Wouldn't be a trip to Morocco unless someone got food poisoning...

Morocco.

What a place.  Wish I could have spent more time in this beautiful country. Definitely not what I was expecting as well. Of course there is the typical Middle Eastern flair: women either covered up, either either their faces showing or just slits for their eyes, men walking around in Chifras, children running around the streets without their parents, stray cats, flavorful food, aromatic markets, and winding streets.  But it was also not your stereotypical African landscape: greenery, mountains, chillier weather and rain.  The people are also so nice.  Everyone smiles at you when you smile at them on the street, they help if you need directions, they greet each other and even the foreigners.  I don’t know what my expectations were exactly of Morocco, but they were definitely exceeded.  And although I went with a tour, I feel like I could have navigated a trip there by myself, although I have to admit, the tour was nice and well organized and easy.

Being all touristy on the ferry 

Passing Gibraltar

 We spent our first night in a little village just past Ceuta and had a yummy dinner of vegetable soup (a staple in Moroccan diet), Moroccan chicken, with these great marinated olives (I ate 19…olives, not chickens) and flan.  The Moroccan food was so good and fresh.  They really like fresh vegetables, use lots of great spices, and naturally there is no pork. SCORE!

The next morning we drove to Tetuan, a city on the Mediterannean sea, East of Tangier, that used to be the Moroccan capital.  We met Nuri, our guide and he walked us through the over 2,000 winding streets of the Medina, or old city.  He not only showed us around, but told us many points of Moroccan/Muslin culture.  He showed us through the markets selling fruits and vegetables, olives, grain, dried nuts and fruit, cheese, chickens, fish, spices, and anything else fresh that people would need to buy on a daily basis.  The markets are open 24/7 since people shop daily rather than weekly in order to always have fresh food. 

Nuri

grain

Mint, used for the famous moroccan Mint tea

veggies!!!

beans, grains, pasta

rough day?

FEEEESH!

Old palace

walnut filled dates that I bought as a snack

We also went into some shops, like jewelery shops, where the gold is only for women to wear since men are forbidden to wear gold.  We also so Kaftan tailors, thread shops, the insides of some homes, which have been turned into hotels.  The homes are so large because polygamy is legal there. 

Gold belt, given from husband to wife.

silk thread to make kaftans

kaftan buttons

Mecca TV: Live broadcast from Mecca!

 While we were in the Medina, Nuri was saying hi to everyone, whether he knew them or not, and was friendly with all the people, giving little girls hugs and kissing the little boys.  It was so refreshing to see that everyone was so open and trusting.  He also explained that little children can run through the streets without worrying since there is no kidnapping there. 

We also stopped and I got dressed as a Berber, or farm woman.  And of course, we had a nice tourist stop I the Berber factory, where they had all the Moroccan rugs and also sold lots of other Moroccan tourist items. 

Berber Lady. The hat means I'm married.

polygamous berber man and his Berber wives (aka Me, Lauren, and German girl)

berber rugs

rugs on rugs on rugs

 One of the coolest stops was in the pharmacy, where we learned about some special teas, spices, saffron, Moroccan oil and the products made from it, henna, etc…I stalked up on a lot of gifts, so if you are expecting a present from me it may very well have been purchased here.  I even bought so much stuff, that he threw in a free back of energy/jiggy-jiggy tea, which apparently gives you energy, but also helps men in a certain sexual way (hence the jiggy-jiggy).  He told me it would make my boyfriend happy.  I told him I didn’t have one, but it would probably help me find one…

that first jar with the yellow top has jiggy-jiggy root

We stopped for lunch at a traditional Moroccan restaurant, with a 3 piece band playing Moroccan music.  The food was great!

vegetable soup

salad

beef, couscous, and veggies

restaurant decor

We also got typical Moroccan mint tea and tea cookies for dessert.

Next stop was Tangier, where we took a quick city tour by bus, seeing the beautiful coastline and new city, and went out to this lighthouse where the imaginary line between the Mediterannean and the Atlantic ocean is.  Then we were off to ride camels.  The men were treating the camels very well, and the camels seemed kind of pissed off, and I’ve already been on a camel and don’t want to ever forget that experience (plus it costs money and lasted 2 seconds) so I passed on the camel ride.  But if was fun to hang out and pet the baby camels and watch everyone else experience the ride.

where the Mediterannean (right) meets the Atlantic (left)

baby camels

hope she likes her profile view

Then we went to the cave of Hercules.  I’m not sure what is cool about this other than that it is a natural cave made by the Atlantic ocean.  But it was pretty and cavey inside. 

Cave of Hercules

Next we had free time!  I went with some of the American kids to explore the Medina.  Walking through the new part however, was super interesting.  Tangier is a big modern city, and seemed very liberal and cosmopolitan, considering it is a Muslim country.  The funniest part though, are all the men out of the cafes drinking mint tea or coffee and just chilling.  Also, we heard the call to prayer over the city loud-speaker, but I was surprised that no one reacted.  On the way to the Medina we stopped at got some pastries in a shop.  My Moroccan honey cake was delicious, and so cheap! 

Honey cake

 

street food: some kind of honey/sesame cake with bees on it!

street food: garbanzo cake?

entrance to the Medina

Then we walked through the Medina, through all the markets and knock-off stalls. 

spices

fresh goat cheese!

hanging out...

