Marreucos! Just a continent hop this weekend... No big.

Me on the ferry! That's the rock of Gibraltar behind me!
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PART ONE:

Hey everyone. So if you didn’t know, this past weekend I was in Morocco. I took a really quick whirlwind trip down there, across the Strait of Gibraltar with a tour group for students, and had an incredible time. I honestly had no clue what to expect going into the weekend, but it was everything I could have possibly dreamed of and more. I mean, first of all, talk about culture shock! Wow. I never really imagined what it would be like, but it was such an incredible experience. I saw things I never thought I could have seen in my life. But at the same time, while we were driving between cities in the bus, there were times when I sort of forgot I had continent hopped the day before.... Until I’d see things like camels on the side of the road, or men riding donkeys in the dirt roads with our bus. We got to go to three very very different cities, but only spent about half a day in each city. I had never felt like so much of a foreigner there (much more than here in europe...), but it was an experience I will never forget. I rode a camel, took a nice mountain hike, bartered in spanish!, ate some typical moroccan meals (didn’t get sick!), took cold showers because there was no hot water in our hotel, got henna tatooed at a restuarant, and tipped people for doing things that you’d think they were doing out of the kindness of their heart (until they asked for a tip...), stood at the northwestern most point of Morocco, saw the continent of europe from africa, and the distinct line of the waters where the Mediterranean Sea meets the Atlantic Ocean, took the biggest ferry I’ve ever seen in my life, saw the rock of gibraltar on our way, got followed through the market of Tanger by a man who REALLY wanted to sell me scarves, saw some of the cutest children I’ve seen in my life, some of the most simple lives i’ve seen in my life, and some of the saddest scenes, things I never imagined... But all in all, it was an experience. Something I will never ever forget... I guess I’ll just start at the beginning. Friday afternoon our bus left Granada, and we headed on a 4 hour bus ride to Algerciras, one of the southernmost spanish cities which has the ferry to Ceuta (a spanish possession in the north of Africa/Morocco). We took a 6pm ferry, and arrived in Ceuta around 7pm (quick ferry trip for continent hopping...) The ferry was literally the most fancy ferry boat I think they make. There were tons of tables, couches, everything. The decks were not as fun as the ferries in Washington because you couldn’t walk around the whole boat. And we were only allowed on the deck on the back of the boat because there is a “first class” privilege for the front of the boat... But anyways, We stood outside the whole time. Took pictures of the Rock of Gibraltar, and then of the first sight of the African Continent at sunset. It was so beautiful. :) We then waited in the border line, and met some moroccan police officers who had to go through our bus and make sure we all had passports (I got a passport stamp in ARABIC!), and then, we headed off for yet another hour on the bus to our hotel in Tetouan. On the bus we met our tourguide for Saturday, Abdul. He was absolutely incredible. He spoke at least 5 languages, Arabic, Swahili, French, Spanish, and English... and I’m sure more. But he not only told us what we were seeing out the window, but little things about the culture too. He consistently was making jokes about the polygamy of arabic cultures, and saying he was looking for his fourth wife (who he soon found in one of the directors of a study abroad group in our bus... Too funny. He was just absolutely hilarious, but the topper on the cake, was that he told us his friends call him Michael Douglas, because he looks like him. So he insisted that we too, call him Michael Douglas. (So from now on If i tell you about Michael Douglas, its not the famous one I’m referring to...) :) Our hotel was gorgeous, which surprised me considering some of the things we had seen already on our way into Morocco. It was about 4 months old I think, and the rooms were nice and spacious, with new flat screen tvs, and nice furniture. The beds were about as rocks though, and we didn’t get hot water, but you know... what can you do. haha. We had dinner in the hotel, and it was amazingly delicious. We were all so damn hungry that it just disappeared. At dinner we met some new people from our group, a girl from Japan, and a girl from Italy. Its so fun when the only common language you have is Spanish, so it was great to practice with them. If not, (especially when tired, i will not lie) we default to english.... I slept so well that night because we were so dang tired! Traveling wears me out like none other. Saturday morning, we got up pretty early to head out at about 8:30 for the first city. We had breakfast, again, in the hotel, and it was amazing, there were a ton of different potato pancake/bread type things from the local culture, and they were all great. Had a cup of coffee and we were on the road! We drove just into the Medina of Tetouan. The medina is like the old city, the downtown part with the old winding roads, and the markets. It was absolutely fantastic. We made a stop with the bus to change our money into the local currency, dirhams, 1 euro=11 dirhams. The currency exchange office was in a pretty modern part of town, so I had NO clue what I was in for at this point, but by the time that we got to the market, I realized that they had basically thrown us into this with brute force. Before we even entered through the archway in the wall to enter the medina, we could smell it. It was things you see in movies about the culture, and you just kind of accept, but you’ve never seen it, and you can’t actually understand it until you’d BEEN there. Wow. There was raw fish and meats just sitting on these tables (don’t think about the sanity of any of this...). The fish were being gutted right then and there. There was blood. There were flies on all the pastries and fruit they were trying to sell, not just flies, but bugs, and things crawling. There were stalls of live chickens (some were in cages...), and you could just go and pick the chicken that you wanted for dinner, they would kill it right then and there and you could take it home. It was dirty, and smelly. The ground was wet, and muddy, and you don’t want to know what you just stepped in. I talk about it like its awful, and it was definitely a surprise to be thrown into, but it was an amazing experience. It was africa. It was the moroccan culture. It was real life there. There were people actually shopping for their food and their dinner. There were the cutest children running through the market with their school things alone, the older kids leading their younger siblings. There was arabic being spoken all around me. It was absolutely incredible. After that they took us to this co-op type deal where they sell all the handmade artisan things or moroccan culture. Most famous are their rugs and carpets. They handmake these incredible rugs and they are SO detailed. They gave us a show, and explained all the different ways they make them, all the different types of rugs there are, the different materials they use to make them, how long they each take... it was so neat. Then we had time to look around and barter for prices on the rugs.. it was great. I bought one. A little one. But they were so beautiful, I couldn’t help it. Its the first decoration for my apartment in January hah (yes, before a bed... lol). We went to lunch at a Moroccan restaurant and they served us some sort of soup, it was incredible! Then meat with the best marinade I think I’ve had since I’ve been over here. It was amazing. We got a family size bowl of cous cous (my favorite!) with chicken breasts and steamed vegetables in it. Oh wow. It was delicious. :) We had entertainment at lunch too of course. There was a man dancing with live music, but his dancing was incredible. The best way I can describe it was an extremely graceful break dance. I mean, he was all over the place, on the floor, sitting, standing, laying down, and just rolling all over, but on top of that, he had a tray of 10 LIT candles balanced on his head during this whole thing. After lunch, I got a henna tattoo and, we climbed on the bus for the next adventure...

I honestly had no clue what to expect going into the weekend, but it was everything I could have possibly dreamed of and more.

AFRICA!
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I will continue this soon! I just thought I’d break it up for you because I want to write so much about everywhere we went! :) Then I can put up more pictures too! :) :) :) This is only 1 of 3 cities after all... haha. Don’t go too far!

I miss you guys and I appreciate your emails and everything. Its great to hear from here! I can’t believe I’ll be home in 5 weeks for christmas! Can’t wait to see you all. The rest of my time here is going to fly by. I just know it... I send my love! xoxo Kaitlyn

downtown Tetouan
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PS: be sure to click on "View More Photos" underneath any of the pictures!!! :) :) :)