Day 2: In Transit Part 2

The 20 hour trip wasn't over when I got to Dusseldorf; there were still 11 hours left beginning with 4 hours of sitting in the airport. Unlike some people who were drinking beer at 8 am, I chose to read and sit in a coffee shop. The highlight of the airport was definitely the Lego Star Wars Advent Calendar I found in duty free for only 15 Euros. The next flight was an hour and a half to London. You are probably thinking, "Wait. Why did he fly to Dusseldorf to London? He's flying one time zone backwards and an hour and a half further away from Bologna?" There is no good answer to this question so I just won't answer it. ingot to London at noon, so I had 4 hours to kill before my flight. I didn't want to sleep in a chair at the gate in Heathrow for fear of missing the plane or getting robbed, so I spent the time trying to figure out my phone situation. I bought a sim card for 20 GBP but it wasn't working in my unlocked iPhone so I spent the next two hours sneaking in and out of an electronics store in the terminal using the macs to both look up information and to connect my phone to iTunes. I finally got asked to not come back to the store again that day, but at that point I was hungry for lunch. Next thing I know, I'm sitting on the airplane with a belly full of Wagamama. I fell asleep before we left the gate and then woke up in Bologna!

My bag made it fine and customs was a joke. A quick cab ride took me to Bologna's central train station were my buddy Matt was waiting for me. Matt has been one of my best friends since 7th grade and has been studying in Bologna all fall. His dad is from Italy so he is trying to connect with "his roots". I reminded him that he was born in Miami, speaks minimal Italian, and wished him good luck with that! We are staying in an apartment that he found on airbnb because he lives in a dorm room with 4 Italian guys and it would've been tight. The apartment is super nice and the woman gave us half of the apartment. We have a room with a double bed, tv and lots of outlets. We also have a bathroom for our personal use right next door that has a shower, bath tub, toilet, bidet, and two sinks. It's massive! After settling in, we walked to meet two of Matt's friends from the program at a grocery store. We went back to one of their dorms and cooked what they call "family dinner," Matt and like 5 friends cook in one of their rooms and hang out for like 3 hours. It was fun and the tortellinis and green beans we made were delicious. Afterwards, we went back to the room and fell asleep after some face booking and blogging.

Day 1: In Transit

So today the trip began with a transatlantic flight to Dusseldorf. Getting my ticket for free with my American Airlines miles caused me to have the distinct pleasure of flying from Miami to Dusseldorf to London to Bologna, a 20 hour trip plus a 6 hour time difference. I got to the airport at 2 pm for the first leg of the trip. Unfortunately, the seat that was assigned to me was in the middle of a four person row and right next to the bathroom. This made sleeping hard (only got an hour's worth) and I hate not having an aisle or a window. However, the seat did have two benefits.

The first was a tip from my neighbor about Coca Cola. We watched an Asian woman walk out of the bathroom and proceed to throw up on the floor right next to us. Why she ever left the bathroom when there was this looming possibility of vomit is beyond me, but it happened regardless. Anyways, it was one of those situations where you just watched one of the funniest things you have ever seen, but at the same time, you know that any escaping chuckle basically guarantees you're going to hell. The result is a strange throaty croaking that ensures you will have no friends. When they were cleaning up the remnants of the mystery pasta we ate for dinner (were the olives, zucchini, or mushrooms?!), the flight attendants cleaned up the mess with Coke. This prompted the central Florida-born traveller next to me to explain how you can use coke to clean the bugs off of windshields. I normally just use the windshield wipers, but in case they're ever broken, I now have a new pro-tip.

The second benefit was that an overactive bladder led to some late night acrobatics over the sleeping man next to me and to a self esteem boost for the remaining shreds of my athleticism. I watched the Avengers on the flight, finished William Gibson's Neuromancer, and began Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451. We landed in Dusseldorf to a gray morning, just in time to watch the sunrise over one of the other terminals.

Day 58: More Tangier

Because of our late night, we slept in till 11:30 and skipped breakfast. I showered and shaved in the morning and was ready to start the day. Unfortunately, it was raining again, so we had to modify our plan. 

First we went to a place called the Foundation Lorin where they had a couple hundred cool black and white photos of old Tangier and famous dignitaries visiting the city. I love those kinds of old pictures so this was a great free museum for me.

Afterwards, we went to a cafe near Hotel Menzah called La Giralda that overlooks the water. Despite the sprinkling outside, we could still see Spain in the distance and it was definitely raining over there too! I had some crepes and a vanilla milkshake but then I had some issues keeping them down. It must have just been a couple hour bug because, as of the time of writing this (10 pm), I haven't thrown up since lunch and have kept down some Sprite and some Pringles. I had to eat Pringles because the train didn't have any good recovery food like toast. I didn't want Pringles to see me in this haggard state, but they did and I think our relationship is still fine. Sometimes, I feel like Pringles just use me because I've got a good digestive track and they want to show off to the other chips at the grocery store. Sometimes, I feel like it's a very unhealthy relationship, but I can never say no to that face on the can; we connect. Do we need to go to joint therapy? Is a nice tupperware an okay 1 month anniversary present for a chip you recently started seeing?

After lunch and throwing up, we went back to the Kasbah to the museum. I wasn't very excited by this idea, especially because it was raining and we had to walk up some steep hills, but in the end, the sun came out as we entered the Kasbah and the museum was the best one we've seen in Morocco. It was a huge museum (the kasbah was the sultan's palace after all) and it had different rooms representing the seven periods of Tangier's history back to the first settlers in the area before the Romans. They had a lot of neat artifacts and good presentation style. The most fascinating room was all about trade through the ages. It had a huge map of the Mediterranean with each city around the ocean labelled, the trade routes from each period highlighted, and what each city would give the other cities. The map had details on over 60 goods and 50 cities. 

Afterwards, we got our stuff from the hostel and went to the beach. There was a food court next to the beach that had Dominoes and since the rain started picking back up, we hung out there instead of the beach. I didn't have any but it looked and smelled good. According to Meredith and Ariel, it was not as good as Pizza Hut.

