Our last day in Morocco! :(
First I want to start off by showing everyone a map of where we were exactly! So, on the left top side of the map is Tanger- this is where the ferry port is. Our hotel was located in Mdiq. It is the third city down on the right side of the map. Tétouan is the town that we went to "yesterday," February 26th. And "today," February 27th, we went to Chefchaouen, it is at the bottom right side of the map.
This is a picture of the outside of our hotel room. Cute, no?
i guess that at the hotel you can rent houses? not sure, but it was cute and it was on our walk to the beach!
mediterranean sea.
me and allison.
the seashells that we found on this beach were HUGE! it was crazy. there were SO many and they were full shells. not only were they huge, they were really thick. i saved one...you know to collect dust in the near future. and when i got back to spain, marieta saw it and she was even shocked.
After breakfast we got on the bus and headed to Chefchaouen. The bus ride was a couple hours more or less, but whenever we were on the bus it was really nice that the group that we went with played movies for us- in english, or they played music. We watched the office, entourage, going the distance, the hangover- really good choices! During this ride we ended up finishing a movie and then they played music and since Allison and I always sit up in the front of the bus they gave us a magazine to read!
..in Arabic. It was so weird looking at it! I was flipping through the pages and then I was trying to figure out why the front of the magazine was an add for shampoo-- more advertisement? No. They read backwards in Arabic! So I was looking at the magazine the wrong way- not that it really matter because I couldn't read what it said anyways.
After a little bit more time on the bus, we took a bathroom break. And it just so happened to be a beautiful view too! Did I mention there was also a play ground?!
me and lindsay.
Finally we got to Chefchaouen. The town was so pretty! All of the walls were painted blue and the doors were blue. I guess this is because there used to be a lot of Jewish people who lived there before....but then I also heard that is because of mosquitos. The town is located in the Rif mountains and that is actually how it got its name. When you are standing at one end of the city before you enter into it, the mountains make it look like there are two horns- and it is derived from the Berber word for horns.
At first we did a walking tour of the town, then we had lunch and then we were given free time to SHOP.
yogurt in morocco apparently doesn't need to be refrigerated.
makin a blankie.
this poor little guy is waiting for those things on him to be filled with rocks :(
dyes?
lunch. the first time i have had cucumbers, onions, or green peppers in 2 months.
this was actually the beginning of a protest. after they saw this starting, they gathered us up, and herded us away. they actually admitted that they were scared later on.
here is a video of the protest that Lindsay took. she says "this is a morrocan protest" ...this was before we knew that it was actually a protest. right after she turned the camera off, one of the guides yelled "dont take pictures"
If you ever go to Chefchaouen, remember this: BARGAIN. During our free time, we shopped, and bargained. When they told us that everything was going to be really cheap, I was realllly excited because things in Spain really are not that cheap. But as I was buying things in Dirhams, I was realizing that things were not that cheap after all. For people from Spain, yes. But after I converted the prices of things from Dirham to Euro to Dollars, they would be what I normally pay for chachkies. I was expecting to get Mexico prices. ....I was not bargaining enough. So thats what I did. It was actually really annoying shopping in the stores there because every time you went to look at something, they would hound you about it. "oh, you like?" "how much you pay for that?" "i have other colors" SHUT UP AND LET ME SHOP. In fact, whenever they said something like that, I would immediately shoot the "what-price-i-would-pay" down about 5 euros. In the end, I actually got some good deals and I am pretty happy about what I got. Overall, I ended up buying a blanket, a pair of sandals, a Morrocan-style hoodie, and some bracelets.
here is a picture of my blanket :)
hoodie...with matching jacket and headband of course. :)
shoes.
bracelets.
Here is a picture of what we were following on the way to the ferry after we left Chefchaouen. Ridiculous. People were passing him in the no passing zone, we were also in the mountains... I was so scared I think I got a little dizzy.
After we got back to Spain, and in Seville, we walked to the bus station. It was about 3 in the morning. We were all so hungry! That night we did not eat dinner because we left Chefchaouen around 16:30 and they thought we would have enough time to get to the ferry port to eat dinner there. But there was a car accident on the way to the port and we got there later than planned. So, when we got to Seville and were walking to the bus station we saw this vending machine...That sold hot sandwiches! They had hotdogs, kebab, hamburgers, chicken sandwhiches! And it would heat it up for you and everything. So....I got a hotdog. And they even had ketchup for me! It was awesome. Lindsay had her first kebab of Spain out of a vending machine. We were both actually pretty impressed and considered putting them around ISU's campus.
Once we got to the bus station, we sat there for another 5 hours because the bus station was not open, and the first bus out to Granada wasn't until 8:00. So as you can imagine, we were exhausted. On the bus ride home Allison and I both took out our blankets that we bought (her and I purchased the same one) and slept the entire ride home.
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