Breathtaking moments (Surfing in Portugal)

I’m thinking of a sentence a good friend of mine once said to me. "Life is not measured in breaths and exhales, but in moments that are breathtaking." Now, this can be literally understood as this is a sport that can literally take your breath away for a certain time when the masses of water crush you. However, after it lets you out again, everything starts again from the beginning. Yet here I am talking about different "breathtaking" moments. If you take this sport, which to me represents a long-forgotten childhood dream, which requires physical effort of each atom of your body, which meets human fatigue, joy and adrenaline, and combine it with the lifestyle that is associated with this sport, develop all this which I mentioned into a philosophy and with it add to it the warm-hearted people of Portugal and its scenery, you get a paradise on earth, peace, incredible sense of belonging and moments that are truly breathtaking, only that this feeling lasts forever.

The Atlantic Morocco

We are sitting on the train from Marrakech to Safi, a small fishing village on the Atlantic coast of Morocco. This is the only train ride in Morocco on our journey as the west coast is covered also by rail. It turned out that there are not free seats in the train. But fortunately, the ride only lasted three hours. The train was delayed as usual all transport opportunities in Morocco are. We managed to push through the masses of Moroccans fighting to get into the train. It was a bit like a cattle fair. When we entered, only the place near the toilets was free. The surprising thing was that the ride turned to be totally fun. We had a local guy who was constantly praising his "cool" cell phone that has a picture of David Beckham, and he was playing musicon that cell phone and singing. He shouted like crazy with no voice during fierce "trash" music. Later, one guy pulled the drums out and we danced near the toilets on the train. As Morocco has only recently experienced the development of mobile communication, it’s common to meet people that want to see your mobile phone, trade something for it, or they just praise with their mobile phones and show you what gadgets they have.     

The High Atlas Morocco

Our outfit changed, we put on warm jackets and shirts, the temperature fell, rain, night, 4:00 o’clock AM, we are waking up in a cave at 3400 meters altitude. It’s dry inside the cave, the only thing you can hear is the cold night breeze and our chattering teeth. The light but cold fresh breeze pulls all the warm air from our sleeping bags. We started to get ready, packing things, with horrible headaches and fatigue. The walk to the top is the prize itself, because the landscape is beautiful. At this point we do not feel that. As we changed our sleeping positions during the night, we were surprised when we woke up at a place where goats made themselves comfortable before us. Our backpacks, especially the sleeping bags and our clothes  have been covered in goat shit. We ate a few dates we had and headed out on the top.