From Sahara to Sólheimajökul
2017 | Marrakesh >Fes > Chefchaouen > Tangier 🇲🇦 • Valencia 🇪🇸 • Rome > Cinque Terre > Milan 🇮🇹 • Reykjavik 🇮🇸
Morocco
In May of 2017, I decided to travel from the extreme ends of deserts to glaciers–from North Africa to the Nordic Region. I’ve always wanted to visit the Sahara; this was inspired by The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho. I wanted to live out my dreams like Santiago did so in the book.
My first stop was Marrakech (مراكش); my Burmese friend joined me on this portion of the journey. We traveled by camel into the Sahara and camped there overnight, where we had bread with couscous soup in candlelight with the Berbers (indigenous people of Morocco). They were such friendly company and I would like to mention that one can get by speaking Spanish, but communities here mainly speak French and Arabic.
We continued on to explore Fez (فاس). It’s an area that’s rich with arts and culture–from pottery to blacksmithing, to Berber rugs and carpets. We stayed at a traditional Moroccan home that had a beautiful yard; I would love to just live here! Our host Abdul was too dope; he shared the secrets of “Moroccan mosquitos” and hooked us up with hookah and white wine.
Since the internet did not work out here, we had to find our way through dark alleyways at night and I’d say this was the first time I was pretty scared when traveling. Sometimes these alleyways led to smaller spaces and even deadends. Nevertheless, it was a priceless experience; I truly believe that you start living when you are uncomfortable.
Soon, our bags were packed and we were off to the medina nestled in the Rif Mountains: Chefchaouen (شفشاون). This city used to be a part of Spain’s territory in Morocco, where many Jews fled to during the Second World War. This was one of the beliefs on why this whole city was painted in shades of blue–to follow Jewish custom and culture. Others believe that it is to keep mosquitos away, or to keep cool during hot summer days.
The final stop in Morocco was Tangier ( طنجة). Here we winded down and explored–tried traditional Moroccan food by the sea with live music and walked through local markets. I was particularly drawn to the minimal, yet attractive designs of the iron casted Berber doors. They all had color palettes and symbols that contained deeper cultural meanings. My experience in Morocco was an incredible one and from here I continue my path to Spain like Santiago!
Spain
I arrived in Valencia (my favorite city in Spain), a unique community with a cuisine of rice, seafood and meat, and their own language–a dialect of Catalan. Here I met with my friend from Germany to have paella and sangria at El Mercat. The next few days were spontaneous, magical, and unexpected.
We visited Ciudad de las Artes y las Ciencias, as well as Parque Gulliver; the design of this park was inspired by Guilliver’s travels and the park itself is made up of a giant Gulliver tangled up in ropes. I felt like a kid again sliding down Guilliver’s hair!
On one spontaneous morning, we were out for breakfast at Moltto Rest&Bar and I noticed the waitress take out a bucket of chalk markers and a rag. It looked like she was about to write the menu items on the glass window, but dreaded the task at hand. So I went over to her and asked if I could help her with the project in exchange for a free breakfast. After showing her some of my handlettering work, she finally said yes. There I was a few moments later–handlettering the menu on the window. People who walked by thought I was this famous visiting artist and asked so many questions, but the waitress helped me shoo them away. What an experience to remember and a constant proof that you can really create opportunities that did not exist prior, anytime and anywhere.
Later we got onto the Camino De Scares in search of Parque Natural de la Albufera. This nature preserve is a wetland with sunset views across rice fields and a lagoon (home to eels and ducks).
My time in Spain wouldn’t have been complete without visiting a castle; we drove the winding road up to Castle Xativa. As I walked through the surrounding beautiful gardens and the castle itself, explored the imagery and captions, and touched the walls of the castle with my fingertips, it gave me vivid memories of the Moro (Arab) stories from my Spanish Literature class from a few years back. I am so grateful for Profesor Granados, who had let me BYOC (Bring Your Own Chair) in his class that whole semester, where we read Don Quixote and learned about the importance of Miguel de Cervantes’ work in classic literature and its contribution to the Spanish language.
Also, some backstory here: Originally, I was supposed to meet a handlettering artist in Valencia to do a creative collaboration together, but it got canceled at the last minute. Nevertheless, I still had a great time in Valencia!
Italy
My next stop was Italy. I had to stop by and see the Colosseum, obviously! It was nice to have some down time to do laundry (since I didn’t pack that much clothing); I had to hand wash and air dry the clothes though.
Then I was on my way to Cinque Terre! On my 4-hour train ride, I met a group of missionaries from Brazil who were living in Rome. One of them–a priest to-be–told me: “It’s not [about] restriction, it’s [about] sharing.” Wow, what a beautiful mission–to touch the lives of others, not by religion, but by inspiration from humanity.
