My "spring break" (better known as "Semana Santa" in these parts) started immediately after school let out at 2:00pm on Thursday. Like in the movies, I was that teacher that as soon as the dismissal bell rang, I was leaving the school before most of the students. To be fair, I had a bus to catch. And still recovering from a god-awful stomach virus, I was unable to surpass the speed of a snail. So really I mosied out of school and then mosied home. I should mention that this was my first day out of the house since being sick and the weather had did a 100 degree turn around from being cold and rainy to sunny and 80. And trying to be as Spanish as possible, I avoided my normal clothes of a dress and sandals for this type of weather and was instead wearing jeans, a tshirt, and shoes making it a tad bit hot. The one thing I don't like about Spain nor will I ever understand is how they are all wearing their sweaters still in this hot/beautiful weather. I just want to wear flip flops dammit.
Sorry I digressed.... After arriving back at my apartment, I forced myself to eat lunch which consisted of a tiny piece of bread. And then I ventured off with my suitcase for the bus station. I made it to the bus station feeling like I had just run a marathon. I don't recommend getting sick before traveling-- it makes things really difficult. I took the bus to Cordoba and then successfully made it to my train on time. Before I knew it, I was in Sevilla where the weather was sunny and 90. I had about enough walking for the day and graciously accepted a taxi to the hostel. The hostel I stayed at was called La Banda and it's right in the heart of Sevilla. If you turn left out of the building you are at the famous Catedral and if you turn right, you'll find yourself looking across the river into Triana. I chose to reside in a eight person dorm room. Upon arriving I had the place to myself. I soon found myself bored and decided that it would probably be good to once again force myself to eat something. Obviously I went the nutritional route and opted for ice cream. I texted my friend from college who is currently living in Sevilla, and we met up for an ice cream date. After ice cream, we parted ways, and I found myself completely exhausted and ready for bed at 9:00pm. Seriously, you don't realize how much energy you need when it comes to traveling nor how much energy you lose when you're sick. Unfortunately, bed time in Spain is on average around 12:00pm and my room was no longer deserted so sleeping was a little rough.
The next day I woke up early thanks to my returning stomach pain. I unfortunately was crabby over the noisiness of my roommates the night before, so I (wrongly) took satisfaction in being that girl awake at 6:00am. I showered, ate breakfast, and dawdled for about 3 hours before it was finally time to leave for Morocco. The meeting point was about a 10 minute walk from the hostel. It still being early in the day, I didn't struggle too much with exhaustion.
Side note: I love traveling to places solo. But I figured Morocco was a bit much, so I signed up with the only tour group who was reasonably priced and went over the weekend. Unfortunately, I had been warned in advance by some past participants that these tour groups typically consisted of American college students who only wanted to party. And the majority of the trip was spent on the bus. But I was set on going to Morocco, so I chose to "look past" all of these things. (Keep your expectations low, and you can't be disappointed right?) But upon seeing my fellow travelers, it was difficult not to look past all of the Americans. And upon finding my seat on the bus, it was difficult to ignore their talks about partying the night before and all of the other "concerns/problems" a typical college student has. Oh dear, I'm getting old. It also seemed like everyone had their group of friends they were traveling with, and I was clearly the only person flying solo. Thankfully this came in handy because it allowed me to be the first person to make friends with a group leader, Gonzalo.
My group leader...
Our bus ride was two hours. Our first stop was to the very end of Spain to see the British-governed city of Gibraltar. The bus actually parked in Spain, and we had to walk across the border into Gibraltar...
1. I've never walked across the border into another country before.
2. The border control is very similiar to airport security.
3. I'm kind of mad they didn't stamp my passport.
The famous "Rock of Gibraltar" from the Spanish coast
Within five minutes, I was in Gibraltar... well actually I was standing in the middle of an airport runway. After crossing through border control, you then had to walk about half a mile across this airport runway. There were signs everywhere warning about aircraft landings and such and to walk on this designated path for people. While I wasn't feeling the securest, I do have to admit that the views were great because both sides of the runway were surrounded by the ocean. At the end of the airport runway, we were greeted with a mini bus to take us around the city of Gibraltar. The city is pretty neat in the fact that it is like stepping into another world because it is so incredibly British which I didn't expect. It is divided into two parts-- Old City and New City with an old stone wall dividing the two parts. New City is very much your modern day city. But once you pass through the wall, you are transported back in time to an old British town with lots of charm. Gibraltar has seen so many wars and battles hence the wall in the first place and everything being a historical landmark.
