Día Cuatro en Marruecos

(A view of Chefchaouen, Morocco)

I had volunteered to wake up first again, but it went much better this morning as I had a warm shower for the first time during the trip (having buckets of boiling water dumped on your head at the Hammam doesn't count). We had to wake up early as Arnd was taking us on a "short walk" up the mountain to a scenic view-point of the city. Well, Arnd is a hiker and first came to Morocco on some sort of intense hiking trip. So a short walk for Arnd was a hike for the rest of us, and what's better than a hike at 7 in the morning? This is Morning-Gigi, remember. But the view from the top was nice, and we all sat on the overlook as Arnd read some insightful poetry and whipped out some cookies, (to appease us after our stroll up the mountain).

We then walked back down the mountain, grabbed our stuff from the hostel, and headed to the bus. Once we were all settled, (meaning out knees were crunched in a somewhat comfortable manner and the AC was finally on) Arnd surprised us with a breakfast of bread, cheese, figs, candied nuts, bananas, and "Yogurt - you can drink it!" We drove back towards the border, stopping once at a rest-stop where one of us, Dan, went outside to stretch his legs. Arnd thought he was lost and you should have seen how he jumped into action - apparently he really slows his pace for us cookie-munching Americans. Because our driver was Moroccan and not allowed to cross the border, we actually walked across the border and into Ceuta, a Spanish territory. After getting our passports stamped, we took taxis to the port, only to find that our ferry had been cancelled. We had about an hour to waste until the next boat, so we all went to the bar and ordered drinks (for me, a Fanta, because I'm cool like that).

We took the ferry back to Algeciras, while filling out Arnd's survey about "What we learned about ourselves on this trip." After landing we all said goodbye and Arnd said he was pleased about the Spanish custom of "kissing all the beautiful women" (remember the accent here). He started with me - awkward, but then all of us had to figure out what we were going to do for the six hours before our bus left for Madrid. Lizzie, Christine, Don, Julia, and I decided to take the 2 euro bus to Gibraltar and chill there for the afternoon. We tried to get to the British side, but it seemed really complicated, so we found a harbor on the Spanish side and stuck our feet in the Mediterranean. We got ice cream on the way back to the bus and when we got back to Algeciras, ate dinner at a kebab place. I had a chicken kebab pita thing, which was fantastic, and then we got bus to Madrid.

The bus ride was miserable - I hardly slept at all, but we got back to Madrid at about 5 am. The metros don't start until 6, so four of us girls who live fairly close together shared a taxi. After the taxi-driver got lost and charged us for his mistake (suspicious, I think) I finally got to Julia's at abut 5:45. I went upstairs and unlocked the door, but she had closed that lock that you fold over, meaning that I couldn't get in. Great. I was too scared to call her and wake her up at 6 in the morning, so I considered sleeping in the stairwell until 9 when Baquita arrived. But then Baquita would see me, tell Julia, and Julia would be mad that I didn't wake her up. So then I considered sleeping on the couches downstairs and setting my alarm for 8:30, at which point, I'd go walk around outside until Baquita showed up. I realized I couldn't do that, because Julia's neighbors would be going off to work and would wonder who that strange girl sleeping on the couches was. Next I considered sleeping in the park next door (when I played that thought back in my head, I realized it was a bad idea) and then considered riding the subway for three hours (until I realized that only homeless people do that). So I called Amanda, one of the students I took the taxi with, but her phone was off, so then I called Lizzie, who graciously allowed me to crash at her residencia and sleep in her bed while she studied for a test. I took the metro back to Julia's at 9, and didn't tell her a thing about the morning's escapade.

And that's the end of my Moroccan adventure! It was a really fantastic trip and I loved every second of it. I can't wait to get home and try my hand at Moroccan cooking, but for the real experience, I think I'll just have to go back!