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\n\n\nAfter three\ncontrasting months apart, The Earthbound Astronauts have finally reunited! We\u2019ve\nonly been on the road for five weeks, yet we\u2019ve had the pleasure of traversing\nthrough eight distinctly different countries. It\u2019s been an adventure-filled\nreunion, so this is only Part I of our unpredictable voyage. Don\u2019t blink or\nyou\u2019ll miss it!\n\n\n
\n\nTo listen to\nthe Part I podcast click HERE!\n\n
\n\nSwitzerland \u2013 Geneva \u2013 September 30th\n\u2013 October 1st\n\n\nAfter being\napart for three months, we were both enthusiastic to start the next phase of\nour journey. Meeting in Geneva was convenient for us both as Casey had been\ntravelling with his parents in Switzerland, and Geneva was only a short two-hour\ntrain ride away from Lyon, where I had been stationed for the previous two\nmonths. We jubilantly met at a prearranged hostel both invigorated by the\nunknown of the coming months. Casey was excited to be no longer travelling\nsolo, whilst I was ecstatic to be on the move once more. Wanting to celebrate\nour once again formidable duo, we ventured into Geneva to enjoy a meal. Having\nbeen forewarned of the exuberant pricing in Switzerland still did not prepare us\nfor the blatant extortion encountered! Unfortunately for us, pricing was\nrelative to the heightened salaries received in Switzerland, those with heavy\nfinancial restraints, such as ourselves, were reduced to the common European\ntravellers meal: a baguette, cheese, salami and a lukewarm beer. \n\n\n
\n\n\nMeeting\nCasey\u2019s parents at The European Organisation for Nuclear Research or \u2018CERN\u2019 was\na very exciting occasion. We were able to join them both for a tour of CERN and\nfind out about the enormous subterranean particle accelerator and the recently\nconfirmed Higgs Boson, a concept that is still outside my scientific grasp. It\nwas a great event to share with Casey\u2019s dad, David, as he has a great passion\nfor physics, and this facility is at the forefront of research in this area. As\nwe sadly farwelled both Aleysha and David, it marked the true beginning of our journey.\n\n\n
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\n\n\nA combination\nof rejuvenating motivation along with Casey\u2019s resent success hitchhiking,\nspurred us on an adventure to hitchhike from Geneva, Switzerland to Barcelona,\nSpain. Catching public transport to the Swiss-French border, garnished with our\npacks, we climbed a small fence leading to the highway, casually strolled\nacross the border checkpoint, placed our packs down for but a second, barely\nhaving time to lift the iconic hitchhiker thumb and a car pulled up. Knowing\nthe broad direction we wanted to head in, AKA west, the driver asked us where\nwe\u2019d like to go, we said Lyon (a large city in the general direction of\nBarcelona), when he said he wasn\u2019t going in that direction we naively insisted\nthat any ride was a good ride, even one that smelt so strongly of cheese\u2026 We\nhad a great time chatting to our new Hungarian friend about his new life in France;\nhowever, it soon became apparent that we were not heading in the direction we\u2019d\ninitially intended. We ended up in Chamonix, a small town in the shadow of\nEurope\u2019s tallest mountain, Mont Blanc. Surrounded by snow-capped peaks,\nluscious forests and typical French buildings, this charming town is what\ndreams are made of. Contemplating our new situation, we separately had the same\nidea of travelling into Italy. Astonished at our already distorted plan (a\nhabit we cannot seem to break), we changed our tact and now waited on a highway,\nnot so far away from the Italian border, waiting for our next willing lift. \n\n\n
\n\nItaly \u2013 Genoa & Cinque Terra \u2013\nOctober 2nd \u2013 October 5th \n\n\nWe were eventually\npicked up by a really nice Italian-speaking Albanian, who was kind enough to\ndrive us past his own small town to Aosta, a town with a main train station. We\ndrove through an incredible part of Italy, with valleys dotted with various\ncastles and villages, which seemed to be untouched by the progressive\nmodernization witnessed in larger cities. Unfortunately, our new friend was\nunable to speak English, but this gave Casey an opportunity to put his freshly\npracticed Italian to use. He was incredibly hospitable; he even bought us a\nbeer and refused to let us pay for it! From the train station we headed to\nGenoa, a port town, where we would enquire about a ferry to Spain.\n\n\n
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\n\n\nWe arrived\ninto Genoa at night with no organised accommodation. Not believing this to be a\nproblem, we were turned away from numerous hotels and hostels either due to\nunavailability or extravagant prices. We swallowed our pride and stayed at the\ncheapest we could find, even though it was considerably more then we were\nexpecting to pay. When enquiring as to why there was such a shortage of\naccommodation, we found out it was due to the famed Genoa annual boat show.\nWhat would a trip to Genoa be without going to the fabled boat show! It was\namazing to see the yachts that were on show. Casey and I definitely didn\u2019t\nquite fit the part when it came to prospective cliental, yet we boarded some of\nthe more modest yachts and were still able to dream about potential future\ntravel opportunities.\n\n\n
