I love free new clothes. Thanks Hayley!!!

I love free new clothes. Thanks Hayley!!!

From one mission to the next

Many months ago we got an excited phone call from David which went something like this:

“GUYS!! THE NAKED AND FAMOUS ARE PLAYING IN OXFORD AND IT’S ONLY LIKE 7 POUNDS!! I hope it’s not a joke, I’m buying tickets… awesomesauce!”

We were looking forward to the gig… until it was postponed and we thought it was going to land in the middle of our trip. AND then we found out it was the day after we got back (hence the very tired faces!) The perfect excuse to use some Groupon Mission Burrito vouchers with some friends.

Tired faces but well worth it!

SO so so good.

So because it was a NZ band every kiwi in Oxford was out and we played the fun game of ‘spot the kiwi’. I took this photo of the punting boats as a ruse to hear an accent, but they turned out to be Australian.

DEErrrn nerr ne do…. (you get the picture).

And SARAH came down too!

Yay!!

It's not about the bus...it's about the plane.

Leaving a place isn’t always the most exciting part of the adventure. Generally the way home always seems shorter than the journey there, unless the plan has some holes in it, and you are in a country where important things like buses and information about buses aren’t always as frequent or as accurate as you might like.

As the sky opened up we left the centre and made our way down to the bus stop. After a long wait, our hope for the right bus coming along plummeted and we caught a different bus to another station… Unfortunately the bus that departed from there didn’t leave for another FIVE hours, and would have only taken us to the centre of the town rather than the airport. Missing the flight wasn’t an option.

So… some super sleuths managed to hunt down a mini-coach (the power of travelling en masse) which meant our bus station wait was only like 4 & 1/2 hours (the silliness rapidly increased in the fourth hour) and we made it to the airport on time. Hurrah!

We saw some pretty dramatic skylines while praying on the roof, and were challenged again by how

We saw some pretty dramatic skylines while praying on the roof, and were challenged again by how exciting this great invitation we have actually is. Once again saying ‘yes’ (or ‘yis’) to the next thing, and the thing after that, even if we don’t quite know exactly what it looks like!! It’s a big world out there.

Norte de África

Although our ferry only took half an hour to cross the Mediterranean, it was clear that we had entered a world very different from our own.  At both ports I noticed ancient cannons pointed out to sea, and I was reminded of all the centuries of history carved out in that part of the world, and everything that is going on even now - what a crazy privileged time to visit.

It feels strange to admit that even though we were given good tourist advice, our group still felt culture shock, which I would describe as being unable to distinguish between being unsure (of your surroundings and your place in them) and being unsafe (which we weren’t). It took a few days to shake, and that’s why there are mainly photos of us, as we weren’t quite sure what was appropriate to point our camera at!

During our short stay we wandered through the Medina taking in the sights and smells, being taken to restaurants (yum!) and pharmacies (where we learnt that Saffron is the ‘King of Spices’). I learnt that the long strings running through the market is the silk used to make the elaborate djellabas and that just sitting around on the grass by the fountain is a perfectly good use of time and a great way to meet people. There were so many families out and about. We even had dinner with a Mexican couch surfer!

I will also never forget that ferry ride back, watching Marc turn white and then hurl into a tiny paper bag with an newly made American friend rubbing his back, just minutes before we reached the shores of Tarifa.

Tips from someone who made it 3/4 of the way..

If you want to climb the Rock of Gilbraltar, skinny jeans are not the dream. As the overcast sky cleared and the queue for the gondola was rumoured to take approximately 3 hours (plus 13 pounds - yikes) I began to fear I had made a huge mistake when I got dressed that morning. Our casual walk to the top …“it can’t really be that far….” turned into a battle against the heat, and minivans full of elderly cruise ship residents.

Also, if you plan on seeing Gibraltarian apes on your day visit to the Rock, it pays to take the path that says ‘apes this way’…. While we saw plenty of evidence of apes (food scraps and so on), we only happened upon one real ape in the centre of town which quickly fled after a tour-guide threw a rock (ha) at it.

And even though this rock is technically ‘British’, the coffee is still served in Spanish quantities = weeny, but the size of the fish on my plate was unconquerable - even after three attempts by some hungry lads!