Upon arrival at the coast, I climbed up sky high and enjoyed the breeze of the sea with the sounds of seagulls in the distance. I hiked through the centuries-old seaside villages of colorful houses, vineyards, and harbors–such a magnificent sight! I had a mushroom cheese pizza pie all to myself and tried some local beer while I was in Vernazza (the “Native” town).
I stayed overnight here, and on my day of departure, I re-did the chalkboard for fun at the kitchen space. I only had 10 minutes so I did a quick job. Then, I didn’t expect this, but the main chef gifted me a jar of locally-harvested honey as a token of appreciation. *crying inside* This was about the perfect way to end my time at Cinque Terre.
After some coast feels, I was in Milan and danced salsa that night. The next day my Cuban friend showed me the city; we went to see the Cathedral Milan, walked along Naviglio Grande (a canal between Milan and the Ticino River), and tried unusual flavors of gelato at [LA] Gelateria della Musica (a music-themed ice cream parlor that hosts live performances!). Side note: I loved the typography graffiti here a lot! We also went to Museo delle Culture, where we came across a Buddha statue and my friend then introduced me to Buddhism studies and stories… It was already sunset and we ended up seeing Castello Sforzesco in Parco Sempione before the day ended.
Iceland
Landing in Iceland–it’s so green and where it is 24/7 sun in the summer.
I spent some time just exploring Reykjavik, did some food shopping, and saw the beautiful murals on walls and even the ground. I had also found a local Vietnamese restaurant down the block of where I was staying and i was so excited to eat Asian food after getting stomach virus in Morocco and a lot of heavy grains/meats in Europe, so I ended up having my comfort food (pho noodle soup) almost everyday I was in Iceland. In terms of food, I was definitely feeling homesick.
In the early morning, I boarded the Skúlaskeið to watch puffins at Akurey, an island in Kollafjörður Bay of West Iceland.
Afterwards I had this random craving for Mexican food, so I did a quick search and there was one spot by the harbor where I’d be returning to. Perfect! It was overly expensive but I had a tasty fish taco and keylime pie at Pünk. I met an Albanian friend here, who thought I was cool for even knowing the existence of Albania as a country, its culture and language, so my meal was “on the house”!
During my time here in Iceland, some of my evenings were spent at this restaurant to hang out and drink unlimited wine with my new friends afterwork, where I would even DJ some salsa music on the interior balcony.
After the early dinner, we climbed up to the top of the Hallgrímskirkja church, where we could see the statue of Norse explorer Leif Erikson right in front of us and the whole Reykjavik behind it. Then we hopped to a few hidden local gems for wine–I really enjoyed all the real fireplaces at these places.
I checked out this huge library in town, where I had a hot cup of cappuccino and opened my sketchbook. Here I met a Romanian friend; we shared our handlettering artwork and she told me her story of leaving everything behind to come to Iceland. She ditched her family’s architecture business and followed her dreams to be a photographer–she now lived in Iceland, as the editor and photographer for The Reykjavík Grapevine. I thought to myself, wow, that was refreshing to hear… I’d never forget that interaction we shared.
The Midnight Sun Salsa Festival had finally started. It was located at a venue in front of Tjörnin (aka “The Pond”), where I shared many salsa and bachata dances with friendly folks from Europe and the Nordic Region. On one of the many nights, I entered a room where I heard music I was not familiar with. A new Icelandic friend asked me to dance, but I said I didn’t know this music, and he said just follow. I closed my eyes and followed the lead, and that was exactly how I learned Kizomba for the first time. Ever since then, I was obsessed with Kizomba’s beauty and musicality.
On the last night of the festival, I returned to my stay really late and fell asleep blow drying my hair, lol! I overslept without an alarm and almost missed the 14-hour adventure the next morning, but the guide’s team was super nice to give me 10 minutes to be ready. The guide led us to a lava cave adventure, waterfalls, a glacier hike on Sólheimajökulll, and finally a pool. He asked if I was born in a cave because I navigated so well in this type of environment, so he put me at the end of the line on the glacier hike to keep the group intact. In terms of gear, I was so underprepared! I got wet from the rain and none of my clothing was waterproof. I was shivering involuntarily and had to spend some time in the heated car to recover. Luckily the guide was so accommodating–he even took me to a local street food spot to grab some quick calories after the whole expedition and drove me home.
I definitely felt a bit sick afterwards. My Albanian friend took care of me, gave me a winter hat, prepped me some fresh hot tea at Pünk, picked me flowers from this “forbidden” garden, and then treated me to Icelandic hot dogs for my midnight sun cravings at 3AM, where the town was still bright and lively.
Kindness is a universal language that can only be felt by the heart.
Don’t forget to live before you die. Kiss passionately and slowly, dance to beats you don’t even know, explore secret places and experience the danger, breathe deeply, and smile at the little things in life. As cliché as it sounds, things don’t make us happy–living out of my backpack going from one place to another made me realize we don’t need much to just be. :)