My friend from class who had studied in Rabat last fall really wanted to revisit Morocco for a few weeks after our study abroad in Spain, and since I had a few days before my friend, Leona would come from the USA for our big Europe trip, I decided to go on a little Morocco escapade for 4 days after our program ended.
We flew into Tanger and had a pension there for a few days. Our toilets had half-seats so we did not have to squat there, but it was one of few that we encountered on our trip there. We walked around and enjoyed the incredible weather and ate delicious fruit and vegetables that you can buy from stands right off the street. Our hostel room got really cold at night, but the thick Moroccan blankets really helped.
And of course, there is all the heckling from the Moroccan men. It's kind of interesting because I realize that although I am on the "lighter" side of "Indian people", skin color wise, I blend in really well with the Moroccans and their skin color, thus, some of the men think I am a non-jihab wearing, "American clothing wearing", possibly "super liberal" Moroccan woman. So even when I got back to Madrid, I realized some men were heckling me with Arabic "blessings"such as hamdulillah...it's kind of intense.
Anyways, our first day in Tanger was really nice. Our second day, we discovered the old town some more and walked the narrow streets until Kasbah, which is near a vista point where we can see the ocean meeting the mediterranean sea, which is absolutely breathtaking. We had a picnic on the beach with some fresh fruits and bread and avocado. It was sunny but a little windy so we had a bit of sandy bread, but it was not a big deal. We splurged for some Thai food and utilized their "real" bathrooms to the best of our abilities. In the evening, we sat on a little bench right outside the "Medina" (old city) and these really kind Arabic guys from Casablanca conversed with us. Of course we were nervous at first, holding our purses close and such, but they were really genuine, with no bad intentions, and we just talked about Tanger and their jobs (working at Pizza Hut, even though they are all university educated), etc. Our languages were a mix of my broken french, Hannah's broken arabic, and their broken english; very difficult to say the least.
The next day, we started off bright and early to Tetouan on a bus (we had found out the times of the buses the day before by walking to the station.). It was about an hour long bus ride with beautiful scenery, but I tried to sleep for it so I wouldn't get bus/motion sick. Tetouan's bus station was new and not as close to the inner part of the city as Hannah's Lonely Planet guide indicated, so we treked up to the inner city after asking directions.
Tetouan is really beautiful, with Rif mountains lining the sky and very white Moroccan architecture. We walked around the Medina a bit here as well, and utilized our Spanish skills to get around. We ran into some carpet dealers but did NOT end up buying their carpet (this is a rarity). They got really close to selling it, and even "agreed" to sell it to me for my 150 dirham price (15 euros), bringing the price down from 1,600 (haha), but I realized Moroccan carpets are similar to the Indian kashmiris that we already have in our house, so I was able to say that I don't have enough room in my bag to bring it back. Phew. We also were looking for a cyber cafe to inform people we are okay in Morocco and ran into this professor at a French/English/Arabic school near the cyber cafe who thought I was arabic, and was a little surprised that it was in fact Hannah who knew the language while I did not. Because he was VERY enthusiastic about Hannah knowing Arabic, we were able to use the computer's at the language school AND he treated us to a real couscous lunch and mint tea! We were stuffed to the rim. He was really kind and it was the best trade off; to spend some time with this man around the city and get a free meal out of it. It was enough to last us through dinner!
We took the bus back to Tanger that night to sleep in our pension. I ended up playing a few rounds of chess with the guys that work at the pension, some of the sweetest guys I have ever met. The next morning, we were sitting on a bench eating some more "tangerines"(the fruit, not the people :-P), and a hungry guy walked past motioning to his mouth as if he was hungry. Right behind him, ANOTHER guy did that, and although at first it seemed like the entire world was heckling us for some food, we soon realized the second guy was actually one of the kind men that works at the pension, and he was just mocking the guy in front of him (to get him to stop bothering us). We all laughed sooo hard for 10 minutes about that! It was one of those "you had to be there" kind of moments...sorry. Anyways, a little after that Hannah headed off for the bus station to get a bus to Rabat and I hung out with the guys until my taxi arrived to take me to the airport. On the taxi ride, there was beautiful arabic music playing on the radio with the Moroccan scenery going by and I knew I would really miss this place and should go back soon.
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