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Published: December 16th 2007
Oh Africa
First glimpse of Tangiers fresh off the boatMy current job has particular perks. One in particular that I really enjoy is the school calendar, offering me plenty of vacation time. Also, living in Spain with it's predominently Catholic culture hands over many 'holidays' as well. So I have decided to take advantage of this time 'off' and use it to discover and explore new places. One of these so called 'puentes' timed itself perfectly around my birthday and I decided it must be spent somewhere amazing ... enter Morocco ....
This was an organized tour through a 'foreign student social group' I am a part of...so aside from knowing Nikki and Arturo (one of the guys who organized the trip) everyone else was brand new. Half of the group was from Mexico, a good handful of Spaniards, a couple of Dutch girls, and Americans. We were a good mix and we all had a very good time getting to know one another.
We met Wednesday night for an all night bus ride to the coast to catch a ferry .... needless to say it was a
long trip, but it was really pleasant waking up and seeing the Rock of Gibraltar right out of the window.
Mezquita
Large mosque near our hotel, tower is the tallest point in Tangiers so people can see it from the sea ... The ferry ride took another couple of hours and then we were herded off into a bus and met our Moroccon tour guide, Rashid. This man was amazing ... I think he spoke at least 6 or 7 different languages and he had such a good sense of humor, he really made the trip something special.
We drove through the city of Tangiers, which was our home base for the 4 days we were there. We stayed in a really nice hotel which included some very filling and tastey meals. After we had lunch, Rashid took us on a walking tour of the city we were in. It's nothing particularly beauitiful, but is completely different from what I've been living in for the past 3 months. He took us through the market places and windy back roads of the old city where vendors were everywhere trying to sell anything they could in every language possible.
Our first official stop was to a rug 'factory' ... we learned how they are made by hand and how long it usually takes and then we were set loose to do our haggling. That is how business is conducted in Morocco ...
More mezquita
We weren't allowed to go in b/c we're not Muslim, but it was neat to see from outside ... the vendor starts at a price that is more than probably double what the item is worth and the buyer then has the opportunity to try to bring him down to something more reasonable, or if you're really good, pay less than it's actually worth. I did not buy any rugs ....
Next we were led to a typical Moroccon 'pharmacy' ... here we were shown how different herbs, roots, spices are made and used for the enrichment of health and taste. We smelled curry, spicey things, eucaliptis, saffron, ginsing, you name it. It was very interesting and 'educational' in the loosest sense of the word, but they were more convincing salesmen, so they had plenty of customers from our group.
We headed back for a relatively early dinner around 830 ... but this turned out to be fantastic as we were so tired from our journey and long day we called it an early night and were in bed by 10 in order to catch up on all of the sleep we'd been teased with on the bus ....
The next day we had an early start because we were traveling inwards to Chaoen. It's a
Artsy Fartsy
There are lots of colors in Tangiers/Morocco ... here's my spin on things mountain town only about 80 kms from Tangiers, but because the highways are pretty bad between the two cities, it was a good 2.5 hour bus ride. On the way there, Arturo announced my birthday and I received many applauds and felicitaciones ... later on Rashid stopped the bus by a highway pottery vendor and presented me with a decorative tahini (the bigger ones are used to cook & keep food warm) ... special day.
Chaoen was beautiful. It had a very impressive setting in the midst of very tall greenish brownish mountains, and the old city was mostly white buildings with blue bases ... very 'Greek' looking but at the same time it carried it's own special Moroccon characteristic. We were led through some windy back streets and saw many many many white/blue/green buildings and stopped a lot to take pictures of these pleasant sights and then we saw the mountain the city was named after. After making to the center plaza we were given about 4 hours of free time in which we had the option and strongly suggested offer to eat lunch, so to grub we went. Ordered a Moroccon salad and chicken + couscous ...
Main square
This plaza divides the old town and the new/modern part of town i like cous cous ... this couscous was dry, oh well. Tastey meal. We then roamed around and haggled and shopped and then settled down for some delicious green tea.