The rock wall
Our mini bus took us to the edge of the town where we stopped to take in views of the coast of Spain along with the coast of Morocco. The look out point had a mix of cultures featuring your typical old fashioned light house, a mosque, and a war memorial dedicated to the Polish military.
The Mosque
The African coast in the distance
Lighthouse
We then proceeded to climb the "rock" with our mini bus.
Fun Fact: Gibraltar is filled with hundreds of rock tunnels. In fact, the length of all of these tunnels adds up to more than the length of all of the streets in the city.
The rock tunnels
We passed lots of waterfalls too
The caves were breathtakingly beautiful AND massive!! They were naturally formed over the course of hundreds of years. The caves were created by rain water that seeped through the ground and ate away at the lime stone which in turn dissolved the rock creating the beautiful caves. Those things that look like spikes all around the caves (stalagmites) are actually formed by the dissolved rock dripping to the ground.
After the caves, we boarded our mini bus once again to go to the top of the mountain where the monkey's lived. There are five tribes of wild monkeys that live in Gibraltar throughout the rock. The monkeys roam wild and are famous for interacting with humans (aka stealing your food, phones, sun glasses, etc.) We were warned to not bring any food with us and only take what we need. Upon aproaching the top, one of the monkeys jumped onto the roof of our bus and rode along with us!
The monkey on our bus
We also passed a group of monkeys that had broken into someones car that had had food in it. They were enjoying a nice picnic feast.
Monkey Hugs!
The bus ride to the ferry was a short 20 minute ride. Due to our group size, we were able to bypass the waiting line and board right away. While boarding, I made friends with another person on the tour who was from Germany. We chatted for a little bit before parting ways to find seats. I cozied up in the middle of the boat (away from all windows and seasickness possibilities). With my feet up on my suitcase and my Kindle out, I spent the time reading for the hour ride. Before I knew it, we were pulling into Morocco! We all departed the ferry and boarded our waiting busses. The part of Morocco we embarked on was actually governed by Spain. So technically we were in Africa but not quite in Morocco yet. We had to cross border control again and this took FOREVER. It was also pure chaos since you had cars everywhere and people trying to walk across. It was also illegal to take any photos during our time spent driving through the mile long control. But from my window, I watched people who had been stopped from crossing into Morocco hop fences, run away, etc. There were also a ton of woman carrying giant packages on their backs and heads. I'm not exaggerating when I say that the entire control was a mile long. I don't know how these women did it. After about an hour and a half we were finally in Morocco! I was ready for camels, deserts, palm trees....
Instead I was greeted with mountains and green scenery like I was in Ireland. Our bus drove for about 20 minutes (we passed the infamous Casablanca!) before we reached the city of Tangier. This city has been governed by 9 different nations over the course of time. Most recently by France. So most of the signs were actually in French here. And throughout the city, the streets were designed like one of the nations that had governed it. So we were able to see Spanish influence, French, British, etc. By the time we reached the hotel is was pretty late. We were given our roommate assignments and then told to meet at the hotel restaurant for dinner. My roommates were Lucy, a girl from Manchester, England, and Maya, from the U.S. As for dinner... I expected some Moroccan cuisine... they ended up serving us fish and chips... really??
Fast forward to the next day where we had a bright and early wake up call from the front desk. I got to sleep in this beauty the night before.
I was able to sprawl in any direction I wanted! We enjoyed a carb-filled breakfast and then went on the tour of the city. Almost all of the people living in Morocco are practicing Muslims. They pray five times a day, and we were able to hear the church prayers and bells over a loudspeaker at sunset each day. We also went past the MASSIVE palace the King lives in. Finally, we arrived at a look out point. Here, we were able to see the Spanish coastline and where the Mediterranean Sea meets the Atlantic Ocean. After socializing with some donkey's we boarded the bus to head to the beach where we got the chance to ride CAMELS!! To get to the beach, we had to walk down all of these stairs...
But once there, we got to interact with baby camels and ride the older ones.
Camel cigarettes anyone?
This little guy was only 2 weeks old!
Look Ma! I'm sitting on the camel!
Pure fear while the camel stands up...
And this is the part where my head conked the camel's head...
Wooo finally up and standing
Our crazy camel guide
The whole group!
