Morocco

It’s always a strange feeling coming back to your everyday routine after a vacation, especially if you have had an adventure.  I saw somewhere online that “It’s not because it’s Monday, it’s because of your job”, meaning that if you hate getting up on Mondays, it’s probably because you hate your job and are in the wrong profession. I’ve found myself waking up each morning thinking about this, getting up to teach. Why do I dread waking up early to go teach if that’s the profession I want to pursue? Then again, this is a teaching ASSISTANT job, and a lot of the time I don’t do much in the classroom and find myself looking at the clock. Maybe if I was the main teacher and was able to plan my own lessons I would be more excited to wake up in the morning and go teach. When I taught Spanish in the U.S. I don’t remember feeling this way about teaching, I was always ready and prepared.

Anyway, it’s the first day back from Semana Santa vacations, and so far I have just sat in the classroom while the kids watched a movie.

For Semana Santa we got a little over a week for vacation. My friend Rio (who is also from Berkeley but teaches in Madrid) and I went to Morocco for a week. He was a great traveling companion. It always tests your friendship when you travel one-on-one with someone. And this was a great experience! Also probably helps that we grew up in the same environment our whole lives.

Packing was hard, I brought mostly conservative clothes, but then realized short sleeved shirts aren’t that bad. They knew I was a tourist no matter what I wore.

We met in Algeciras (I had to take a 9 hour bus ride from Murica that left at 4:30am, and was an hour late) and then took a short bus ride down to Tarifa. Tarifa is the most southern point city in Spain and is known for it’s windy beaches, so many people travel there to windsurf. It was a small hippy town, which we liked for the chill environment and vegan/organic food choice. We split a tasty paella. The next morning we took the ferry to Tangier, about a 45 minute ride. We spent the entire ride in line waiting for our passport stamps. But a nice Moroccan lady helped us with our Arabic pronunciation.

I would say Tangier was the most intense arrival, because it was our first city. We walked off the boat, and felt like we couldn’t trust anyone. Travel books inform you but also make you kind of paranoid. We had no map, no GPS, and no sense of direction. Luckily with Rio’s bit of French, we asked multiple people for directions until we made it to our hostel. The last man who helped us seemed offended that we were hesitant to follow him. In the end he said “remember we’re all one human race, we have to help each other”. But generally people do offer to lead you places in exchange for a small payment. For example, later that day we were trying to find this café known for it’s tea and view of the sea. It would have been impossible to find it if it weren’t’ for these two little boys that showed us the way. Yea we gave them 10 dirham in the end (1 euro), but they were kids, and it was a fun experience speaking in multiple languages with them. Whenever we decided to follow people I was always afraid they’d lead us the wrong way and rob us, but we were always lead to the right place. Better to be safe than sorry though, especially when you’re a vulnerable tourist.

We didn’t spend our whole time in the old part of town (the medina), we ventured off to the new town, which was nice. It’s amazing to see the differences. In the old town the women are more traditionally dressed, prayer goes off 5 times a day, and it’s a bit dirtier. In the newer parts of the cities we visited, more women dressed similar to the way I dress, but skin always covered. The environment seemed more relaxed, at least for me. Drinking is not illegal in Morocco, but prohibited within the medina. We were able to get a beer made in Fez at one of the discotecas on the beach. We also got a bunch of free food at this one restaurant where we had dinner. It was there that we discovered “harira” soup, the soups in Morocco are amazing.

One thing in Morocco (depending on the city) is you never really know what buses and times will be available. Our trip got postponed twice because of buses being full. Luckily we got out of Tangier the same day we wanted, just a few hours later. We took a 3 hour bus to our next city Chefchaouen. The bus was one of the cheaper ones, so two boys sat on top of each other right next to me. People sat in the aisle way or on the steps of the bus as well. No air conditioning, but with the windows open it was fine.

Chefchaouen was our favorite city. All the buildings are painted different shades of blue. Someone told us it was to keep mosquitos away, not sure if it’s true, because I got bit. Chefchaouen is known for growing hashish, maybe that’s why everyone there was so relaxed. It is situated in the Rif mountains, so there were beautiful views all around. We hiked one of the smaller mountains with new friends we made at tour hostel, we watched the sunset from the top. While hiking we saw a huge heard of goats, followed by a few dogs and their herder. We exchanged waves. And man, can goats climb! During our stay, we were tricked in to buying rugs. Well, not really tricked because we wanted to buy rugs initially. We were approached by a three-toothed old man, who offered to show us his friend’s factory. We went, and ended up drinking tea with the rug man Abudla for about 2 hours while we looked at rugs and bargained. I got a blue rug made out of cactus, and Rio got a blue blanket, “student price” said Abdula. We were exhausted by the end of the transaction. Then, the three-toothed man brought us to his other friend’s restaurant. We decided to just eat there. It was cheap anyway. The people we met in Chefchaouen were great, by the end it seemed we had formed a tight group in such little time. It was weird, meeting so many people during our trip and saying so many goodbyes.

We ended up staying 2 nights in Chefchaouen because the bus was full until the next day. But if we would have left we wouldn’t have met the people and done the things we did with our extra time. It’s nice letting your trip plan itself.

