Azulejos

When you arrive in Portugal, you'll soon realize that there are two things you'll see a lot of - cobble stone sidewalks and azulejos, which are traditional painted tiles. They cover everything from palaces to bathrooms. The tradition of the azulejos is more than 500 years old in Portugal. The name comes from the Arabic words for painted stones, al zulayj, which the Moors introduced to Portugal and southern Spain during their occupation of parts of the Iberian peninsula between 711 and 1492. Seville was originally the center of the tile-making industry, but it eventually spread to Portugal in the early 1500s.

The earliest tiles followed the Islamic patterns that were inherited from the Moors even though they had been completely driven from Portugal by 1249. They were geometric patterns, which could be repeated to decorate an entire wall or room. We recently went to Portugal's National Azulejo Museum, which had many beautiful sets on display.

As the tradition developed, Portuguese artists transitioned to painting entire scenes with blue paint on white tiles. These can be seen all over Portugal depicting moments in history.

Inside Sintra's Pena National Palace

A building in Porto.

A scene from the National Azulejo Museum.

And the most famous azulejo scene:

Rock the Kasbah

Marrakech is a cool city, but we decided to explore the surrounding area a little more. We hired a driver to take us to Toubkal National Park, home to Morocco's tallest peak at 13,671 feet. It's around 2 hours from Marrakech, but we took the scenic route to see the countryside along the way.

Ibrahim was our driver. 

We stopped at a reservoir, which provides water to Marrakech and all the surrounding farmland.

Of course we saw camels.



As we approached the mountains, Berber children stopped us to sell flowers.

As you get into the mountains, donkeys replace camels.

We had lunch at a place called Kasbah Toubkal, a hotel catering to tourists located on the slopes of Toubkal mountain. Because we sat on the roof, we got to wear these awesome hats.

It had amazing views of the mountains.

On our way back, we stopped at a women's cooperative where they made argan oil by shelling and grinding the seeds by hand.

After returning to Marrakech, we celebrated a successful day trip with kebabs in the Djemma el Fna.

Morocco can be overwhelming for some people. We heard more people disparage it than praise it as we were planning our trip, but we had a great time and would recommend it to any adventurous travelers.

More Marrakech

Marrakech, founded more than a thousand years ago, was one of the country's many cities used as the capital. Many believe that the name Morocco was derived from the city's name. It has the largest market in Morocco and is the most popular destination for tourists who want to get a feel for Morocco.

Because the city was built so long ago, the streets inside the Medina (the old city) are medieval, narrow and winding. As a result, taxis drop visitors off away from the central parts of the old city. We had decided to stay at a riad, a traditional Moroccan house with an interior courtyard, which had been converted into a guesthouse. A teenage boy guided us down a long alley to find the door.

After wandering through the markets and stopping for lunch, we made our way to Jemaa el Fna, the main square of Marrakech, and one of the largest city squares in all of Africa. Vendors sold fresh orange juice from carts. It was cold and delicious.

Our friend really wanted to buy a carpet as a souvenir, so we found a reputable looking shop deep in the souks. They pulled out dozens of carpets and asked her if she liked them. She would hold a few to consider and the rest would be tossed to the side. When she found the one she liked, the bargaining began. The merchant gave her a "special price" because she was young. She bought it for less than 1/3 of his first offer. We learned later that all the questions he asked when we first walked in were to evaluate his starting price.

This is a photo of the minaret of the Koutoubia Mosque, which was finished in 1199. Marrakech was our first time to hear the 4:30 a.m. call to prayer since leaving Jakarta - we hadn't missed it.

At dusk, restaurateurs set up food stalls in the middle of the main square. It's packed with tourists and some locals. We had really good food at one of the stalls on our last night.

But on our first night, we opted for a restaurant with candle and belly dancers.

In the Jemaa el Fna, you see all sorts of crazy things going on - snake charmers, story tellers, monkeys, and this guy. He had set up two plastic bowling pins just far enough apart so that a perfectly kicked soccer ball could knock them both down from about two yards away. Hillary convinced me it was worth 15 cents to give it a try.

After watching for about five minutes, we had seen all but one local fail, so I was not confident as I stepped up and took aim.

But I nailed it. First try. And I walked away about 50 cents richer.

To celebrate, we watched more belly dancers and had wine. These two types of decadence can only be found in the ritzy places that most locals generally can't afford.

We also visited El Badi Palace, built in the 1500s.

Because Marrakech was the royal seat for hundreds of years, it is also home to Bahia Palace, built in the 1800s.