Our train left at 5:30 and we got there early to get seats together. The train filled up too, so we had planned this well. On the ride back to Fes, I watched the movie Winter's Bone, Jennifer Lawrence's (of Hunger Games fame) breakout movie. It's about her struggles in Missouri, raising her two younger siblings, dealing with a mom who has checked out of the family, and trying to track down her dad who makes meth because he has to be in court in a week or their house will get taken because he posted it as bail. I didn't think it was that great, but it won the Sundance Grand Jury Prize for Drama two years ago. We got to Fez at 10 and found a cab that would take us and use the meter, which never happens at the train station and especially not after dark. Then it was bed time.

Day 57: Seeing Spain

Our plan was to spend all day in Assilah and then to take a 5:30 train to Tangier which is only 45 minutes to the north. When we woke up at 9, it was raining, so we changed our plans. In the morning, as it cleared up, we walked around the medina and looked at all the murals. We explored the medina even more than I had last time so I got to see some cool murals I hadn't seen yet. Afterwards, although it was sunny and clearer, we didn't trust the weather to hold so we caught a 1:40 pm train to Tangier. There was no one to buy tickets from at the station, but no one checked them on the train either, so our 16 dh ride was free! 

Assilah medina

One of the many murals in Assilah

When we got to Tangier at 2:30, it was beautiful. The sun was shining and you could see the ocean from the recently renovated train station. It is a huge city with a small medina, a large centrally located beach, and tons of big buildings and well-contained urban sprawl. I'm very happy we chose to visit it because it strikes a great balance between its traditional side and modernity and is a good example of how Morocco could be. We were barely heckled the whole time we were there and the city transitions very well between the medina and the Ville Nouvelle that surrounds it. It is all contiguously Tangier, unlike how Fes is two separate beasts. With all its hills, Tangier reminds me a lot of San Francisco. 

You can also see Spain 8 miles away across the Straits of Gibraltar, even on cloudy days. Seeing its proximity and the huge ferries that are constantly making the 35 minute run, I understand how Moroccans could get so jaded and eager to leave for Spain. Illegal immigration is a big problem for Morocco and Europe and many have lost their lives attempting the crossing. The land on the other side is exactly the same and everyone on both sides can speak Spanish, but when you throw an 11 to 1 exchange rate into the mix, it's hard to ignore the greener grass just across the Straits. Europe doesn't want Moroccans, and Morocco has lost a lot of its young talent to the allure of Europe. Moroccans have a terrible time legally leaving Morocco because to get a visa to Europe, you must prove you have over 15000 Euros in assets. Even if you have that much, you still have to deal with inefficient bureaucracies and a shortage of visas. It's not a very pretty side of Moroccan/European relations.

Our lunch spot with Spain in the distance

We spent the day walking around the medina and the Ville. We went up to the Kasbah to have the best view of Spain and had lunch on the terrace of a nice small restaurant. We tried to visit a bunch of museums but they were all closed. We went to the beach though and to the Gran Socco, a big fountain and central meeting point in Tangier. We also stopped by the Hotel Mensah to see its storied Caid Bar. It's a five star hotel built at the beginning of the 20th century that has housed the likes of Winston Churchill and other famous people. We had dinner in the medina at a fancy restaurant called El Jedad and the food was delicious. Afterwards, we were planning on going out so we went back to the hostel to drink and change.

At the beach in Tangier

All the clubs in Tangier are along the beach, including one called Miami Beach! It's a nice situation though because there is a bluff, so they are all below street level and you can still see the beach over them. We went to a club called Beach Club 555 that has a gorgeous pool and a good scene. Alice came up from Fes for the night, so we met up with her at 555 at 1 am and had a blast together. We danced a ton and the music was super loud. It wasn't the best music because Moroccan dance music features a lot of elements of Moombahton, a genre of electronic music that is percussion-heavy and features a lot of drums. There's not many words, but there's a lot of bongos; it's still fun to dance to but I would have preferred some American pop music. All in all, it was a lot of fun being out in Tangier and being right next to the beach. We could see a few twinkles from Spain. I went home at 3:30 am, but the others didn't walk home till the club closed at 5. It ended up being a packed, but fun, day with a lot of walking and a great ending.

Day 56: Assilah 2.0

So this weekend, Meredith, Ariel, and I are going to Assilah and Tangier. Of the three of us, I'm the only one who has been to Assilah and none of us have been to Tangier.

We left from Fes at 7:10 on the train. Meredith barely made the train with only 30 seconds to spare, and unlike last time, I didn't oversleep my alarms. We all napped on the way there and got to Assilah at 11:45.

We walked down the beach to the medina and headed straight for the hostel. We stayed in Christina's house again and she has not gotten any less spacey since we were last here. We went to a delicious restaurant for lunch where I had calamari and then after lunch, we took advantage of the sunshine and went to Paradise Beach. We decided to take a horse cart there and then walk back while the sun was setting, but it was less glamorous than it sounds. The horse cart, which we had been picturing as something similar to a Central Park buggy ride, was literally a two-wheeled flatbed cart with a blanket on it. It cost us 100 dh because Meredith and Ariel wouldn't let me haggle but it was an experience. We had to hold on for dear life and got bumped around so much that we will probably have neck problems tomorrow.

The beach was just as gorgeous as it was last time, except we weren't the only ones there. There were a couple soccer games going on at the very north end of the beach and probably like only 150 - 200 people total on the beach. We walked 10 minutes down the sand though and had the entire south half of the beach to ourselves with no one within a couple hundred meters to the north and no one at all to the south of us. We, in effect, became the Kings of the South and would get mad any time anyone, or any sheep, entered our Southern territories. To explain, sheep were grazing on the hills next to the beach.

