Rabat; Last Few Days in Tangier!

With my number of hours swiftly dwindling here in Morocco, I decided to head back to Rabat this weekend to hang out and visit my friend Mike (shout out!) who's studying there. I have only two full days left before flying back to Washington DC! Madness. I'm really sad to be leaving but also excited to get home, where I haven't been since March.

In Rabat, I didn't do a whole lot but hung out and walked around the beach and the Oudayas, which was great because I really needed a chill weekend before all these tests I have this week. I'm super jealous of where Mike is living (in the Oudayas! This is prime real estate...) in an awesome house 5 minutes from the beach and the terrace has a sweet view of basically all of Rabat + the ocean.

I mean, the Qasbah door is right across the street! Can't beat that.

Mike sitting in a niche by the Qasbah; you can sort of see Salé (or Sla in darija) in the background.

A gorgeous view of the Oudayas and the beach from the Northern jetty.

Me on the southern jetty with a view of the Qasbah, le tour Hassan, and Muhammad V's tomb all faintly visible in the background! 

Ra's al-Ma' (Head of the Water), Chefchaouen

After our hike on Saturday, we hung out at Ra's al-Ma', a small waterfall in the spring where women come to wash carpets and clothes early in the morning, and everyone else comes to cool off in the day, or hang out at night. It serves many functions and is a fun and interesting place at any time of the day. We hung out in the river for while and watched the guys who play soccer on the concrete platform above the waterfall. There's also water flowing over the man-made part which might be hard to see in the pictures. I was really intrigued by it which is why I took so many pictures and even a video... haha.

I also have a short video of them playing, but they are just juggling. They played real games on the water too, despite how small it was!

We also took quite a few pictures while we were hanging out in the river, but most of them are on other people's cameras, so hopefully I'll get a hold of those later when we all share our pictures.

Crazy guys who jumped off the bridge into this pool which is approximately 4 feet deep.... I have no idea how they didn't die.

Drinks in the "refrigerator," i.e. the cold river water.

Chefchaouen

This weekend we visited the gorgeous mountain city of Chefchaouen in Northeastern Morocco, which, like Asilah, is mainly painted in white and blue. The best part of the trip was our hike on Saturday morning; we got up at 6:30 and set out at 7am to beat the heat. Chefchaouen is also famous for its pure, cold springs where much of Morocco's water is bottled, but the river is also fun to hang out in as we did to cool off after the hike.

This shot is a view of the city of Chefchaouen, from just above the trailhead in the early morning.

The crew: Ashley, Mike, Nina, and Alissa. An awesome group to hike with!

From the top of the ridge, with Chefchaouen in the background. Alissa managed to take a pretty decent picture of me (usually I look terrible) despite being super hot and sweaty.

A rare 8-sided minaret at a mosque directly beside the Casbah, the main center of the city. I really liked the setup of the city because it is close to impossible to get lost, one of my major talents. All roads lead to the Casbah and people are very willing to give directions (because it's so easy!).

Ashley and I at a cafe by the Casbah. I'm drinking avocado juice, which is super common here and delicious! I'm going to have to try to reproduce it at home. 

Tetouan!

This weekend I did a homestay with two other girls in the program, Alissa and Nina, at Fatima's house, one of the speaking partners in the program. She lives in Tetouan which is about an hour away from Tanja by taksi kabeer (big taxi). I'll hopefully have time to update further with more info but for now I'll just put up a few nice pictures.

Left to Right: Nina, Alissa, Fatima in front of a nice house on the way to the beach. 

The qasr al-malaki (king's palace) in Tetouan. This is only part of it and he has many palaces around the country, not to mention his stylish headshots on bilboards everywhere. Muhammad VI is kind of awesome. Apparently Fatima saw him in his car Sunday (he spends a lot of time in Tetouan in the summer) but we missed him. 

