My Time in Tetouan: Day 1--

So Michael got us a pretty sweet deal on a Grande Taxi ride to Tetouan and we got the driver to take us to Hercules Cave, too!  I totally dig caves and other cool natural landmarks like this one, so I was totally pumped to check it out.  The scene was picture-perfect and the sound of the waves in the cave was mesmerizing, but the guys and I decided not to wait for the sunset, rather we continued on so that we could see a bit of Tetouan in the day.  This proved to be a good call, because we had a bit of trouble finding a hotel—but once we did, we struck it rich!  Ok, the pillows were lumpy and there was only a hole in the ground to serve as the hotel’s community toilet, but for an equivalent of 5 euros per person, we got a 3-person room and then a 2-person room which—get this—had a balcony that looked right over the town’s central round-a-bout!  How rocking is that?!  So we went crazy with pictures before checking out the souks for the evening and hunting down some dinner.

Turns out the owner of the hotel was also the city’s Tourism Minister (or so he claimed…) and he had “the best place in town to take us to”, so we followed along but I knew what was coming.  And, sure enough, we were led through the winding maze of the medina’s souk into the carpet store of a funny old man who promised us a good view, some mint tea, and the best price in town.  Well, the view did turn out to be incredible (check out my pictures!!), and he did serve us tea, but only Josh was interested in purchasing goods from this carpet store man.  After the elaborate and informative “presentation” that the storeowner put on for us (did you know that real camel rugs won’t burn??), the group was hoping that we wouldn’t have to leave with him disappointed in us not purchasing anything, but on the contrary, I think we left him rather happy.  Josh ended up haggling his way into buying FOUR small, beautiful rugs to bring back to the U.S. as souvenirs so once his rugs were packed up and in hand, we found a cheap, quick, and delicious schawarma place for dinner.  We were all exhausted from the long day (especially from Assilah, the boys claimed…haha, very funny…) so we put any thoughts of late-night Tetouan night-life out of our minds as we satisfactorily retired to our hotel rooms for the evening.

My Time in Tangier--

Hey, everyone!  So I’ve returned from a delightful trip this past weekend—it was just me and the guys, and boy was it a good time!  It started off kind of rough because I was supposed to meet them at the Rabat train station bright and early Saturday morning, only the taxi driver took me to the Rabat AGDAL station (closer to my house) which I didn’t even know existed until it was too late and I missed the train they were on.  Ha!  So I had to wait 2 hours to catch the next one, where I met up with them in Assilah and we kept heading straight to Tangier.  I was kind of hoping to explore Assilah too but perhaps sometime in the future I can make it back, especially as this coastal town apparently is the favorite of some of the guys and all they can talk about is how wonderful it is and how it’s too bad I missed it.  I have a feeling I’m never going to hear the end of it…

Assilah aside, there was still a lot to fit into the day—we wanted to stop by the American Legation Museum because, fun fact, Morocco was the first nation to recognize the United States of America as an independent country.  So, the Tangier American Legation became the first American public property outside of the U.S., and Josh and I, being the Americans in the group, were particularly geeked to check out this sight only to find out that the museum is closed on weekends.  Yes, because that makes a lot of sense…

So the guys and I moved on, checking out Tangier’s Kesbah ocean view and museum (I highly recommend, although it’s best if you have the all-knowledgeable Phillip for a tour guide), grabbing lunch, and finally we poked our heads into the Church of Saint Andrew, built upon land donated by King Hassan I of Morocco to Britain in 1880, before we haggled out a good Grande taxi price that would get us into the town of Tetouan, stopping at Hercules Cave on the way.

For some gorgeous pictures and informational subtitles, click on any of the pictures of go to my Pictures and Video page.  Also, stick around for my posts about Tetouan and Chefschaouen next!

TGIF!

Headed to Chefchaoun and Tangiers with the guys!  Have a great weekend, all! :-)