We swam for a while because the water was warmer than in Essaouira. We buried Ariel in the sand and made silly bodies for her out of rocks. I pooped behind a rock but took caution not to burn my cheeks. We saw two huge washed-up tunas that were each over 100 pounds and over 6 ft long. An army truck came and removed them both while we were there. We also saw a huge jellyfish that had washed up and was over two feet in diameter. 

Our three and a half hours at the beach were fun, but we started walking back at 7:45 to catch some daylight. The sunset was marred by some clouds, but we still got some views. I had fun jumping around on the big rocks again while we walked. For dinner, we ate at one of the restaurants on the main boulevard. I had more calamari and then after we went back home and passed out just after 11. 

In other news, I found out I'm going to be a Presidential Scholar next year, a Dartmouth program that pairs bright students with faculty members to do research. I applied for it back in March and was selected by the professor I wanted to work with. I will be doing computer modeling of language shifts by creating multi-agent virtual worlds where the agents interact, communicate with one another, and live like humans, all under the guidance of the computational linguistics professor in the Linguistics department. I'm excited and Dartmouth gives me some grant money too.

Day 51: MISERABLE

Day 9 of our 9-day trip

Plan: Essaouira to Casablanca to Rabat to Fes

Have you ever spent 11 hours traveling by bus and 3 hours sitting on the side of the road in the desert waiting for said bus to be fixed in the same day? I HAVE.

We left paradise at 10 am. Essaouira was definitely the best city on the trip, and probably Morocco. As we re-entered the endless arid terrain and left my future retirement home in the rearview mirror, I finished up Leaving Tangier. We knew the drive was going to be a long haul (8-9 hours) so I was also planning to look out the windows for a while, catch up on blogging, and hang out with the rest of the group for the next six hours.

We stopped for lunch at 1:30 at a rest stop. It was pretty good rest stop food. Then, disaster struck. We were trying to force the windows open as w started moving again because the AC was like a sauna. When we pulled over so the driver, Said (pronounced sigh-eed) could help us get them open, he quickly ran to the hood rather than to our assistance. Our shock at the lack of help was soon replaced by grief when he told us that one of the main belts in the engine that basically connects everything together had broken in the heat. We had a new one but it would be hard for him to put it on himself. Road side assistance showed up within 15 minutes but was of little to no help. They left 15 minutes later. Two police officers showed up 45 minutes into our despair but didn't do much for us other than set up flares and cones to help keep traffic from hitting us. It's important to remember at this point that it is 2:30 in the afternoon and the police's thermometer says it is 42 degrees Celsius out or 105 miserable degrees Fahrenheit. We had a limited amount of water and I had a box of ritz crackers hidden above my seat that I was planning on sharing with no one. We had discussed before about how a "FSP Hunger Games" could work and who would be killed first, etc. Meredith and I always ended up in the top two of every poll but the winner varied. Unfortunately, given the temperature, supplies, and mirages, it didn't seem that unlikely that people would soon be throwing spears at each other, and I planned to save my crackers and Sidi Ali water for when the inevitable fall-out would occur. I tried to do some scouting up the hillside but Lla MJ wouldn't let me crest it, claiming there were "snakes and scorpions." I think she had already planned out where she would make shelter and didn't want me to get any advantages in the Hunger Games. Suspicions only grew over the course of our three hours. If no one else was thinking it, I was at least sitting there, twiddling my thumbs, and considering who would be the most valuable, and later disposable, ally. 

Dying out here

A tow truck showed up two hours and 15 minutes into our road-side sun burn. They spent a while trying to help the police officers, roadside assistance, and Said fix the engine. However, the whole situation can be described by a scene I saw when five of them were on their cell phones and Said has his head in the engine compartment aka Moroccan bureaucracy at its finest. At 5:30, they gave up and the tow truck pulled us 20 km to a Shell station. We got to sit inside and have snacks and drinks while they tried to fix the car. They couldn't fix it though, so they had to call a new van to pick us up from Casablanca. It got us at 6:45 and we resumed our trek again.

We played a fun game Meredith created where you had to wear a pair of noise canceling headphones and the iPod connected to them was on shuffle. You had to sing and dane the song until the rest of the people could guess it. It was pretty silly but tons of fun.

We had to switch buses just north of Casablanca's outskirts so that the second bus could go back to Casablanca. The bus that got us came all the way from Fes. We drove for a while but then it was dinner time. Said (sigh-eed), being a pro like usual, took us to a mall in Rabat where we got Pizza Hut! It was so tasty and even had pepperonis. I had a half pepperoni and half barbecue chicken pizza that was like heaven on a plate. We were all the happiest we had been all day.

Never been so happy!

We left dinner at 10:45 and were still over two hour from Fes. We didn't get home until 1:15 and my family didn't seem to be too happy that they had to stay up so late and wait for me. It was not a very good day.

Day 50: Surf's Up

Day 8 of our 9 day trip

Plan: Essaouira

I slept in until 10 and then went to the terrace for a gorgeous breakfast overlooking the sea. In the morning, Elle, Marissa, Ron, and I went shopping. Most people had already left, but we ended up running into them and swapping people. I got some shopping done but not nearly as much as I had planned to. At 1:15, I grabbed some chawarma and sprinted back to the hotel where Ariel was waiting for me. She was waiting because at 2,….

We were gonna go KITE SURFING!!!

We walked like 2 miles down the beach to find out that we couldn't actually go kite-surfing because there is a 10 to 12 hour certification process and we would have only been able to do the 2 hour safety and on-the-sand class today. Instead, we saved our 55 euros and rented surfboards and wet suits for the rest of the day for only 165 dhirams. We exaggerated our skill a little, especially me, so that we didn't have to buy lessons too.

We hit the water at 2:15 and stayed in it until 5:45. I discovered a sea fiend in Ariel that rivals myself. And, as much as it pains me to admit it, she was a more experienced and better surfer than me too! With some adjustments and help from her, I was riding the 4-5 foot waves all the way into the ankle deep water. We had so much fun and the water temperature didn't bother us at all. I could not have imagined a better day at the beach. We don't have any surfing pictures because neither of us brought our cameras. The next album won't have any beach pictures because I never wanted to risk getting sand in my lens.