\n\n\nDetermining\nthat we had a few days before we were going to board the ferry to Barcelona, we\nheaded to Cinque Terre, a portion of coast on the Italian Riviera. Cinque Terre\nconsists of five distinctively unique villages, all vibrantly coloured. Each\nvillage sits in a small cove, with the buildings carefully teetering on the\nsharp slope of the surrounding tumultuous terrain. It was beautiful to see\nthese still lively villages in an incredibly well preserved and prosperous\nstate. Returning to Genoa after a fleeting visit, we boarded the 20-hour ferry\nacross the Mediterranean to Barcelona. \n\n\n
\n\nSpain \u2013 Barcelona, Tarragona &\nGranada \u2013 October 6th \u2013 12th\n\n\nAs we arrived\ninto Barcelona it was obvious that the city was going to live up to it\u2019s\nimpressive reputation as a culturally rich and vivacious city. Every street or\nsmall alley was bustling with life, a combination of luminescent light,\nerratically scattered boutiques and restaurants, and people eager to enjoy the temperate\nambience. Having discovered that a friend from home, Sam, was going to be in\nBarcelona at the same time, we decided to meet. As Sammy had been in Barcelona\nfor about a week before we arrived, he acted as our pseudo-tour guide,\nattempting to enlighten us about Gaudi, a famous architect whose eccentric and\nimaginative buildings have become icons of Barcelona. Shamefully, Casey and I were\nunaware of Gaudi before our arrival and were naively curious about this \u2018Gaudi\u2019\ncharacter people continually referred to as if it was common knowledge. As a\ntrio, we trekked up to Montju\xefc Castle, where we are able to see the\nincredible immensity of Barcelona and it\u2019s surrounding satellite towns.\n\n\n
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\n\n\nEven though\nBarcelona is well known for pickpockets and petty crime, we had no issues. The\nonly act of theft that we experienced was due to a lapse in our concentration, forgetting\nto ask the price of mediocre paninis in what seemed like a legitimate panini business,\nwhich resulted in blatant daylight robbery! This was a sore moment for us both,\nespecially when we sent Sam into the same shop a day later to enquire about the\nprice, to find out there had been a significant price reduction\u2026 Having enjoyed\nour time with Sammy thus far, we invited him to join us through the remained of\nSpain and into Morocco. Even though there had been a slight \u2018salting of game\u2019\nwhilst we partook in the infamous Catalan nightlife, Sam whimsically decided to\njoined us. \n\n\n
\n\n\nWe headed to the\nhistorical beach town, Tarragona, to see Margherita, a friend of Casey\u2019s from\nhis exchange to Italy eight years earlier. Tarragona is primarily a student\ntown and Margherita, who was there on the Erasmus study exchange program, was\nkind enough to accommodate us for the night and expose us to the energetic\nnightlife of an Erasmus student on exchange. This was but a brief visit to\nTarragona as we were eager to arrive in Morocco. Finding it difficult to plan a\ndirect route to a port town where we could board a ferry headed for Tangiers,\nwe organised an overnight train to Granada through Valencia, where we had the pleasure\nof waiting until the early hours of the morning for our connecting train.\n\n\n
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\n\n\nArriving in\nGranada with no idea about the city, we walked around attempting to find\naccommodation, which, again, was quite an ordeal. Eventually, we found a nice\npension run by a very friendly elderly non-English-speaking lady we fondly\nnicknamed \u2018Nonna\u2019. The room was barely big enough for one person, let alone\nthree, and this was before Sammy decided to covert the room into a Chinese\nlaundry. Granada was quite an old town, and we had arrived (unbeknown to us) on\nNational Day. This explained the lack of accommodation and the continuous\nparades consisting of marching bands and officials garnished with lavish medals\nand medallions. Granada was the point where we started to notice influences\nfrom North Africa. The main area of Granada was full of exotic stalls selling\nspices, clothes and various other memorabilia. Again, we were only in Granada\nfor a night as we were attempting to arrive in a port town the following day\nand make our way to Morocco. We awoke the following morning marginally later\nthen anticipated, which raised the anxiety levels slightly. Whose fault this\nwas is an ongoing argument\u2026 However, we were able to board a train to Algeciras\nwhere we boarded a late, and somewhat delayed, ferry headed to Tangiers,\nMorocco. After about three and a half months we fondly said goodbye to Europe\nand were excited for the next stage of our journey, North Africa and the Middle\nEast.\n\n\n
