I’m finally back in Salamanca after almost two full weeks of traveling and am here to catch you all up on my life!
In December before my going abroad I decided I would sign up for an optional excursion with ISA (International Studies Abroad, the program I’m with) to go with them on a trip to Morocco. I had been looking forward to it since then.
On March 31st I hopped on a 3 hour bus to Madrid. Once in Madrid and meeting up with other ISA students and directors I got on a 6 hour bus to Sevilla. We picked up more ISA students from Valencia, Bilbao and Barcelona and continued on to Algeciras, very southern most point in Spain, where we went through about 2 hours of security/waiting time and then boarded a 3 hour ferry to cross the Strait of Gibraltar to Tangier, Morocco (two new passport stamps included yay!!). From Tangier we got back on our bus for another 6 hours when we finally arrived in Fes. Yes people, it was approximately 20 hours in transit plus another 5 hours thrown in here and there for breaks and food stops. WHEW. I feel like I can handle anything now, aren’t ya proud Dad?
My friend, Claire, enjoying some churros in Sevilla at 4 AM.
After a hearty meal of various vegetables, cous cous and bread my roommate and I hit the hay in our hotel room. 8 AM came very early the next day as 60 something ISA students piled back on our two buses and got a tour of the city and headed to the medina. The medina is described by wikipedia as the ‘world’s largest contiguous car-free urban area’ aka it’s an area of Fes of over 9,400 streets and houses 30,000 people where inside you can find places to buy absolutely everything from rugs to slugs. I came out of the medina with a new pair of leather sandals from the largest tannery in Morocco– it smelled so bad in there that they gave us mint leaves to smell upon entering, three bottles of moroccan oil that is used to make your skin and hair silky smooth, smelling salts that supposedly help with allergies, snoring, hangovers (?), etc for my weirdo best friend who I know loves natural remedies :), a 45 spice mix and cumin for Dad and a hand of Fatima (also known as a hamsa, placed on doors in Morocco for protection) decorative hanger for Mom.
Slugs for sale! No, really.
Enjoying some mint tea while examining genuine Moroccan rugs
Silk shop. The hand of Fatima is the maroon looking silver-- sorry Mom I got ya a smaller version 🙂
Leather tannery in the medina
The next morning we packed up and headed out to the Sahara Desert! Unfortunately this meant another 8 hours on the bus. I know, I know my POOR life. We stopped for lunch at a cool place in the middle of nowhere that we had to walk fifteen minutes in the forest including jumping across streams and ducking under palm tree branches to get to. I was a happy, happy kid finally being amongst some green again! Once we got to the edge of the Sahara we got off the buses and were swarmed by Moroccan men trying to sell us scarves that could be worn as turbans. Although I already have more scarves than I know what to do with, what’s the harm in buying another, especially since it was only five euros and from Morocco, I mean c’mon. We frantically split into groups of six or seven and climbed into an old 4×4 land rover. We rode for about two hours into the sunset on sand to get to our camp.
ISA Salamanca in our 4x4 ready to go!
Once arriving we chose a tent and went to the main tent for dinner where we were greeted with mint tea and peanuts to munch on before dinner. My friends and I played a rowdy game of spoons while waiting for our dinner. I won. Just sayin’. As usual dinner consisted of chicken, cous cous, one large boiled carrot, boiled potatoes and a boiled zucchini with an orange and apple for desert. I settled into my cot and fell asleep to the sound of drumming coming from the main tent. The next morning we woke up early to see the sun rise. 5:45 early. Who am I again? One of the locals was right outside of our camp to guide us around the dunes until we found the perfect spot to watch the sun rise. Wow. Wow. WOW. What a beautiful sight. 1,000% worth waking up early. I can’t tell you how many times “I am the luckiest kid alive to be having this experience” went through my head as I sat surrounded my friends without a worry in the world watching one of the most amazing things I’ve ever witnessed.
The begining
Sporting my glasses in front of the Moroccan sunrise, ahhh life is good.
20 minutes later
Alright, pictures on my little canon powershot don’t do it justice, but you get the picture.
After breakfast we were rounded up by our directors to pick out a camel. Let me tell you- sitting on a camel as it gets up from the ground is one of the weirdest/funniest/scariest things ever. We rode about two hours on camel to a small village with only a few buildings built of straw and mud where we were toured through yet another rug store. It was unclear whether we were riding camels back to camp or walking, shortly we were herded by Muhammad, our 26 year old guide in the direction back to camp. Twenty minutes in questions of “are the camels coming back?” “where are the 4x4s?” “hang on are we really walking the whole way back?” started flying around. Yep, we were walking. The temperature rose and I was loving every second of the sun beating down on my shoulders. I tried to ignore the debby downers and enjoy walking home speaking broken English/Spanish/ learning some Arabic from Muhammad, seeing the occasional 7 year old boy trying to sell us a fossil or necklace. Two hours of walking later we got back to camp, had lunch and took a quick siesta.
Hangin with my main man, Bruce.
I'm riding a camel! In the Sahara Desert!
Our afternoon consisted of racing the local children up sand dunes, watching them do front flips off of the dunes and being dragged down face first on the dunes. Hence the sand that I’m still finding in my clothes and occasionally chewing on. Muhammad, our new friend and leader walked up to us and said “let’s go! I’ll show you Algeria.” My three girlfriends and I followed as Muhammad pointed out where the Algerian boarder is. We hiked up some dunes, played in the sand and were shown how to make our turbans fly in the wind sort of like kites. Muhammad could speak bits and pieces of 7 languages, like most of the locals. While on our afternoon dune walk (NOT as easy as it sounds by the way) I thought about how different my life is from Muhammad’s is. At one point someone asked him how many minutes we were away from camp. He answered with “I don’t know. I have never thought of time, when I get there I get there.” He told us that his family has a moped and someone asked “Well what happens if you get in an accident? Where do you go?” “There’s one doctor in the village” he replied. So. Different. I have basically anything I want at my disposal. Not so much when you live an hour and a half away from any real paved roads.
Holy cow! Check out that flip!
Photo captured by Polly
Muhammad letting his turban fly in the desert winds
Teaching my new friend the 'hand slap' game
That night I went to bed with a full stomach again listening to drums as I drifted off. I got up again early to watch the sun rise, had breakfast and we were on our way. Back in the land rovers and on the bus up to the city of Meknes. We were there to spend the night and started the long journey home the next morning at 7 AM. I was happy to get to Madrid at about 7 AM twenty four hours later where I met my grandmother and great aunt, but that’s for another blog post!!
I’m so lucky to have gone on this trip. I really appreciate you Mom and Dad for funding it and I can’t wait to share the goodies I bought for you when I see you (in two months exactly!!!!!!!!!). I hope you all enjoy the pictures and sorry about the lengthy post! Hard to put this trip into words, so there was my best effort.
lilyinspain 