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.

The Sahara Desert

We are driving in the comfortable and good CTM bus to our southeasterly destination, Rissani. Air-conditioned bus, with our own seat numbers, some disgusting Folk Music on the radio. We barely managed to get into the bus, cause I lost the tickets. I think that I even didn’t lost them, cause they somehow "sneaked" out of my hands right after I bought them at the bus station in Fes. The next day I informed the bus station officials about the loss, although we didn’t know our seat numbers. They believed us and said that it’s ok and we can still go on our bus cause the nice lady at the bus station remembered us. In the evening when we reached the bus station exactly two paid seats were empty. To our surprise quarrel started at the counter. A young Moroccan guy arrived with two tourists, who looked confused as same as we did. What happened is that the young Moroccan guy sold its tourists our two tickets for which we don’t know how they came into his hands. Apparently, as he said, he bought the tickets for them in advance to be a good host. In some strange way our tickets came into his hands. After 10 minutes of yelling, threats, police and so on, and obviously because of the bad reputation of the young Moroccan, they believed us and let us on the bus.

The Arabic Morocco

We were lost in a maze of small alleyways. Walking and wonder because this place is absolutely stimulating all your senses. There are alleys full of exotic scents, spices are sold, something like those scented sticks, colorful carpets and clothing, and so on. Then you enter another alley and everything turns to the totally opposite side. A guy is slaughtering chicken on the road, another is selling the intestines, goat heads and feet, stink everywhere, have to be careful not to walk into something when you wear open sandals. The place described here is called a souk, a place in the old Arab city (the Medina) in which the trade and exchange happens. Fes, the third largest city in Morocco has one of the largest and oldest (over a thousand years) medinas in the world.

The Mediterranean Morocco

This town can be called "the experience of my life". After several hours of driving in a slow bus full of locals and just waiting in some places for an unknown reasons, we went in Chefchauoen where we were welcomed by some locals. They offered us a family hotel (a room with shower and toilet for 3 euros per person). After I warned him that we will not give him any money, and that we go with him only because we believe him that it was really his family hotel, the situation resulted as we were afraid of. The hotel was really 3 euros, but the guy who works in the hotel does not know his own "relatives" and the first guy started to require that we buy some hashish for 20 euros. Basically, we refused. After a minute, his friend arrived there also and they began to yell at us and ask for money. Everything went mostly well. Well, from our side. The guys were yelling at us a while and then angrily left. Unfortunately this is a common scene in the tourist areas of Morocco. 

Discovering Morocco

In one sentence, Morocco can be described as an attack on all senses. The fact is that a trip to Morocco these days is very simple and cheap. In our case, we got satisfied with the low budget airline Ryanair which flies from most major European cities. However, the real experience of travel in the country is on the cultural level. The country is not the size of the U.S. or Brazil or similar, where it’s normal that the country boasts a wide range of diversities. However, with its surface only slightly larger than Spain, Morocco covers all possible differences one can imagine. So here you can find severe poverty, where people are living in one set of clothes they have on themselves, they have nothing accept one donkey, and they’re only thinking if they’ll have enough water, cause each year there’s less. On the other side, for example in Marrakesh, some people are driving a Hummer and eat in KFC. It is possible to find traditional Muslims, where people are dressed accordingly and women are fully covered (including gloves). In some places they cover everything except the eyes, somewhere they show only the face. On the other hand, in the larger cities some girls are walking in skirts and go out into clubs. Morocco offers a variety of landscapes. So in the north, Mediterranean landscapes can be found, in addition, associated climate and Rif Mountain range with fields of marijuana and hashish production for the European and other markets. Along the Atlantic there’s a completely different climate and lifestyle. Besides megalomaniac centers and small fishing towns, tourist spots and surf centers grew caused by the migration of the hippy culture in the quest for the perfect paradise. Morocco's interior at first glance looks very brown, dry and hot. However, it’s full of beautiful canyons and waterfalls with greenery and exotic flora and fauna, palm trees, monkeys and some shit. The country provides a haven for individual hikers, climbers and adventurers. So the interior of Morocco is adorned by the High Atlas mountain range with the highest peak, Jebel Toubkal (4167m). At the end there is the impressive wilderness of sand dunes in the southeast where officially the Sahara desert starts.
Morocco is divided into the Mediterranean part, North and South Atlantic coast, the area of Atlas mountain range, the desert or the Sahara and the Anti Atlas of Morocco. The fact is that after you discover all possible corners of this country, you have the feeling that you have travelled through several countries, not just a one.

Down the Mountain

Clean mountain air, breath, refreshing, regenerating, on top of the world, soft, white powder, admire the beauty of majestic mountain peaks, rising expectation, preparation of what is coming, the feeling of excitement and a smile on your face, get up on your feet, the cool mountain air refreshes your face as the board is carving his way in the mountain.