I was one of the last ones to go. As I was getting up to climb back to the top of the beach, one the camel guide guys picked me up and put me on a camel. He did the same with four other girls. I assumed this was for another picture until he started leading us in the opposite direction of everyone else. And then I saw our guide running back towards us and frantically yelling, "WAIT, they need to come with us!!" I was convinced that we had been kidnapped, and we were being lead down the beach on camels. Then the guide let go of the rope that he was using to lead the camels. Yep. The camels were running aimlessly. I had no rope to hold onto; only the camel hump. I was convinced I was taking my last breath on the beach on a camel. (That's actually not a terrible way to go when you think about it.) Soon the camels were running up a hill/basically a mountain. And then we were on a road and they were still just walking aimlessly. Eventually the guide showed up again and took the rope. And then I saw our bus! And people! The camels had brought us back to the bus so we didn't have to walk up the giant hill!
The face of pure relief...
Once on the bus, my nerves settled back down. (I really was convinced I was going to die.) Our next destination was the city of Chefchauen-- the famous blue city. It was lunch time when we arrived to the city so our first stop was a typical Moroccan restaurant.
Glimpses of the city on our walk to the restaurant
For lunch they served some sort of chicken dish. And vegetarians got a vegetable curry. Still dying of stomach pain, I only nibbled on my veggie plate. For dessert, they served us typical Moroccan Tea. It was delicious!! The restaurant itself was beautiful. And I sat with two girls from Italy, two girls from England and another girl from Slovenia.
**I was so happy to see that my the biases I had made were wrong. This group of people was incredibly diverse and from all over Europe. We had Spaniards, people from Holland, Canada, etic.**
After lunch, we met our guide. He was this teensy, tiny old man (80 years old) with a typical raspy old man voice. He also happened to be hilarious!!
Our guide
He
told us all about the history of the city. The reason the walls are
painted blue is because it stops mosquitoes. And when the street itself
is painted blue, it signifies a dead end. This city still uses the
public baths as opposed to bathing at home. The men and the women have
their own designated time to go to the baths and they visit them every
day. The women also do their laundry in the rivers near the city. They
actually prefer this over a washing machine because it allows them to
socialize. There is no partying or drinking alcohol in Morocco. And
the laws/rules for women are still very old fashioned and restrictive.
Our guide eventually brought us to a tapestry store where we got the
chance to see the famous Moroccon rugs and tapestries. After the owner
spoke to us about making the tapestries, we were able to roam around and
even visit the looms.
Sidenote: the people of Morocco speak several different languages so communicating with them is surprisingly easy. They speak: English, French, Spanish, and Arabic. When I was watching the man on the loom above, it was just me in the room so he explained the process to me and then made me a bracelet from the yarn they use! Moroccans are some of the nicest people I have ever met!
After this, we continued our tour throughout the city.
Typical Moroccan spices
Dead end street
The tour guide ever
Street Art
Tree Art
The doors are incredibly small. This forces the person entering to bow their head which is a sign of prayer and respect.
The Tapestry store sign
About an hour later, we had free time to walk around. I joined my German friend from the previous day, a boy from Poland, and a group of three others from Holland. We all walked around the back streets of Chefchauen and practiced our bartering skills with the different merchants. There is no set price when shopping. You are expected to negotiate for a better price. After a lovely day in Chefchauen, we boarded our bus to drive to the city of Tangier. Once we arrived to our hotel, we had two hours of free time before meeting back at the bus to head to the special Moroccan dinner and show. While my face looks happy in all of the pictures, I was still dying of stomach pain. And this night was the height of it. I curled up in a ball in my bed until the next day. There was just no way for me to go to the dinner. But I heard it was really good thanks to the performers.