After saying bye to our new friends at the bus station, me and Rio cried as we said bye to what felt like a new home. Well we didn’t really cry, but it was sad to say bye to such a beautiful city and experience. You always have to keep going though. The next bus was the fancier bus that had air conditioning; about a 4.5 hour ride to Fez. We had had issues deciding if we wanted to spend 2 nights in Fez and 1 in Marrakech, or vic versa. We had to re-arrange our plans because we spent an extra day in Chefchaouen. We decided on 2 nights in Fez, which we regretted in the end.

Rio had heard from multiple friends that Fez was amazing, but it’s all personal opinion. For us, Fez was super intense because of the enormous medina, and people everywhere looking at us like money. Fez has the oldest and biggest medina in Morocco, it was the dirtiest of the cities we visited. After arriving the first night, we took a walk around the area. There was nothing really, expect a few stores, and multiple people offering us tours, places to eat, etc. Even the next day when we found the main street, we weren’t impressed with the city. I liked the new part of the city that we drove through upon arrival. The medina had tight streets, packed of people, I was expecting more of a plaza with wider streets.

My favorite thing that we did was hike up to a small castle on the outskirts of the city for a view. It was quite and far away from the hustle and bustle of the big city.

The hostel where we stayed was ridiculous. You could stay there and never leave the comfort of the hostel, they were total self-sufficient. They had food, t.v., laundry, tours, cooking classes, etc. which I guess is nice if you’re traveling alone and afraid to venture off into the city. We met a lot of people there too, and met up with one of our friends who we had met in Chefchaouen. Another girl who had been there two years took the train with us to Marrakech.

It’s amazing how many people we met, makes me excited to travel to Italy alone. I love hearing about where they come from, what they’re doing, and where they’re going. It gives me ideas for my travels.

We took a 9 hour train ride to Marrakech, it left at 6:50am. We were able to take the taxi with a few friends we had met there, 2 of them were going the opposite way up north though. Me and Rio went with the girl who had been there for 2 years, she had also adopted a 5 day old cat from the streets. The train ride went by fast, but the last 2 hours were rough. There were 3 older women sitting next to us who were traditionally dressed, and traveling with two kids. At first I thought they were talking about me, maybe because I was sitting cross-legged and showing my feet (which is disrespectful there, similar to in Thailand). But then a while later while I was eating some almonds, they offered me some bread. It was amazingly nice. I guess they thought that nuts is no way to nourish hunger. The bread was filled with sesame seeds and other herbs, it was delicious. I shared some with Rio, and then they gave us a bit more. Our friend was able to speak Arabic with them, I wish I could have communicated. At least I knew “shokran” which means thank you.

Arriving to Marrakech was a nice experience. It was a bit more developed and clean. There were a lot of palm trees, and I always get a good feeling when I see palm trees. We walked a bit down the street from the station to find a decently priced taxi. We had a funny experience when we were deciding between taxis and we turned our heads to one guy stopped in traffic. Right when Rio said “what about that guy” we looked over and the guy gave us a head nod, a wink, and a smile. It was like we were hookers he was trying to pick up off the street. We had a good laugh, and so did the guy when he saw us burst into laughter. He picked up another lady on the way, which is normal. Shared taxis, and only 3 to a taxi, are the norms in Morocco.

Marrakech has a very beautiful old mosque. Unfortunately we weren’t allowed into most mosques. The city had a huge plaza, with lots of orange juice stands and cobras and monkeys. During the night it was packed with restaurants. We went to an artisanal area with shops where the artists sold their artwork directly. There were set prices, so no bargaining. It was a nice change from bargaining in the medina and souks. I got a painting. Of course, we also made our way to the souks and I bought some teacups to go with my tea pot. Marrakech is where my bargaining was at its best. We only stayed one night, and got up early to catch our flight at 9am. We had a 6 hour layover in Casablanca, and they wouldn’t let us leave the airport, so that was fun…finally, we arrived in Madrid, drank some cañas, and had some tapas. Probably will go back to Madrid this weekend to see some flamenco and just enjoy city life. Two of our friends from Brazil that we met in Chefchaouen might be there too. Cartagena just isn’t doing it for me anymore.

So some typical food in Morocco. There’s couscous, which comes vegetarian or with different types of meat. Tajine, which is kind of like a curry with meat, and good for dipping bread in. Pastilla, which is a pastry filled with chicken, nuts, and cinnamon, interesting mix of flavors. Harira, a soup with garbanzo beans, small noodles, and chicken broth. Mint tea, which is basically green tea with mint and a TON of sugar. I also got this eggplant past/dip that was delicious.

Some words I learned:

“shorkan”-thank you

“beslama”-bye

“salam”-hello

“la”-no

“shahal taman”-how much is it

“bezaf”-too expensive

Overall I really liked my experience there, but I didn’t get to see any camels…we didn’t have enough time to do a desert tour. But I did eat camel, which was tasty.  If I ever go back I’ll go back to Chefchaouen and Marrakech, and spend a few nights in the desert.