While the students from Madrid weren’t so lucky and had to take a 9 hour overnight bus to Algeciras, Granada is only 3 hours away. Still, we had to be at the dock at 8am so to be on the safe side we left the day before and spent our first night in a hotel in Algeciras. We thought that it would be a great opportunity to get a little more traveling in and see more of Spain, but it turns out that the only cool thing about Algeciras is the port itself, and there wasn’t much to see. We walked around a little and got tapas for dinner and it was definitely a pleasant night.
Also, I found this awesome marble ramp that was slippery enough I could slide down it super fast! It was awesome.
The next day we woke up early and accomplished a mission—getting us all out of the hotel without the hotel manager realizing that we were sleeping three people in a two person room in order to cut costs. Kelsi Bennett was in her own room so we didn’t have to worry about sneaking her out, so Kelsi, Kelsey, and I went to the front desk and checked out, conveniently blocking the view of the front desk, and Armelle sneaked out while we were there. It all worked out quite nicely and I was very proud of us.
The port was only a 10 minute walk from our hotel so we made it there and found the rest of the group with no problems.
From now on I will write about the trip itself, using the itinerary as a base!
Day One
Morning:
- Meeting at 8am in Algeciras (which I wrote about already!)
- Boat journey across the Mediterranean Sea from Algeciras, Spain to Tangier, Morocco
Me, Armelle and Kelsi being very excited to be on the ferry to Morocco
The ferry was super cool, it was a little stuffy inside which was mildly uncomfortable, but out on the deck it was amazing! There was a super strong wind and it was really fun.
On the ferry we met the rest of the students on the trip (surprisingly we were all girls, including our trip leader) and we got a quick introduction to the program itinerary.
- Conversation "Cultural diversity in Morocco" about Arab, Berber and Jewish coexistence in Morocco, with Moroccan students from L’Ecole Superior du Traduction in Tangier (one of the best schools for translators in the Arabic speaking world)
-We got to Morocco and we were so excited!!! Once off the ferry we made it through customs and onto a tiny little bus that would be our transportation for the rest of the trip. After a short drive we reached our first destination, a Women’s Center in Tangier. We got a tour of the building, which included classrooms of all sorts, some traditional style where women are taught traditional Arabic writing, some where women are taught different trades to help them succeed economically. The center’s goal is to take advantage of the laws in Morocco that give women equal rights as men by helping women to be educated enough to step up and be equal. An example of one of the trades is this room full of looms.
Here they teach women traditional weaving. In another room they had a set of new sewing machines where they teach women to sew as a skill set for working in factories.
After we got a tour of the Women’s Center we got our first taste of Moroccan tea, and had a very interesting discussion about cultural diversity, and about being a woman in Morocco. The tea was delicious—green tea with fresh mint and a LOT of sugar. The conversation was great too, we got to hear first hand perspectives from three girls who study translation at the local university. What was most interesting to our group and to me in particular was their treatment of the traditional headscarf, two of the girls wore one and the other didn’t, and they all seemed to be getting along fine. They explained to us that covering your head is a personal choice and it’s up to you to decide how devout you are going to be. At the same time, the one without the scarf was 5 years younger than the other two and still in high school and unmarried, and admitted that it is generally accepted that once you get married you do adopt the covering in respect for your husband and family. It was a very interesting contrast to what I know of Iranian law, where you have to cover your head no matter what, because even though by law it is not required, and they were proud of the fact that it was a choice, they still revealed that unwritten cultural laws suggest that they do maintain that sign of devotion to their religion.
This is the gorgeous view from the terrace where we held our discussion
After our discussion we had our first Moroccan food! Couscous with chicken and vegetables. It was delicious. This is us waiting impatiently for our food/taking the opportunity for photos
-Drive to Asilah and walk through the Medina (old town) to the Atlantic Ocean
-after lunch on our drive all of a sudden we pulled off to the side of the highway. I wasn’t quite sure what was going on because I had been settling down to a nap but when I looked out the window I got really excited! We were on the coast and...are you ready for this? There were camels!!! So we got to ride them. And it was awesome. Once up on the camel the ride is pretty gentle and boring, but the camel has to kneel forward to get up and down and when it does you get pitched forward really fast and all of a sudden your face is a little to close to the sand! But it was a super fun experience.
-we continued on our drive, which turned out to be relatively short anyway, and walked through Asilah. It was beautiful! All the Moroccan architecture was sooo pretty. It reminded me of the Alhambra.
All of us walking
Example of prettiness
-eventually we reached a lookout point on the ocean
Afternoon:
- Drive along the Atlantic Ocean to Rabat (3 hours)
Evening:
- Meeting of the home stay families (Two or three students will stay with one family.)
-Armelle, Kelsey, and I got to stay in a home stay together which was really awesome. Our family was a mother who spoke no English but was super sweet and got really really excited when we tried to speak to her in Arabic, her daughter who was 18 and home from university for the weekend and spoke perfect English to us, her son who was 14 and didn’t say a word or make eye contact the whole time, and a younger daughter who was 12 and also really shy.
