Before I start the break down of what we did every day, I just want to say that I was not expecting Morocco to be how it was. When I think of Africa, I think of Africans and safaris, not the "Middle East" but since Morocco is so far north, it is Arabic and not "my idea" of Africa. I didn't know this until we got there but I still loved it! It was such an amazing opportunity to experience another culture.
We took a fairy from Spain to Africa and passed through the “frontera” where they stamped our passports…finally I got a stamp on my passport; every other time I have traveled I haven't gotten a stamp. But we went immediately to an Artesian workshop school where we saw students and teachers making intricate wooden and metal designs and sowing crafts. We then went to exchange our money into dirhams and I kept a couple of dirhams left over so I will always have money from Africa! About 10 dirham = 1euro. We got lunch after this and I was so scared to eat because a. if you know me at all, you know I don’t like trying new and exotic foods and b. I really didn’t want to end up in the bathroom the entire trip because my stomach couldn’t handle something I ate so I was very careful at every meal! After lunch, we went on a long tour through Tetuán and saw the outside markets where they just have fish and meat and eggs and everything sitting out in the boiling sun…it’s like nothing needs to be refrigerated over here in Europe! Above is a picture of the fish just chilling at the market. At the end of a very long day of traveling and walking, we went back to the hotel and Lauren and I passed out at 10PM. Oh, there is also a time difference in Morocco, so a lot of people got all ready and were down to eat breakfast an hour early but after Lauren and I talked about it for 20 minutes (haha, it took us a while), we figured out the time change and woke up on time!
Luckily we didn’t wake up any earlier than we had to because this next day in Tánger was a really long but awesome day! It was by far my favorite day! We first visited a Coca-Cola factory (as our company visit for the trip) and it was literally awesome to see the process! Coke is to me as tea or coffee is to you so I was so excited this was the company we were visiting. We had to wear these white gowns and shower caps when we went into the factory so we made sure to get lots of pictures sporting our new outfits. Then we went and visited the caves of Hércules. The hole looking out into the water is said to look like Africa…I can see it (pictured above). And then we went down to the ocean and took lots of pics. On the left is me jumping on one of the rocks by the ocean. I never fail to almost break a leg or stop having fun! We then got to ride CAMELS!!! This is what I was most looking forward to and I was so happy when we actually got to do it. After the fact, someone brought up how scared they were on the camel and at that point it just dawned on me that it def was not the safest thing! But while on the camel that didn’t even cross my mind and this can be seen by me with my arms up in every pic…I wasn’t even holding on! I am the one on the farthest left...the only one with 2 arms up :) We ate lunch by the ocean and had this chicken, honey dish…I actually really liked it and this was my favorite meal while there! Then we went and visited the Tánger business school and met some Moroccan students. They showed us around their school and it was quite boring…until we went into the game room and I kicked some Moroccan guys butt in ping-pong! Thanks mom and dad for the ping-pong table in the basement! We then had free time and went shopping. Lauren and I bought Betis jerseys (they are one of the soccer teams in Sevilla)) and loved bargaining with the Moroccans. We then went back to our hotel and passed out once again. 
On our final day in Africa, we went to Chaouen. It is a city in the mountains and has traditional blue houses and streets. It was absolutely gorgeous! Clouds were literally passing through us... I don’t think I have ever been that high up and our bus driver almost killed us about 10 times on the way up the mountain and down because he was driving crazily and there was nothing stopping us from falling right off the road! But after a few scares, we made it up and down in one piece! We didn’t have as much time in this city as the other days but we took a lot of pictures and explored. There was a gorgeous waterfall/river we stumbled upon and I felt like we were in the jungle for a second. We ate lunch there and then headed back to the border and took the fairy. It was super windy on the way back so I got really sea sick on the boat. And after 7 hours of traveling, we made it back safely to Sevilla on Saturday night. It was truly amazing to see something as different as Morocco, Africa. I want to return to Africa in the future…and next time, for a SAFARI!
I am going to London on Thursday to visit Liz and see my roommates, Kristie and Emily, who are visiting from the U.S. and then John gets to Sevilla on Sunday! Such an awesome weekend ahead :)
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