The fish I got is in the bottom left

Ariel and I walked back to the hotel at 6, stopping for ice cream on the way. Marissa, Elle, Ariel, Meredith, and I had a sunset dinner at the food stalls. I got a whole sea bass and grew three new chest hairs when I ate the whole thing. Afterwards, we did some shopping and had some fun bargaining. 

Yum

Most people wanted to stay in tonight and watch the Big Lebowski on the terrace, but Marissa and I wanted to go out. Elle was M.I.A. with a fever, but Marissa and I had some mixed drinks on the terrace before going back to Le Chrysalis at 11:45. It wasn't that crowded though so we decided to check out a bar called Taros that we had seen in Lonely Planet (official bible of the trip). It had a swanky rooftop terrace that looked like it had been transplanted from the Hamptons (never been there but it seems plausible). We sat there for an hour and talked before going back to the hotel. I crashed at like 1:30 in my comfy bed, happy to not be sweating liters like the night before. Yes, I did just embrace the Metric system.

Lastly, Happy 15th birthday, Sarah Roberts! Don't crash Mom's car on the way home from the DMV with your permit. You may be 15 now, but 15's not the new 21, so don't get your hopes up for anything fun yet! You still have three long years of high school, standardized tests, and college applications ahead of you. Welcome to Hell!

Day 49: The Sea

Day 7 of our 9 day trip

Plan: Marrakesh to Essaouira

Deaprture at 10. Woke-up, had breakfast, showered, got in the van, tried to ignore my iPhone weather app which once again said the high for the day in Marrkesh was 104. The two hour drive through the arid fields to Essaouira was painfully hot and I passed the time reading our next book, Leaving Tangier, by Tahar Ben Jelloun. It's all about a Moroccan boy who gets his sister and himself tickets to Spain by being a Spanish artist's gay lover. It's a decently explicit book, but a good read nonetheless. 

We stopped at an Argan oil co-operative on the way to Essaouira where women walked us through the whole process of shelling and grinding Argan seeds to make Argan oil. It was a more enlightening trip than the visit we made to the women's NGO with Prof. Sadiqi.

We pulled into Essaouira at 1 to a cool sea breeze. We were officially free to do as we please from this moment until Sunday morning at 10 am. Our hotel, Dar L'Oussia, is gorgeous, right inside the medina walls and a minute's walk from the huge curving beach. Essaouira is located on a point with a big protected beach stretching out to the south and a windier and more exposed beach extending north from the city. The medina strikes a perfect balance because it's walled-in, busier than Fes but not as fast as Marrakesh, open streets, and lots of shops. It's also very well maintained. 

For lunch, Marissa, Ariel, Elle, and I went to these fish stands near the beach. They put out a huge selection of the catch of the day, you choose what you want, get your hag' on, and then they grill it and serve it to you right there. They have snapper, dorado, live lobsters, prawns, sea bass, shrimp, even whole eels! So many options and all sitting there for the choosing. I got a big squid and a dorado and it tasted so good with some lemon squeezed onto it. I HIGHLY recommend checking out the fish stalls because it was one of the best meals of the trip.

Afterwards, we walked around the medina to get our bearings and climbed on the ramparts some. My inner Laura Roberts has emerged and decided that there is definitely some shopping to be done here. Hopefully, I'll knock out all the presents I need to get during the day tomorrow. 

After parting with the ramparts, we rendezvoused with everyone else on the beach. It is so flat that the high tide takes away like 200 ft of the beach's width. Everyone was playing soccer; there were so many concurrent games that I even saw one game being played long ways and another game being played across, all on the same plot of sand. The water was chilly but I took a couple dips while we were there. Christy took the quote of the day.

Meredith: "It's so cold in the water"

Christie: "It's not so bad over here"

(meredith paddles over 10 ft)

Meredith: "I don't feel any warmer…"

Christie: "What are you talking about?! You're closer to the sun!"

Unfortunately for Meredith, that's not how the Pythagorean theorem works, so she never got warmer. Swimming was also interesting because Tash doesn't know how to float or swim (or drive nor has she heard of Jack Johnson, among many other lacking features. She's currently enrolled in an "American FSP" being taught by Meredith).

Coversation 2: Tash is half swimming back to shore but getting pushed around by the waves

Meredith: "Ahhh! Tash is floating away!!!!!"

Andrew: "How? She can't even float!"

We stayed at the beach from 4 to 6:30 and then went back to the hotel to shower. For dinner, Elle, Marissa, and I got take-out chawarma and ate it on the beach. When we went back to the hotel, it was time to start getting ready to go out. We left at 12:30 for some bars right outside the medina. One of them was a really nice club that had a live band and no people. This can be attributed to the Moroccan Billy Crystal who performs nightly, whose performance didn't really lend itself to doing much besides sitting and listening to him in a space that could have been a banging club. Right next door was a bar called Le Chrysalis that had a great band with a female singer that sang American covers. We ordered a 10 shot special that had all these neon and multi-colored shots, so each person got their own color. The music was fun and we danced some. After we walked really far down the beach to another club that had a talented band but was just too far and it was too late for me. Elle, Marissa, and I went back to the hotel at 2:30 and everyone else came back at 3.

Day 48: Mahi Binebine

Day 6 of our 9-day trip

Plan: Marrakesh

Today our only commitment was to go to Moroccan author and artist Mahi Binebine's house for lunch. I slept in until 10 and had some roof top breakfast. Already at 10, the temperature was over 95 degrees. The high for the day was a massive 104 degrees Fahrenheit and it was definitely a factor. Our rooms in the riad were only air-conditioned if you asked them to turn on the AC and even then, it was pretty poor AC. Today was a battle against the elements and element #1 was heat.

