MOROCCO!

May 29, 2011

What a weekend. This is going to be a long entry….you have been warned.

Wow. I did more this weekend than I ever could have imagined. I don’t even know where to start! This weekend was an independent travel weekend for my CIEE program. So I planned to go to Morocco with about 12 others from my program through a travel company called We Love Spain. It was all planned out for us, all we had to do was pay ahead of time and wait and see how to enjoy the ride!

I guess I could start with Friday! Friday we had class. It was a little different than usual though because we had a field trip. Since I was leaving for my Morocco getaway at 2:30 and class is usually 10-1, I packed before I left for class and brought my bag with me. I’m so happy I did that, because our field trip was to a Flamenco dance studio that was entirely too far away haha. We took the metro (a fancy new underground line that Sevilla put in back in 2009 – very modern, but there is only one line. That made me laugh, at least it avoids confusion!) from Puerta de Jerez to Gran Plaza – not a long ride but then when we got off we probably walked 20 minutes. It was very hot out Friday, that was rough. We were late coming back, probably around 1:20. My friends Bianca and Florence who are also in that class had to go back to our school, get our bags, and walk all the way to go get our bus for Morocco! Too hot to be carrying around luggage. I’m not even sure why I am telling this part of the story I got better things to be talking about! Anyway, the bus left around 3PM from Seville, and it took about two and a half to three hours to get to Algeciras, the Ferry Station in Spain to take us across the Mediterranean. The ferry ride was around 45 minutes, and it was more like a cruise ship than a ferry! Haha. We arrived in Cueta, which is a city in Africa that is actually owned by Spain. So at that point, we were still in Spanish territory. We got on another bus and had a tour guide tell us a little about Cueta’s history. Then we waited at customs to go to MOROCCO! - To the city of Tetuan. However, it took about 1 or 2 hours. I can’t remember. That was rough because no one expected it to take that long. It was bearable though because we had a great group of students and an excellent director and tour guide. It was the first time I ever crossed a country’s border via automobile! And now I have a Morocco passport stamp! YES! I am so happy to say I’ve been on the continent of Europe and now Africa!

ANYWAY. Now we’re in Morocco – its around 10:30 PM Spanish time. Apparently Morocco has an hour earlier difference. I was soooo confused the whole trip because I think my watch slowed down and showed the wrong time a majority of the trip. It must have not been able to handle Africa ;) So, I continue…we went straight to our hotel and had some dinner. It was late, so we just went to bed shortly after to prepare for the next full day of things planned…

SO NOW Saturday! Woke up, had breakfast, and had to leave by 8:30 to begin our day. It started with a really long bus ride from Chefchaouen, Morocco. It was a long bus ride, but I slept for most of the way. When I was awake though, there were so many mountains, hills, trees, bushes, grass…everything I thought Africa was going to look like! Which was refreshing, because what we saw of Tetuan looked more like the Middle East than Africa to me, which was unexpected. Chefchaouen was soooo cool. It was a little village where everything was painted white and blue, because blue keeps away mosquitoes apparently. It had so much culture to it. We had a tour guide named Toto, which could have not been a more perfect name for him. He was absolutely hilarious. He is a little old native man. I have a picture of he and I and I am wearing a scarf as a headdress thing that the women wear. When he put it on me I had to bend down, and he said to me “You are very tall, I would have no chance with you!” It was so funny! We had free time after a tour of the town and I bought a few things, including the scarf on my head in the picture. It’s beautiful and I wore it the rest of the day! Then it was back on the bus to go back to Tetuan.

