Just Your Average Day Riding A Camel, In the Sahara

So Morocco was my fist and only overnight trip through Semester at Sea. I decided that I didn’t want to risk having a bad time or not feeling safe in the country so I chose to do the four day and three nights trip to Marakkech and Camel Trek in the Sahara. Immediately after the ship was cleared we got our stuff and headed to the buses and we were on our way to Marakkech. It was a three hour bus ride, that was wonderful. Our guide’s name was Jamal, and he was the youngest looking 28 year old I have ever seen. After we arrived in Marakkech we ate lunch a restaurant in the old medina (old city), where we had Chicken Tajine. A tajine is the thing they cook their food in and it’s what the dish is called as well. After lunch Mike, Alyssa and myself head out to the souks (markets) in the medina. We enjoyed perusing around and had a light dose of bargaining and we bought these cute hand painted bowls for ourselves but stopped there since we still needed to trek out to the Sahara. After about 25 minutes, it started to down pour, out of nowhere. Well not completely nowhere, seeing as we saw the nasty clouds but we thought they were going the other way. Needless to say, we were getting drenched and my camera was exposed so we ran under someone’s souk and they let us stay there until it died down. They gave me a plastic bag for my camera since I didn’t have a bad with me, they were really nice. Later my friends Vanessa and Alex came running up to us and they were DRENCHED. We stayed there for about 30 minutes and once it was done we ran to where the buses were thinking they would come early for us, but NOPE. Once we got to the buses we headed to our hotels and got ready for our dinner at 8:30, I am not used to eating that late anymore so it was hard. We went to this place we now call Fantasia because it was like the Morocco World that never made it to Epcot at Walt Disney World. It was a cool experience and we had couscous and other delicious foods. The next day we woke up early for our drive to the Sahara stopping for lunch along the way where I ate pigeon (it’s considered a delicacy in Morocco), and in my opinion, ONE LESS BIRD for Kate to be scared of ;). When we reached the camels we loaded up and trekked about an hour to our nomad camp which was much more than I expected.  It was beautifully decorated and all our tents were up. We watched the sunset and took fun pictures and then had dinner at 8:30 when the sun went down since it was Ramadan and we had to wait for them to eat which was cool. Then we continued to celebrate through out the night with the nomads in song and dance, and go to see the women make fresh bread and what not. We played games and chatted till around 1AM and then I rested my head on a pillow that was outside in one of the areas where we had dinner, since ther was a rather large bug in my tent when I  went to change. I bundled up and made sure my pants were tucked into my shoes and I covered me ears and wore a jacket no bugs for me thank you! The next morning we woke up for sunrise and hiked to the top of the hill and took more fun pictures then got on our camel and headed back for the buses. We drove again back to Marakkech and had that night on our own. Our tour guide decided to take us to a private restaurant in the medina and it was wonderful, we drove by the mosque and saw 40,000 people praying and then as we got off the bus, they all started walking towards the medina at once, it was an amazing experience to be a part of. We saw the celebration in the medina all night and it was awesome. I was definitely glad I decided to take up the offer my tour guide provided. The next day we woke up early and headed out to the souks again it was about a 35 minute walk and we spent the day shopping away at everything we knew we wanted to buy.  Then we headed out of Marakkech around noon back to Casablanca. I didn’t really spend much time in Casablanca I went to the wannabe souks they had just to get some last minute stuff I needed, and my sister’s tea since I couldn’t find it in Marakkech, but I was back on the ship by 12:30 and didn’t leave again as I didn’t really find Casablanca that great of place and it was a really far walk from the ship to the port gate. So I enjoyed laying out and hanging out instead. Overall I had the greatest cultural experience while in morocco hanging out with the nomads and the locals. Being a part of the Ramadan experience and learning all that I could about a country that is unified by their religion. It  is truly amazing to me how unified Morocco was as a country because of one religion, something very different from the United States where religion has torn our country apart. Congrats if you read through all of this!
Ashley

Even If You Are A Vegetarian?TRY THE HAM!

We arrived in Cadiz and I woke up the earliest I have ever woken up at 6am, watched the sunrise and our porting into Cadiz. I went out on a hunt with friends to get my bus ticket for Sevilla the next day. We ended up with some really bossy girls in our group who were too dumb to bring some currency with them or a debit card and the banks were closed, so of course it becomes our problem! Finally myself and Lindsay and Mackenzie split off from the pack and went walking around Cadiz by ourselves. It was such a cute little town and I enjoyed walking through the alleyway neighborhoods and seeing where they live and how they interact with each other. We ran into some of my other favorite girls on the ship, and took pictures with them by the beach and did a little shopping. We went back to the ship around 12:15 to eat lunch and then Lindsay was off to her tour. I then went out with Alyssa, Denim, Kristen, and one of my roommates Liz. We walk around some more and we had lunch with them but I dind’t eat and got some ice cream and then went back for Siesta time. Later I went out with a way too large group of friends and we probably walked a good 4-5 miles because someone said it wasn’t a far walk, and we were always almost there…NOT. Most people saw the down side of it, but I said “I’d rather be walking five miles in Spain, than in Thousand Oaks, or Indio”. I just didn’t understand how they didn’t appreciate being in Spain. Finally after three break offs from the group it was myself, Denim, and the two boys were following all night that led the group. We ended up hanging with the locals on a beach bar and walking along the beach. It was a really good night and I went to sleep at 3:30 AM and woke up 3.5 hours later for breakfast and getting to the bus station hoping my friend Sam who I convinced to come last minute with me could get on our bus that morning. So day 2 was our trip to Sevilla, we went by bus and got there around 11:30 and we walked around all day. We saw the Catedral, went up La Giralda and took pictures of all of Sevilla, then went to La Plaza de Espana, and el Palacio de San Telmo. I was exhausted and we headed back to our hostel, which was amazing because we could call home for free, free internet and breakfast and we paid 16 euro for the night. Later we went out to dinner and it took two restaurants to eat since the first one pretty much made us so uncomfortable we left, but the second was amazing and lots of fun. I didn’t go out because I was exhausted and went to sleep early and survived my first hostel ever which was a great experience. The next day we woke up and went and finished up with the Alcazar. It was beautiful! We spent about two hours there and it was so huge, I was so overwhelmed I just stopped taking pictures because they did not justice of the place. We finished the amazing garden which reminded me of so many movies with the extravagant gardens like the Secret Garden. We had tapas in the garden cafeteria and then headed out to catch our bus. While we waited for our bus though, there was a riot going on and it was really interesting to hear and see, and then it was also scary because the police were suited up and ready to shoot fire if necessary. A couple of hours later we got on our bus and headed back to Cadiz. That night Lindsay and I hadn’t seen each other in forever and we just wanted to hang out so we ate dinner on the ship and went out for Sangria and conversation. Then we ended up at a club and stayed out with the Spaniards till 5:30AM. The following day I walked around Cadiz shopping last minute with my roommates and then went off with this girl Corrin who was by herself and did my shopping. We got back on the ship by 4:15pm and on ship time was 6pm. I went up to the pool and tanned and got in the pool with my friends. All in all, Spain was amazing I can’t wait to go back.

Adios,
A-Ram