“Marhaba” means “welcome” in Arabic, so you can probably guess that this post is about my first experiences in Morocco.
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| Jennifer guarding our stuff in the terminal :) |
After 5 days in Granada, it was time to head to Morocco! We loaded the bus and started the drive to Algeciras, the southern Spanish port where we would get on a ferry to Tangier, Morocco. In case this was the last time I would see them, I bought a thing of Paprika (red pepper) flavored Pringles at the stop we made. I now know that they have these in Morocco too. If you ever see them, try them. They are quite yummy. Moving on, we arrived at Algeciras, unloaded all of our things, and proceeded to the terminal. Some form-filling, passport-stamping, and luggage-dragging later (both on the way to and on the boat), we found ourselves seated on the ferry and on our way. You should have seen us when we realized that the land we could see in front of us was Africa, was Morocco.
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| Africa |
Travel tip about crossing the Strait of Gibraltar: Since the water seemed calm, I decided to try it out without taking anything for seasickness and lucked out. I got a little dizzy inside, but if I stayed outside on the deck, I was fine. However, I have heard that conditions can be bad to the point of turning the smooth one hour ride into a miserable four hours, so if you get seasick, you might want to have something ready in case the conditions are not in your favor.
Anyway, when we got to the other side, we passed through more customs, noticing the picture of the king in the port and the women working there with hijaabs (veil/head covering) that matched their uniforms, while trying to semi-contain our excitement at finally being in Morocco. We loaded our new bus as the call to prayer rang out, and found ourselves in a bus with green shag carpet and psychedelic patterns on the ceiling. Turns out that is the ISA Morocco bus and we use it whenever we travel. Possible names we discussed: the Love Bus, the Magic Carpet, the Magic School Bus. About half an hour later we arrived in the actual city of Tangier, which is not in the same place as the port. We dropped our stuff off in the hotel, stopped at ATMs and currency exchange stores, walked around a little, and then had less than an hour to get dinner before our academic orientation back at the hotel.
We wandered around looking for Melwi, something that Daniel’s girlfriend, Cristina, recommended and that I have been eating most days for breakfast now, but could not find them at a place that would be fast enough. I was with Don and Nita, two other students from my program, and we saw some others eating in a pizza and shawarma place that was so small it barely had standing room. The other girls finished eating so we swapped in to where they had been standing and ordered food using a mixture of various languages and pointing at the menu, but still had hardly any room to eat. The man behind the counter directed us to go upstairs. We saw a tiny, winding, spiral staircase in the back that was practically a ladder and climbed up it to find ourselves in another small, full, low-ceilinged room. Since all the tables were taken and we had more room to stand up there, we started eating standing up. It was then that a woman holding a baby pulled the extra chair next to her out from behind the table and gave it to us before gesturing to others to do the same. Less than a minute later, we found ourselves with chairs, sitting in a small circle in the middle of the room. A family next to us then moved their stuff from the two tables it was on to one and gave us the other table. When the worker came up to bring someone their pizza, we expected him to be upset or at least annoyed, but he didn’t even react. All we could do was grin uncontrollably as we ate, and say “shukran” (thank you in Arabic) repeatedly to everyone in the room. I could not have asked for or even imagined a nicer welcome to Morocco :)
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| Banana-Nutella crepe and Moroccan mint tea |
But the welcome was not over since that was just our first night in Morocco and we weren’t even in our soon-to-be hometown of Meknes. That night I went to a café with a group of people and got a banana and Nutella crepe and mint tea, the Moroccan specialty! There was a slight peanut allergy glitch, but it was an otherwise good night. Before leaving Tangier the next day, we had a walking tour of the city. We learned that every traditional Arab neighborhood has 5 things: a mosque, a school, a well, a public bakery, and a hammam, a traditional public bathing place. Religion, education, water, food, and hygiene. What more do you need? We wandered through the medina, or old city, and then came to the meat and fish market. I had prepared myself for the sight of dead animals still mostly whole, but I had not prepared for the smell. Let’s just say I was grateful for all the practice I got not breathing through my nose during scuba certification. After some more shawarma for lunch, we loaded back onto the bus to head to Meknes!
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| ISA Meknes group in Tangier |
I don’t know about you, but when I thought about going to Africa and Morocco, I did not imagine rolling green hillsides. Well that’s what we drove through on our way from Tangier to Meknes. It was beautiful, especially when the sun set right before we got there. And then we were in Meknes, the bus pulling up next to one of the apartment buildings and Michelina and I pressing our noses up against the window of the bus to see our host mom and little brother waiting outside. We got out, all smiles, and met our host mom, Majda, and Mamoun, our host brother who is ten years old but will be turning eleven the day before I turn twenty-two. Before we knew it, they took us to the car to load up our stuff and drive what turned out to only be a couple blocks to our new home for the next three and a half months.
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| Sunset in Morocco |