The next day, we had another early wake up call. I forced myself out of bed and downstairs to attempt to eat some breakfast. I nibbled on chocolate cereal flakes for energy purposes. We rode the bus to the center of Tangier which is the oldest part of the city. Morocco is not a third world country. But it is definitely the most socially behind country I've ever visited. The old part of the city was directly out of a movie. The streets were tiny and people were selling things all along them. Chickens were wandering free along with dirty cats and dogs. The street itself was incredibly dirty. And the smells of garbage, fish, and other foods was overwhelming. Within 10 minutes of walking these narrow, dank streets crowded with people and animals, I had had enough. (And also I was afraid of throwing up), so I told my guide that I couldn't do the walking tour. He told our new Moroccan guide who was giving us the tour of the city. This man then flagged down another random man walking the streets dressed in white pants, sunglasses, and a pink shirt. Pink shirt man then told me to follow him through a labyrinth of narrow city streets and eventually we ended up at a pharmacy. In the pharmacy, the pharmacist asked me about my symptoms. He then disappeared and reappeared with what looked like a spoonful of cinnamon (cinnamon challenge anyone?). He then, without asking, just stuffed the giant spoonful in my mouth! I was so overcome with eating this mystery dry powder, while also wondering what I had just ingested that I started choking. Now I was causing quite the scene because brown powder was flying out of my mouth, and I had no more water left in my water bottle and you can't drink tap water in Morocco. The pink shirt man ran out and brought me a new bottle of water which eventually soothed my burning lungs. I later found out that I had consumed about 2 tablespoonfuls of Cumin. Meanwhile, while I had been choking, the other group from our trip entered the pharmacy. The pharmacist who had stuffed the Cumin in my mouth then proceeded to give a talk about all of the different cosmetics, spices, and things famous in Morocco. I learned about Moroccan oil, rose hip, remedies to stop motion sickness, green lipstick, Moroccan eyeliner, and many other things. He even let us try samples of each thing. At the end of his spiel, we were allowed to purchase the different items at a discounted price. I had selected a few things for myself. The main leader of our entire trip offered to take my bag to the front of the line and pay so I could rest. He came back with my bag stuffed with extra things and all of my money. I don't know if he paid or if I had been given a free goodie bag by the pharmacist thanks to my choking fiasco but it was super nice (and a $60 value)! While the other group left, I continued to hang out in the pharmacy. The pharmacist explained more about the different spices that covered his walls, and he gave me his wifi password! Not a big deal until you've been in Morocco without wifi for days. Eventually my group showed up, and I listened to the pharmacist's spiel again. (Still just as interesting.) By the time he was finished and everyone had completed their shopping, it was time for me to say farewell to my new friend. My group then headed back to the bus where we had to continue our journey back to Spain.
The god-awful cumin I ingested
All of the different natural elements
The prettiest pharmacy I had ever been to
My pharmacist friend
The rest of the trip was uneventful. We were fed sandwiches, passed through border control again, took the ferry, and then drove until we reached Sevilla. Once in Sevilla, I was still dying. But luckily I was only a short 10 minute walk away from my hostel where I could spend the rest of my night in bed. Wrong. Wrong. Very, very wrong. Semana Santa had started. Which meant that the streets were filled with people making walking difficult and walking with a suitcase impossible. My ten minute walk took about 30 minutes. And then there was a procession right in front of my hostel! Literally I could see the door to the hostel but couldn't cross the street because of the procession. God was laughing at me. I was incredibly cranky. So I stood staring at the hostel doors for an hour while I waited for the procession to finish. The only cool thing about this procession was that when the Virgin walked by, the entire street went dead silent. Other than that, I was not in the mood.
The Virgin Mary just casually being carried in front of my hostel
The view of the Catedral and more processions from the roof of the hostel
The next day, I once again woke up early. I was afraid of another procession happening which would cause me to miss my train to Malaga. Luckily this was not the case, and I showed up to the station an hour and a half early. This free time allowed me to eat some tostada while using the free wifi. My train ride was quiet. I arrived and checked into my hostel and then proceeded to the city center for some shopping. When I was riding the camels, I had been sitting on a seat with a raised screw. The screw had ripped my pants leading to this brief but necessary shopping trip. After I enjoyed another nutritional lunch of ice cream. And then I headed to the meeting spot where there was supposed to be a free walking tour of the city. Five minutes passed by. Ten minutes passed. And eventually 20 minutes passed with no one showing up to lead the tour. I was waiting with two other girls who happened to also be from New Jersey. Because of Semana Santa processions (why I oughta...) we assumed that the tour had been cancelled. We parted ways, and I headed back to the hostel where I waited for Sara so we could meet up. Luckily we had made plans earlier to meet up at the Cathedral because as soon as the processions started, cell service went down. There were just so many people that none of the phones would work. So we blindly met each other hoping the other would show (which thankfully we both did). We then went off to have tapas and drinks. Two girls from Sara's hostel joined us. One was from Canada and the other was from Germany. We had successfully avoided all processions for most of the night. But then as we were sitting outside at a restaurant in this tiny back street, people started pouring in. And before we knew it, a procession was walking right by our table.
