Viva España : Continent hopping! Part 1

Well, Europe was getting a little bland so we hopped on a ferry to Africa!

Alright, so none of that is true. Europe is still cool, but we did take a weekend excursion to Morocco. We went with a student travel agency called Discover Excursions, and they did an awesome job with it! Our food was included and everything, and we toured 4 towns in Morocco.
Our hotel was located in Tetuoen, a small town with not much goin' on. People drive with goats in the backseat, donkeys cross the intersections, all standard activities. We couldn't drink the water though because our stomachs would get sick from the minerals, so we had to buy all of our water. The hotel was so so nice though, and the restaurant attached was awesome too. The waiters were a hoot, and loved us! I got to practice the minimal amount of Arabic that I knew too, and it was great to not have to worry about them serving pork at all! There were three of us in our room, and one king sized bed. Surprisingly, there was plenty of room! Here is a view of the sunrise from our room:

Our first stop the next morning were the Er Rift mountains, where 75% of the world's hash (a form of marijuana) is grown. Fun fact. Other than that, it was a gorgeous landscape and very peaceful. I've seen so many mountains since I got to Spain! And to think, I hadn't seen any before! Also, check out the donkey or horse just casually grazing below.

After a brief photo shoot in the mountains, we headed to Chefchaouen. It is a small a town in the north west and really brings you back to the basics. The town was established because of its access to water, and directly translates to, "two horns" in Arabic. The horns are the mountains it lies between.

Since there is no running water, the women wash the clothes down at the river, by hand. The bathrooms are pre-dug holes in the ground.

There aren't ovens in the houses, instead, they bring the dough to the public baker, who puts it in the community oven and you come back to fetch it once it is done.

It is a law that each family own at least one animal. It is usually a sheep or a goat, and it was hilarious to see them parading through the market places. However, they didn't treat them very well, sometimes I felt bad for the animals.

In the market, people sold anything and everything. We had to haggle with them, and could usually bring the prices down quite substantially. However, I did feel bad that they DID make these things by hand and here I am trying to lower the price telling them its not worth it. Some of the shops even had a loom inside them, but many rented a community loom to weave. There were also a ton of leather products, but camel leather.

The architecture of the city was the most amazing part. It is called, "the blue city," because the towns people have painted everything blue. They chose blue because it is the color that the mosquitoes are least attracted too and still light enough that it doesn't attract the sunlight.

So pretty! As you can see, it doesn't matter which shade of blue, as long as it's in the blue realm. And the decoration they put into the doors is great too! The stacked up benches below are made of wood and decorated, you take your own blanket or rug and put it over as the seat cushion.