Morocco

Hello! I apologize for the lack of blogging this past week, but I am now back to obscene amounts of travel once again so be expecting a lot more updates! This past weekend I was lucky enough to visit Morocco with DiscoverSevilla, where they planned to take us to 2 cities: ChefChauen & Tetouan. Here's a picture blog of the trip:

First stop: Avenida de Portugal, the meeting point for our bus. The bus ride went from Sevilla-Cádiz-Tangier, where we would then ride a ferry into Morocco, & then finally bus to our Hotel. Total travel time: 7 hours!
We arrived in Morocco around 8PM on friday. This is Katie & I's first official picture in Africa!!! Fresh off the ferry ride.
First stop in Morocco: exchange euros into Dirhems, the official currency of many Arab nations. 10 Dirhems=1 Euro= .7 cents...you do the math!

At around 10:30PM we arrived at Hotel Kabila, where we were greeted by some sort of band! It was pretty cool. After our spaghetti dinner we headed to our hotel room to sleep & prepare for our next day of exploring.

Day 2--visit ChefChauen. The city was about 2 hours away from our hotel; you'd think this ride would be pretty miserable, especially after being on a bus the day before for 7 hours, but the Moroccan countryside was absolutely beautiful. I have never seen a greener landscape.

10AM: Arrive in ChefChauen. First impressions: I have never seen so many men in my life. As I looked out of the bus window there were no women in sight, only men walking around or just sitting and staring at our giant, out-of-place travel bus. I immediately get called at by the men when I step out...what a weird experience.
Walking around ChefChauen was really eye-opening as to how lucky & fortunate I am. The city is underdeveloped, with animals roaming the streets as they please. The city is really picturesque but it's shocking to see how behind ChefChauen is from the rest of the world (I guess I just compare to the states & Spain, but still).
This is a prayer tower located in ChefChauen. 5x a day the prayer tower sings--you can see the big speakers located on the top of the building.
This picture is the best representation of what the city looks like. All buildings are some sort of combination of white & blue. The blue represents the Jewish religion while while the white represents the Islamic faith. The town was beautiful itself, but the symbolism of the colors in unity made it even prettier.

I'm Katie's video subject when it comes to narrating our travel experience, enjoy!

This was the first Moroccan dish I ate...& I still don't know what it is! The top was a combination of brown & powdered sugar, while the inside was chicken soaked in green curry. All of it sat on top mint leaves--can you say weird combination?!

After lunch we did our souvenir shopping! My first purchase was a scarf that could double as a a head wrap--hey, I wanted to fully experience the Moroccan culture! A nice lady wrapped my head; unfortunately we were not able to video the whole process because she did not have her husband's permission to be on camera.

After getting my head wrapped the shop keeper convinced me to try on the traditional outfit. After struggling to get it over my head (I got some big shoulders!) I finally looked the part! The shop keeper was SO nice.

Another narration, enjoy!

Of course I had to teach the shop keeper the Waka Waka dance :) He was pretty legit.

We headed back to our hotel after ChefChauen, ate dinner, & then were given the news that we COULD NOT visit Tetouan the next day because there were rumors of a protest that day, around noon. In order to be safe, we needed to LEAVE Morocco before 12 noon. We made the best of our Saturday night in the hotel & headed to bed, ready for an early morning of packing & quickly touring the other sites before having to "evacuate."

Day 3: Visit to the caves of Hercules! This is inside the cave--the cut out looks like Africa! Other than that, I'm not sure what the significance of the caves is...

After the caves, we quickly bused over to the camel-riding site. I'm not gonna lie, I signed up to go to Morocco solely to ride a camel, so of course I was super excited for this last part of the trip! Katie & I rode the camel together. The picture on the left is the original (a man pulled the camel while a kid made sure the came kept moving with his stick :[ ) but I decided to put my Photoshop skills to use & edit out these people (shown on the right)! In all reality, we would never be allowed to ride a camel solo, but shhhhh....
Katie & I "evacuating" Africa! We rushed to the ferry in order to be out of Morocco before the scheduled protest at noon. Don't worry, we made it okay, but were slightly upset that we were unable to see Tetouan. My Fez hat is another one of my souvenirs!

I am so blessed to have been able to visit Morocco and loved every second of the trip. Although I had fun, I don't think I will be visiting Africa again anytime soon...haha. What else is new in mi vida??

• Midterms are OVER!!! So far, I've gotten all A's :) I have a 5 page paper to write for my Spanish Art History class (in English) & a 12 page paper to write for my Spanish Culture & Civilization class (in Spanish). Pray for me! haha
• It's finally spring in Sevilla! The weather is amazing.
• I had 2 friends visit Sevilla this past week! It was great to catch up with both D'Ann & Veronica & show them some parts of my new home.
• My travel plans are getting outta control! But don't worry parents, school is FIRST! My following weekend travels: Barcelona, Spain; Paris, France; Lagos, Portugal; Palma de Mallorca, Spain. I am SO excited!!!
• I may or may not be going to an Enrique Iglesias concert in Paris... :D

Well enough about me! It's dinner time so I'm off to eat some yummies. I send my love!!!

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