Saturday, October 2nd

fountain at our hotel

Mediterranean Sea!!!

Saturday morning we had a wakeup call bright and early! To remind us why we were up so early (and eliminate all temptation of being grumpy – as neither Katy nor I are morning people), we blasted “This is Africa” by Shakira as we got ready. To let some light into the room, I opened the blinds and discovered that we could see the Mediterranean from our hotel window! So even though the cleanliness was nowhere near my standards, the view from our room certainly deserved a 4 star rating!

this guy scared the heck out of me!

We began our day eating breakfast at the hotel (rolls with jelly, coffee, and “orange juice” – that tasted more like Sunny Delight). We finished our breakfast and headed into the hotel garden to take pictures in the 10 minutes remaining, before the bus left! The garden was beautiful, with flowers and a huge fountain! :) Since we had a couple of minutes left, we decided to cross the street and head to the sea, since it was so close! We both collected sea shells and took some pictures, naturally. 

LOVE the decorations!!

At 9 am, we loaded the bus and began our tour of Tetuan, the city we spent the night in. We drove around some of the new section until we got to the historical portion of Tetuan. At this point we got out of the bus and walked around with our tour guide and our "local tour guide" (which was actually our sneaky body guard - he literally would just disappear and reappear in random spots.. we started playing Where's Waldo with the guy because we literally would think he was behind us and then we'd pass him!)

AFRICAN COKE!!!!

Tetuan street

We stopped for a potty and soda break in an adorable little restaurant. I loved all of the Moroccan tiles and architecture! 

got a problem?
there's an herb for that!

After walking around for a little bit longer, we stopped in a local medicine shop. The store only sells natural spices and remedies. It was a lot of fun because the main "pharmacist" gave us a lecture on what different plants are used for different medical issues. As he'd demonstrate/describe how to use a certain plant, he'd walk around and let us all smell the container. It was so fascinating! Katy and I bought this plant called eucalyptus which is basically like Vicks Vapor rub, but apparently a million times better (or so said the man that sold it to us.. haha!) Eucalyptus is used to better colds, help with asthma, the flu, and to stop people from snoring. We'll see how it works out.. I'm not even sure if we'll be able to take it through the US customs. Somehow I feel like saying I got it from the African Medicine Man might not fly (literally... get it? airplane? fly?), but we'll see. 

Lunch

After visiting the pharmacy, it was time for lunch! We were all starving from walking around so much, which proved to be a good thing, since once again we had some local food. Katy and I split a bottle of water to drink. To eat first we had a bowl of pureed soup. For course number two we ate rice with carrots, cucumbers, tomatoes, and other veggies. Since in Spain we normally eat two courses and then a dessert, Katy and I thought we were done eating, so the two of us got up to go to the bathroom. After our potty party, we both got henna tattoos for 3 euros. They were so pretty and the girl did them super fast! She even put on sparkles and wrote our names in the tattoos!!

henna tat

When we got back to our seat, we found another platter of veggies and some sort of meat. Of course I picked the worst piece of  “bone” and couldn’t get any meat off of it! Because everyone at my table just thought I was being stupid with the meat, Reid, a boy on the trip, offered to cut my food for me. Naturally, I let him (so I could prove everyone wrong). He couldn't get any meat off either, but selected a better chunk for me and proceeded to cut that as well!! It was hilarious!

caves of hercules

During this course, we had some entertainment. A man with a plate with lit candles on his head came in and danced around. There was also a belly dancer and a two separate trios of men playing music. Lots of fun! :)

After lunch, we walked to the tour bus to head to our next location: Caves of Hercules!! The caves were beautiful! We didn't have a lot of time there, but we could see the Mediterranean Sea from inside the cave! So pretty!!

Caves of Hercules

Next we went to ride the camels, the part of the trip I'd been looking forward to the most. WHAT A JOKE!!! First of all, the price was NOT included in our package like we'd been promised (it was only an extra 2 euros so I wasn't going to cry over it). Second of all, the darn camel ride was less than two minutes long. I seriously wanted to punch the agency that we booked through because they totally made it seem like we were going to be riding camels through the desert, not making a circle around our tour bus!! Oh well, it still was a fun experience to get on the camel! And it was so high in the air!!! I was terrified getting down because the camel was kind of jerky and didn't want to kneel down! I was like I'm not jumping down from here mister!!! 

Caves of Hercules

After the camel rides, we drove to Tangier, where our hotel was for the night. We had some free time before dinner, so Katy and I decided to first explore the hotel. We were super excited because it said there was a swimming pool on the roof. What it DIDN'T say was that the pool was closed for the winter and therefore empty of water and full of construction! It was so creepy up on the 8th floor! We couldn't get out of there fast enough! 

camel ride

Since our hotel failed to entertain us, we decided to walk around the city to the market our guide told us about. Either the market was a joke or we misinterpreted the directions, either of which is a great possibility! Either way, the market we found had more shampoo and bananas than scarfs and souvenirs, and more than enough creepy middle-aged men, so we left. On our way back to the hotel we stopped in an art museum (I knew my Grandmother would be proud). To clarify, we thought it was an art museum, but to be completely honest I'm not sure what it was! It had a lot of propaganda and I think all of the art work was trying to teach us a message about something. The message was lost to us though. Oh well, it was a fun little side trip.

Next to our hotel, Katy and I found a little bakery with all sorts of cakes and sweets. Being the sugar addicts we are, we each bought a dessert to split. I got this really yummy chocolate cake (kind of reminded me of a hostess cake) while Katy got a really nasty pistachio nastyness. Clearly she's disqualified from choosing our desserts from now on. 

Since we we still had just under 2 hours until dinner, and were fresh out of ideas for adventures, we each took a shower, blow dryed our hair, and did some homework. I know, I know. Homework in Africa should be a crime.. We watched The Matrix with Arabic subtitles if that makes it any better..

reading Dona Perfecta

Dinner was again in our hotel, and was about as delicious as the other meals. First we had the trendy pureed vegetable soup. Next we had french fries, "green beans" (the were nasty!), and fried fish. The fried fish was just so greasy, but I pulled off the breading and ate the fish by itself and that was pretty good. For dessert we had flan again. 

After dinner Katy and I crashed. We were so sleepy from walking all day, and our wakeup call was scheduled for 6 am!