Week 7 in Sevilla
Entry 8
The Week
I still felt a bit lousy for the first half of the week which was not ideal as I had my first midterm and midterm prep in my other classes. I had tutoring with my kids as usual and nothing else during the week itself as I was trying to recover/get homework done/pack before my weekend trip.
The Weekend
Friday
This weekend I was in Morocco from Friday to Sunday, so yay! New country and new continent! Isabel and I booked the trip with a company because that seemed like the safest option and most comforting for my mom, and it also made the trip very easy and stress free. It also ended up being a group of all girls which was kind of a funny coincidence, with the only guys being our bus driver and guide. The bus picked us up in Sevilla and drove us to Gibraltar, where we took the ferry to Ceuta in Africa. I was not expecting the ferry to be as large as it was or feel so little like a boat, it was like being on a gigantic airplane. The ferry ride itself was about an hour which felt so weird because I knew Africa and Spain were close, but you don't really think about how close until you cross the ocean between them in an hour and a half. We arrived in Ceuta which is pretty cool because it is actually one of two Spanish cities in Africa, so I was in Africa but also still Spain.
From there, the company bus took us across the border into Morocco. We drove by some gorgeous views of the mountains and oceans and the bus stopped at a couple different spots. First, we stopped at a beach for a sunset camel ride. The camels were very cute, and I got to pet them which was great because I am in a constant state of dog withdrawal and camels are close enough. We also pulled over at a lookout point a bit further down the beach with more amazing views where you could see both the Mediterranean and Atlantic Ocean. We stopped shortly in the old section of the city of Tétouan, where our hotel was also located, to walk around a bit and some girls tried the mint tea which Morocco is known for. After that we went to the hotel which was just in time because the entire group was oddly exhausted (something about bus travel just makes you so tired). The hotel is also where we had dinner (see food section!) and then very quickly after ran to shower off the camel smell and went to sleep.
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| Me! on a camel, petting another camel that liked me |
Saturday
On Saturday we had breakfast at the hotel and then drove to Chefchaouen, aka the Blue City. We had a Spanish guide for our whole trip, a Moroccan guide from when we crossed over the Moroccan border to until we crossed back into Ceuta, and then a different local met us specifically for the Blue City tour. The bus had to drop us off just outside of the city because the streets are too small for medium/large vehicles. There were a bunch of dogs outside the main city area, and they walked with us all the way into the Blue City, it was adorable, and I was ecstatic to get to pet so many sweet babies. There were some dogs in the city itself, but much more cats than anything else. The animals seemed to be treated as community pets and were all well fed for the most part and most businesses had water/food bowls for them and the cats would wander in and out of storefronts.
The guide walked us through the streets and took us to a shop where they make fabric products like rugs, blankets, scarves, tablecloths, etc. and explained how long different products take to weave and which products were made by men versus which required more detail and thus were made by the women. We also were able to watch them use the loom and then explore their store a bit which was really interesting. After that the guide brought us back to our meeting point in the Blue City, which was a different hotel where we had lunch. The group splintered off into a few smaller groups depending on when you finished lunch because we had free time to explore the surrounding streets once we finished eating. Everyone stayed pretty close to the hotel for fear of getting lost and because it was raining on and off for most of the day so staying close to possible shelter seemed like a good idea.
After the Blue City, we were brought back to the hotel for a little break before dinner and a show. The dinner consisted of four courses and a little cookie with mint tea for dessert while performers played instruments, sang, and danced. It was all supposed to be a taste of traditional foods and music and was super fun but definitely a tourist stop, a great time, nonetheless. Towards the end of the meal, the dancers pulled the group up from the tables to dance which I was unaware was going to be happening and so of course, I was the first person to get pulled up. A small moment of panic but I got to wear the dancer's hat since I was forced up first and then everyone else joined not too long after.
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| I don't actually have any other photos from the dinner as I was eating and then dancing |
Sunday
Sunday morning started with breakfast at the hotel again and then we walked around the city a bit; through the Jewish quarter, by the Royal Palace of Tétouan, and to the Berber pharmacy. The Berber Pharmacy is well known for its medicinal and beauty products based in argan oil, minerals, spices, and herbs and an employee there gave us a mini tour where he explained the processes to make some of the products and what locals use them for and why. It was an interesting little mini tour and there were cats inside the storefront area so that was cute.
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| Berber Pharmacy shop/presentation area |
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| 3 floor textile shop, the owner let us go up to the roof |
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| Me! and the view from the roof |
Food
To start off the food section, let me calm all worries: yes, I had ice cream this week! I bought a chocolate and berry something Magnum bar at the first rest stop we paused at because I have my priorities straight. Pretty much every meal this weekend was new as I didn't have any meals at home except dinner Sunday night (I'll get to that in a moment). At the hotel we stayed in, I tried a traditional soup that I didn't figure out the name of but it is a light way to start supper as we were visiting during Ramadan so it was meant for breaking the fast, and is just the first course which was followed by pasta, chicken, and potatoes for dinner on night 1, and a flan for dessert. All of it was good, the flan was a 9/10 because it was super creamy but there was nuts in it which caught me off guard and supremely offended the Spanish girl that I was eating with. I had breakfast at the hotel on Saturday and Sunday and it was more or less a pastry buffet, with the addition of some boiled eggs and cucumber/tomato which seems to be the breakfast fruits for both Spain and Morocco. I tried pretty much every bread item available and then went for seconds of anything that had chocolate and drank a mint tea (10/10, so good) or the fresh orange juice (also 10/10, I hate orange juice like Tropicana, but fresh juice is so good), and of course an egg because I should probably have some protein with my eight pastries, and the fruit mix.
not that exciting but here was my first round at the buffet, the pastry to the far right was a 10/10 and I ate two at breakfast and then packed one in napkins to eat with lunch
At the hotel in the Blue city, I tried a bit of everything except the fish because I'm not brave enough for that yet. It was all good except the beet cube that I tried, had never had a beet before, it's not worth trying. They had flan or coffee mousse for dessert, I tried both, mostly because I thought the coffee mousse was chocolate ice cream, so an initial disappointment but actually very good, 8/10, flan was a 3/10.
At the dinner and a show, the first course was another variation of that light soup to break a fast and a bowl of bread that we (I) demolished, and we asked for a second bowl. The second course was a vegetable/salad tray where I tried a bit of everything including some cooked eggplant which was a mystery when I tried it as the table couldn't immediately figure out what the brown mush was. A few of the girls called me and Isabel adventurous which I thought was quite funny as I am notoriously non-adventurous in general, but particularly with food, so I guess yay for personal growth and trying to get your money's worth out of everything! The third dish was a platter of small meatballs which were pretty good, and the fourth course was couscous with vegetables and chicken on top and you had to sort of dig under the vegetables to find the chicken. I had also never tried couscous so it was a lot of small new things but I enjoyed it, and the chicken was amazing. For dessert, we were served mint tea and a biscuit type of cookie that the server described as "una locura" which is something crazy good, like unbelievably so, but it was actually just a very dry and somewhat flavorless cookie. A bit difficult to eat if you didn't drink your tea with it but that is how it was supposed to be eaten anyway; 5/10.
Lunch on Sunday was packed by the hotel and we ate it while waiting for our ferry; it consisted of two small sandwiches (one spam like with cheese and the other chicken with some kind of semi-spicy sauce that was way better than the spamish one), and some fruit past its prime that I declined to eat (and my smuggled pastry). I also wanted a snack for the ferry and found something similar to Brookside chocolates and immediately bought them, no regrets, I will continue adding to my candy stash.
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