Sevilla and Morocco!

It's been awhile since I updated and since the last post I went on an awesome long weekend trip to Sevilla and Morocco with Jessie! I flew from Porto to Madrid last Thursday and then early Friday morning Jessie and I took the fast train to Sevilla. We dropped our bags at the office of the travel group we were using for Morocco and spent the day exploring. Sevilla is gorgeous and idyllic and the weather is always nice and it's just generally perfect. The only drawback is that since it's so nice everything seems really touristy. Living in Vigo, I almost never see tourists and when people hear us speaking English in bars we get lots of surprised looks. But in Sevilla, tourists were everywhere speaking all kinds of languages.

Jessie and I had a nice toast with tomato breakfast and then went to explore the Cathedral. We went in a back entrance and realized a mass was going on and a lot of the cathedral was closed off so we went around the front and realized there was a huge line to get in and the place wouldn't open for 20 minutes or so. So we decided to go to the Alcazar first, which is a big castle and gardens with a lot of Arabic influence and history (similar to the Alhambra in Granada but not as big/spectacular). The Alcazar was beautiful, full of amazing ceramic tiles and gorgeous gardens.

After the Alcazar we went back to the Cathedral de Sevilla and waited in line a bit to go in. It was worth the wait (and the 6 euros or so). The cathedral is massive and ornate and impressive. Christopher Columbus' tomb is in there, though they're not 100% sure the bones in there are his, as his bones were sent back and forth between Hispaniola, Spain and Cuba a few times. According to DNA they might be his son's bones. Still, it was kind of weird to confront this tomb and think about Columbus as a person who lived and had bones and not just as this important, problematic, almost mythical historical figure. We also climbed up the tower and got some nice views of the city. We could see the famous bull fighting arena from up there so we decided we didn't need to walk over and see it up close. 

After the cathedral we walked over to the Plaza de España, a majestic building and plaza that appears to be the home of the government in Sevilla. The building is shaped like a semi-circle and along that curve there are a bunch of little tile monuments to the various cities of Spain. They're gorgeous and as we walked from A to Z I was excited to see what Vigo's monument would look like. There was no question in my mind Vigo would be represented, especially after passing Lugo, Ourense, Pontevedra, and Santiago, four cities in Galicia all smaller than Vigo. But when we got to Valladolid, the next city was Vizcaya. I was disappointed, but frankly not terribly surprised. Vigo is a big, vibrant city, but compared to the rest of Spain it is seen as gritty and working-class, with not as much cultural or historical or aesthetic significance as some of its neighbors. I, of course, think Vigo is beautiful and fascinating and just as important as Madrid (well, maybe not quite but you get the idea). But, you can't win em all. The Plaza de España is beautiful, if lacking.

We walked back to the travel office and got a couple coupons for sangria at a nearby restaurant. It happened to be a restaurant with Thai food, which was a VERY welcome surprise (no Thai food in Vigo) so we happily ate noodles and soup, drank some sangria, and then went to meet the bus to Morocco. 

Jessie and I used a travel group that plans trips for study abroad students and foreign teachers and the like. We paid about 200 euros to go on this trip, which included all the transportation, hotel, food, and guided tours. It was a good deal and a great way to see a new country that we were a little apprehensive about visiting just the two of us. We took a bus to the border, got on a ferry, landed in Morocco and took another bus to our hotel. The hotel was very fancy and comfortable. When we got there we were served a fantastic meal of soup and chicken and cous cous. Writing this makes me so hungry. It was delicious. 

On Saturday morning we woke up early and got on the bus to go to Chefchaouen, the Blue City. Like in many Spanish cities, cities in Morocco have a historic old district with small, winding streets. They call this the "medina." In Chefchaouen the medina is enclosed by a wall dating back to the 1400s. We had a guided tour of the Medina, walking through narrow streets, up and down, around lots of corners--by the end I had no sense of direction. Everything in Chefchaouen--roads, walls, doors--is painted blue. They paint the entire city blue four times a year. The blue color supposedly keeps the homes cooler and keeps mosquitos and flies away! 

This powder becomes paint -- notice the blue bag is the biggest!

After our tour we had lunch at restaurant in the center of the medina. Lunch was a salad and some more delicious chicken and rice. Then we had free time to walk around and buy souvenirs so Jessie and I set out for our first bartering experience. We had been told that we should start by saying a price one fifth of what we would really be willing to pay. We found this very difficult, because the guy would say something like "500 dirham" and we'd say something like, "how about 100 dirham" and he would get very offended and laugh. We knew it was part of the act but it was very uncomfortable and we went through many exchanges like this before we finally bought something. Eventually we learned that just showing the seller the money we had was a good way to only spend that much. We also would leave the shop and often they'd come out and say, "okay, okay" and we'd get the price we wanted. It was hard! Not something I'd want to do on a daily basis.

The next day we went to Assila, a city on the coast founded by the Portuguese a few hundred years ago. On the way there we stopped and rode camels in Tanger, near the place where the Atlantic Ocean meets the Mediterranean. It was a 2 minute ride around a parking lot but still very exciting. Riding a camel is sort of like riding horse, but they're taller and they make you rock back and forth more than horses do. Also camels lie down for you to get on them so when they go from lying to standing it is a little difficult to keep your balance. 

After the camel ride we went to another fantastic meal of chicken kebabs at a restaurant covered in beautiful ceramic tiles, then on to Assila. Assila was painted in a lot of white and blue, and didn't look too different from Chefchaouen except it is on the coast and a little newer so there are some wider streets. Apparently there is an art festival in Assila each year and the winners get to paint their works on the white walls of the city. It was refreshing change from the graffiti that covers walls in Vigo that is of a wholly political nature and not at all artistic. We walked around Assila, and Jessie and I did some more shopping (bartering went much better on day 2!) and I got henna on my hand. After that, we took the bus back to the border, took the ferry once more, took a bus to Sevilla, and got on another bus to Madrid. I then flew back to Porto and took another bus back to Vigo. Lots and lots of time in transit, but it was worth it! A fantastic weekend!