The trip began on Thursday morning (not too early, thankfully). I, along with 30 other people from my program, got on a bus and began the trip from Granada to Gibraltar. It was really nice traveling with a smaller group...when you go with 80 other people, you feel like you're part of an endless mob. 30 people made the trip a lot quieter, and also a lot less cumbersome.
So, GIBRALTAR. As some of you may know, it is actually a British enclave on the edge of Spain. Therefore, after we checked into our hotel and had lunch (still in Spain) we walked for about 15 minutes and just crossed the border into the UK! It was pretty cool to see signs/menus/everything in English again. The people in Gibraltar speak a mix of English and Spanish, but our guide mainly stuck to English, due to everyone's varying levels of Spanish skill. My absolute adoration of everything British meant that I was basically giddy at everything during this little trip. Here's a picture of the Rock of Gibraltar,to give you an idea about how small the area actually is:
Anyways, after a tour around the island, we stopped at a place called St. Michael's Cave. The guide mainly talked about the monkeys who live near the cave (more about them in a minute), but didn't mention that the cave was this amazing natural wonder. It was kind of like Natural Bridge Caverns in Texas...not very touristy but there was a random stage set in the middle of one of the caverns. Very impressive and so gorgeous!
Now, about the monkeys--Gibraltar has this random population of apes (they're not actually monkeys because they don't have tails) which live on the "Upper Rock" nature preserve. They're really cute and totally not afraid of humans--one nearly jumped into our bus while we were driving to St. Michael's Cave. The guides feed them to entice them into posing with us, but even if you don't, they often just use the tourists for climbing poles without prior notice. Example: A guide got a monkey to pose with me. This monkey then moved off of me to another person. Just as I was standing up again, another monkey jumped on my head! I had about a heart attack, but it was cool nonetheless.
After viewing the gorgeous view of the Strait of Gibraltar, we had a free night. However, there was a slight problem: everything (aka tourist souvenier stores) closed at like 7 pm! Very different from Granada, where these things are open until 10 or later. But we found a place to have fish and chips (when in Britain, do as the British do...), walked around a bit, watched an amazing sunset, and had ice cream at a pub. We then proceeded back to our hotel.
Very early the next morning we got on the bus and drove to the port of Algeciras. From there, we divided into 2 groups, and met our guides for the Moroccan part of our voyage. Our guide's name was Sarah and she was so cool! She had been in the Peace Corps in the rural Atlas Mountains, had gotten engaged to another Peace Corps volunteer, and was staying in Morocco working until she goes to nursing school back in the States next spring.
Anyways, in order to get to Morocco you have to cross the Strait of Gibraltar, which means we got to take a ferry (Cue "I'm on a Boat" references here). The voyage was a little shaky, and I'm very glad I don't get seasick. But, since it was so early, we were able to see the sun rise over the rock of Gibraltar. So stunning! After crossing the Strait, we had to sit in the port in Tangier for about 30 minutes due to traffic, then got to disembark.
Morocco is...kind of beyond definition. It definitely wasn't what I expected. If you've been to India, it's very similar, but a little cleaner and all Muslim. Islamic culture really defines Morocco--everything stops 5 times a day when the call to prayer is sounded. Also, most women wear headscarves. The fact that religion is such a large part of life makes the idea of secular government really difficult, but that doesn't mean the government isn't trying. Apparently, women who wear the hijab are banned from holding positions in the tourism industry, and are severely discriminated against in government positions or teaching.
We went from the port to a nearby women's center, where women who are divorced or illiterate or want a career can go to learn some basic skills to help them survive independently. We had two student guides who then sat down and talked to us about Moroccan life and culture in general, which was really cool. We also had AMAZING tea (this is going to be a pattern over the next few days), followed by a really delicious lunch in the center's restaurant (finally! food with flavor! I was so happy). And then we were off again, this time to Rabat, the capital city. It was a long bus ride, punctuated with tea breaks, and a random stop for us to ride CAMELS (for like 5 minutes each), but we finally arrived and met our host families. I stayed with two other girls from my group in a room that would not have been out of place in my mental conception of an medieval Asian palace.
Our host family was wonderful and welcoming--but the language barrier was so painfully present that it kind of made things difficult. At first, the only person in the household who spoke English was a 13 year old girl...and while she understood the basics, our introductory walk through the Medina (old city) was filled with lots of awkward attempts at explanations. Luckily, one of the girls from IES spoke basic French, so that made communicating with the house mom at least possible (I don't know any Arabic, and the little I had learned from our phrase guide vanished from my head almost immediately). We had dinner, and were so exhausted that we almost fell asleep at the dinner table. Oddly, after flipping channels, our host mom decided to watch a Coldplay concert on MTV Arabia. It's amazing how American culture permeates everywhere. And then we went to sleep
The next day, we got up to a delicious breakfast (more tea! And Moroccan style pancakes! So good!) cooked by our host mom, then headed out for another long day of cultural immersion (sort of). We began by visiting the IES Rabat center, which just opened, and having more tea and cookies with the students who are studying there. That was pretty nice. Then, we visited an ancient (ruined) mosque that's kept as a historical monument in the middle of the city, followed by Roman ruins on the outskirts. Those ruins were super cool--there was a pond there where women go to wish for fertility. They do this by throwing a hard boiled egg to the eels who live in the pond. If the eel eats the egg, congratulations! For those who aren't really looking to pursue that goal, there's a submerged disc in the pond. If you throw a coin and it hits the disc, you will meet many beautiful people of whichever gender you prefer. My nickel landed firmly on it, so bring on the beautiful men!
