More Lessons Learned

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Post Lesson 1
I've been struggling with new ideas for blog posts and one presented itself by way of me learning several lessons about traveling in Morocco...lessons I should have learned my first couple of weeks.  But alas, the universe had other ideas.

This past weekend, I traveled to Chefchaouen, otherwise known as the Blue City.  First of all, IT'S SO BEAUTIFUL AND I CAN'T EVEN DESCRIBE HOW BLUE IT IS!

My friend Alyssa and I were supposed to head to Chef on Friday afternoon.  From past experience, the buses are rarely sold out if you get to the bus a couple hours before you're supposed to leave.  WRONG.  The bus was sold out, and there is no other way to get to Chef...so...we have to stay a night in Fez...Alyssa and I don't like Fez.  The harassment there is much worse than any other city.
Hiking buddy!
LESSON #1: BUY BUS TICKETS IN ADVANCE

So, we buy our tickets for the next day and then our return tickets from Chef to Fez and Fez to Ifrane, find a hostel in Fez...UGH, and make our way to the hostel called...the Funky Fez.  Not a bad place.  I recommend it to all who wish to travel to Fez at some point!

The next morning, we catch our bus to Chefchaouen and arrive in the city around noon.  ABSOLUTELY STUNNING!  This place is beyond anything I had imagined!  It's right in the valley of these huge mountains.  Gorgeous.

Chefchaouen
So, we find our hostel, check in, and go exploring.  We decided that we really wanted to hike up to the mosque because it looked so beautiful from down below.  First, we stopped for an orange and some mint tea and then continued on our way.

LESSON #2:  ALWAYS TRAVEL WITH A GUY

I say this because even though I have no problem traveling through Europe with a guy or even without other people, Morocco is a COMPLETELY different story.  We couldn't hike up to the mosque because of the amount of creepy and very high (Chefchaouen is the weed capital of Morocco) men on the path.  Some of them even followed us for a bit, so we decided that is wasn't worth it, and found another path on the other side of the mountain to climb.  (And don't worry Kirsten, I didn't smoke weed!  I was safe and smart about it all!  Besides...weed is technically illegal in Morocco...I wasn't about to get myself thrown in jail where you couldn't help me.)

So beautiful
The building looks like the sky
Other than the creeps, we enjoyed a very relaxing afternoon and found a decent dinner in town before retiring to our hostel.  Hostels, I have found, are wonderful destinations to meet young and old travelers!  We met some really nice guys from the US who were on Spring Break from their study abroad university in Barcelona.  They had been there a bit longer than us, so after we had talked for a few hours, they showed us around the medina in Chef.  It was so beautiful in the moonlight!  The walls looked almost purple in some places.  I wish my camera had been able to capture the image!
Yup..totes climbed that!
LESSON #3:  YOU CAN HIDE IN SHOPS AND RESTAURANTS FROM THE HARASSERS!

I already knew this one, but it's an interesting tidbit for any traveler!  Most shop keepers and waiters won't allow people to follow/harass you while you're in their shop.  Oftentimes you can just duck in anywhere to avoid the men who have no respect for you because you're a woman.  You'd think I'd be used to this by now...

Besides being two women by ourselves in the beautiful city of Chefchaouen, Alyssa and I had a wonderful time and caught our bus at 3:15 back to Fez!  It was the end of a most relaxing weekend...OR SO WE THOUGHT.

Just some street art
LESSON #4: NEVER EVER EVER TAKE THE LAST BUS FROM POINT A TO POINT B

Our bus from Chef was the last one to Fez that wasn't a night bus.  We were SUPPOSED to arrive in Fez between 7:15pm and 7:30pm, and our bus from Fez to Ifrane was SUPPOSED to leave at 8pm.  Do you catch what I'm throwing at you?

Chef
The bus from Chef was stopped by the police for a routine check...IT TOOK OVER AN HOUR FOR LORD KNOWS WHAT!  All I know is that they took all this food off the bus that it had picked  up at an earlier stop.  There are two possible scenarios that went down:

  1. The bus was illegally transporting such food because it doesn't have a license to do so since it's a passenger bus, and they got caught because one of the guys on the bus was trying to bribe the police                                                        OR
  2. The food that was taken off the bus as a bribe because the bus was transporting weed
Take it as you will...I don't actually know what happened, but it all seemed pretty fishy to me! Haha!

My cute travel buddy!
Anyway, we finally got to Fez at about 8:30

LESSON #5: CHECK THE BUS SCHEDULE TO MAKE SURE THAT YOUR NEXT BUS ISN'T RUNNING LATE AS WELL

More street art
Alyssa and I did NOT do this because we just assumed that we had missed our bus (we hadn't), so we automatically tried to find a grand taxi to take us back to school.  WE FOUND ONE!  And made it back to school safe and sound.    الحمد لله

Moral of the story: No matter how much you travel, something always creeps in to teach you a new lesson...for five.  It's all about the experience and rolling with the punches. Since being in Morocco, I've gotten much better at letting things happen and not letting them get to me as much as they would have back home.  I've grown as a person, and at the end of the day, that's all anybody can really ask for.
Such a beautiful city!