Crossing Continents

On Monday we went to another CONTINENT! Africa to be exact. Morocco to be even more exact. It was a long journey to get there but very worth it. We left the hotel at 7:30am and watched the sun come up as we drove an hour and a half to the edge of Spain. Then, we got on a 45 minute ferry to Ceuta, a Spanish city at the tip of North Africa with a border to keep Africans from crossing over into Spain.

Southern Spain sunrise!

 Our tour guide, Abdul, was waiting for us with a bus in Ceuta to take us across the African border. Hmmmm how do I even begin to describe Abdul. Probably one of the most interesting people I've ever met. A native Moroccan, he spoke fluent spanish, english, muslim, french, and probably some more languages he didn't tell us about. The first thing he told us was that if we didn't want to call him Abdul, we should call him Michael Douglas (he thinks he looks a lot like him, but he doesn't at all). He asked if he could call us his family since he was spending the day with us. We only had day visas and would only be in Morocco for a few hours, so he kept telling us he wanted to share everything he possibly could about his culture and people.  He taught us some muslim phrases and immediately started telling us about the country while we were driving to the African border. Once we got across, it was about 45 minutes to Tetuan, the city we were spending the day in. He kept telling us hilarious jokes, like that he was a polygamist with three wives, looking for his 4th Catherine Zeta-Jones and that he really wanted an American girl and started trying to impress all of us girls. Halfway to Tetuan we stopped to ride some camels! It was really fun and really hilarious, 30 Americans on the side of the road in Morocco riding camels...but it probably happens a lot. Here is our friend Elaine on her ride...

We finally got to Tetuan and met Abdul's friend who was going to help keep track of us for the day. The two phrases Abdul's friend said the entire time were: "Keep walking" and "Don't worry, be happy." The city of Tetuan is extremely old and surrounded entirely by ancient walls. Its streets are very tiny, winding, and confusing. We had Abdul, his friend, and Sam (our tour guide) constantly watching us to make sure we didn't get lost. We also weren't allowed independent free time like we are in all the other cities because getting lost would be a disaster. Once we entered the city's walls it was like walking into a completely different world, almost fake like a movie set (it looked a lot like Aladdin). We walked in a single file line through the city, which looked more like back alley ways lined with people selling fresh fruit, fish, vegetables and really random stuff. Everyone seemed to know Abdul and stopped to say hi, maybe because he was so funny and nice, or maybe because he took Americans around their city...I'm not really sure but he was definitely somewhat of a local celebrity.

Abdul frequently stopped us to show us ancient ruins right in the middle of the markets, symbols on the walls, and facts about the traditional robes the men and women were wearing. After about an hour of walking through the city we were brought to an amazing building that housed a collective of traditional Moroccan rugs made from all the nearby villages. The man selling them spoke English and was also hilarious and joked a lot with us ("we trade rug for woman, new wife! no?") They all seemed to really love Americans and had a great sense of humor. We were shown tons of different rugs from all around and a lot of us bought one. Garrett bought a beautiful big blanket and I bought a small rug.

After that we went to the coolest place for lunch! The first course was traditional vegetable soup, then beef kebabs, then a huge bowl of cous cous with chicken and vegetables, and finally traditional spearmint chai tea with cookies. There was a man dancing with fire on his head and live traditional music while we ate! It was really really cool and soooo good. Finally we went to the local pharmacy, where a man in a white doctor's coat waited for us. He had 2 assistants with him both also wearing doctor's coats (one was actually a chef's jacket, but whatever). It was funny looking but they took it very seriously. They were the ones who sold all the amazing Moroccan spices, teas, natural medicines, etc. They had everything from ginseng tea, to saffron, to rose flower face cream. Everyone got a little something!

Morocco was a great experience. While we were there we also learned a little bit about some major issues that have been going on between Morocco and Spain, one almost identical to our problem with the Mexican-US borders. Some Africans spend several years traveling to Morocco in hopes to find a passport and cross over to Spain. Since the 90's, over 10,000 African people have died trying to sneak over. Just the night before we went there, 2 men were caught trying to swim over.  The Africans just sit on the hill that looks over the border all day trying to figure out a way to get across. It's crazy that as Americans, we were able to cross over in literally 5 minutes.

We loved it and Abdul was most definitely a HUGE part of that. Here is a shout out he gave to our parents...

After that we headed out of Tetuan's walls back to the bus, ferry, and then finally Costa del Sol around 8:30pm. A lot of us headed to a restaurant for our friend Charlie's 20th birthday. The waiter was a fun guy who brought out dessert with candles for him, turned off the lights and sang Happy Birthday, and poured us shots and took one with us! I didn't catch his name but he was really nice!

The waiter (far left) and us taking shots for Charlie's birthday!

-B