Morocco
Last weekend we traveled to Morocco. From the Tarifa port into Tangier on a ferry, then bused from Tangier to Meknes, Fes, and back to Tangier. The first day we got in a bus at 515 am to make an 11am ferry out of Tarifa. Blegh, I did not know I was going to be so sea sick. Didn't puke thank got but I was happy to get off of that ferry. We had lunch in a resturant deemed "safe" by our guide then spent the rest of the day driving to Meknes with a few stops to look at the coast and ride camels (I didn't feel like it at the time), By 10pm (yes it took that long) we were eating dinner in our hotel in Meknes. The next day we did a tour of an ancient granary and got to see the outside of the old royal stables. We also got to go into a mosque and have tea in the streets of Meknes. Walking around
I could see a TON of ramparts and cannons. Our guide told us that this is because Morocco being so close to the close was constantly being conquered by other countries so many wars were waged on the shores. I thought that was kind of interesting. In places you could see pocs in the cliffs from cannons. After lunch in another resturant we were already on our way to Fes and we got there late evening.
Once again we had dinner in the hotel and were not allowed to leave the hotel without the tour guide. The people are particularly pushy in Morocco and will hassel anyone who looks like they have money. Its sad to see so much poverty in a country that has such a rich and ancient culture, but war is expensive and most of the old money went to that. In Fes I did a lot of shopping. We didn't really get to see any really touristy things, but we did see a scarf factory, the markets and a rug factory. Before our trip we were told to be careful (as women) with what we said and did and wore in Morocco. Although a lot has changed in women's rights in the last decade a lot still has not changed. At one point we went into a traditional shop for Moroccan clothing. Our directer has been taking students there for years and has never had a problem. I wanted to buy a belly dancing outfit for halloween in the states and one of the shop keepers offered to help me find them. I'm not going to tell you in complete detail here what happened, but I'll tell you it did end with me getting very angry, upset, and telling him that I would remove some of his body parts if he didn't stop trying to touch me. Believe me, if you were there and you saw what happened you would have done the same thing. Islmaic law in Morocco still states that if a woman lays a hand on a man she goes to jail, regardless of the situation. I don't think people understand just how scary it is to think that if you defend yourself, you will be thrown in jail. Women's rights in Morocco have a long way to go. I'll get off my soap box now. Anyways, we also went to a tannery (really smelly) and I now have a camel skin purse that smells like poop and I can't air it out. We ate dinner in the hotel again, spent a little time the next day in Fes before driving back to Tangier so we could make out ferry on Monday morning.
I wish I had more interesting things to tell you but 90% of my trip was on a bus, or being harassed by the locals. On a funier note I kept getting hit on by people saying "NICE COLOR!" and one really strange man kept asking us if we wanted to "African banana jiggy jiggy" which sounds funny but was probably disgusting. Anyways, if you want to know more you can always message me. I'm posting the link for all the picture below, knock yourself out.
Pictures Here
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