Ana mashee European!

So I've had a few more Moroccan adventures on which to comment...

After spending the last weekend sick in bed with an unidentified ailment (well..basically a 24 hour flu bug..eww) I was anxious to get out and about..
I missed a class field trip to Volubilis on the 15th because of that illness so on the 18th me,Marybeth,Kelly, and Erica decided to celebrate Moroccan Independence day by visiting Volubilis and the neighboring city of Moulay Idriss.

This proved to be a very worthwhile day off from classes..and we called saadeqna Said and he drove us there for the afternoon.

I am now astonished by the diversity of Morocco..in the few months that I've been here I've experienced almost every kind of weather possible..I've gone to the beach,the mountains,the desert...cities and country...I just can't believe that for such a small country,there's just so much here.

Well, Volubilis is home to some incredible Roman ruins..and we had a great time wandering through the site..I admit,it was pretty warm and I spent much of the time thinking how miserable this place would be in August..although probably comparable to Pompeii, which I did experience in the heat of that month..and I never want to do that again..travelling in November is kind of wonderful.

After we finished wandering we had a bite to eat in the cafe..I treated myself to another wonderful omlette sandwich and some mint tea :)

Then we asked Said if he would mind waiting for a bit longer so that we can see Moulay Idriss as well.
This town is particularly fascinating to me, as Moulay Idriss was a grandson (or great grandson maybe) of the Prophet Mohammed. The city now is home to a shrine and mausoleum for him. He is also the founder of Fez..

I found this place to be really wonderful..I wish that I could have spent more time there but we didn't want to keep Said waiting.
I also wish that things weren't resticted to non-Muslims..but I do understand wanted to keep this the holy site that it is and not a place of tourism..so..I guess it's ok.


so..blah blah blah..the rest of the week was quite unexciting..lots of work..lots of emotions....urgh.
Friday..ahh.
I had a lot of fun..the exchange students were throwing a party which began with happy hour at Chamonix and they actually played good music...now..I don't drink and I'm not much of a dancer but the music was such a breath of fresh air from the awful house music they played at halloween that I was very happy to be there....they ended and 10.00 and the Moroccans took over..which meant house music..ugh.
well,all the exchange students went back to somebody's apartment..I went with them..but it was really boring so Amber,Mackenzie, and I left and headed back to AUI around 10.30.
this worked out ok because I had to pack and eat and shower and sleep because we were getting up early to go to TANGIER the next day.

so..Tangier.
I went with Marybeth,Amber,Mackenzie, Ashley, and Nick.
It was nice to travel with a slightly different crowd of people..I had a lot of fun with them.
We took the train from Meknes and arrived around 4 in the afternoon..we consulted all of our guidebooks on the train and picked a little hotel "Pension Miami" which turned out to be pretty neat..then we had some dinner and wandered through the medina.
I was unsure of what to expect from tangier based on its reputation but I ended up really enjoying it.
most people were pretty friendly and not nearly as pushy as those in Fez.
I did get tired of people asking me for Euros every two seconds..but..what can you do..

we had a nice evening of walking..exploring..and then cafe au lait and lemon tart at a cafe on the beach.
and the waiter actually spoke to us in arabic as though we were native speakers..and I couldn't understand everything but I think we all did a good job of ordering and making small talk..so he didn't use French or broken English..it was cool.

we walked along the beach for a bit but it was really cold so I was happy when we finally returned to the hotel.
we made plans to go out for the night to a club called Morocco palace..which featured Arabic pop and was supposedly mostly Moroccan clientele but it was kind of expensive so we just wandered through the Ville Nouvelle..bought some bootleg dvds..and drank some OJ.

the taxi ride back was amusing..the taxi driver kept pointing out every hotel that we went by...saying things like "big hotel" and "nice restaurant" and stuff..it was fun..I repeated stuff back to him in Arabic and we threw in some ANDIOMO..YALLA..when this guy in front of us held up traffic because he was buying cigarettes..ugh..on the way we passed by a Chinese restaurant and he drove us by the block nice and slowly so we could be sure to know where it was in case we wanted to come back (which we did)

when we got back to the Grand Socco we had to walk a down a long dark street and it was full of random men on the sides saying things to us in Spanish..needless to say,we couldn't get back fast enough..

we we finally got back we had a good chat in our little sitting room between the rooms..until the hotel manager came up and yelled at us.."this is a HOTEL!"
oooops!

The next day we had some breakfast..it was quite an ordeal for this guy to get us harcha and everything we actually asked for..but he was so eager to help..and so insistent that we not leave that he would get it for us that we stayed..it was ok...good tea at least..

then we tried to get a taxi to take us to the Hercules Cave..which was interesting

the first guy told us 2500..yes..twenty five hunderd..vingt cinq cent... khemsa wa ashreen mi'ah
uhm..noooo.

so I walked across the street and some other driver was like..300..it was great..and then Nick found somebody for 200 so..away we went.

The cave was awesome!
I couldn't believe how much it resembled the continent of Africa!

also..I was sad to see that there were camels set up in the parking lot for tourists.
poor camels :(
I felt bad enough riding them in the desert...it seemed so wrong to see them there.

After the cave we walked along the beach a bit before returning back..after some confusion we got him to drop us off at the spanish church (I kept trying to say "eglise anglais" but the man really only understood "iglesia" so that's what we got..it was ok though..it was a pretty cathedral..then we walked down to the ENglish church..which I wanted to see simply because of the lord's prayer written in Arabic on the inside..which was simple but beautiful.

then we headed to the kasbah..got a nice view of the water and checked out the museum.
finally..it was time for lunch!

we went to the Restaurant Chinois that we had been dreaming about all night and it was well worth it!
It was actually really fancy but it had wonderful food and excellent dessert..I had my second lemon pie of the weekend.

then we just..walked back to the hotel..got our bags..took a grand taxi to the train station and...headed back to Ifrane.
we sat next to two nice people on the train..one was a young man from Ifrane and the other was a lady who spoke random Arabic/English/French with us for a bit..I was reading (or trying to read) Jeune Afrique so she thought I could actually speak French..well,not so much..but I can usually figure out what I'm reading anyway..oh well.

we finally got in to Meknes around 10pm and I had called Said so we got to ignore all the Taxi drivers trying to get us to go with them..

overall..it was a good trip.

---

---