Ninth Week

Nine weeks down, six to go! School work has started catching up since we are almost to the end of the semester, but we went on an awesome weekend trip with SAIIE to Morocco this past weekend! We left on Friday morning and took a bus down to Tarifa to take the ferry to Tangier. It was a bit of a rough ride because it was rainy and windy, but we finally made it Tangier! Right when we got off the boat, it felt like a totally different environment already. We met our tour guide and we hit the road to start our tour! He drove us around California Mountain in Tangier to show us the huge houses, including the King's house, and he took us to the point where we could see where the mediterranean sea meet the Atlantic.  It was so beautiful! The water was so blue and we could see mountains on both sides of us. We also got to ride camels, which was one of the things I was looking forward to the most about Morocco! It was a bit scary when the camel stood up and sat down, but other than that, it was an amazing experience! Our next stop was Hercules Cave. We were very close to the water, and there was a keyhole in the shape of Africa. We finally got to our final destination and had a traditional Moroccan lunch and explored Asilah. It was such a beautiful city! I loved all the white buildings with blue accents. We headed back to Tangier where we went to an oil market and tested out a bunch of different products. It was a long and exhausting day, but I was really happy with everything we did!

On Saturday, we made our way to Chefchaouen. We got to see a beautiful viewpoint along the way with a lake and mountains. When we started to approach Chefchaouen, we could see blue all over the place. This city was one of my favorite spots because every street was so beautiful. We ate at another really good moroccan restaurant, then hit the road for Tetouan. There, we walked around the city and went to a rug store, where I was forced to buy a carpet (after negotiating). We headed back to the hotel after another long but exciting day.

Sunday was our final day, and we just explored Tangier. We went to a scarf store and a couple other little stops along the way. This was probably one of my favorite weekend trips because the culture was so different than Sevilla, and I am so happy I got the chance to go to Africa for the first time!


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