When we arrived back in Tetuan, we had lunch at a restaurant that put on a folkloric floor show of dancing and tricks and henna tattoos. It was really cool. The food was pretty good! I was afraid it would be spicy or something but I actually could handle it. It was some sort of soup, followed by some sort of meat, a chicken empanada, and a biscuit and mint green tea. The tea is something Morocco is famous for, and I can see why! It was very sweet, but not too sweet. It was my favorite part of the meal for sure! After the lunch, we walked around the markets of Tetuan. It was such an experience. It’s really hard to describe, but it was almost necessary to see how the people of Morocco live. It makes you appreciate and value everything you have. Your viewpoint of your life changes after you see some of their living conditions in person. Sure, I’ve been told my problems are nothing compared to those who live in Africa, however I’ve never been able to fully grasp the concept until this weekend. Seeing it in person, even for just a short time, I learned how different the culture and living conditions are…it became very real. I am really happy I got to see it though. My heart goes out to those that live in those conditions and still find happiness and meaningfulness in every day. God bless them, and I’ll do my best to bite my tongue whenever I go on a complaining streak about something so ridiculously petty. Anyway, while I was there I bought cinnamon for my señora – she says it’s the best from Morocco. Before I left for the trip, she asked if I could bring her back some. I am so happy I found it because she was SO excited when I showed it to her tonight before dinner. Apparently it has a different, better taste. Whatever works!

So after Tetuan, of course we had to do something else absolutely insanely African. We first stopped by the Cave of Hercules (yes Elyse and Megan, Hercules). It was the cave where Hercules lived, and I was in Hercules’ sleeping area. After, we went a bit down the road to ride camels. I RODE A CAMEL. My goodness I was terrified, and they are ugly, dirty creatures, but my short camel ride was pretty legit. I’m happy I did it because I won’t be able to ride a camel in Africa again in the near future…at least I don’t think so. I believe we were in the city of Tanger for both the Cave of Hercules and the camel ride. We also got to see where the Mediterannean and atlantic oceans met. Then, it was hotel time. It was around 9 PM when we got there, so it was a long day. Yet it was still going. Dinner was at 10:30 and it included live entertainment. First we saw guys on horses, then a little Moroccan band, a guy that balanced a tray of candles on his head, a magician that messed up a few times, and gymnasts. It was entertaining and I was very happy because I got to eat cous cous! Yay. And after the dinner our group went to a club. “Le Club” what a fancy name right? We danced and had fun then went back to our rooms and sleptttttt because it had been a really long day. And we still have events planned for the next day!

Sunday – woke up around 9, ate, and left at 10. We went to Cueta again and got a tour. We were supposed to have gotten this tour on Friday, but we arrived late. Let me tell you, Cueta is beautiful. As I said before, it’s in Africa but owned by Spain. So we went through customs leaving Morocco and into Cueta. It’s a beach town, and we went up this cliff where the Atlantic was on our left and the Mediterranean was on our right and Spain was straight ahead, while Morocco was right behind us. WOW. It was breathtakingly beautiful. My camera started to die here but I wish I could have taken more pictures. I loved this town because it had a nice beach vibe yet it was very Spanish-y, with a twist of African feel. I thought I wanted to move here someday…but that changed by later in the trip. You’ll see ; )

After Cueta, we got on the Ferry back to Algeciras, where we started. About 25 minutes after we got off the ferry, we arrived in Gibraltar. Now, something I did not know at all is that Gibraltar is on the continent of Europe, connected to Spain, yet ruled by the United Kingdom. Therefore, this town had an English vibe to it. It has many naval bases as well as beaches, but mainly it is a very high peak. We took a bus up there and stopped into Saint Michael’s Cave. It is a very old cave and it was very unique. After, we stopped and got to hang out with monkeys. Literally. Monkeys live in Gibraltar and have since the 5^th century. Yes, I have been spitting out random history facts that I would have never ever learned unless I went on this trip. I hate history, it bores me to death, but when these towns are in front of me, I actually care and want to learn! WHAT IS THIS! No but really, I did learn so much on this entire trip. It was soooo valuable. However, back to Gibraltar. I adored this place. I decided it’d be a great place to live someday because it is UK ruled and I love British people, it is within walking distance from Spain, and a ferry ride from Africa. Now, that is GLOBAL (Hi Rico, like my word choice?). So this was our last stop on our long, long weekend. We got back to Sevilla around 9:30 PM, when I ate dinner and caught up with my señora (she had a wedding to go to this past weekend, she wore a really pretty dress she showed me it! Haha).

Now I’m just relaxing and writing this ridiculously long play-by-play of my weekend. I am so happy I had this opportunity and actually took it. I don’t know the next time I will ever be able to go to Africa and have everything planned out. Most likely never. It was so great. So so great. Reflecting back, it was an amazing learning experience and I loved it!

So tired, I hope this post made sense! Haha adios!