Carnival, when I turned 21 in Espana!

On Monday I turned 21 and I headed to Cadiz, Spain the Friday before to celebrate. We left right after class, no point in wasting time, and caught a train to Tangier. The first leg of our journey and only one of many forms of transportation. By the time we reached Cadiz at 11 that night we had been traveling for over 12 hours by train, taxi, boat, and bus. We also somehow took a free bus about an hour out of our way upon arrival in Tarifa. Mashi Mushkil, we made it to Cadiz safe and sound and met some friendly and helpful American travelers along the way. My friend Leah, one of the girls I was traveling with, has an uncle who lives in Cadiz and he graciously invited us to stay with him for the weekend. He met us at the bus stop and walked us to his flat nearby. I should tell you one of the main reasons we decided to go to Cadiz this weekend was for their annual Carnival, one of the most famous in Spain. Cadiz Carnival is a two week long fiesta in the streets of Cadiz in which the entire city, and more, come to celebrate, drink, dance, sing, and above all dress up. The carnival, and Cadiz in general is known for it's witty, satirical costumes and singing groups. These groups practice all year long and go through many contests to make it carnival where there are groups performing in hilarious costumes on ever street corner and on stages in all the plazas. So this was the atmosphere of our weekend.

The night we arrived was just before carnival began, everyone was at home watching the Carnival groups perform on tv. We relaxed at the flat looking at all of uncle tim's very Beatles-esque old pictures and listening to music. Uncle tim is british as is all of Leah's family.

Leah and I were given birthday challenge books from our friends with a place for a before and after picture and a list of 21 challenges to complete before the weekend ended. They included things like, "ride a moped", "get a group of people to sing Happy Birthday", "steal an item of clothing", "convince someone you're famous" and "convince someone it's your 30th birthday". So at about midnight Tim led us to a bar that he apparently frequents quite often and we spend the rest of the night there watching the singing contest on tv, giving arabic lessons, meeting random Americans, running behind the bar, stealing hats and face masks, and playing hand clapping games. We didn't get home until 5 am in true Cadiz Carnival fashion and only after stopping at a stand for some patatas fritas.

Saturday was the first full fledged day of Carnival but the real festivities didn't begin until night time. So in the morning Uncle Tim took us on a walk around Cadiz in the daylight.

The streets near his flat are narrow cobblestone, bright and colorful and filled with mopeds and fast talking Spaniards. In the plazas children were dressed up in all sorts of costumes and seemed to be involved in contests. We walked down to the beautiful beach and ate lunch there. It was here that I ate seafood and it was pretty delicious. I decided to make an exception for the weekend because really Cadiz is all about seafood so what could I do but experience the culture :) We walked through some parks, passed some beautiful churches, and got some ice cream before heading home for a siesta. We went back out later around 6 and the plazas were filling up with people dressed in crazy costumes with their bags of alcohol in tow. We got our gypsy costumes on at home and ate some frozen pizza and again didn't leave the house until midnight for the Spanish plaza.

It was there or around there that we stayed the rest of the night getting into all sorts of shenanigans. I somehow found a friend from home who is studying in Cadiz so we tagged along with her for a bit. I met some Spaniards headed for San Francisco and had a long talk with them and I accomplished at least 5 of the challenges off my list.

Sunday was slow to start but once we got moving costumes and glitter were on and we were ready to go. I dressed as a butterfly complete with glittery antennae and yellow wings. Everyone was out in the streets and crowded into restaurants.

We joined in walking around and trying to get food. At one point it started pouring rain so everyone hid in doorways until it let up. Later we found some more seafood and basically just wandered around with the locals. We headed back for a short siesta then back out on the streets. We walked across town to the water with uncle Tim in search of a firework show only to find that it was the completely wrong place and they had moved the fireworks for the first time in forever.We got some bocadillo de tortilla instead and walked once more across town. At midnight it was my birthday so we jumped up and down and ended up at a really great statue complete with fake fire. After that uncle Tim took us to yet another bar but we were pretty much dunzo so we headed to our traditional patatas fritas stand before retiring for the night at an early 3 am.

I woke up Friday not feeling exactly older. We had a full day of travel ahead. All went smoothy once again. We got to cut out the bus as uncle Tim drove us to Tarifa and we had a quick lunch there before catching the ferry. In Tangier we had a moment to grab a Tolberone and caramel Mcflurry from McDonalds, the only purchase I will be making there. I finally got into Rabat at 9:30 after a loooong day of traveling. To make my birthday complete I had a phone date with my dad and grandparents, a skype date with my boyfriend, and a skype date with my mom in which she gave me flowers, a happy birthday sign and a fruit tart! Thanks lovely friends and family for making my birthday wonderful and loving and something I will never forget!

Here comes the sun

Last Friday afternoon I found myself crammed up against the train window. All the Harry Potter like compartments were already full. It was a good chance to see the beautiful green scenery zooming by outside. We passed expansive valleys, farms, and small villages.