In the morning, Marissa and I went shopping in the medina. Element #2 was the monkeys and trying to avoid having them thrown on me again like last time I was in Marrakesh. I can proudly say that it was a Barbary-ape-free day. When we were walking around, I spent 20 minutes haggling with a guy over some gifts for my family. Besides getting thrown out of the door like usual, I got the gifts down from 370 to 200. At the end, he shook my hand and told me he had never met an American as crazy as I am before! It made me pretty happy because it provided some qualitative data to support that I have approached superhuman levels of bargaining prowess.

We left the riad at 12:30 for Mahi Binebine's house out in the suburbs of Marrakesh. He lived in a gorgoues house on a bougainvillea lined street, both of which looked like they could have been in any part of Miami. Although we came in skeptical, it was so much fun! We met his wife and two of his three daughters and both of his brothers stopped by too. His older brother was imprisoned after the Independece movement for being a socialist. He spent 18 years in a prison in the desert where only four of the captives managed to survive. The younger brother was the complete opposite: a man raised in New York, fluent in English, who was both a billionaire with a background in orthopedic surgery and who owned an investment bank in China. Lunch was a blast and Mahi was just a super jovial guy with lots of funny stories. We didn't talk at all about his work but it was interesting to see what the Moroccan upper-middle class was like and how closely it resembled western life and my life back in Miami. We ended up staying for three hours!

After lunch, we were dead tired but Lla had arranged a guide to take us to a Berber museum, to the Majorelle gardens designed by Yves Saint Laurent, and on a tour of the city. While the gardens and the museum were nice, it was too hot and we were too tired to get anything out of the experience. I slept through the whole city tour on our poorly-air conditioned bus because I was so tired. Element #3 was sleep deprivation.

We got to the hotel at 6 and had some free time during which we all napped. For dinner, we went back to stall 117, but then had a second dinner at KFC. It was "finger-lickin good." Element #4 today was hunger.

Elle had been pretty sick all day with some stomach stuff and people were all so tired and drained that we decided to not go out again. It's too bad we passed up the opportunity to enjoy the Marrakesh nightlife but we just hung out on the terrace and tried our best to cool down. Personally, I was just too full and didn't think my pants would fit after two dinners and ice cream for dessert. I went to bed at 1, finally submitting myself to all the elements except for barbary apes.

Day 47: High Atlas Hijinks

Day 5 of our 9-day trip

Plan: Dades Valley to Ait Benhaddou to Marrakesh

We left the Dades Valley at 10 because today's drive is even longer than yesterday's. We stopped on the way at a big rock for a little bit to take some scenic overlook pictures and stretch our legs. We drove through the arid countryside with the Anti-Atlas mountains on our left and the High Atlas on our right. We drove through the city of Ouarzazate on the way where there are a ton of major movie studios. 

For lunch, we stopped in Ait Benhaddou, an ancient Moroccan city that is largely intact and the shooting location for tons of American movies. We saw a list of probably 50 movies that had been filmed in Ait Benhaddou such as Gladiator, the Prince of Persia, Young Indiana Jones, and The Mummy. It's an ancient ksar, or fortified city, on hill on the banks of a dried-up river. Meredith, Elle, Marissa, Ron, Ariel, and I trekked up to the top of the city and took some pictures. You could see for miles from the top. I bought a big navy rug because this is the best region to buy rugs in Morocco. I bargained it down from 1200 to 500 and it should look good in my dorm room or house someday.

We drove for another 4 hours after lunch but it was the hardest part of the drive. We went up from the desert into the much greener High Atlas mountains. We ascended over a thousand feet on the drive and spent the whole time clutching our stomachs. It was a two lane road, mainly along the ridge line, with 180 degree switchbacks every two or three minutes. To make things worse, Moroccan trucks had no issues passing us as we drove. The drive through the mountains took over an hour and a half with no bathroom breaks because there was nowhere to pull-off. 

We got to Marrakesh just before 6. I watched episode 6 of Game of Thrones on the bus which was awesome. I also have to own up to taking a 20 minute nap on the bus which breaks my rule of not napping on the bus rides cause there's so much cool stuff to see.

For dinner, we went back to stall 117 and I had some delicious kabobs. Afterwards, we hung out at the hotel. Elle, Marissa, and I played kings on the roof of the hostel. We were planning on going out to club Silver again like we did last time, but we didn't think it was a good idea to walk all the way to the nice clubs by the time we were done playing kings. Instead, we hung out with everyone else for a little bit and fell asleep by 1:30. 

Day 46: Gorging Ourselves

Day 4 of our 9-day trip

Plan: Merzouga to Todra Gorge to Dades Valley

We rolled out of the hotel at 9 in the morning because we had a long drive ahead of us. We drove for 5 hours through the hot desert in our van to the Todra Gorge. During the ride, I blogged, took photos, and listened to music. Alice and Ron sang in the back of the bus for four hours straight which didn't make them very popular with the four people who were reading and the three who were sleeping. 

We got to the Todra Gorge at 2 and had some lunch. The cliff walls stood on either side of us, over 500 feet tall with a width varying from probably 40 ft to 200 ft across. We had lunch at a nice restaurant situated right in the middle of it. After lunch, we had free time to explore the gorge and climb the big rocks for an hour. Marissa, Elle, Meredith, and I set out on an adventure and basically started hiking/climbing up the hillside. They went over to a path but I continued my way up in hopes of summiting the mountain. I got really far up and even had to free climb for some parts of it. Unfortunately, due to the time constraints, I only made it 2/3 of the way to the top. It was fun though scrambling up the rocks and then turning around and seeing the whole valley behind me. I took a lot of neat pictures, including some of the girls way down below me.

After our hour of fun, we got back in the van to drive to the Dades Valley. We got there at about 5 and stayed at a 4-star Xaluca hotel, the nicest one yet. The hotel was all contained within one post modern building but had staggered stories like small American office buildings. There was a pool on the third floor, a tennis court on the second, and a fitness room too. We tried to find a grocery store to buy alcohol, but couldn't find one. We ended up swimming in the hot tub instead and having another delicious buffet dinner. Winning item of the meal: stuffed peppers filled with rice, ground beef, and some spices. I've decided peppers are going to be my new big food when I get back to America and one of the items on the list of Andrew's Favorite Moroccan Things of 2012 (similar to Oprah's Favorite Things list but with better items).