\n\nMorocco \u2013 Tangiers, Fes, Marrakech\n& Casablanca \u2013 October 13th \u2013 October 21st\n\n\nThe\nferry across the Strait of Gibraltar was a swift yet symbolic passage from one\ncontinent to the next. As we left the Tangiers port terminal we were asked if\nwe wanted buses or taxis into the city. However, we had done some research\nearlier and determined that a reasonable hostel was within walking distance and\nrefused all offers. We started walking down a highway parallel to the port for\nwhat seemed like an immense distance before we started to question our\nwhereabouts. It turned out that we had arrived into the second port of Tangiers,\napproximately 50 kilometres from the actual city. We swallowed our pride and\nreturned to the port to enquire about catching a bus to the amusement of a\ncollection of drivers that had offered us lifts earlier. It was nearing\nmidnight as we arrived in Tangiers so we decided to stay in a quite reasonably\npriced four-star spa resort hotel. This luxury was quite a change from the\naccommodation we were accustomed. We had not intended on spending much time in\nTangiers as we\u2019d heard it was predominately a port town where Moroccans head to\nindulge themselves in taboo or illegal activities, so we decided to head to\nFes.\n\n\n
\n\n\nBoarding\nthe train to Fes was an experience in itself. We boarded an already crowded\ntrain with our large bags, the only remaining space was located next to the\nrancid bathroom at the end of the carriage, and this was filling fast. As we\ngathered in this confined space, we realised that standing for six hours in the\nsweltering heat was going to present us with another \u2018unique\u2019 experience.\nObviously realising that the train was at capacity, they decided to add some\nadditional carriages, and we were luckily able to secure a compartment before\nit too become obscenely crowded. Fes turned out to be what we imagined an\nincredibly authentic Moroccan city would be like. We had booked a hostel within\nthe medina, the old town enclosed within a medieval fortification. \n\n\n
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\n\n\nWithin\nthe medina, buildings were all constructed using the same yellowish clay into\nsimple rectangular structures arbitrarily mounted upon one another. The small\nstreets and alleyways were almost impossible to navigate as they unpredictably\nwound around and through buildings with smaller capillary streets branching of\ninto small squares or to other indistinguishable locations. It turned out the\ntrain had been so crowded because people were returning home for an Islamic\nholiday, which became evident by the heightened activity within the medina. We were\nwitness to donkeys hauling peculiar products into the labyrinth of the medina,\nsheep being delivered to a multitude of butchers and continuously directed to\nillusive tanneries. Seeing a sheep being delivered on the back of a donkey is\nan unusual sight at the best of times. Fes was also an interesting location as\nSam and I were unlucky enough to encounter bed bugs, our first and incredibly\nunpleasant encounter with these brutal parasites. Casey was smugly impressed he\navoided these macroscopic terrors, yet a few days later, to Sam and my\nenjoyment, a few bites did appear.\n\n\n
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\n\n\nAfter\nwe\u2019d visited Fes, we headed to Marrakech, much more of a tourist-centric city,\nwhich did partially subtract from the appeal; however, the city was still an\namazing spectacle. The highlight of Marrakech is a large market place that has\nnumerous performances, snake charmers, orange juice stalls and restaurants. At\nnight, the market was flooded by lights and truly came to life as people\nbustled between all the interesting performances, most of which seemed to\ninvolve men dressed as women\u2026 I, unfortunately, was slightly unwell during our\ntime in Marrakech and didn\u2019t have the pleasure of visiting some ancient tombs\nand a castle, but Casey and Sam visited the sights and raved about the\nintricacies and the impressive atmosphere of the structures. \n\n\n
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\n\n\nPreparing\nto leave Morocco, we headed to Casablanca where Casey and I were going to catch\nour flight to Jordan and Sam was going to fly to Paris. Casablanca seemed like\na very plain city, so we were glad we had not afforded it too much of our limited\ntime. We headed to the Casablanca airport, said our goodbyes to Sam who we\u2019d\ngreatly enjoyed travelling with for just over two weeks, and boarded our plan\nto Amman, Jordan. We did get to enjoy a stopover night in Cairo airport that\nresulted in us both passing out at a table just outside of our boarding gate\nwhile we waited for a flight to Tunisia to board. An interesting image: Two\nwesterners sleeping quite ungracefully at a table as a large group of Tunisians\nboard their flight, many of them impressively carrying their possessions on\ntheir head\u2026\n\n\n
\n\n\nAnd\nthat is the end of The Reunion Part I! It is difficult to believe that this all\nhappened within the space of three weeks. I\u2019ll leave you with a quote by Ernest\nHemingway that has helped me keep things in perspective, \u201cNever mistake motion for action\u201d. As we continue to travel I reflect\nupon everything we have done and everything we hope to do both while travelling\nand beyond. The Reunion Part II is only a few days away, so keep your eyes open\nand as always, keep posted.\n\n