- Dinner with home stay families
-Moroccan food is amazing!!! AND they don’t use separate plates or silverware. Food is served on big platters and everyone just eats off of it with their fingers. We had appetizers to start out with, some meatballs, bread, and pastries, then a dish that was chicken in amazing sauce with french fries all over it. It was delicious. Then for dessert we had pomegranates and oranges.
-that night we slept in a room that I’m really not sure what it is, but that most Moroccan homes have. It was I guess like a living room, but it was really just a room with benches all around the wall. So we moved the pillows aside and each claimed a piece of bench.
Day Two RABAT
Morning:
- Breakfast
-we ate breakfast in the patio of the house, which was brightly lit because the entire roof was a skylight
-for breakfast we had tea, coffee, bread, and these yummy crepe-like things with honey on them
Armelle and I at breakfast—very very early
- Facilitated discussion “West and Arab worlds - images about each other” with Moroccan students from Rabat University and Professor Zaki
-in the same room where we had slept that night (thank god we had the good manners to clean up all our bedding before breakfast!) all the rest of the group came and met with some Moroccan students to discuss stereotypes between our different cultures. The discussion was interesting, especially because a couple of the Moroccan students disagreed about points and created some tension in the discussion, but to me nothing particularly notable was said.
- Visit of the Roman ruins Chellah, the Mausoleum Hassan II and the Main mosque.
-the ruins were really cool! The stone was this really awesome deep red and the weather was sunny and clear which made it even better.
Afternoon:
- Lunch with home stay families
-lunch was soo good, once again! We had pasta that again we ate with our fingers from one main dish. It was different than any pasta I’ve had before, and super tasty.
- Exploration of Rabat’s Andalusian houses in the Kashba and the street life in the medina market. Individual options: to spend time in the art museum or gallery, at the ocean or in the gardens of the castle. (This afternoon will be spend in small groups to create space for authentic experiences of the place and for personal connections. Two American students will be accompanied by two Moroccan students from Rabat University)
-Armelle and Kelsey and I ended up choosing to do a little shopping, Armelle found a really pretty hamsa necklace, which is the hand of Fatima, and then we sat and relaxed and drank more Moroccan tea.
Evening:
- Social time: Conversation in the patio of a family with Peace Corps volunteers about living in Morocco as a foreigner
-we got to talk to both a Peace Corps volunteer, and a Fulbright grantee about what it’s like living in such a different culture. It was really awesome to hear how both of them started out with some doubts but now are living comfortably in Morocco.
-Optional visit to the Hammam
-The Hammam is a public bath, something that is common everywhere in Morocco. But there aren’t actually any baths there. It’s basically a huge tiled room with faucets coming out of the walls with cold and hot water, and drains in the floors. You get a big bucket of water that you can make the right temperature for yourself, and then a smaller dipper, and you basically create a shower by dipping water out of the bucket and over you. The room got really steamy like a sauna and it was basically the most relaxing and cleansing experience ever. Our program leader told us that even though to us Americans it seems like a treat, like going to a spa, but to Moroccans it’s merely functional. It’s a way to get clean that they use about once a week.
Kelsey, me and Armelle feeling shiny and clean after the Hammam
- Dinner with home stay families
-once again dinner was amazing!!! I actually can’t remember exactly what we ate this night…but I’m sure I loved it.
Day Three RABAT - RIF MOUNTAINS - CHEFCHAOUEN
Morning:
- Drive to Akchour, Rif Mountains through rural areas of Morocco (3,5 hours)
- Break on the way (more tea! Yum)
- Short walk through a valley in the Rif mountains
-this walk was super pretty, through the mountains with olive trees all around us
Afternoon:
- Picnic and time to relax
-we ate around a table cloth on the ground, nice and simple and really good couscous!
- Conversation with Abdeslam about education, simplicity of life and economic challenges of rural areas in Morocco. Abdeslam himself was the first in his family to receive an education. He finished a degree in literature while his older brothers had no schooling for economic reasons.
- Drive to Chefchaouen (30 minutes)
- Guided walk through the medina of Chefchaouen with background information about it’s Moorish and Jewish inhabitants and it’s historic link to Al Andalus
What I found most interesting from this tour was that all the buildings were painted blue because originally they were green for Islam, then the Jews that were expelled from Spain came in and painted them all blue, and the area became known to tourists as blue and therefore never got changed back to green, despite the fact that it is now a fully Muslim area once again
- Settle in Hotel Andaluz
Evening:
- Time to explore the medina individually (good place to buy some souvenirs)
-I bought some awesome blue Moroccan slippers!
- Special celebration dinner in the Medina of Chefchaouen
-once again, delicious food. I had beef tagine and it was amazing
Day Four CHEFCHAOUEN - CEUTA - ALGECIRAS
Morning:
- Morning walk through the awaking town to a hill outside the city gate
- Drive through mountains, fields and cities to Ceuta (2 hours)
- Breakfast on the way
- Crossing the Moroccan - Spanish border
Afternoon:
- Boat journey across the Strait of Gibraltar
we were so exhausted from the trip that at this point we just slept the whole ride!
- Good bye in Algeciras, Spain
Then one more 3 hour bus ride, and I was home and sleeping in my own bed, dreaming of Moroccan food and recovering from an amazing adventure.
