Morocco

#17.

I finally went to a new continent! After growing up in North America and taking countless trips to Europe, I finally ventured to a new continent. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to; it was just too expensive, too long of a flight or I didn’t get to take enough time off. And it wasn’t looking like it was going to happen again this year. But I made it happen. About 5 days before my 30^th. Not cutting it close at all.

So Africa! Or Morocco more specific. Fes even more specific. I have been thinking about going to Morocco for a good part of the year. It seemed like the easiest logistically and lots of people were telling me it’s a pretty cool country. I had a plan of taking 10 days and explore the various cities, but my time was limited, so instead I only spent a handful of days there and really only explored one city. But no worries. It was an experience nonetheless.

I slowly made my way to Morocco (via Spain). Transport took a bit longer than I was hoping. We were on Moroccan time. I spent a good amount of time hanging out in train stations. Luckily I had my Kindle and I was reading the Hunger Games, so I entertained myself to a certain degree.

I took the ferry from Tarifa, Spain to Tangier, Morocco. At the Tangier train station, I met a nice couple from Portland, Oregon—Angelica and Brandon. We soon found out we were headed to Fes on the same train and were actually staying at the same hotel. Since I was by myself, we kind of stuck together over the next few days.  

After an hour train delay, I finally made it to Fes, after midnight—in the rain. Oh, did I mention it was raining? It rained on the ferry ride over to Morocco, the whole day while at the train station, and continued to rain on and off for the next 3 days. Ugh. Luckily it didn’t rain too while I was exploring the city.

On our first day in Fes, we got a guided tour of the Medina—Old Town. The guide was a good thing or I would have gotten totally and utterly lost. And I have a good sense of direction. I have a feeling it would have failed me in the maze of alleyways that this city is known for. We saw a lot of different artisans working at their craft. One of the highlights was the tannery—where they make leather goods. We saw from a distance the process of making leather, from where they clean it to where they dye it. Let’s say the smell isn’t nice—a small reminder of the farms near where I grew up. The process includes cow urine and pigeon poop. I guess that’s how they get such soft leather. Good thing the smell goes away in the finished product. They use natural products for the different colors—saffron for yellow, indigo for blue, mint leaves for green, ect. I of course had to buy a cute small purse as a souvenir. In addition to the tannery, we saw a ton of mosques, went into rug, scarf, and pottery stores, and saw one of the oldest universities in the world.

I ate lots of Moroccan food—couscous, roti, tagine, and of course drank mint tea. That’s all they drink here. There wasn’t a drop of alcohol in sight. No bars, no liquor stores—nothing. Which was alright; Fes isn’t a city that you necessarily want to get tipsy and lost in at night.

As a Caucasian American, I definitely stood out. However I didn’t get hassled too much—good thing I don’t have blond hair. There was a prominence of men everywhere. You saw woman, but they were not in charge of any establishments, so I barely spoke to any of them. You don’t really see them socializing like the Moroccan men. A bunch of teahouses were only occupied by men. As an independent woman, I wanted to just sit down wherever I wanted. But I chose not to ruffle any feathers while I was there.

My short trip to Africa was nice. I wanted to go to the Sahara and see more of Morocco, but what I saw gave me a good flavor of the country—not necessarily the entire continent since it’s so vast, but definitely the country. I do want to go back and explore a bit more. But I also want to go to Egypt, South Africa, and other African countries… oh and countries in Southeast Asia and South America. Too many travel dreams. I’ll get back someday.

Now time to get to Portugal to go sky diving!