The title may be a little grandiose but I really do feel that strongly about every single one of the following award recipients.
Award #1 - Strangest Souvenir Acquired
I am not sure which should win between my membership card to a casino in Malta or my unvalidated public transit pass for the city of Dresden, Germany, but since it is up to me to decide I choose the Maltese Casino Membership, it comes with a better story. I digress.I was in Malta for top secret missionary business and while there I realized that I might like to buy something. To do that, a prerequisite is money, Maltese money to be exact. So I inquired at the front desk of the hotel in which I was staying as to where I might find an ATM, and they told me that I could find one in the casino, which was down at the end of some long shady hallway.I went for a walk (the truth is that I was accompanied by several friends/coworkers but for the intents and purposes of this story as I relate it to you, I acted alone) and when I finally arrived at the casinos hotel entrance, I asked the lady at that desk where I might be able to find an ATM, and she also informed me that it was IN the casino and that I couldn’t get to it unless I was a casino member.So I asked her if membership costs money, she said no and proceeded to very quickly make me a membership and about 30 seconds later, I had a membership card and was in the casino scouting for this ATM that was supposedly IN the casino. When I couldn’t find it I asked a guy at a roulette table where it might be, and he told me it was located in the casino main entrance.I went to the main entrance, and still didn’t see this phantom ATM. So I asked the lady that was working that desk and she told me it was just out the door and a few steps up the street. I followed her directions and sure enough, there it was, fully accessible to the general public.I don’t really wonder why I was repeatedly told that it was IN the casino, but I really wished the staff of the hotel could have been up-front with me.
Award #2 Best Döner Kebab
First maybe I should spend just a little time explaining what this is before I go on to pass out the award. I hadn’t ever seen Döner Kebab before I got to Malaga, and what it is, is meat, either chicken or beef, put on a spindle that rotates on a vertical axis rotisserie style (I believe that up until this point it is just referred to as schwarma), that gets shaved off either with a something that resembles a barbers clipper or a knife into a scrap bin at the bottom of the cooking apparatus. Those meat scraps get placed into pita bread with whatever dressings and vegetables happen to be available and then you go ahead and eat this thing that is called Kebab, Döner, or Schwarma depending on who you’re getting it from.Anyway, without having traveled all the way to this particular dishes origins I confident in saying that the best in existence in the world is Istanbul Doner Kebap in Dresden, Germany. It was large, delicious and cheap. It alone made my stop in that small, East German city worth the while.
Award #3 Best European City
This award is based on my experience and no one else’s, and it’s worth keeping in mind that I have not been even to every major european city, let alone all of the hidden gems like Dresden. Yet despite all that, I can very confidently say that the city of Berlin has won my heart.Paris made for close competition and I believe that both of them are must see cities but on the basis of art, history and overall vibe, Berlin could easily become my new home stomping grounds, Museum Island, The Berlin Wall, Pottsdammer Platz, The Holocaust Memorial and the Jewish Museum are some of the best sights that can be found.
Award #4
The recipient of this award is beyond description and as such, it is also beyond title. If you’re only go to make one trip in your life, I think that it should be to go and do this most incredible thing, and that is to head out to the Sahara desert.I had the opportunity in March 2007 to ride a camel for two and a half hours from the small Moroccan town of Merzouga to the base of a large sand dune where we made camp for the night.Made camp is probably the wrong way to put it, camp was already ready when we got there, we just had to wait for our guides to finish preparing supper for our group while we took in a desert sunset from atop the 200 meter tall dune.After the meal there was a time of impromptu song and dance with myself actually participating both musically and rhythmically, followed by a night under the most brilliant sky that I have ever seen.In the morning I took a flying saucer up the dune and crashed it halfway down, getting so much sand on my person that I was actually still washing it out when I left Spain in May. And after that the adventure was over, we rode our camels for two and a half hours back to civilization and showered and hit the road.I did however during this time learn that only tourists ride camels and that born and raised desert folk just like to walk.
Award #5 Strangest Food Eaten
I learned during my time away that I don’t really feel that any food that’s cooked can be considered weird or gross, but then British Black Pudding came to mind and I realized that that was the only food that I came across that I really couldn’t eat.That being said I tried the raw little fishes soaked in vinegar whole, and I had the giant jumbo prawns with who’s heads you could make finger puppets, but the weirdest thing I ate was either boiled sheeps brains in Marrakech, Morocco or Squid cooked in it’s ink in Santiago de Compostela, Spain and in this instance, Squid cooked in it’s ink wins because it had better flavour.
Award #6 Best Beach
This ones easy, the quite charms and white baby powder like sand that you can find only in Tariffa, Spain make it my favorite place to relax in the sun.
Award #7 Most Touristy City
The hoards of tourists in Prague make it easily the most touristy place that I’ve been, even more so than Paris.
Award #8 Coolest Museum
At first you might deceived into thinking that the Louvre in Paris would be the obvious answer, but you would be wrong, it’s the Jewish Museum in Berlin.The Jewish Museum in Berlin is a veritable maze of modern, informative and engrossing exhibits covering all of jewish history. It features an interactive learning center along with some truly excellent examples of modern art that really bring across the plight of the Jewish people during the holocaust.If I had only had opportunity to see one museum in my life, I would want it to be this one.And that concludes this weeks fun. Stay tuned, a more complete history of my time spent in Morocco along with lessons learned are on there way.
