Morocco (10/21/22-1-/23/22)
I can now say I have been to the continent of Africa and that I have visited three cities in Morocco. Each city more beautiful than the last, Tangier, Tetuan, and Chefchaouen. We started off our journey to Morocco taking a bus very early Friday morning from Granada to Tarifa which was around a four-hour bus ride with a thirty-minute break in between at a rest stop. The rest stops in Spain are a different level of nice compared to the US I will say. After we arrived to Tarifa in the afternoon we went through customs and took a ferry from Tarifa, Spain to Tangier, Morocco which lasted around an hour. We then met our tour guide for the entirety of the trip a native Moroccan who grew up in Chefchaouen, a city famous for its blue walls and one of the cities we visited. We walked around the city of Tangier and learned about the Moroccan culture and historical significance of some buildings.
There were two pieces of knowledge told to us that I found interesting. The first being that doors to houses in Morocco have a sigil on each of the doors at the top right and each sigil represents the families’ origins or connections. A few of these sigils included the pomegranate which represents Granada, and a horseshoe represents Sevilla another city in Andalusia. The north of Morocco specifically has strong connections with southern Spain. The second piece of information that I found interesting was that in Arabic or at least in Morocco the family name shows what the families craft is, for example carpentry or metal working.
After we received a tour of Tangier, we rode camels on the beach and went to our hotel in Tetuan and ate dinner and relaxed for the night. Saturday, we started our day eating breakfast at the hotel. Breakfast in Morocco at the hotel was a buffet style but instead of traditional American foods like eggs, sausage, bacon, pancakes, etc… it was pastries, breads, a spread similar to cream cheese, olive oil, and a few more items. After we received a tour of Tetuan from our guide and headed to Chefchaouen.
Chefchaouen is a city that you see photos online and think to yourself it has to be edited right? Well….Chefchaouen is just as blue in real life. It turns out the city is painted blue three times a year. The city is located in the mountains and to access the city you also get a beautiful sightseeing journey of the countryside. We received a tour when we arrived and then and we had a wonderful surprise for lunch. We were put into groups and were eating lunch with a local family, students from the city. The student I was put with was a very generous host and it was a wonderful experience to be welcomed into his home. Moroccan food is delicious and some of the most flavorful food I have tried. The students mother cooked us a meal and we sat around and talked for a while. I had the opportunity to learn more about the Moroccan culture, the student, and vice versa. After lunch we said our goodbyes to the student and shopped until we regrouped. After we regrouped, we watched a concert put on by a band who played Andalusian and Arabe music. Then we enjoyed another Moroccan meal and headed back to Tetuan. The next was spent traveling back to Spain.
I think in my blogs it’s also important to talk about the culture shock aspect and the not so beautiful parts. Overall, my experience in Morocco was very positive and I would recommend visiting it to anyone if they have the opportunity. I think having an experienced tour guide and a group to go with is important though especially with the language barrier. The signs were in French and Arabic with those also being the primarily spoken languages. The students we were with however spoke incredible English. Even though I have traveled to seven countries not including Morocco and they have been spread out across the globe it was a culture shock to go to a Muslim country even considering the Spanish and French influences. There were areas of Morocco that would be considered the equivalent of the slums and the level of sanitation is a different level. It can be a jolting experience to see poverty if you have never been exposed to it before and it certainly makes you reflect on a lot of things. I wouldn’t categorize this as a culture shock either because that would imply it’s unique to that culture, instead poverty is poverty no matter where you are. It’s important to note you don’t even have to leave to leave the country necessarily to see poverty because we can find it within the US in so many areas. However, one of the major cultural differences I did note is picking up certain foods on a shared public platter with the hands which we wouldn’t typically do in the US or Spain. In addition, it is quite common to hear prayers echoing from the mosques as you walk throughout the city and the call to prayer five times a day.
This experience is one of those moments that continued to make me realize just how big the world is and really demonstrated the fact that multiple cultures exist outside of the US that are completely different. I feel as though this journey opened another door that I have barely scratched the surface. Culture shocks are to be expected and every time I have one it demonstrates just how much more I have to learn, and I welcome each and every one because it’s an opportunity to learn. Going outside of my comfort zone has only revealed more to me about what I value, my thoughts and behavior, and areas I want to learn more about.