work they've done so far is wonderful, and Stonehenge is no longer dwarfed by buildings and busses and roads (oh my!). The changes allow visitors to have time to understand the site and it's significance as it's position as a prehistoric crematorium. With the removal of the urban development around the site, you can truly exit the world of the living and enter the world of the dead.

Well this didn't go according to plan...

I apologize for not having kept up with this as much as I should have. But! I'm going to get back up to date. So here goes.

Pun of the Day 3

Shirt: "Stonehenge Rocks."

Me: "Hey, look at that pun."

Vishnu: "Yeah, it's pretty...hardcore."

Wicked fun

On Day 2, we took a tour around London with a sassy and self-proclaimed "too fabulous to die on a bus" tour guide. Starting in the more modern parts of London and moving toward the original Roman city, we went through many places.  The first of which being Buckingham Palace

Now, I wish I had some deep, inspirational things to say about Buckingham Palace, but I don't. It's beautiful, and I rather enjoyed seeing it again, but two things took over the visit:  

1) There were ducks in the fountain.

2) (Of which I sadly do not have a picture) selfie sticks are taking over the world. I kid you not. Everywhere I turned there was another one, a longer one, a GLITTERY one. If you didn't watch out, you could probably be skewered by one or knocked out cold. Couples using them to take pictures, one person staring into it as he walked around, I couldn't take it. Why did this have to be the thing that caught on? WHY???

Afterward, we moved around to the other significant figures, crossing London Bridge, passing the tower that holds Big Ben the Bell, jumping over each other to take pictures of the London Eye, etc. We finally made it to my favorite part of the tour:  Westminster Abbey. It's absolutely beautiful, and the history it holds is breathtaking. They have men and women from as early as the fourteenth century buried in the Abbey. Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin, Queen Elizabeth I, the list goes on.  It's also surprisingly challenging to tour the Abbey without stepping on a body. Although I was determined to, out of respect from the dead. I made Mr. Wheeler stop standing on top of Newton too. He laughed at me.

In our free time, we were able to run by the Tower of London and take pictures. One of the oldest buildings in London, it's very obviously medieval, looming over the rest of the landscape as you stand below it. 

  

Finally, the REAL highlight of London: Wicked.  I am not exaggerating when I say that out of the four performances of Wicked I've seen, this was the best. Elphaba's voice was incredible, rivaling even Idina Menzel's.  I still can't get over it and could probably continue gushing about it, but I won't. Instead, here's a picture of the theater it's playing in:

Can I stay here forever?