Morocco!

I woke up bright and early on Saturday morning to leave for Tarifa (known as the Hawaii of Spain) ... I went out the night before and just before going home I had a hamburger from a street stand. Not a good idea. The weekend started off poorly. I found myself on a 3 hour bus ride with food poisoning, and I definitely paid for it. After we arrived and found our Hostal... and a Farmacia... I started feeling a little better. Ali and I went on the early bus, and everyone else came on the 3 o’clock bus. (Hunter, Christine, Candice, Mike, Michelle, Amanda, and Sara)... We went down to the beach and watched all of the Kite-Surfers. It was really cool. I have never seen that up close. It really looked like a lot of fun. There were a ton of billabong and hurley shops all along the streets. It really felt like Hawaiian atmosphere. We went into a lot of the shops and stuff and looked around. Once everyone else got there we went to the Surf Kebab place and got a Kebab Pita. It was so good... I love the kebab places. That night we didn’t do much. I wasn’t sure if I was going to get to keep my dinner for too long. Haha. We ended up just hanging out and hitting the sack fairly early. That night I ran a little bit of a fever.... from the food poisoning. Just my luck.

We all got up early the next morning and bought a fairy ticket to the town of Tanger in Morocco, Africa. The boat that we went over on can hold 500 people and up to 40 vehicles. It was huge. When we arrived we met up with a man that was going to give us a tour. We all hopped into this Mercedes van and he took us all through the town and our first destination was to see some camels. I got to ride a camel! It was so weird... something I will probably never get the chance to do again. It is crazy because the camel gets down on all fours so you can get on its back and then stands back up.

Next we went through the city some more and saw a fruit and veggie market. The diverse culture was very picturesque for us. I took a lot of pictures hoping I would never forget seeing the things I saw while in Morocco. We had all been forewarned about safety issues while in Africa... so we all stuck together and made sure everything was stellar. We had lunch at a really nice Moroccan Restaurant. I got to try Cous Cous... and a beef kebab, and mint leaf tea. It was a really good meal. I was impressed with the place. There was a Moroccan band playing throughout our meal. Very impressive. The culture there is so amazing. Although a lot of the area lives amongst poverty and such... they really make and grow things themselves sufficiently. They are known for their pottery and hand stitched rugs and throw blankets.
After that we went to a lot of the Moroccan markets. I bought some Moroccan drums. They are so awesome. (I have no idea how to get them back to The States... but I guess we’ll see) Some of the other people bought some cool rugs, wood carved boxes, clothes, silver daggers, more drums, and jewelry. Some things were cheap... some of the things weren’t so cheap (especially the hand stitched rugs... they were truly amazing looking)

In the streets we were bombarded with people trying to sell us things. It was so crazy. All the kids kept coming up asking us for money. As much as someone might want to stop and give a kid some money.... you know better because it is easier for someone to steal your money or you have 10 other kids come up and ask for some as well. Our tour guide kept a lot of the people in check. If someone was bothering us he would help us tell them to leave. I honestly never felt like I was in danger. I am glad that we had a tour guide... but I don’t think it is as bad as people make it to be.

At the end of the evening we went back to the fairy and went back to Tarifa. I took with me some really cool purchases and a completely new perspective on life, and diversity that National Geographics cannot offer.

When we got back we grabbed something to eat and rested for a bit. It was Halloween night, and we saw a couple of kids running around with costumes ... but it’s not really celebrated as much here. That night we went to a place to get some food and a couple of drinks, and then went to a bar where it was decorated and the bartenders were dressed up for Halloween. It was pretty cool to see all of this going on! It made me think about home a lot.
We got up the next morning and caught the bus back to Sevilla. I am so glad that I got the opportunity to go to Africa. What an amazing weekend!

(Check out the new albums TARIFA and MOROCCO AFRICA! Those two albums have pictures from this weekend!) http://photobucket.com/albums/v461/brandon5/