Morocco - Waka Waka المغرب!

Morocco

المغرب

Awesome.

The 4 GSU´ers holdin it down.

I left class early Friday morning (10:10, just over an hour in class) and I walked through the back roads of the Realejo. It was fortunately a short, downhill passage with a beautiful view of Granada. 

We met up with the 2 dozen other travelers from Granada on the other side of the river and quickly departed at 10:40. Kelcie, Chris, Noreen and I all from Georgia State were all excited but we had not fully accepted the fact that we were about to embark to a totally new continent and how different things really are in this third world country.

We arrived in Sevilla around 1pm and met with everyone else to combine and make our group about 50 people deep. We did some shopping, checked out beerfest and used the restrooms while they were still easily accessible.

Top boat there, mid left back.

On the bus us Georgia State’ers sat in the back seat and may have had a few shots on the way… We arrived at the QuickFerry (35 minute shuttle) and boarded along with our chartered bus. It was very nice having the bus with us because the transportation in Africa is obviously less than par. (My experience with Moroccan Public Transit to come)

Once we arrived in Africa we knew shit was about to go down. We quickly exchanged our money into the Moroccan Dirham 1 USD = 7.8260 MAD. I used my dollars instead of Euros because the Euro is on the rise against the dollar and I wanted to maximize my monetary transactions.

Mountain view with a map of where we went.

We bussed it up to the hotel and arrived just in time for dinner. We ate this African meal called Kuz Kuz. It consisted of rice, chicken and a bunch of different vegetables. This would be the best meal of the entire trip.

We went to sleep at about midnight and woke up at 7am for the hotel’s breakfast, you know I was getting that. 

The food was pretty good, all drinkable liquids, and the company was even better. We left the hotel and headed to Chefchaouen. شفشاون/الشاون‎ It was a gorgeous, yet windy ride though the Rif Mountains. Chefchaouen is noted for its buildings in shades of blue and it is close to Tangier and Tetouan. It was founded in 1471 as a small fortress which still exists today by the Moorish exiles from Spain (Hence all the Spanish influence). Spain finally returned the city and gave it independence from Morocco in 1956.  

A famous monk in Morocco.

So we arrived in Chefchaouen and were fortunate to have a pretty chill and well educated tour guide. We had been getting sick of all the Spanish tour guide leaders. The information they told us was interesting but we only understood half of it, and less from Maricarmen. She basically just yells at us in Spanish the whole time. Worst guide EVER. 


After lunch we all went exploring through the city and the little tiendas in the shopping district. I bought a ton of stuff. Such as...
 
The people of Chefchaouen were more than hospitable to us because they knew were about to stimulate the hell out of their economy. Just like we did. But it was worth it, the money conversions finally played in our favor.

We took the bus back after a few hours of shopping and I of course sat with my bus buddy Kirsten.

We were basically in Chefechouen to stimulate their economy. I spent 450 of my Dirhams on souvenirs for all my people. Everything is barter and trade. Awesome. 

"Super duper!" "hello america!" favorite word.

I am very impressed when someone here has good English. Our tour guide Mohammad, perfect English. The pharmacist owner, perfect. 

Passing the black menthol around "don't go overboard guys it's only eucalyptus not marijuana"

Cats, freaking everywhere.

My Sweedish girl. They spoke 6 languages a piece.

Flippin, of course.

Undefeated chicken war champs!

Awesome tour guide

Jackass.

World renouned preformer at lunch.

Herbal Pharmasist. He made so much money off us.

Hailey spent €162!

Cliff jumping in Tanger.

Camelz.

Underwater, of course.

Girls Gone Muslim

La Playa.

Notorious BIG movie. Epic.

Some of the products from the pharmacy

Arnica - like icy hot, general pain reliever. 

Argan - helps hair regrow. 

Safran oil - hangover cure

Kumming tea - detoxing digestive trac - unming

Natural Viagra?

Clay for oily skin and hair & to open pores