When we returned to Tangiers we were given some down time and then met up for dinner. The hotel let us sit in their 'official Moroccon' dining room, which was decorated accordingly. We had chicken and couscous for dinner .... oops, but it was actually better than what I'd had before so it was fine. And they also gave us french fries, yum. I was then pleasantly surprised after all of the lights turned off and in walks a server with ice cream cake slices and one brightly burning candle and all of the Mexicans sang me their version of happy birthday ... delightful. I was really touched. Unfortunately I did not bring my camera down, and the pictures that were taken are still with my friends, but if/when I get those, I'll post them here....
We later had our own party out on the patio with music and drinks and all. It was great company and a fantastic celebration. We waited for the discoteca to open up
Entry
Past this 'gateway' is what is known as the old part of Tangiers, windy roads and plenty of street vendors and once it did, we rushed in to find many businessmen and their 'companions' known to us as 'las profesionals de la noche' .... it was odd to see such a different side of such a conservative religious nation ... it was fun to dance around to arabic music though ....
The third day we were allowed to sleep in a little bit and we headed out to Asilah after a late breakfast. We stopped along the way to RIDE CAMELS ... in a parking lot ... guess that's all you should expect for a euro, but still neat. I was cracking up the entire time (as you might be able to tell in my photos). We also stopped a little later to check out the point where the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean meet ... it was pretty cool, lots of colors ...
We made it to Asilah not too much longer afterwards ... it's a coastal town and similar to Chaoen with the white and green. It was a lot tamer however and not as intimidating because we didn't have people following us or bugging us the entire time to buy drums or camels for
Pharmacy
This is what we saw when we unknowingly walked into the pharmacy ... neat. 3 euros. It also just felt a lot cleaner. It was definitely awesome to see the Atlantic ocean from the other side ... as opposed to those thoughts when you're a little kid on the beach in the states and pretending you can see Africa ... yeah, I used to do that ... but this time it was f'real.
We were again given a lot of free time and I tried to use it wisely and spend my Dirham ... I did some very good haggling and managed to get some really great and priceless things for very good prices. We later found where everyone was eating and got a meal ... I ordered pinchitos which are pretty much lamb kabobs ... deeee-lish. We then headed back to Tangiers and were given some more down time before our 'dinner extravaganza' .... Rashid picked us up took us through town to what is known as one of the best restaurants in Tangiers, so he got our hopes up ...
We had some entertaining music every 10/15 minutes or so by a live band. We had the same meal I'd eaten the past two days in a row, chicken, couscous,
Good morning
Excited about 23 and the day ahead and pinchitos .... where did my 16 euros go?? Enter dancing dressed like crazy lady ... who proceeded to tap me on the shoulder and my new friend Juan Carlos ... we followed her to a more open area and basically just shook our bums along with her for the duration of the song ... I felt bad that my friends paid a good penny to watch two of their friends dance ... but we joked about it for the rest of the night ... We had a relatively calm evening when we returned to the hotel and I chose to call it an early night as we had a long journey the following day.
On Sunday I woke up feeling pretty gross and that icky feeling stuck with me all day ... it was a pretty miserable trip back and it took all day ... but we made it and we exchanged numbers and all with our friends and promised to send pictures and what not to one another. I had a most unforgettable journey and birthday and am SO glad that I took advantage of that opportunity to see and experience a country I never would have
Tetoan
We passed this town on our way to Chaoen, thought it was neat how it crept up the side of a mountain dreamt I would have visited before ... I'm so excited I can now say I've been to Africa, neato!
I hope you are all doing well! I think of you every day and miss you very much!! A big thanks to those who've sent me things, I now know that I do receive mail at my apartment and it's very exciting to get things. I hope you are all looking forward to Christmas holidays, I know I am. I will be spending Christmas with my cousin Georgina and her boyfriend Santiago in Malaga, Spain, on the Mediterranean coast. I am so excited to head somewhere a tad warmer and spend this holiday with her. My good friend Dan is also coming to spend the holiday with us, it will be great. I wish you all a great week and know that I love and miss you!!! Besos!!
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B Ness
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Dutch Girls....?
Did you say Dutch girls...i'll be there tom. :)...hahaha i miss you like crazy lina...I am so glad you are getting a chance to explore the world...I will be filling out the application for the JAG program over break and having an interview when I get back to school...updates to follow...be good (but no too good ;) and stay safe... B Ness