Here goes:

Bell Peppers - Red, Yellow, Green. No matter the bell pepper, you're bound to have a good time. Stuff it with rice for some extra fun or grill it for a kabob.

Childish Gambino - Probably better known by his name Donald Glover, this American actor has been making waves in the music scene when he's not busy performing stand-up comedy or acting on the hit NBC show, Community. He has been producing mix tapes for a couple of years.

Blogger - This nifty little site is what you're currently reading this blog post on

Bose Noise Canceling Headphones - Help drown out that acoustic noise on big trips like the wheels hitting the pavement or jet propellers. These little doo-dads are also useful to help mitigate the noise of people singing the Beatles behind you for an hour during road trips on small buses.

Scarves - Keep yourself warm AND keep that pesky sand out of your eyes while you sit astride beasts of burden in deserts worldwide. Get your bargain on and get yourself a sexy scarf in a medina for under 60 dh while watching them make them for you by hand on looms in family-owned factories passed down from generation to generation.

Jacuzzi's - There's literally nothing better after a long day in the car than finding yourself at a 3-star hotel with a rooftop jacuzzi. Don't dunk your head or you might get diseases, but invite your special someone to wear their most conservative bathing suit and split a bottle of Sidi Ali with you while you get cozy together.

Genie Pants - Not for men, but they look comfortable and many of the women on the trip wear them almost religiously. Go for the kind that has elastic cuffs.

Pantene Pro-V - Don't expect every hotel you stay at to have basic amenities like shampoo or soap. You'll enjoy having a small bottle of Pantene in your bag to keep your fine hair full of volume. I first discovered Pantene back in high school on a weekend trip to Sarasota. Because of all the compliments I got that weekend, I've used it religiously ever since.

Get those for your friends and family next holiday season. Unlike Oprah, people who read this blog post won't get all these items for free.

That night, after the buffet dinner, we hung out on the bar over-looking the town and smoked hookah. I didn't smoke but opted to split a bottle of wine instead. Hit the pillows just after midnight.

Day 45: Sahara Poolside

Day 3 of our 9-day trip. 

Plan: Desert to Merzouga to Rissani to Merzouga

At sunrise

We were woken up by 6 so we could see the sunrise. Our legs were so stiff that we had to waddle around camp. Half of us climbed up the big dune, but the other half of us went out to the small dunes on the other side of the camp to watch. I did the latter and we had so much fun watching it come up and taking goofy pictures. Some of the girls and I may or may not have gotten naked a few times and taken some goofy pictures. Don't get mad! I really needed to work on my butt tan! We climbed on the camels at 7:30 to head back to Kasbah Tombouktou for breakfast. It was even more uncomfortable than yesterday because it was like reopening fresh wounds. My body is seriously hurting. I fashioned a Laz-e Boy variant for riding a camel where you put more weight on your lower back and hook your legs under the handlebars of the saddle. Downside is that your head bobs a lot more, but the upside is that you look so fly. 

Early morning dunes

We met up with Lla MJ and Si Ron there because her knee was too bad to ride the camels.
After breakfast, some of us showered and then we drove to Rissani to see the royal families palace and a newly built shrine. We were too dead and dirty to really appreciate it though. Made it back for lunch and then we had the afternoon to ourselves. I put up pictures on Facebook and hung out in the pool for four hours.
I had a pretty big revelation during this time. I had been hypothesizing recently that I have lost weight since I got here. When I found out today that I basically need a belt to hold up my bathing suit, I changed my hypothesis to a conclusion. Data needs to be collected but I haven't seen any scales since we got here, most likely due to the lack of Bed, Bath, and Beyond's in this country. However, this weight loss has been negated by a red pimple on the end of my nose. I saw three small children pointing and laughing at it today, which was pretty detrimental to my self esteem. I think they wanted to throw a rock at it to see what would happen but I jumped in the van before they could formulate any kind of plans. Because of the zit, my ego has stayed at a pretty constant level.

At the palace of the royal family

We had dinner at 8 and then took wine out to the desert to look at the stars. We took some goofy pictures jumping off the dunes and had a blast. Elle, marissa, and I went back at 11:30 and fell asleep at some point.

Also, pictures are already up so check those out. Yes, the booty ones are there too but they're appropriately censored so don't get your hopes up, pervs

Day 44: Sa-here-ah

Day 2 of the 9-day trip. 

Plan: Erfoud to Merzouga to Desert Camp

Today started with some explosive diarrhea. 6 of the 12 of us (including Si Ron) got sick from something we had for dinner last night. I spent 7 - 9 on the toilet and then purged myself the rest of the morning by sweating it out in the hot tub for an hour and lying in the sun for a half hour. Being able to wear shorts/board shorts has been great!
We left for Merzouga at 11, but had to stop in "downtown" Erfoud to pick up medicine and water. All the towns we've been passing through are date palm oases and look exactly like something out of Indiana Jones movies. We drove through Rissani, where the royal family is from, and got to Merzouga at like 2:15.

Our hotel, Kasbah Tombouktou, is like a more desert-y version of the Xaluca but without a jacuzzi. We had a couple hours to relax after lunch before we climbed onto our dromedaries at 5:30 to head out to the Sahara. We each took a backpack and met our rides right behind the hotel on the edge of the dunes. Mine was named something like Asmahan but we renamed them after Aladdin characters, so his name was really Robin Williams as The Genie.

