Part 3
Friday, March 16 – Sunday, March 18
Bienvenue au Maroc!
Last semester I had planned on going to Morocco with an Erasmus/International student group in Sevilla called, We Love Spain, but alas, I was unable to go… until this past weekend! Here was the plan of attack for the weekend: leave Sevilla, arrive Gibraltar, cross the Strait to Ceuta (Spanish city in Africa), travel to Tetuan, visit Chefchaouen, return to Tetuan, travel to Tangier, see Tangier, return to and tour Ceuta, ferry across back to Spain, bus ride to Sevilla. 5 different cities, 3 different counties in 3 days. Phew! All in a good weekend with We Love Spain.
None of my lovely lady friends were accompanying me on this trip (I’ve grown quite used to having them around all the time) and I was a little unsure about just showing up for a weekend trip without knowing anybody. But, luckily, I make friends fast! And to make things even easier, I showed up at the bus stop and realized that half of my social work class was there as well as some other people I have met before. I hung out with my friend Sara who I met through Sabrina and my friend Natalia who I met through my French friend Eloise was one of my roommates!
When we arrived to Gibraltar, we switched busses and took a tour of the Rock, which included visiting the caves, a vista point AND of course, the monkeys. I was not such a fan of these monkeys… they were creepy and liked to steal your stuff. I kept my distance but snagged a photo with one when it wasn’t looking (so sneaky). After visiting the Rock we grabbed lunch in town, at a Subway, who’d a thunk?! And got back on the bus to go to the ferry. After a cup of coffee, a game of Spit with my new friend Zach and a thirty minute ferry crossing we arrived in Ceuta. We had quite an adventure at the Moroccan boarder. From the bus, it looked like a drug bus, but I could be mistaken. Don’t worry mom and dad, we weren’t allowed off the bus, stranger danger!
When we arrived in Tetuan, we checked into the hotel and had dinner before hitting the hay after a long day of traveling and sightseeing. Saturday we woke up early and after breakfast we headed to Chefchaouen, a holy Muslim city located in the mountains of northern Morocco. The cool thing about this city, is that the bottom half of all the buildings are painted BLUE! It looks magical. We toured around a bit and took lots of pictures before going to a tapestry co-opt where they hand make quilts, carpets, scarves and many other woven items as well as jewelry. One of the members of the co-opt gave us a briefing on how they make them and then let us explore the shop. We had lunch in Tetuan at a very authentic Moroccan restaurant. We were greeted as we walked in by a drum band decked out in their traditional garb, dancing and making some sick beats. For lunch we had bread, a shish kebab and this yummy chicken pastry thing, followed by cookies and mint tea. There was a lady giving henna tattoos after lunch for 3 euro, of course I took advantage!
Afterwards, we left and met up with our guide, Jamal, who was born in Tetuan and he gave us a tour of the medina (the center of the city). He took us to a holistic pharmacy where the pharmacists told us all about the different spices and oils and what they do. He asked our group if anyone wanted a massage by one of the men… me, loving massages, shot my hand up in the air (nobody else followed suite). At first I was a little eerie about the cultural idea of me getting a massage by a strange Moroccan man, but then I came to my senses and jumped up to get the massage. I was very glad that I did.
That night we traveled to Tangier. The hotel we stayed at here reminded me of a compound. In Moroccan culture, women don’t usually walk on the streets at night by themselves so for tourists they seem to just have everything, entertainment, clubs, restaurants, all in the hotels. I found my SPOON at the hotel we stayed at! I had been looking all over the place for a freakin spoon from Morocco (they don’t have the tacky tourist shops) and the man who worked downstairs in the hotel lobby told me he had one he would sell me. Bless his heart! He saved my collection! The hotel we were at had a fantasy dinner planned for us. Fantasy dinner? Glad you asked… basically, lots of delicious Moroccan food (lemon chicken, chick peas with couscous, fresh salad, TONS of bread and of course cookies and tea to follow) and several performances. There were these kids who I swear were made of rubber from how they moved and bended over each other, there was a magician who walked on glass, more drummers, a belly dancer (of course) and several other acts. After dinner we went to the club at the “compound” for a drink and then I supermaned into my bed!
Sunday morning we got up, checked out the sights in Tangier and RODE A CAMEL!! Ahhhh, the camels were so cute!! They had little babies there, and one of them took a liking to me and we had a little cuddle session. He kept making this cute little noise and I’m not sure if it was a “ooooh, I like you” or an “accck! Back off” kind of noise, you know? But I’d like to think it was the first. Once we had all taken our camel rides it was back to Ceuta! We got on the ferry, I took a nap this time, and we arrived back on the mainland. A short 2.5 hours later, we arrived back in dulce Sevilla. Fantastic Moroccan weekend with the habibi (Arabic for little love, our group name that Jamal gave us).
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