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…
