Do's and Don't You Dares of Ramadan

The above sign says Ramadan Kareem, which literally means "generous Ramadan," which also happens to be my Arabic name which is Karima (Carrie). The photo is in Mecca, the place where Muslims are required (if they have money) to make a pilgrimage to once in their life. This is located in Saudi Arabia and the entire city is closed to non-Muslims.


Sunday started the Muslim holy month of Ramadan in our country. Since many of you may not be familiar with what all that entails I will make a list do's of don'ts. First of all you should know that Ramadan is a month of fasting and prayer for Muslims. It is during this month they atone for their sins and attempt to get close to God. They give extra money to poor people and hope that by fasting all day they will be able to have compassion for those who are hungry every day.
Fasting starts at day break and lasts until sun down when the call to prayer is heard around the city. Let's start with a list of the things Muslims don't do during the day:

DON'TS
Eat or drink anything
Chew gum
Wear make-up or perfume
Smoke
Have sexual relations
Talk bad about people
Use gel or hair products
Brush teeth

DO'S
Give extra money to poor people
Pray more
Eat TONS of food after sundown and stay up really late
Buy new outfits for the end of the holiday
Go to the public bathhouse late at night
Burn special incense
Work shorter hours
Close all restaurants and coffee shops during fasting hours

Don't you dare get caught eating or drinking in public! People can be arrested in the streets for doing forbidden things in the daylight hours. As a foreigner (and since we are not Muslim), in order to respect them we also do not eat or drink in public.

(I found this picture on the Net of a girl on a prayer rug holding the Koran with her little head covered)

The schedule for an average Muslim around here during Ramadan is that they wake up somewhere between 8-9am, work from 9-3pm straight thru lunch, go home and rest and wait for the sun to set. At sunset, when the call to prayer goes off, they eat something light (soup and candies), drink some juices, and smoke cigarettes. Then they do one of their prayers around 8 pm and then head out on the town or back to the house to have coffee and play cards. At about midnight or 1am they have a hearty meal that would include meats and breads. Many will go to bed around 2am, but many of the younger crowd will stay up until about 5am and eat right before the sun comes up. That younger crowd will sleep most of the day until sunset.

The Ancient City

We had the opportunity to go to a nearby city the weekend with some friends. The old part of the city we visited was from the 1200's.


Here is a shop where they make material and blankets. All of it is by hand and there is no electrical machines involved.


This is a traditional tannery where they make leather stuff. These dyes are made from pigeon poo, cow urine, brains, limestone, mint, and saffron.



We also visited some ancient Roman ruins located in a nearby city.


This last picture was taken from our roof at sunset. That is the ocean at the bottom of the clouds.

Vacation Picture Extravaganza!!!

Well you blogger fans we have returned from our three weeks in Europe and took TONS of pics. (almost 700 before we deleted the poopy ones). We'll save you the time and give you the shorter version of a few pics from each place we visited. There are FOUR different posts so keep scrolling. Also, for the collages and pic's to see them bigger you can click on them to make them full size. We'll start our adventure in uber-gorgeous Switzerland (land really flowing with cheese and chocolate). Between France and Switzerland we have never in our lives eaten so much cheese, it's a main course here people! Now don't think these pictures have been digitally altered either. These are the real thing :)



We stayed in town called Interlaken that is located between two big lakes with views of the Jungfraujoch mountain which you'll see shortly.



Cody was taking time to stop and smell the flowers.


The first picture of Jungfraujoch was taken from our balcony. The third pic shows what we came into on the first day. Everyone was dressed in traditional Swiss folk outfits. We saw them on the train first and then when we arrived they were everywhere! We were thinking people in Switzerland really did dress like that! Turns out it was festival that only happens every 12 years and we happened to be there for it! The last picture of the city in the valley is Cody's favorite picture. The waterfall above it is on the cliff wall of the village in the valley. SO pretty.


We rented bikes and went on a 4 1/2 hour bike ride around one of the lakes. On one side of the lake it was mostly uphill (I mean get off our bikes and push uphill). If you have any idea what this means it was 20% grade in some parts. That is steep! But the other side was gorgeous lake scenery the whole way. As you can guess our boo-tays were sore! As you can see in the upper right corner, Cody is enjoying the views from the train. Some of the most beautiful scenery was on the train rides.


In Switzerland McDonald's sells "Shrimps" (as Carrie's Dad would also say). They were actually quite tasty.



This is the top of the Jungfraujoch mountain. There is snow up here all year round. This is the highest place you can get to by train in Europe.


Since we "backpacked" Europe I thought I would show you how we distributed the load.

Bongiorno: Welcoma to Italia!

We took a train from southern France to beautiful Venice. The weather was sunny and perfect. Though it was crowded, Venice was just as exotic as we imagined.



This is the view (bottom left hand corner) right outside from our Bed and Breakfast. It was on the water and there was water bus station right in front of our door. There are no cars on streets of Venice so you take water buses down the canals.


This is in the famous St. Marks Square. Cody is putting on his best smile.

Bonjour Frenchies!

Now I have to admit I didn't have the best image in my head of how the beloved Frenchies would treat us but they were very nice and helpful to us no-speaky French folks from New Mexico. (We didn't go to Paris, though :)

This is the beautiful town of Nice on the French Riveria in Southern France. The water was so blue and clean.




We went to Monte Carlo in the small country of Monaco next to Nice. They have the famous races and casino here. Everything was SUPER expensive and all the cars were luxury. This statue is one artist's interpretation of Adam and Eve. They sure did EAT well in the Garden! I had to get a picture with my large ancestors.




This is in Annecy, France, just south of Geneva. It was a cute little town on a canal where we enjoyed cheese fondue and tons of other cheese dishes such as raclette.


These last two pics are actually from Geneva, which is technically in Switzerland but we stopped in on our way down through France to end up in Marseille.


At Lake Geneva there is one of the tallest fountains in the world. Here in Geneva we had delicious steak marinated in garlic and herb butter. Cody likey.