We arrived in Meknes just after sunset and found a grand taxi to take us the last 30 minutes of the journey to Moulay Idriss. The drive through the valley was pitch black except for the small splattering of lights in the villages, but it just so happened to be a full moon and the largest full moon I think I've ever seen. A friend of ours, Feysal, picked us up and led us to his guest house we would be staying in for the weekend. The guest house that is the equivalent of a bed and breakfast was set deep in the winding alleys of the medina. It was three stories of 450 year old beauty. It was impeccably decorated, a lounge room on each floor, hot water bottles on each bed, a kitchen and dining room for cooking, and a roof terrace.We dragged ourselves away from the beautiful home and headed to the main road for dinner. At 9:30 at night there were still crowds of people milling around and eating and having tea at all the "barbeque" stands. We sat down at one and ordered which mean me telling him that I didn't want meat which he amazingly understood and even identified as vegetarian and the others saying meat was fine. We had no idea what to expect out of the meal. The meal turned out to be the tastiest mixture of spices and veggies ever, and I heard from the other that the Kefta was to die for. We returned to the guest house and sat on the rooftop admiring starry sky before all falling asleep to a movie.

Saturday we woke up to homemade breakfast of a smorgasbord of all the best Moroccan breads with bowls of cheese, butter, honey, and oil for dipping. We all enjoyed steaming cups of real, strong coffee.

We headed out to wander around the saint village. The town was alive with people and we decided the best way to describe it was a buzzing town. We walked through many windy alleys and eventually found two young boys who lead us around showing us some of the great view points of the city and the beautiful mosque of Moulay Idriss. I found myself feeling more comfortable than I have felt anywhere so far. The boys who showed us around didn't ask for money and virtually no one harassed us. The day was also beautiful and we enjoyed breathtaking views. For lunch we went to the marketplace and where we gathered fresh vegetables, oranges, olives, dates, bread, cheese, herbs, and even some cactus fruit. We went back to the guest house cooked up some veggies and herbs and made sandwiches then packed it all up and headed for hike to Volubilis. Once we had climbed a steep incline and made it out of town everything was quite and peaceful around us. We passed high cliffs with caves, shepherds herding their sheep, and olive groves. It felt very surreal. At Volubilis, the roman ruins I have already visited we found ourselves a spot overlooking the green valley in front of us and ate our picnic lunch. After a few hours and the desecration of the mosaic below us by the olive that fell, we moved to a new spot to watch the sun set. And set it did, I found myself taking a picture every few seconds of the beautiful sky setting on the roman ruins.

A friend drove over to pick us up at take us back to Moulay Idriss.

Once we were back it was straight to the kitchen again and started sautéing, cutting, peeling, cooking all to the tune of the Beetles which we all sang along to at full volume. In the end we had produced homemade marinara sauce and some pasta.

The result was pure bliss. The rest of the evening was spend on the roof talking for hours and looking at the stars, watching American History X for the first time (SO good!), more time on the roof re-briefing after a hard-hitting movie, and cuddling in bed while Hila made us take personality tests. It was a night well spent with friends until the wee hours of the morning.

We woke early-ish the next morning to another wonderful breakfast on a rainy day. February 20, was to be the big day of protests in Morocco and with everything in North America that has bee going on, no one knew what to expect.

We didn't even know how to feel about the days upcoming events getting so many mixed messages. Our program had advised us to be back in Rabat by Saturday night in case travel was made difficult by protests, but did we listen? no. As we headed into the stormy day in Moulay Idriss nothing seemed different. We stuffed into a grand taxi with a total of 7 people and zoomed crazily to Meknes. Our taxi driver was definitely making some risky moves in and out of cars, passing on blind turns all in the rain. It's Africa! Needless to say we arrived in Meknes quite happy to make it out of the taxi and just a little car sick. We spent about an hour wandering looking for the train station and in the meantime passed two small protests didn't look like much. We almost immediately got on a train to Rabat and settled into an apartment with a small Moroccan family. We even talked to them a little about the protests, they thought that they were crazy and chose not to take any part in them. This time we actually got our own Harry Potter style compartment.

We had heard that the protests had moved from Bab-alhed to Parliament which happens to be right by the train station, so we braced ourselves. Outside the sun was shining and a large crowd of peaceful protesters were gathered. Some were chanting, some waving signs, others were just lounging on the grass. The little police and military I saw around were either sleeping or talking animatedly with protestors. A larger group of men were praying and there were food venders out taking advantage of the crowds. Basically normal life was going on around it all. No one seemed angry and it was a beautiful display of people exercising their rights. In a few other cities thing there was minor violence but often it involved looting and destruction of property that was not connected to the protests. I headed home feeling excited feeling that Morocco is such a unique place and that at least for now, isha'allah, the revolution in much of the arab world would stay clear of Morocco.