“The World is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page.” St. Augustine of Hippo

Starting that week off I was so sick that Monday that I couldn´t speak. Even not speaking hurt my throat. Needless to say I didn´t go to class. My señora was amazing and made me warm milk with honey constantly and allowed me to make my own tea and everything. I was going to go to the docotors office but had decided I would wait it out, since by the end of the day I was already feeling better. In hind sight I should have just went and gotten it over with but I thought I could fight it off. Plus I had my weekend trip to Morocco that weekend so I was just telling myself I would feel better so I didnt have to deal with the fact that I was sick.

Africa and Morocco

The morning of the trip we met on the other side of Sevilla from where I live so I had to get up a little earler then I planned. But I ran into someone who was going on the same trip on the tram and we walked to the buses together. From the bus we went to Gibraltar. Since I had already been there I opted not to go up the rock again because given the price it wasnt worth it for me. My friends and I just went to a pub and ordered food and then walked around the shopping area for a bit. Then we were on the bus again to go to the boat. Yep. I went on a boat. Not just any boat but a gaint boat that is large enough to hold the cars underneath. It was so spacious and we all sat at a long table with comfy chairs and fell asleep. The ride was aonly about an hour long but it was amazing. 

We finally arrived in Africa! I say Africa and not Morocco because when we first landed we where is a province of Spain still and therefore not actually in Morocco yet, Ceuta. We had to wait a couple of hours to get through customs (we had a group of over 100 between the two buses) while they checked and stamped all of our passports. One more stamp guys! I love getting stamps in my passport. It makes the trip more official in my mind. When we finally made it through it was already dark out but luckily our hotel was in the same city and it didn´t take long to get there. 

When I signed up for my trip I didn´t know who all from my program was going to attend so I did not sign up for a roommate and was asigned a random roommate. She was on the other bus so I had some time to unpack a little and relax in the hotel a bit before she arrive. Eventually she arrived and for the life of me I can´t remember her name, to be fair I couldn´t remember it while I was with her for the weekend either, haha. Shortly afterwards we went downstairs to get dinner. I found my friends and we went our seperate ways. By this point we were so hungry we devoured our bread basket very rapidly. First we had an amazing soupd, I tend to eat a lot of soup in Europe. Then the main course was fish and some other vegetables. I didn´t enjoy the dessert so I didn´t eat it.

The next morning I woke up early, and since Morocco is two hours behind Spain it was even earlier but we kept all times with Spain time to avoid confussion, and I saw the sun rise on the Mediterranean Sea. It was so beautiful. I showered and went down for breakfast with my luggage cause we were staying in a different hotel the next night. From there we went to Chefchaouen. It took a while to get there and the scenery was amazing, seeing all the mountains reminded me of home and hiking with friends. Chefchaouen is the city of blue. All the houses and walls are painted blue for two reasons: 1) to make their white clothes look whiter and 2) to keep the mosquitos at bay during the summer. This city was famous for it´s fabric, specifically it´s silk. Our group went on a tour of the city and also had a presentation given to us on the different type of fabric and were able to see where the weaver was and watch him work. I bought two silk scarves from them because I knew they geniune since I watch others being made there, and they were just pretty.

In this city I bought several gifts for friends and family since it was easy to barter and was expected. Our tour guide on the bus had given us some interesting facts about all of Morocco on the way there. He told us that French was the government language and Arabic was the language of the people. If people had the chance to recieve and education they also know Spanish or English or sometimes both. So impressed and slightly jealous. There are more women then men in Morocco and over 80% of the population is under the age of 20. Clearly a future and current problem for the government. In Chef I bought a doufle bag that is made of leather and silk because I needed a smaller carryon for my future Ryanair flights, as I discovered on my previous trip. But it was a good purchase and was beautiful so I´m happy with it.

Next we went to Tetuan, which is the city know for it´s leather market. We ate lunch here and had a little show with our dinner. As soon as I finished my food there was a woman giving henna so I got some on my hand because I had been wanting to get it while I was there. Afterwards we went to a Holistic Pharmacy. Herbs and different types of Moroccan cures were explained to us. I ended buying some Moroccan oil since it was cheaper to buy it here even though I had no idea if it would be any good since I had never used it before. Then we were taken to the leather market and allowed to explore around again. I was able to purchase a few more gifts here as well. Next we went to Tangier to go to out next hotel. With dinner we had a fantasy show, which included musicians, belly dancers, magicians, along with other proformers. At first it was annoting because we unluckily sat at a table by a speaker and it was difficult to to hear each other talk. But the food was once again amazing and we were able to make do.

When supper was over there was also a club entrance, to a club that was reserved just for our group so it was bound to be safe. By this point I was just so exhausted and knew we had to get up early again, so I opted to miss out on this one. The next day we left to head to the coast to see the invisible line where the Atlantic meets the Mediterranean Sea. I was able to cheaply buy a few more gifts here as well so that was a success. Lastly, we went to the cave of Hercules. Now why it is called this I have no idea. But it has an opening to the sea that, if you´re standing in the right place actually looks like the shape of Africa. It was beautiful to look through. Then we headed back to the buses and made our way back to the boats. We had packed lunches provided by the hotel, not the best meal of the weekend needless to say. But then we were home in Spain and all was well.

Sorry this blog seems a little rushed but by this point it´s harder for me to remember the details and while I love Morocco there weren´t many major events that took place while I was there. The exciting event was when I had uploaded my pictures from my camera, including all Morocco pics, and then decided to delete them from my camera because my laptop hadn´t been acting up recently. False. As soon as I finished editing them all and was ready to upload them to Facebook my laptop decided to die and hasn´t worked since then. It can´t connect to the hard drive which means that the pictures might still be there, but that´s the reason I have gotten behind on my blog, sorry guys. Two more to go before this weekend! Pictures hopefully coming soon!