After such an exciting trip to Morocco and Cadiz, Spain, it’s hard to even pick a place to begin to explain what happened! I’m going to put Morocco and Cadiz in two separate posts to make things easier. We traveled in a rather large group again, and the people that came were my roommates Thais and Caetano, Steph and Laura, Daniel from Brazil, Charlotte, Clem and Morgane from France, Julie from Germany and Youness from Morocco. We had everything planned out perfectly: we found a bus to the airport together, we booked our flights together and we also had our accommodations planned out. While in Tangier, Julie (Youness’ girlfriend), Thais, Steph, Laura and I were to stay with Youness and his family, while everyone else had booked a hostel nearby. However, it ended up being much farther than we expected—a three hour train ride to Kenitra! Julie had failed to tell us that his house was very far from Tangier and the rest of our group, so when I found this out I felt nervous because I wasn’t sure what to expect. Although the girls are all good friends of mine, I had only met Youness once before. I might even say that that was the first time I felt homesick! Despite the sinking feeling I had in my stomach when I first arrived to Morocco, the trip proved to be much, much better than I could have ever imagined.
When we arrived at the train station in Kenitra, we were welcomed by Youness’ brother, Soufiane and his cousin, Taoufik, both of which were very friendly. It was about a five minute car ride to their house, and as we walked into the beautiful home, my uneasiness settled immediately when we were warmly greeted by his parents, his sister Hanae and the most delicious-smelling food one could imagine! It was called “gamila”, a type of chicken that is cooked with cinnamon, eggs and what I think might have been cabbage. Whatever those delicious leaves could have been, it was the perfect way to end a very long day of traveling.
After dinner I experienced my first bit of Moroccan culture shock, when Youness brought us upstairs to take a “shower.” The shower was a large room with tile from the floor to the ceiling, with a tiled mini-tub in the corner filled with water. After showing me where the soap was, he started to walk away, about to leave me completely stumped as to what I was supposed to do. He must have seen the look of confusement on my face as he went to close the door, because he then explained to me that there were buckets in the corner to dip into the water and rinse oneself that way. It was actually very refreshing and it’s a great way to conserve water!
The next morning we woke up to a big breakfast of coffee, hot tea, pastries and malwi, a type of Moroccan pancake served with cheese and honey (my new favorite food), all of which had been baked that morning. I was amazed at Youness’ mother’s cooking skills, because everything looked like it had come straight from a bakery!
After breakfast, we took a train to Rabat, the capital of Morocco, with Youness, Soufiane, Taoufik and Hanae. There we went to visit the tomb of Hassan II, the late king of Morocco. The whole monument was absolutely breathtaking, as it included a plaza of stone columns, a large, brick tower and the building which housed the tomb. We spent a good two hours taking pictures and taking in the beauty of the monument.
Afterwards, we walked to an open-air market in the center of town which was a lot of fun! I bought some jewelry there (Soufiane and Youness bargained for me) and then the girls and I bought a little gift for their parents to thank them for allowing us to stay in their home. It was a painted wooden plaque with, "Thank you for your hospitality, may Allah bless this home" written in Arabic and it included each of our names.
Once we were finished at the market, we headed back to the train station to return to Kenitra. Right outside of the train station there were people protesting for jobs, and it was very interesting to see. There were about 100 people outside, sitting in the street and singing. It was all controlled, however, and completely safe.
By the time we got back to Youness’ house, his mother had already prepared a large meal of couscous with meat, carrots, onions and potatoes, and of course, spiced with cinnamon. It was delicious, and one thing I found interesting was that she brought it out in a gigantic bowl with a fork for each person and we all sat around the table and ate out of the couscous bowl. It’s actually a very common thing to do, and I kind of enjoyed it.
The next morning we woke up at 7:00 because we were driving about six hours to Tetouan, a city on the beach. The drive went by quickly, because we stopped halfway through in a small town in the mountains called Chafchaouen. It was BEAUTIFUL. It was centered on a mountain spring, and when we arrived, people were washing their rugs in the stream while the children played in the cool water. The buildings were very cool; all of them were made of stone, but many were painted light, light blue. We walked around the town for an hour or so to take pictures and then returned on our journey to Tetouan.
On Saturday it was very windy and cold; however, we still were able to spend some time on the beach and even swam in the ocean. Afterwards, we went back to the apartment we were staying in to shower and get ready for our dinner of Tajine, a typical Moroccan meal that almost looks like soup and is served with bread (very good!)
After dinner we went to watch the soccer game between Madrid and Barcelona at a nearby café. It was interesting, to say the least. As Youness, Soufiane, Taoufik and we five girls walked in, everyone turned to stare. There were about 60 men about our age in there, and no other girls…it was obvious that it wasn’t normal for women (without veils nonetheless!) to be in a café watching soccer. Although we were completely safe, it was a weird feeling to have everyone watching us like we were from a different planet.
After the game we all went to a shisha, or hookah bar to try some Moroccan shisha. We got a couple hookahs (one was orange and the other was grape). The shisha bar itself was very cool inside, as it was set up like a cave. It was a lot of fun to hang out there and the shisha even tasted good. It was the perfect way to end our trip to Morocco!
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| Monument of Hasan II |
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| Thais and I with one of the guards |
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| Detail on the building |
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| The strike that we saw |
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| All of us with the family! |
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| Scenery on the way to Tetouan |
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| The village of Chafchaouen |
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| The people who braved the water on the cold day! |
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| Tea on a terrace...loved the tea from Morocco |
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| Youness and I enjoying tea from the little teapots |
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| Very sweet postcard from Youness' brother, Soufiane, written in French, Spanish and Arabic |
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| Thais and I enjoying the shisha! |
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| Inside the hookah bar, very cool |
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| Steph and I peeking out from behind the "cave." |
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| This is the ceiling! |
