Spring Break in Spain

For Spring Break, I got a lovely treat. James came to Spain to meet up! After taking all sorts of transport: taxi, train, ferry, bus...Andrew, Brianna, Cara, Hannah and I got to Algeciras. I took a bus to Seville and James was there waiting. It was so good to see each other again after communicating my e-mail, Skype and phone...silly ocean. We went sightseeing, ate delicious tapas, Chinese food, and SANGRIA...lots of sangria. It almost made me cry, but I was finally able to have STARBUCKS. i missed it so. grande skim vanilla latte mmmm. We saw the Grand Cathedral, the Giralda, the Alcazar Gardens, tapas bars, authentic flamenco at Casa Anselma, and Plaza Espana. Then we hopped on a plane for Barcelona. We got to see Tiffany and my friends, Alex and Sequiria from Morocco...small world hehe. I got tummy sick for 2 days but we eventually got to stay on La Rambla, shop, see the beautiful Sagrada Familia, Montjuic, fresh fruit market, the Olympic pier, went gambling for the first time and got 110 euro for our winnings muhahaha, visited Barcelona's Arc de Triomphe, ate KFC and paella. There's so much more but it was just a fabulous week and the best vacation...so relaxing, happy and romantic...yes romantic at times. Yay for spring break...it was the escape I needed to have a little European culture and American staples (starbucks and fried chicken) before heading back to Morocco for another 2 months of craziness. Thanks honey.

Exploring Casablanca

This trip to Casablanca was luxurious and filled with fun times and surprises. First surprise, the ATM ate my card so I lived my most expensive weekend yet in Morocco on loans from my luvs, Andrew and Hannah. We took the train with our friend Said and found Hagar on the train too who we got stuck in the snow with earlier. Said took us to our apartment which housed 7 of us and after settling in, we found a Mexican restaurant with good 'ol Tex Mex. We had quesadillas and Coronas oh it was soooo delicious. We took naps and then got ready for the club. Said and his friends picked us up and we went to a bar/club where we got the night started with some beers and a sample of some yummy rum/fruity concoction the cool bartender let us have. Then Said's friend Tony (American dude living it up in Morocco in the "export/import" industry :0) picked us up with his business limo. Literally, we drove 3 blocks and we were at Candy Bar. It was a big night cos they flew in a DJ from Europe. We got to our VIP table and commenced the first night of serious drinking since we arrived in Morocco not counting our local bar Aguelmem in Ifrane. After me and Hannah about downed a boteille of Absolut, we all danced and danced and danced everywhere: on the dance floor, on the tables, on the walls, on the couches. We danced until 4 and got sandwiches to quell our Absolut bellies. Hannah fell out of the limo hahaha it was pretty hilarious.

The next day we slept in and Cara and I took us a nice walk along the shore to Hassan II Mosque while the others shopped at Marjane. We all hooked up again and met up with our friend Sarah to do major shopping at Zara, Mango and the Medina. Then our friend Hagar picked us up with her cousins and we went to McDonalds before going to her grandma's house to have a CousCous dinner. Dinner was served immediately cos they have like 5 maids. not kidding. her conducteur drove us home and her crazy brother who only knows how to say "How are you How are you?" in English.

On our way home Sunday we stopped at Rabat to get bootleg movies for $1 each. So I got about 50 movies/TV shows and all 6 seasons of Sex & the City. Excessive? No wise because once I get back to America the prices of movies will appear utterly ridiculous...and excessive. We got on the wrong train back to Meknes and had to jump off while it was starting to move...quite an adventure. We got home on a high from our thrilling and fulfilling weekend. That's how to party in Morocco.

Chefchaouen

The weekend of the 24th Mairym, Vallen, Andrew, Cara and me went to Chefchaouen. Its a cutsy touristy nook in the north. This town is lodged in a mountain and has a lot of Spanish influence. Here, Moroccans of course speak darja, Arabic, Spanish and French. The town is known for its white and blues of buildings, stores and doors which makes the town adorable. We relaxed at Pension Castellana which was a nice open-roofed hotel despite the bitter cold at times. We did major souk shopping throughout the medina and explored the town. We had tea at a painter's shop where we bought original pieces painted with the characteristic chaouen blue and also we had tea at a carpet store where Andrew suddenly needed 4 carpets in his life and Cara and I bought these beautiful cactus silk spreads, which will be perfect sheets for the summer. Another thing of note is that everyone tries to sell you hash. But the town has good pastries and fruit salad. In Spain, there was some sort of holiday because we saw a lot of Spanish tourists. While shopping, I watched an old (i'm talking white hair) couple negotiate to buy a shisha (hooka) and then get ripped off...haha. It was cute they really wanted a shisha. I wanna be old and cute like that. It was a cute, relaxing, European-ny weekend despite me getting the poops after. i'm sure you wanted to know that...