It was fun to be out exploring on our own in the evening time, and we got to see a pretty sunset over Tenerife across the ocean. 

View from Tangier across to Tenerife

The next day, we headed out early to Chefchaouene, the picturesque blue town in the Rif mountains.  Although I slept most of the ride, there was some beautiful landscape.  Here is an excpert from my journal that I wrote as we were driving and looking out the window…

“Northern Morocco is so green and lush, quilted with groves of trees and fields and dotted with goats, sheep, cows, and horses.  Olive trees are pretty abundant and from the looks of the fig trees, I cam about one month too early.  Damn.  There is also a smattering of orange-red poppies, and yellow, white, and purple flowers form floral blankets or tufts on the ground.  The low, wispy clouds kiss and hide the tops of the mountains.  These are the Rif Mountains.”

Not to shabby and pretty poetic eh?  
The pictures were taken from the bus and don't do the landscape justice...

Anyway, Chefchaouene was absolutely beautiful.  They paint the whole city different shades of blue, from periwinkle to turquoise, sky blue and baby blue.  Apparently the blue keeps the mosquitos away, but that is what they said in Portugal about the yellow, so I don’t really know who I believe.  Also, the city is repainted frequently.  Anyway, our tour guide here, was the best.  Ahmed, a small old man in a white chifra and burgundy hat, spoke 5 languages and had a voice so raspy that it seemed like he had to work very hard to force any sound to come out of his mouth.  He also periodically checked his iphone and told me is name so I could friend him on facebook.  He also knew everyone in the city, and greeted everyone. 

Ahmed

You have to enter Chefchaouene with your right foot and exit with your left or you will have bad luck,

streets of Chefchaouene

blue stoop

The electricity in the city was out until about 3 pm, maybe due to maintenance? So all the stores were dark, but did open around 12ish.  Also, it was pretty crappy weather, cold and rainy, but we were in the mountains at a pretty high elevation so understandable.

blue inside and out

 One of the places we saw was a rug/blanket factory.  Here they showed us the three types of blankets/rugs all made in the factory and with natural dyes like indigo, henna, saffron, and poppy.  The three types were those made by men from camel wool, those made by women from camel wool, and the silk ones, which were to beautiful.  I got a man-made camel wool rug or blanket or wall decoration, I haven’t decided yet.  It is dyed with henna, saffron, and poppy, so it is orange, yellow, and red.  I also got a small square of woman-made yellow rug, since the craftsmanship was so impressive. 

silk blankets 

weaver man

stacks of blankets

 A great thing happened in the rug store! I noticed that my watch battery died (not so great, BUT…) So as I was tinkering with it to try to revive it, some kid working in the store, well he was 23, said he wanted it for his girlfriend.  I said he could take it, since it was broken, but then someone suggested we do a trade.  So I took my hand back and asked what he could give me in return.  He offered me 2 euro (way too much for the crappy watch) but I said no because I wanted something sentimental.  Then he took me upstairs and offered me some earrings that are the “hand of Fatima” (known as chamsa in Jewish tradition).  He then told me I should come back to Morocco and be his girlfriend, which was sweet and confusing, since I thought he already had one…But it was a great trade…except that I was watch-less all day. 

me new Moroccan boyfriend, Abderrahim

my gift in the trade

Old Jewish quarter

gnarly 100 something year old olive tree

unripe figs. :( 

dyes

spices and dyes

more dyes

too colorful to not take another picture of the dyes...

so bright: dyes

Then we had lunch, great fresh salad, bread, olives, and slowcooked meat, peas, carrots, potatoes, and fava beans with fruit for dessert. YUMM YUMM!!

salad

stewey meat, peas, carrots, potatoes, fava beans

fruit!

 Then we said goodbye to Ahmed and got back on the bus to head back to Ceuta! 

Me and Ahmed

The ferry ride back was a trip, since it was pretty stormy and the seas were quite rough.  Finally made it back to Spain, took a bus to Sevilla, and then waited about an hour for our night bus back to Madrid.  All in all, it was 16-hour travel day, between 3 different buses, a ferry ride, metro, and walking. Oof!!


Funny anecdote on the bus ride, the girl next to me across the isle fell out of her chair in the middle of the night and hit me in the face.  Great way to be woken up!  I think she also may have hurt her wrist pretty bad because she was shaking it and holding it the rest of the ride. Super embarrassing for her, and only minorly painful for me.  

Another thing: There was a bathroom on our bus! I had never seen one on these buses before, but Lauren and South were convinced that there would be a bathroom on the bus, but I was quite doubtful.  Well, we were on a really new bus, and good thing they were right, because mid trip I woke up with a terrible tummy feeling.  Uh oh. 

Anyway, I’ll spare you the details, but I am currently lying in bed, with a bottle of Aquarius (Spanish style Gatorade, great for hangovers and tummy bugs) next to me and a trash can, only having eaten bread, rice, and saltines and having done nothing but blog and sleep in the last 7 hours.  Well, I've also made numerous trips to the bathroom.  At least it happened post trip, and the brunt of it didn’t come until I was home.

It wouldn’t have been a great trip to Morocco though unless someone got food poisoning! Good thing (and not too surprising)) that someone had to be me…