Hello! Welcome back to my blog! Sadly I spent a few hours writing about my trip to Morocco, but my blog post immediately deleted itself and there is no way to recover it. So, this is the condensed version.
One of the things I was most excited to do while studying abroad was the weekend trip to Morocco that my program organizes. When things have been tough during my time abroad, my friends and I always used this trip as something to look forward to. Not only did I get to visit another continent, but I also had an eye-opening, life-changing experience.
On Thursday night I packed my backpack for the weekend and by bed time, I felt like a little kid on Christmas Eve. Taylor and I have this routine where we say goodnight and then proceed to talk about a few random things before actually going to sleep--it was no different Thursday night. After we shut the lights off and said goodnight, Taylor said "Micaela! This is the last time we are going to bed without having ridden a camel!" which really cracked me up because I think she was feeling the same Christmas Eve feeling.
My alarm went off at 5:30AM Friday morning and I got ready in a sleepy daze. Thankfully our host mom packed us a lunch and breakfast to go because it was way too early to eat. Taylor and I left at 6:30AM to meet the rest of our program.
From there, we took a bus to the port of Algeciras in southern Spain. Our ferry ride across the Mediterranean Sea to Africa was only an hour and a half. I spent that time eating my lunch and sleeping so I wouldn't be sea-sick. The Moroccan police went through our passports and paperwork on the ferry, which I thought was really smart. Before we left my program director said that we would have a bus the whole time in Morocco so it was safe to leave some items on there when needed. What I didn't realize though, is that he meant that we are bringing the bus with us. I was absolutely dumbfounded after I got off the ferry and watched 25 semis, 2 coach buses (one being ours), and a car towing a pop-up camper drive out of the bottom. Here's the first picture of me in Africa!
Unfortunately, we had to wait for the bus to pass through customs, which took more than an hour. Sometime during that wait, our private tour guide for the weekend met up with us. Once our bus pulled up, the group of travelers and I hopped on and went to an old Portuguese city. I was really tired so I do not remember the name, but here are some pictures!
It was at this city where my group experienced quite a bit of culture shock. Before leaving, our tour guide pointed out some public restrooms for us to use. My friends and I walked over to them, and we noticed two old women sitting outside. For some reason I thought they were just there to hangout, so I walked in without questioning it. The entire time I have been abroad, I have made it a habit to carry hand sanitizer and some form of tissue on me at all times because a lot of European bathrooms don't have toilet paper or soap. Of course this bathroom didn't have toilet paper, so my friends and I just used the tissues we had brought. Kelley and I washed our hands and walked out of the bathroom without noticing the ladies outside. Well, this must have triggered them because Taylor tried leaving less than a minute later and one of the women blocked the doorway with her body and demanded money. We were all confused, so our tour guide stepped in and told Taylor to leave the bathroom. But it was impossible to leave unless Taylor shoved the old lady. Our tour guide, a short old man, then proceeded to yell at the lady in to leave Taylor alone. She responded angrily, and soon there was a public screaming match in Arabic. At some point, Taylor was able to slip past along with the rest of the girls in the bathroom.
Once Taylor was freed, we left the angry women and went to the bus. It was there that our tour guide decided to describe what happened. Apparently, in some African countries it is custom for local women to volunteer themselves to take care of the bathrooms. Most of the time, they ask you to pay a tip before entering, and they give you toilet paper in return. The part that was strange about this experience, though, is that the women did not do anything when we went into the bathroom. But if I had known, nothing would have changed because I used my own toilet paper. For the rest of the weekend we paid close attention to this, though.
After that debacle, we drove to our hotel which was in the city of Tangier. On the way we stopped to ride camels! The ride itself was pretty short, but it was a fun experience. I learned that camels scare me because they are huge.
The hotel itself was a three-star hotel on the Mediterranean Sea. The biggest downside to the room was that my bed was missing a leg so every time I sat on it, it dumped me on the floor and flipped up. That got old really fast. On the plus side, Kelley, Taylor, and I finally got to stay in a room together! Also, our balcony had the most amazing view of the sea.
Dinner was held at 8:30PM and we had chicken kebabs and Moroccan rice. Soon after, I went upstairs, showered, and then went to bed.
On Saturday I woke up at 7AM, ate a breakfast of cereal and naan, and got on the bus at 9AM. We stopped about halfway to our destination for a bathroom break in a cafe. I was told that Moroccan mint tea was like no other, so I bought some to try. It was amazing, and honestly, I have never had better tea in my life.
From there, my group headed to the blue city of Chefchaoun. We spent some time on a walking tour and shopping. Kelley and I bargained prices down like it was nobody's business! For lunch we stopped at a Moroccan restaurant. I ate a three course meal for only 12 euro!
It is hard to describe Chefchaoun in detail, so here are some of my favorite pictures!
Our next stop was the white city of Tétouan. Our guide showed us some government buildings before stopping at an Argan oil factory. This city was packed with people, so we had two undercover cops with us to keep us safe. I did not get many pictures here, besides photobombing the ones my friend Olivia took!
That night I sat down for dinner at the hotel completely exhausted. I ate salad, potatoes, and fried fish. Afterwards, I spent some time in the room with my friends before showering and going to bed.
Sunday morning I woke up even more tired than the night before. Our tour guide brought us on a walking tour around the city our hotel was in.
Our ferry ride back to Spain was at 2:30PM at the port of Cueta, a Spanish city in northern Africa. Customs was much easier heading back. In fact, we didn't even leave the bus! The Moroccan police came on and checked our passports and a Spanish official followed to stamp them. Unfortunately our bus couldn't fit on the boat, but our program director with us calmly solved the problem. The driver ended up taking the next ferry out while we had another bus meet us at the return port. I spent the two hour ride back to Sevilla sleeping and listening to music.
As I reflect on this past weekend, I have made sure to count my blessings. Morocco was a great country to visit, but it was also very poor. Throughout my travels there I saw a lot of homeless people, abandoned communities, and shantytowns. Whenever our bus stopped in traffic, young boys in groups of 5-20 would swarm our bus in hopes of getting brought to a better country. The scariest part that happened quite a few times was when they would jump on the back, sides, or hang underneath the bus as it was in motion. These kids were desperate; whenever we got on or off the bus they would ask us if we could let them on. Clearly, that is not the correct way to do things if you want to move to a different country, but they were so poor and sick of Morocco that this was the only way. As I walked through the shops and markets, men would try to talk to me. I ignored them, so they would change from Arabic to French to Spanish to English to try to get my attention. This shocked me because a lot of Moroccan people knew three to four languages! In the states this would be an amazing feat, but there it was just a way for them to make a living. Perhaps some had just learned phrases in other languages to get tourists into their shops, but I held full conversations in both Spanish and English with a few shop owners.
Of course I have always been grateful, even before this trip. But seeing how people live in such extremely unsafe environments really made me appreciate the things I was born into as a US citizen. Clean water, good hygiene, or being safe are never going to be the same for me again. I will appreciate these things everyday because I have seen how many people actually do not have them. I am very thankful to be a student and for all the experiences and freedoms I have.
Thank you for reading,
Micaela