The Time I Went to Africa for the Weekend

After Lagos, it was pretty rough going back to school after an 11 day vacation. But I only had one week until I went to Morocco!! This trip was organized through my interest group, which I think I mentioned before. My program has a bunch of different interest groups, and I decided to join with with Jillian called 4 Cultures: Jews, Christians, Muslims and Gypsies. Our trip consisted of about 25 students, a professor from our school, and a 23 year old Spanish student...both of whom were very cool!! The best part about this trip was that we only had to pay 50 euros since it was through our program. I really don't think I'll ever have the opportunity again to go to Africa for 50 euro!!

We left early Friday morning and spent a lot of the day traveling. We had to take a bus, a ferry, and another bus to get to our first destination and hotel where we stayed both nights in Tetuan. Luckily Morocco is 2 hours behind, so we picked up some time in order for more sightseeing. We checked into our hotel which was also unbelievably nice (I was roommates with Jillian and this other random girl who I can't even remember her name) and then headed out. Our tour guide this day was hilarious, his name was...something Arabic, but he told us to call him Michael Douglas because he "looked" like him (wrong, he did not, but it was still funny). Our first stop was an art workshop/academy...for kids who do not want to go to traditional school, they can go to art school basically and learn that instead. Unfortunately the students weren't there when we went because it was the time of day on Friday where Muslims go to the mosques and pray, but we saw tons of cool crafts; woodwork, ridiculously intricate painting, plaster, leather, etc. It was cool.

After that, we walked through the medina (city center) of Tetuan, which was definitely a highlight of my whole experience in Morocco. It was such a shock seeing some of the things beind sold in the markets. Upon first walking up we saw a huge cardboard circle filled with baby chicks. After walking a little more we saw a large variety of bread, fruits, eggs, and vegetables, and then your less typical things such as oh you know, entire dead fish of all shapes and sizes, dead headless chickens hanging from stands, large parts of cow meat just dangling everywhere. The usual! It was crazy. It also smelled HORRIFIC and there was literally blood on the sidewalks in some places from the freshly dead products. It was ridiculous, but very very cool to see.

A man carrying bread in the market

After that pleasant experience we walked through some very small and windy streets and then made it to lunch, thank god because we were all starving, even after the dead animals. We had a good first taste of Moroccan food: vegetable soup, little chicken shish kebabs, delicious couscous, and then for dessert orange slices with cinnamon on them. After lunch we had Arabic tea, which is definitely something everyone should try at some point...it is basically REALLY sweet, minty tea. It's pretty good actually.

After lunch we did more touring around the medina. Walking around the markets here was really one of my favorite parts of the trip...it was just so cool seeing all the different things they were selling (meat, grains, produce, beans, nuts, dyes, fabrics, shoes, clothing, soaps, herbs, etc.). We also saw the Royal Palace, went to a leather tannery (AWFUL smelling- they gave us each a sprig of spearmint to sniff while we walked though), and we even went to this tiny little hole in the wall synagogue! Later, we went back to the restaurant we had eaten at previously and listened to a Morrocan university student (who spoke English) talk to us about Islam in Morocco over some tea. It was very interesting! After the talk we went back to our hotel, waited a little, had dinner in the hotel dining room, hung out a little after, and called it a night really early because we were EXHAUSTED.

On Saturday, we had to wake up very early, grab some breakfast in the hotel (Moroccan breakfast was pretty interesting!), and hop on the bus to go to our first stop of the day, a town called Assilah. We had a few hours to explore Assilah, which was a small but very pretty coast town. We walked along the coast, saw beautiful murals painted on the white walls of the town, and stopped at a lookout point for a beautiful view. Then we explored the tiny streets some more, and did some shopping in the markets. Shopping in Morocco is unlike anything I've ever experienced. More on that later though, as I didn't really buy anything in this town...I was still warming up.

Beautiful view in Assilah

Our next stop was Tangier, and we got there just in time for lunch. For lunch we had salad, and then a typical Moroccan dish called pastela. Basically it was seasoned chicken and almonds inside a sphere shaped pastry, with cinnamon and sugar on it. Needless to say, it was very interesting. For dessert we had tea (obviously) and some Arabic treats (most have almonds or some type of nut involved, very good though). After lunch, we headed to the Caves of Hercules, which was a very cool cave where supposedly Hercules rested after his 12 labors (don't really know what that means....never saw that Disney movie). The coolest part was that there was a hole in the rocks looking out to the ocean that looked like it was the shape of Africa. It was very pretty- check it out in my pics!

We left the caves, got back on the bus, and took a short ride to our next activity: riding CAMELS! This was one of the coolest parts of the trip. Even though we each only rode for about a minute, it was such a fun and unique experience. Camels have such awkwardly tall legs that when they stand up or sit back down, it feels like you are going to fall off for sure!! Also, obviously my camel had some sort of wetness on the blanket covering its back...which I can ONLY assume was camel pee. Lovely, my calves were wet after getting off. My friend Becky took some good pictures of me camel-riding though, so check them out! After the camels, we had about 20 minutes to walk on a beautiful beach for a while, until it was time to get back on the bus and head to the city of Tangier.

Me as the camel is standing up!

A stop sign...in Arabic

We got there, toured around the medina a little (unfortunately our guide from Friday got sick, so we had a weird guide on Saturday who basically just smoked cigarettes the whole time), and then had some free time to walk around ourselves and do some shopping. Here is when we really started to get into the Moroccan shopping. Basically, if you've ever experienced people trying to sell you crap in Mexico on the streets, imagine that times about...500. These Moroccan street vendors/store owners are INSANE. They start at such a high price and you have to barter them...and in order to do so you have to REALLY barter, they don't give in easily!! Making it especially difficult was the fact that we had to barter in dirham (the Moroccan currency)- as if converting euros to dollars all the time didn't already confuse me enough! It was intense but also pretty funny. My favorite part was that all the people spoke so many languages and did so much code switching in order or to cater to their buyers. You would hear a vendor talking to his friend in Arabic one minute, then speaking to someone in French, then two seconds later trying to sell his stuff to me in Spanish, and if I didn't answer quick enough, he'd start speaking English. It was pretty cool actually. Needless to say, I did some good shopping in Tangier, and then we headed back to our hotel in Tetuan where we ate dinner, watched a little of the and once again went to bed very early!

On Sunday we had to get up super early so we could eat breakfast, check out, and get on the bus by 7 am, where we then headed to our last city, Chefchaouen. This city was SO cool- all the walls were blue!!! We had a guided tour for a while (in the rain) with another weirdo guide, and although I had a hard time paying attention to what he was saying, it was so cool walking around the town and seeing the blue walls- I felt like I was in a Dr. Seuss book. We also saw some beautiful mountains, hills, and streams. After the tour, we had some more free time to wander around and shop...this was when I did my serious shopping. All in all, I exchanged 50 euro into dirham- and came back with a TON of stuff!! Morocco treated me well. After shopping we had lunch, and then got back on the bus to start our long journey back to Sevilla.

The beautiful blue city of Chefchaouen

Overall, Morocco was a VERY cool trip. I had a great time, and had great people in my interest group to experience it with!! I feel like I've skimmed over a lot of details about this trip...there's just so much to tell! Luckily I will be home in 9 DAYS (!!!!) and can fill you all in on more details then!!! Here are my pictures from Morocco:

Morocco Pt 1- Tetuan
Morocco Pt 2- Assilah, Tangier, and Chefchaouen