Riding the dromedaries was soooo uncomfortable. Our two hour trip was both a blessing and a curse. The red dunes were beautiful and magestic and there was a nice wind so it wasn't too hot; however, your groin and your ass get KILLED by the saddle. I had to shift my seat and my poorly-wrapped head scarf every two minutes. I joked that I spent 70% of the riding trying to get comfortable and 30% of the ride trying to figure out where we were!
We got to our oasis campsite in the shadow of the biggest dune at 7:45. The dune was over a thousand feet tall. They had some old skis we could use, but my size 12 feet were way too big. Elle, Meredith, Marissa and I climbed up the dune as the sun was setting anyways so that Elle and Meredith could ski. It was like walking straight up hill, except every step you took, you slid 6 inches back and you went up to your ankle in the sand. I was pretty happy I didn't have to carry skis and boots too cause I would have died. We were dead tired after a half hour of climbing, but Meredith and I left marissa and Elle a couple hundred feet up and made it to a crest on the side of the dune. We took some cool silhouette pictures and then rejoined them. They ended up skiing down in the dark. Elle did really well but only one of Meredith's boots would click in so she had to ski on one ski! I had fun bounding down the slope though and we ultimately concluded it was worth the effort. 

Meredith on the dunes

We drank some wine when we got back and had dinner at 9:30. Afterwards, we took the bottles of wine we brought with us and carried them a little bit up the dune to watch the moon rise. We had a full moon, the biggest one of the year according to NASA, and could see a ton of stars too. We sat on the dune for two or three hours and then went to bed in our tents at 12:30.

Day 43: Erfoud

Today is the first day of our 9 day trip. 

Plan: Fes to Ifrane to Erfoud

So I woke up at 7, showered and had my second pastry day in a row. Pretty tasty stuff. We had to be at Batha by 8:15. Luckily for me, I had packed the night before so I had some extra time in the morning to do stuff like shave my half-beard (it still hasn't connected to the chin/mustache yet) and clean my room. 

The High Atlas Mountains

On the bus ride, I sat next to Marissa and we talked as a group for like 8 hours straight. I really don't like sleeping on the bus because I figure I'll only be here with this group once in my life and I want to spend the time getting to know them and looking out the window. The transformation of the landscape was amazing. We started out in fertile Fes with rolling hills of fields spread out to infinity. Then we entered the Mid Atlas mountain range, one of the 4 mountain ranges in Morocco, and began to climb up. We saw huge pine forests, tons of rocks, and big open flat valleys. We took a break in the town of Ifrane where there is Morocco's equivalent to an Ivy League college. Ifrane is a ski town half the year and was built by the French, so it's very European with man-made ponds, big sidewalks, and good urban planning. Many Fes residents use it as a getaway now but Moroccans weren't allowed to visit or live in the town until after the Independence movement. We took some pictures with a stone lion carving, the only other thing to do in the town besides ski or study in the University. 

We continued driving and actually saw one set of ski slopes, which had a chair lift and two runs. The land scape started becoming flatter and more arid the further we got. Then we found ourselves on a very flat dry plain with the Mid Atlas behind us and the High Atlas mountains in front of us. They had huge peaks that still had snow on them! We stopped for lunch at a very nice restaurant outside the town of Midelt and had a buffet. The food. Was. So. Tasty. I also got a Moroccan beer with lunch, a Flag Special, because I had read in Lonely Planet that more of those are consumed every year than the leading brand of bottled water. It wasn't bad but it came in a funny little bottle. I don't know enough beer terminology to dissect the flavor/consistency nor do I know enough beers to name the equivalent American beer. There was also a really cool fossil museum attached to the hotel that Meredith, Marissa, Si Ron, Elle, and I explored. We took some fun pictures with dinosaurs. 

In the fossil museum

Once we started driving again, we began weaving our way through huge canyons and seeing big rock features in the distance. It felt like driving through the American Southwest. It was so pretty.

Driving

More driving

We got to Erfoud at like 4 and had the rest of the afternoon to ourselves. The hotel, Xaluca, was gorgeous and had two pools and a hot tub. It was modeled after a casbah and the rooms were really nice. I stayed with the boys like always. In the afternoon, we went swimming for a couple hours. Dinner was another buffet and then afterwards, we drank mixed drinks in a tent while listening to music. When the group fragmented, Elle, Marissa, and I went to their room and had a danced party and jumped on the beds. It was a super fun night and I ended up falling asleep there.

Day 36: Paradise Beach and the Cattle Car

We slept in today which was a good idea because the forecast called for clouds and rain all day. There was a delicious breakfast buffet upstairs of Moroccan pancakes, whole grain bread, and croissants. After breakfast, we packed up and decided to brave the wind and clouds and walk to Paradise Beach 3 km to the south of the city. You could take a horse and buggy there but we didn't want to pay for it and had the time to walk. Our journey took us on a dirt/mud road along the coastal cliffs to Paradise Beach. 

A stretch of road we got to walk on

It was really scenic, despite the clouds, and I got to be a little boy and climb on some big rocks and jump around as we hiked. We got some stunning views, but, unfortunately, my camera was not charged, so it died 30 minutes into the walk. We got to the beach at 1 and it was low tide and sunny. Most surprisingly, we had the whole stretch of coast line to ourselves! We walked along the pristine beach, dipped our toes in the cold water, and drew some in the sand. We found a washed-up jellyfish which prompted my naturist tour guide alter ego Scuba Steve to give an anatomical discussion about jellyfish and to show them how you could pick it up. It seemed like Elle's Wyoming mind melted, but that might have just been her eyes glazing over as I got my nerd on at the beach. We stayed there for about an hour until a storm began to roll in from the ocean (Scuba Steve used Eagle Scout knowledge to predict and explain this and to also portend the storm movement based on wind patterns). Because of this, we scrambled up the cliff side and began to briskly walk back towards Assilah in the rain. It only rained on us for 15 minutes because the storm was blowing north, but the hike was a cold and wet one. Hungry and wet, we went to a restaurant for lunch, only desiring warm food. As a result, I got calamari again which didn't help me much because it wasn't that warm and didn't really fill me up either. So afterwards, Elle and I went and got these awesome ice cream treats. Though the price point was slightly steep (15 dh! What is this? It felt like a bread shortage in North Korea), they were the most incredible treats you could imagine. They were half ice cream bar (ICB) and half ice cream sandwich (ICS)! To properly gorge yourself, you first hold the ICS part while feasting on the ICB side. Once done, you flip it over to start on the end of the ICS half. We had them on Friday and just had to have them again on Saturday. It was a culinary revelation on par with other major breakthroughs from the past couple of centuries like salting your meat, putting cheese on an angus patty, or mashing tomatoes and naming the delicious result, ketchup. 