A brief summary on the differences between Spain and the USA on Easter:
Spain:
No Easter Bunny
No Easter Egg Hunts
They still use hard boiled eggs but differently than us
They don't participate in Lent
Semana Santa is the week leading up to Easter
In Andalusia, each city/town has a series of processions daily that last from the afternoon until 2:00/3:00am
The processions always involve a Jesus figure followed by a Virgin Mary figure
It takes about 50-200 men to carry these giant statues.
The processions involve several marching bands
They've been practicing all of this since I first came to Spain in August
Good Friday is the biggest day celebrated here
The crowds for Semana Santa are comparable to the St. Patrick's Day Parade or the Thanksgiving Day Parade in NYC... but imagine it happening every. single. day.
They set up enormous bleachers and thousands of seats throughout the streets. People pay a ton of money to sit in them.
They wear these costumes...
Jesus
Mary
To
contrary belief, these are not Klu Klux Clan costumes. They are in
fact wearing the religious apparel for each procession. However, I
still got goosebumps from watching them walk by our table with the
candles. It was just plain eerie. And it didn't help that there were
hundreds of them everywhere! Once the procession had finished near us,
we were able to vacate the scene. We each ventured to our designated
hostel. Upon arriving to my hostel, I was surprised to see a girl
sleeping in my bed. All of my things had been moved to the bunk above.
However, she had failed to move my pajamas and was now sleeping on
them... because why not. Without another pair of pajamas and also
cranky at the fact that she had the audacity to move my things and then
sleep in my already slept in bed, I woke her up and asked her to move.
She grumpily conceded. The next day was spent at the beach away from any and all processions and crowds. We enjoyed a lovely breakfast on the port. The weather was perfect.
After leaving the beach at an early 7:30pm, we headed to our hostels to shower. We later met (with our useless phones since they weren't working again) at one of our favorite restaurants: Gorki. I visited this place back in February and had the most delicious vegetable lasagna. We ordered that once again along with a cheese dish. We later learned that the secret behind the delicious lasagna was actually the spinach sauce they put on top. After our dinner, we stumbled upon a side street with typical Malaga wine and flamenco. The bartender let us sample each variety of wine which was great. And then right next to us men started singing flamenco. It was awesome!
After flamenco, we navigated our way through the processions back to our hostels. I arrived back to an empty bed, thank goodness.
The next day was spent very similarly: we had breakfast along the bay at the port, spent the day at the beach, went back and showered, and then met up again for tapas. I had also managed to fit in a visit to the famous Malaga Cathedral. It was the first day where my stomach pain was manageable, so I figured why not. The Cathedral was enormous and beautiful. It was designed differently than most of the others that I had seen in Spain. There was also a service going on which allowed me to enjoy the choir and music during my visit. At my hostel, when showering, I met a new, normal--she doesn't sleep in other people's beds, girl from Spain. She only spoke Spanish, so my skills were tested after not using the language for about a week. She joined Sara and myself for tapas that night. Once again the processions had now crossed our usual meeting spot preventing us from going there, so without working phones, Sara and I managed to stumble upon each other walking the streets. We went to a cheese tapa bar for dinner. The cheese was amazing! My two days in the sun had finally caught up with me and my sunburn was extremely uncomfortable. So I parted ways with the girls early on in the night.
Thursday was our day to say goodbye to Malaga and head back to Priego. Our bus wasn't until 4:30 in the afternoon, so we had the freedom to spend our morning however we liked. I wanted to visit the Picasso Museum which Sara had already seen. I ventured my way there after breakfast and was thrilled to see that I had beat the crowds. I'm not a big fan of Picasso, but this museum helped me understand his perspective and viewpoints when it came to painting. This in turn led me to appreciate his paintings more.
The outside wall of the Museum... no photos allowed inside
After the museum, I headed to the Roman Amphitheater. Spain has a ton of
Roman buildings and artifacts and in the heart of Malaga is an
original amphitheater still intact. However, before actually arriving to
see the ruins, I was stopped by another procession. This one was
different from the others because it only involved the military.
Roman Amphitheater
More crazy costumes
They even make them into desserts!
The
rest of the day was spent relaxing. Sara and I had a lunch consisting
of only the spinach sauce from our favorite restaurant. After that we took a bus to Lucena, and her parents drove us the rest of the way back to Priego.
Tour company in Morocco was We Love Spain. They come highly recommended!
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