We woke up very early to get to the border, so we didn’t have to wait. Breakfast was GREAT and definetly made up for the terrible dinner the night before. We had a lot of treats and pastries, wonderful orange juice, and very good café au lait. We took a short bus ride and said bye to Fadoua at the last part of the border. We literally just handed in our passports, got them back, and just walked across. It was very relaxed, and I think that they put us into lines of two (Noah’s arc style) to make fun of us/ they wanted to seem like it was official, but it totally wasn’t. Once we crossed the border, another bus picked us up and brought us to the McDonalds. It was like 9 am on a Friday, so a lot of things were closed & the city was sleeeepppinnnng. We were given 15 Euros and were told to meet back at 12:15 to do a bus tour. WHY wasn’t the bus tour before our exploration time, I have no idea. Anyway, we were left to our own devices, and we were pretty confused / just started to wander.
Ceuta was totally different. The people looked great, and were very refreshing. Notable things- RECYCLING BINS. I saw a lot of arms and muscles- also a lot of peeps in work out gear. I should have brought my sneaks and popped into a gym… It was also refreshing to smell perfumed people, which sounds weird, but it was. I think a lot of Moroccans don’t use perfume the same way we do- not like they smell bad, but they do not smell GOOD, they smell like nothing, you know? Anyway …We went to a shop that was pretty cute. The prices were SO low, and we realized that 15 euro was going to get us faaar here. I almost bought a sun hat, but then decided not to- regretting that decision right now, it was very cute. It was a good mix of OLD AND NEW in terms of architecture. We walked around a lot, and didn’t really see anything noticeable. We got to the main square thing and bumped into some friends at a café kind of thing. We kept walking and were finally definitely in the main part of town. We saw some garden that was nice, and a lot of statues. We met friends at a café and had a drink for 2.50 euro...
I really wasn’t hungry, but we had to meet up with the rest of the group soon. We decided to go to the grocery store quickly and get some stuff à porter (to-go). We all kind of split our purchases which amounted to- three packages of sliced meat (salami, salami, and prosciutto) two packages of cheese (“cheddar”—American, and another type that I forget), I got a pear, Sara got chips, we split peanut m&ms and we got two little (bigger than juice) boxes of wine (.95 euro each- irresistible). I think we might have gotten some more stuff, but I forget now. We were late to the bus (duh), but it wasn’t my fault this time. Sydney and Sara wanted ice cream, so we got them some from the street. They started to eat it on the way, but then when we got to the bus the bus driver said they couldn’t take it on lol. I told them to smuggle it somehow and they did. A big chocolate mess! We ate our lunch on the bus. The prosciutto was BOMB, but made me miss Nicole and Abbey House snack time. The cheese was terrible- I couldn’t even eat it… I luv America, but hate American cheese! I did not pay attention to one word of the bus tour. It was stupid, and the guy had a funny accent. I remember hearing something about Hercules, but that is literally all I can remember. We stopped off at a look-out point, and looked out. (The main pic of this post is of the look-out spot). Then it was time to go back to Morocco.. wah wah! Being in Ceuta made me decide that I am definitely going to go to Spain with my mom when she visits. So necessary.
We drove back to the border and crossed it in a similar fashion to how we came over. NBD. Fadoua said they couldn’t drive us to Tangier, and she got taxis for us. That was not wise because way more than half of our group was going to Tanga, and we could have gotten there in the time that it took for her to arrange the taxis. Six of us (Sara, Sydney, Charlie, Simone, Karin & me) got into a grand taxi. These are four person cars, but they squeeze other people in. It was pretty uncomfortable, but a nice scenic drive. Sara said that it was just like California five minutes after I had that thought in my head. Finally made it to Tangier. Chantal got us a really great deal on a very nice hotel, so I was happy. We also got a better room out of them all (with a refridge, so our salami didn’t go bad, and our wine was cold!). We sat for a little and rested, and then we went out to explore. Not a lot to say about Tangier. It is similar to Casablanca on the exciting and cleanliness scales (not exciting, and kinda grimy), but it is supposed to be a great place to get silver. We walked around, but didn’t buy anything. We went into a silver place that had a trick ring thing, and I spent a good 20 mins trying to figure it out, but I couldn’t! I was going to buy it until he told me it was 300 dirham… ya rite. We found our way back to the hotel with ease and I took an AMAZING shower. I could have stayed in there for the rest of the semester. Then we decided to go to an Indian restaurant for dinner. Here comes a story….
Karin felt sick, so it was just Charley, Simone, Sydney, Sara and me. We asked the bell boy where this restaurant was and he told us. Had a little trouble getting there. We came to this strip of CLUBS on the beach. Like club after club after club after club. It was so weird, and I really don’t think that they would all be filled if every single Moroccan in this country went out. None of them were the restaurant we were looking for, but apparently it was on that strip. I was hungry & grumpy, but I was just trying to go with the flow. Sydney finally found it miraculously. I have NO idea how she did because the name of it was written in the TINIEST letters (I couldn’t even see it with my squinty face) on this sign that was like random and not in front of the restaurant. There was a bouncer (??) to get in, but we got in easily (duh) haha. It was empty, and a dance club. We were very confused. (I am laughing out loud as I am typing this story by the way). We asked someone who worked there if this was a restaurant, and they said yes (it was- because there was a different section apart from the club). So they said it was an restaurant, but the chef wasn’t there…? We asked where else we could get Indian food, and they said “Oh! You want Indian food???!?! I will call my friend”. Should have taken that as a bad sign… Basically they called this Indian man to come and cook for us. It was so funny. He also “didn’t have” half of the things that we wanted to order. So we all got chicken tikka masalas, and started to wait. I was like a crazy monster-so hungry. I don’t know if I said a single word at the dinner table. Someone who worked at the restaurant came in with like grocery bags a half hour after we ordered and brought them to the kitchen… I rolled my eyes- terrible sign. We probably waited in reality an hour and fifteen minutes, but it felt like six. At the one hour mark, the waiter started to say “one minute, one minute” every three minutes. The fifth time he said that I became mean, and asked if it was REALLY going to be one more minute, or is it more like 15 because he had been saying that for the past 10 minutes. My friends were happy that I took charge because they said that they wanted to but would never. It was insane, totally insane. FINALLY the food came and I wasn’t even hungry anymore (pretty sure my stomach ate itself). It was delicious tho, and worth the wait (I guess….). After dinner I became a zombie and just wanted to sleeeeeeep. We took petit taxis back to the hotel. Our other friends were getting ready to go out- yea right- but we sat with them for a little, then went to bed.
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