Africa is My Favorite Part of Spain

You know it´s going to be a good trip when you start things off by crossing the Straight of Gilbralter. Along with my roomate McKenzie, friends Lindsay and Codey, and tag-along Marcos, I hit African soil about 5:00 Moroccan time Friday afternoon. Our tour guide "Micheal Douglas" (his Arabic name is too difficult to pronounce) met us across the boarder and offered a strictly educational tour of the northern cities Tetuan, Tánger, and Chef-Chaouèn. The entire weekend was spent weaving through 1000-year-old Medinas that have maintained their old world culture through the century. It is interesting to enter a Medina because the modern cities are built around them and suddenly, in the center of town, you come to an old stone wall with a samll entrance.When you enter the old city you feel like you just walked into a national geographic magazine. Hundreds of small stone streets form labrynths of houses, markets, mosques, and chaos. The first thing we learned for our survival was the term "baroc" which, if heard, means move to the side of the street because a donkey, sheep, goat or the like is coming through (no vehicles can fit in the streets of the Medinas so traveling around is limited to man -or animal- power). We had police escorts through the medinas and several guides to keep track of us (one in front, one in the middle, and one at the end of the group). After the first 60 seconds in the medina I understood why. If ever a tourist got lost he would be lost the rest of his days. There would be no finding ones way out and the locals are more interested in keeping you lost and stealing your money than they are in helping you home. Besides that the language gap is segnificant. English or Spanish can be left uselessly behind upon entering the border. Though Morocco is just a bus and a boat ride away from Spain, it is a completely cultural antithesis to Europe. The Muslim way of life still persists and, though it is considered a modern arabic country, it maintains the traditional feel of Arabic regime. We even had to change money... again... which made for confusing bargaining battles: I had to figure from Durhams to Euros to Dollars and then start hagalling all over again in harsh tones when a shopkeeper refused my price. Wondering what Morocco and it´s Medinas are like? Just picture Aladin, the land of magic carpets, and genie bottles then you´ll have it.

Another cool place in Morocco is the point at which the Atlantic and Mediterranean Oceans meet. I couldn´t believe my eyes but you can actually see the two bodies of water coliding! Pretty amazing stuff. We had a wonderful group and made good friends with a cute little Austrian couple who are studying Spanish in Malaga. It is so amazing to me that most Europeans can speak several differnt languages. In the course of two minutes our tour guide spoke English and Spanish to us, answered his phone in French, and chased some hagglers off in Arabic (he also speaks Swahili and a few other lenguas I can´t pronounce). Another girl on our trip easily conversed in seven languages!!! I was the only mono-lingustic person on the tour. Why America why?!? I feel a little short changed by my educational system. By the time these people are in grade school they have three languages down pact. Back to Morocco: Chef-Chaouèn was the most beautiful city I have seen in my life. It may as well be 10 AD when you enter this town. Every structure is painted a mute blue (for love) and white (for peace). Water is brought from the mountains by a series of small canals, and every morning villagers from the mountains come down to sale their crops and handicraft. They wear traditional ropas and do their laudry by foot in a communal bath. It was amazing. And just when I thought I had seen it all some crazy guy tried to kill us by dropping a toilet down four stories from a window into a cafè plaza! Esta muy loco. I managed to eat some unidentifiable cuisine (so far I´m the only one that hasn´t gotten severly sick) and come home with some cool souveniers (yes, I bought a magic carpet). It´s funny, the guidebook said that Northern Morocco was a waste of time compared to the Southern end. If that´s true, I can´t even imagine what Merekesh or Casablanca would be like. Incidentally the book also said to expect Montezumas revenge and, when you DO get it, not to worry, everyone does... I attribute my stomach of steel to years of building up my consuming skills with hearty meals... 13 months eating New York street food couldn´t have hurt either. The trip was wonderful and I can´t imagine ever doing it without a top notch guide like Micheal Douglas (it just wouldn´t be possible without some sort of tour). What´s more, I have now stepped foot on the African Continent!!! That makes 4 down, 3 to go. Isak Dennison would be proud. More pictures to come....

Love, the African Queen



Check out the tour I went on at: http://www.studytravel-spain.com/
It has a pretty cool image gallery