Paradise Beach!

We went back and bought our art just before the rain picked up again. We sat in a gallery and had tea while we waited for it to blow over. At 5:15, we went back to the hostel to pick up our stuff. Christina, the hostel owner, proved she was crazy by first not answering the door for 15 minutes while we stood in the rain, then forgetting that we had stored our stuff in her room, and lastly, despite living in Assilah for 5 years, not knowing where to grab a cab or the number to call to catch one. We showed up at a cab stand that we had remembered passing at 5:45, believing our train left at 6. There were no taxis in sight. Instead, a horse and buggy pulled up who said they could get us there in 10 minutes. Rather than just jump in, Marissa tried to BARGAIN the price down from 50 dh to 30 dh. Why she did this still eludes me, but we only paid 30 dh and made it to the train station in under 10 minutes. Fortunately, the train didn't leave until 6:15, but that horse ride would be the first of many strange occurrences on this journey home.

The train showed up 10 minutes late. As we soon found out, it was because it was more crowded than a JC Penney's on Black Friday. We pushed and shoved our way onto a car and settled down comfortably in the aisle. I punched a man in the face getting on but exercised my right as an American to not have to say sorry. We sat in the crowded aisle for 45 minutes, praying someone wouldn't pull the fire alarm before we got one seat. Elle and I shared this seat while Marissa continued to sit on the floor. Then we got another seat that Marissa and I shared so that Elle could do work. For the hour and a half ride, Marissa and I kept passing my phone back and forth and typing messages about the various characters around us (they transcended being just normal people into the realm of character-dom). When we switched trains, we pushed and shoved our way into an 8 person compartment. At this point, we also decided it was time to discretely finish off what was left of the vodka and that we had been keeping in a diet coke bottle. We took turns taking swigs and chasing the swigs with cheddar pringles and pistachios. We ended up having a phenomenal train ride back to Fes where we openly discussed intercourse in front of Moroccans and taught them about American rap music. Marissa and I also talked a lot in Spanish to one of our compartment mates who was from Lebanon. What can I say, I get pretty multicultural and multilingual when I drink!

Toes in the water

We were back in Fes by 9:45 and home by 10. The whole way home, I debated and talked to the cabbie in Arabic (I was still feeling pretty "multicultural" at this point). I talked to my family some when I got home because they were all still up. After, I talked to my American family some too. Shout out to Sarah and her water polo team for winning their fourth consecutive state championship (her first!). Went to bed at like 11.

Day 35: The Streets of Assilah

My early morning did not begin as early as it should have. We decided to meet at Batha at 6:30, but that was when I woke up. Sleepy Andrew woke up at 6, turned off the beeping alarm, and fell back asleep until Lla Fatima came in to check on me and found me still asleep! I hurried down to Batha and got there at 6:50, so we still had plenty of time to get to the train station and catch our 7:10 train. 

Elle, Marissa, and I made it and began our journey to Assilah. We talked for the whole four hour train ride. We had to switch trains at one point too, something we didn't know ahead of time. Luckily, Elle noticed, so we didn't miss our switch. We pulled into Assilah at 11:45 to a very sunny and windy day.

Ramparts by the coast

Rather than pay 40 dh for a cab to drive us the two kilometers from the train station to the medina, we walked along the beach-side boulevard to the walls of the medina. We stopped along the way at a restaurant called Casa Garcia for some lunch. They imported ham from Spain, sold wine, and served delicious seafood. We walked around the walled-in medina some before a faux guide walked us to our hostel which was actually in the Ville Nouvelle. We stayed in a place called Christina's House, owned by a British ex-pat in her 60's. As we later would find out, though the hostel was very nice, Christina was, what we would call in American slang, a bit "cray-cray." 

A wall of murals in Assilah

In the afternoon, we walked around the medina and checked out the cool murals. Every August, Assilah has a festival where they invite artists to paint murals on certain walls. It creates a medina that is a neat combination of white houses and colorful houses, interspersed with crazy murals, all right on the Atlantic coast. We checked out some galleries and went to some spots where you could climb on the old ramparts. We took so many pictures and went to a cool art-shop where Elle and I each negotiated buying paintings. The artist was super nice and spoke better Spanish than English, so I got to practice my Spanish with him. Being only 50 kilometers from Tangiers, almost everyone spoke Spanish in addition to French and Dirija, so Marissa and I spoke a lot of Spanish this weekend. After walking around the medina, we walked down to the waters edge and hung out on some big rocks where there were tide pools because of the low tide.

Man at Work

At 5, it dawned on us that it was 5 o'clock somewhere, and that somewhere was in Assilah, so we went back to the hostel and split a bottle of wine while sitting on the roof. We went to dinner on the main boulevard that draws the line between the Medina's ramparts and the Ville Nouvelle. I had some delicious calamari. After dinner, it was about 8 o'clock, which meant it was approaching 5 o'clock in Argentina, Brazil, and Greenland, so we brought out a small bottle of vodka, made mixed drinks, and played a fun card game called Kings, where you take turns drawing cards and each card represents a different sort of activity such as having to rhyme words, point up, or all the guys/girls have to take a sip. Drawing a Jack allows you to make up a new rule for the duration of the game, such as you must refer to each other only by last name or you can only hold your drink with your left hand. An infraction result in a penalty of sips. The three of us had a blast playing Kings and ended up laughing for two to three hours straight. Elle laughed so hard at one point that she threw up a little on the floor! We ended up falling asleep all snuggled up together in the queen bed after a very successful Friday.