We'll save the rest for later. 

The Federal Budget

The U.S. Congress is in the process of making difficult decisions to reduce government spending. When President Obama announced that all federal employees would not receive a cost of living increase for the next two years, I supported his decision.

Unfortunately, Rep. Tom Reid (R-NY) set his sights on diplomats, assuming that we do not deserve fair compensation for the sacrifices we make by serving our government overseas. I also want to note that other federal employees serving overseas have always received Washington locality pay and are not included in Rep. Reid's proposed cuts.

If you agree that we deserve to be fairly compensated for the sacrifices we make when serving overseas, I included a letter explaining the situation that you can send to your Congressional representatives. I also included a link to a blog article that gives a good description of what life is sometimes like for us.
http://emailfromtheembassy.blogspot.com/2011/02/current-events-or-why-we-deserve-this.html?spref=fb

Dear Senator/Representative XXXX,


I support efforts to eliminate wasteful and unnecessary spending across all our federal agencies as part of the effort to reduce our national deficit. However, I am concerned by current legislative proposals that call for reversing a carefully considered bi-partisan plan to modernize the pay system of the Foreign Service that is in the process of being implemented.

The Federal Employees Pay Comparability Act of 1990 was adopted as a way to reduce the government-wide disparity between the public and private sectors and is a basic component of salary for all civilian Federal employees, based on annual survey data collected by the Department of Labor. As a result of this law, every federal government employee working in the United States received “locality pay” as part of their salary. Until 2009, the only United States government civilian employees who did not receive this part of their salary were Foreign Service personnel serving their country overseas.

Locality pay for Foreign Service personnel and other federal employees serving in Washington, D.C. is now approximately 25%. Under the law prior to 2009, Foreign Service personnel serving abroad sacrificed this part of their salaries and took large pay cuts to their base salaries. As a result, because retirement packages are based upon base pay (including “locality pay”), Foreign Service officers representing their country abroad received smaller retirement packages than their colleagues who stayed in Washington. This was not sustainable and in 2009 a bi-partisan solution was found to correct this policy problem. Closing the pay gap is not a pay raise -- it is a correction of a 17- year-old unintended inequity in the worldwide Foreign Service pay schedule—an inequity that grew every year.

Today thousands of Foreign Service employees serve in hardship assignments around the globe, which now constitute nearly 60% of all posts. The number of unaccompanied posts has increased more than fivefold in the last decade. Assignments overseas are increasingly challenging, difficult and in many instances, dangerous. There has been strong bipartisan recognition that it is time to invest in diplomacy and development. Penalizing Foreign Service employees whose mission is to serve overseas to advance and protect our national interests by cutting their base pay undervalues the importance of their work, widens the gap between those serving in the United States and those facing hardships and sacrifices overseas and creates real disincentives to serving on the front lines of American diplomacy and development.

I hope that you will support the Foreign Service and help ensure that its members are not penalized for service overseas.

Sincerely,

Morocco via Madrid

Since we had to fly through Madrid to get to Marrakesh, we decided to spend two nights, seeing as we really enjoyed Madrid when we went last spring. We made sure to see the Prado museum last time, so this time we decided to check out the Reina Sofia museum. The most well-known painting in this museum is Pablo Picasso's Guernica. I didn't realize quite how big it would be: 11 feet tall and almost 26 feet wide! Picasso created it as an anti-war symbol after the bombing of the Spanish town of Guernica, and the painting depicts the suffering during war among other things.


Here was another interesting painting, made even more so after listening to the description through the museum headphones.


We also got to see some cool Salvador Dali paintings. I realized I enjoy his paintings a lot more now than I did while studying them in college. (Maybe my mind has become sufficiently warped enough to "get" his crazy paintings now?) Here is the one I really liked, although I feel it just doesn't come across the same at all as it did in person. It is called The Endless Enigma.


We had some tapas at a German beer hall, in which we discovered tables with beer taps in the middle of them!


We had to go back to the place that had the best olives I've ever had. I was afraid they would be serving a different kind of olive, but I was lucky. They were exactly the same!


And of course, what other way to end an evening in Madrid but with churros con chocolate!

Marrakesh, Morocco

We just got back a few days ago from a great trip to Morocco. Our friend Rebecca came with us, and it was the first time any of us had been on the African continent. We had a very fun time, and getting to experience the city of Marrakesh and the Moroccan people was so interesting. I will do a couple updates on the trip to share what we did. For now - here are some of the shots we got wandering around the souks in the medina......