After this, we returned to our house to eat lunch with the family. This was fun because the elder daughter (who was 18) was home at this time, and also spoke english so we could talk to someone new. While we were eating, I looked over at the television and she was watching Zee TV Arabia! For those of you who don't know, that's a very popular Indian satellite channel. I was therefore able to talk about Bollywood with her, and that was so cool! After lunch, we took a much-needed siesta, then proceeded back to the meeting point for our next activity: meeting with Moroccan students.
Now, I was excited about this because I thought it would be fun to go shopping with said students and just have a nice relaxing afternoon. However, the problem is that all of the students who showed up to guide us around were guys. Cue one of the most awkward afternoons of my life. There were 4 of us (all girls) with three guys, all of whom I think were students (some groups had people who weren't students). They didn't really want to go shopping. They took us around to lots of pretty views, and then reluctantly took us to the marketplace. But the marketplace was crowded and kind of stressful, and our guides were obviously not into it at all. They kind of rotated around, talking to all of us, so I'd like to equate it to 3 weird first dates at once. We were exhausted, so we convinced them to stop and get tea. After that, we returned to the meeting point and said goodbye. Our guides weren't nearly as bad/sketchy as other groups, but it was just weird not having ANY girls and the setup was just kind of strange in general.
We quickly returned to our homestays and got ready to go to the hammam, or Arab baths. This was an...interesting experience. In my mind, I pictured an Arab bath like those we had learned about: 3 rooms (one for cold water, one warm, one hot), with people getting massages and manicures etc. However, most of these type of bathhouses are only open to women during the day (only one gender is allowed inside, obviously), so the one we went to was very small and basic. It was a good "bath", but there were so many of us that it was also crowded and a little clausterphobic. I had a good time, but most people were relieved to leave at the end. And then it was time for henna! Everyone got a simple design on the back of their hands. We were then beyond exhausted, so we proceeded back to our homestay, had a late dinner, and crashed again.
Btw, the reason there aren't a lot of pictures is that 1. My camera was dying at the time and 2. I really didn't want to make myself look like any more of a tourist than I already did. We didn't really see much during this day, so don't worry!
Day 3 was just as busy as the rest. We got up early (again), said goodbye to our host family (this was actually kind of sad--they were SO NICE and so welcoming!), and got on the bus to leave Rabat. Unfortunately, some of the people in our group had a bad reaction to the tuna from dinner the night before, so they looked pretty ill. And the road was not very hospitable to ill people--very windy, lots of hills. Even I got a little carsick. We ended up at a small village in rural Morocco, where we ate lunch at a farm with a Moroccan family. They were such gracious hosts--they had no qualms talking to us about their lives and sharing their food. Their farm was gorgeous and their kids were adorable!
After lunch, we proceeded to Chefchaouen, which literally means "look at the peaks". Here's a picture of the sunset we saw on the way there:
This city was far more touristy than Rabat, but so adorable! It's built into the mountain, so it's a little difficult to get around, but in general, I really liked it. What I didn't enjoy was the people openly gawking at us and saying obnoxious things in Arabic that we couldn't understand. Actually, sometimes they said them in English too. We had a couple hours to go shopping, so we did--but I'm not the biggest fan of bartering so I had a really tough time. I got a ring, a present for my sister, and a wallet. We then had dinner at a nice restaurant that served us traditional Moroccan food (mine was kind of like a vegetable pie. It was SO GOOD! And then pomegranate with honey for dessert). Our group practically took up our entire hostel, so we returned there, and had a rooftop reflection session about the trip. Then sleep again.
Yesterday was just a travelling day. We made our way from Chefchaouen to Ceuta, one of two Spanish enclaves on the North Coast of Africa. Crossing the border was really interesting. See, it's really hard for Moroccan people to get visas to cross into Spain (similar to the Mexico/US situation), so at the border, there were lots of sketchy people around. Furthermore, much like India, the concept of "orderly line" hasn't really developed. We didn't have to stand in line, but people with Moroccan passports did and it was chaos. The guards were only letting in 15 people at a time, but when they opened the gate, everyone surged forward. They then actually beat people back (with a belt/whip) to close the gate again. It was pretty shocking to see.
We then proceeded to literally walk into Spain, then go back to the ferry terminal. We had a final farewell drink with our wonderful guide, got on the boat, and made a (much shorter and smoother) crossing back to mainland Spain. Then back on a bus for a long journey back to Granada.
This trip was just surreal. It is impossible for me to comprehend that yesterday I was in AFRICA and today everything is just back to normal. I've seen and experienced so many things that I never thought I would/could do in my life, and it was just beyond amazing. I can't describe it, but I feel like I've changed as a result of this trip. It's weird.
Alright, well stay tuned because in 3 days I'm going to Madrid for another long weekend (yes, I do have class occasionally, they just give us lots of days off)!
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