You'll probably get more details about my trip to Morocco from Dana's blog (canyouhearthedistancecalling.shutterfly.com), because I just want to put these details down quickly so I won't have to worry about it once the crazyness of making up lost classes begins.
Left for Morocco on Sept. 23, the day after getting back from Hurghada. Seeing my host family again was like a dream. They are just as crazy and as loving as ever, and didn't seem to mind our last-minute intrusion whatsoever. It's nice that after over a year, I still feel the same connection with my family here. Even my old admirers in the souk remember me and pick up exactly where we left off, trying to kiss me and asking to marry me. This is the closest family I'll have for a while, so I'm very glad to know they'll always be here for me. When Dana and I arrived, their new study abroad student, Ashley, was there, as well as the study abroad student before me, Kacey. When I was here last year, my host family could not stop talking about Kacey, so I was very excited to meet her. She is now here teaching English, something I could definitely see myself doing here in the future.
After a couple days of being extremely well fed in Rabat, Dana and I started our crazy backpacking trip through the country. It looked something like this:
Friday, Sept. 25: train to Marrakech, where we arrived in the afternoon. Marrakech is still not my favorite city, with its tourist traps and all, but I liked it much better this time around than last year. The heat was bearable in late September, and Dana and I were not restricted to the time-table of my study abroad group. We explored the souk, and only got ripped off once. We were dragged to a tannery and received a tour that we didn't ask for, with all the old familiar nauseating smells of the one I went to (hungover) in Fes last year, only to be told at the end of the tour that we owed them 100 dirham. But hey, it's not Marrakech if you don't get ripped off. After getting sufficiently lost in the souk and temporarily making friends with a Mexican tourist, we spent the evening in a hotel lounge drinking Moroccan beers. They were better than Stella, the Egyptian beer, and more alcoholic, but less then half the size and a bit more expensive.
Saturday, 9/26: Visited the tombs of Saadin Sultan Ahmed el-Mansour ed-Dahbi (c. 1603?), then to Bahia Palace (c. 1860s). Both were gorgeous. For lunch, we had lamb meshuie in the middle of the souk, and after we finished we were shown where the lamb is cooked. After a feast for lunch, we walked to they cyber park and tried to get on a finnicky free computer, then walked the long way to the Jardin Majorelle. The gardens are my favorite part of Marrakech, and even one of my favorite parts of Morocco as a whole. It started to rain a bit while we were at the gardens. First rain I'd seen in over a month! It was a blessed sight to see, sheltered under the trees of the garden, with the bright blue and yellow terracotta vases around us. Zweena bzef (very beautiful). That night, we took an overnight train from Marrakech to Tangier. Our bunkmates, two British citizens from Gibraltar, realized as soon as the train pulled away from the station that they had left their passports in their hotel. Oops! After frantically trying to figure out what to do, including a brief period in which Dana and I thought we might have the room to ourselves, they found a solution with the help of a couple Moroccan men. They got their hotel to send their passports on a commercial bus to Tangier, which would arrive about an hour after them, with still time to spare before their 9am ferry to Spain. As awful as it was to see their initial panic, I was grateful that it was not Dana and me in that position, and that they were able to work everything out.
Sun., 9/27: Arrived in Tangier early in the morning, and immediately got on a bus to Chefchaouen, about 3-4 hours away. Chefchaouen is absolutely gorgeous! It was rainy and foggy, and there were mountains everywhere with a huge lake nearby. It would have felt like home, if it weren't for the cacti also nestled in the mountain. We didn't do much in Chefchaouen, but made it to a cyber cafe and made some friends at a restaurant in the old medina: Ibrahim, who was nice enough to speak in Modern Standard Arabic so we could communicate; Sliman, the sheep-herder who speaks English to spite the French; and Omar, the inspirational speaker who showed up a documentary/conspiracy theory film on 9/11. They gave us free food as we talked about absolutely everything.
Mon, 9/28: Got up early and left for Tangier. Had paella and beer for lunch before making our way through the old medina in search of Spain. With the uninvited help of a local who showed us the five important features of the kasbah (mosque, communal water fountain, baker, Qur'anic school, and hamam) for the meager fee of 30 dh, we finally made our way to the lookout point. Spain was a bit overcast, but we could definitely see it! As with most liminal spaces, I felt very connected to the Strait of Gibraltar, that body of water that connects Spain to Morocco, Europe to Africa, and the Atlantic Ocean to the Mediterranean Sea. Once we'd had our fill of the view, we went to the American Legation Museum- the only U.S. national monument on foreign soil. Apparently, Morocco was the first country to recognize the U.S. government after we'd split from England. We saw a letter in George Washington's handwriting to the then-ruler of Morocco. Very cool! Also saw a picture of King Muhammad VI with George Bush that made me cringe a little. After our little piece of America in Morocco, we went to Caid's bar in the basement of Hotel el-Minzah. This bar was the inspiration for Rick's Cafe in the movie Casablanca. Dana and I each got ourselves a gin drink, with promises to actually watch Casablanca as soon as we can. At some point during the day, we were given free Tangerines from Tanger, which absolutely made my day. Then we took then 9pm train to Fes.
Tues., 9/29 - We arrived in Fes around 3am. We went to three full hotels before finding one that would take us. Then woke up at 8:30 to explore the medina before our noon check-out. Fes's old medina was not quite as steep and horrible as I remember it being (like I said, I was horribly hungover and it was dreadfully hot when I was there last), but the streets were still fairly steep. It was raining hard when we woke up, but luckily it stopped while we were eating our breakfast (Moroccan crepes, chocolate croissants, and mint tea: yum!). Most interesting thing I saw in the medina was a bunch of guys cutting into a camel's head. I watched with the morbid fascination of a 12 year old boy, and wished I'd gotten a picture. Around noon, we took a train to Meknes, where we found a place to chill and smoke shisha (a thing surprisingly hard to do in this country). Dana and I talked about issues of identity, privilege, orientalism, etc, and it made me miss Hampshire like whoa. After our shisha and a delicious lunch, we got on a train back to Rabat, where we smoked more shisha on the roof with Mehdy, Hamid, and Zechariah.
Now we're just chilling in Rabat with the fam for a few days until we head back to Egypt. Yesterday Bahia took Dana and I to the hamam, along with Aya (my little sister). Dana scrubbed herself so hard she broke skin, which I think my host mom found pretty funny. She loves telling stories about how we screw up. The first story she told when I arrived was about the time I lost my glasses in the ocean one day last summer. It was then brought up again three more times that evening. This time around, Dana knocked the hookah over and left burn holes all over their rug. We like to make sure we're not forgotten.
Today Dana is in Casablanca, visiting the Hasan II mosque (third largest in the world), while I stay home with the family. And tomorrow we leave for Egypt! I can't believe what a month it's been! In September, I: started classes, went to Alexandria and Hurghada, had classes canceled, and backpacked all over Morocco. It's been great, but it's definitely time for things to settle down. And this post is much longer than I was expecting, so I'll leave it at that.
Love!
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