We left super early on Thursday morning to take a bus to Algeciras (on the southern tip of Spain). From there, we took a ferry to Africa. The Straight of Gibraltar is as narrow as 14 kilometers at one point, but the ferry still took over an hour. Luckily, I don't get sea sick because it was a surprisingly bumpy ride. There were several people in my program that were feeling quite queasy throughout the trip and were elated to get back on solid ground.
The ferry dropped us off in Ceuta on the northern tip of Africa. Although we were in Africa, Ceuta is actually a Spanish city- there are two in northern Africa. After a short twenty minutes bus ride, we reached the frontier of Morocco. It was an easy trip across the border- we all had our passports stamped while we sat on the bus, and then we were on our way. We then continued on the two hour bus ride to our hotel in Tetouan. That was our home base for the weekend- you can its location on the map below:
Our tour guide for the city of Tetouan was a Tetouan-native who called himself Michael Douglass. He was absolutely fantastic as a tour guide- he spoke both English and Spanish and kept switching back and forth between the two. We learned a lot about Islam and Morocco, and he also took the liberty to poke fun at us Americans a bit. For example, the American embassy that he pointed out was actually a McDonald's and he showed us the German camels that lined up on the side of the road- "Americans always want to see camels when they come to Morocoo- so look to your right and you will see some German ones! I bet you didn't know there were German camels." They looked more like old Mercedes taxis to me...
Our first stop on the tour of the city was of a traditional Moroccan art school. The students were on spring break, but we were able to see their current and finished projects in wood painting, wood carving, metal painting, metal work, and much much more.
The patio of the school was also beautiful. Michael Douglass explained to us that Moroccans care very little about the outside of their houses- they care about the inside. It is usually decorated in extreme detail and almost all Moroccan buildings contain a patio with a garden as well.
After that, we headed to lunch. It was a very early morning, and Morocco is an hour behind Spain so we were more than ready for our traditional Moroccan meal. Fortunately, it did not disappoint. We were seated on cushions around tables with gold and blue tablecloths- there were also oriental rugs hung on all of the walls. After three months in Spain, the food was a great change of pace- we had vegetable soup, bread, water, beef shish kebabs, and couscous with vegetables and chicken. It was delicious!
We ended the meal with a sweet mint tea and cookies. Apparently Moroccans like very sweet foods, where I was expecting more spicy. After lunch we headed back our to the city for a tour of the Tetouan medina, or old city center. It is basically a labyrinth of narrow streets that go in every direction and often end in dead-ends. It is filled with merchants selling everything from live chickens, to recently killed chickens (often at the same stall), fish, fruit, vegetables, bread, modern packaged snacks and foods, to pottery, trinkets and much much more. There were bugs and files buzzing around all of the stalls and the streets were covered in a thin layer of liquid- I can only imagine what that contained. It was the worst smelling place I had ever been...at that point. Luckily, Virginia (one of the program directors) was an experienced Morocco visitor and brought scented oils for us to put on our hand to breathe in. It helped a lot.
It was definitely a taste of the day-to-day life of an average Moroccan. Tetouan is not a tourist destination- which explains why we had 8-10 body guards surrounding out group the entire time we were in that city. As Americans, we were definitely targets. We got a lot of curious stares and the girls were getting comments from the Moroccan men as well.
Here are some other pictures from the city:
Entrance to the medina.
Royal Palace in Tetouan for King Mohammed VI.
Moroccan flag.
That last picture is of some of the many many cats in Morocco- they live on the streets and are treated as wild animals, but are still often fed like domesticated cats. We also saw storks, camels, horses, sheep, goats and donkeys along the roads and often within the city itself- it was a varied mix of wildlife and they were everywhere.
In the market, we also saw four funeral processions. It was rather interesting to see- the deceased was carried in a crude wooden box above the heads of the men walking in front of the procession. The rest of the men walking behind (there were no women in any of the funeral parties) were silent in two of the processions and were singing funeral songs in the other two. It was definitely a unique look into the Moroccan culture.
Our next stop was a synagogue in Tetouan for one of seven Jewish people still living in the city- yes, only seven. Michael Douglass emphasized that Christians, Jews, and Muslims lived in peace together, although Islam is the state religion. Despite that fact, most of the Jewish population had left Tetouan to move to other, more modernized cities in Morocco. We were lucky enough to meet one of the seven Jewish citizens that remained.
We were also able to see quite a few mosques in the city. There are five calls-to-prayer during the day in the Islam religion. All Muslims are required to stop and pray, but they only have to go to mosques on Fridays. Women and men each have their separate entrances for the mosques, and all ages are encouraged to participate.
The next stop was a traditional Moroccan tannery. This was legitimately the worst-smelling place I have ever stepped foot in. We saw everything from the drying process to the color-dying process. Michael Douglass bought spearmint for everyone to hold to their noses for breathing- we may not have survived without it. He, of course, didn't need it.
At this point in the day, we were all ready to head back to the hotel for a good meal and some sleep. We didn't get dinner until 9:30 (which consisted of soup, fried cod, rice and fruit). It was the end to a great first day in Morocco.
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