This picture is exactly what it looks like: hundreds of colored tiny chicks running around in  boxes. They are adorable and children buy them, especially during Ramadan, for 1 dirham each (~8 cents). A bizarre but amazing sight!

A great picture of us and all the sisters plus a few cousins in their guest parlor. Moroccan homes are unbelievable! That's all I've got time for today but in sha' allah I'll be able to add more after my trip to Chefchaoun this weekend.

Volubilis/Walili, Fes

Finished my work early today and have time for another post! In the last one I didn't include any pictures of Volubilis, the Roman ruins near Meknes. They're kind of out in the middle of nowhere but they are also probably the most extensive, most intact ruins I've ever seen. Our guide was a bit wacky and gave us a tour in standard Arabic (not darija, hamdullilah!). He also thought we all spoke French which, well, we don't.

Dave and Bess in front of the ruins from afar.

Sumaya (one of our Arabic speaking partners) and I in front of the ruins up close.

I have a ton of great pictures from Fes because it is a gorgeous city, but I will just post one or two good ones here. While there are a lot of things to see in Fes, the biggest thing to do there is shop. I bought a few scarves for friends, a little Qur'an, and two Maghrebi cookbooks, one of which is about traditional desserts and the other which is all about chocolate. I'm really excited to try those out! I also got an Arabic copy of Kalila wa Dimna, a famous collection of Indian tales. Books here are SUPER cheap. I wanted a copy of Le Petit Prince in Arabic but it was 150 dh (~$15) which is way bizaf (too much) for Morocco. My other books were all under $2. 

Every monument the guide mentioned on our little tour on Saturday morning seems to have been built in the 14th century. However, Fes is a really really old city. The medina qadima (old city) dates to the 2nd century, while the medina jadida (new city--hilariously named) dates from the 8th century. Here's a shot of a famous madrasa built in the Middle Ages:

While there are plenty more awesome pictures of Fes to post later on, I'll have to restrain myself to putting just one other one here (I'm afraid the internets are starting to get angry at me...). 

The Blue Gate, with two minarets visible in the arch. This is the main entrance to the most densely packed bazaar in the city. I wish I had some pictures of the inner streets, but it's hard to get out the camera when you're trying to move along and be careful of the million and one donkeys we ran into transporting goods through tiny alleys. This is still a great shot :)

Volubilis, Fes, Meknes

This weekend we visited three awesome historic cities in central Morocco. Since we were inland quite a ways the weather was very hot, something like Palm Springs only with a harsh African sun. I drank a ton of water (but maybe still not enough since I got a bit sick?) and lots of sunscreen to stay alive. I ended up taking a lot of good pictures so there will be more this week, but I thought I'd start with a particularly nice one of an old bab (gate/door) in Meknes.

I also really liked the tomb of Moulay Isma'il but all those pictures are on my friend's camera because I didn't have mine at the time. Hopefully I'll be able to post at least one of those soon. Here's a picture of the outer courtyards of the tomb, which I really like because of the shadows:

 
That's all I've got for now -- back to work!

Asilah - The City of White & Blue

Since we had this weekend off, a group of friends and I went to Asilah, a city which is about an hour from Tanjah by train. We went Sunday morning and afternoon for the beginning of its annual art festival, during which artists come from all around Morocco to paint murals on the city's white walls.

Me in front of the beach at Asilah!

Another beautiful door to add to my collection of door pictures! They have posters here that are made up only of pictures of doors because there are so many gorgeous ones in Morocco :) This one is definitely one of the more intricately decorated I have seen. Most cities in Morocco which are in the old style (small, winding streets with high walls) are painted white or neutral colors with bright colors extending from the ground to about 3 to 5ft up the wall. In other cities like Rabat or the old medina in Tanjah, the range of colors is wide and changes depending on the street, block, house, or wall face, but in Asilah almost all the walls are a pure white with various shades of blue. The effect is certainly striking! My favorite part of this one is the man fishing in the crescent moon, which reminds me of the Dreamworks logo of all things.