Salam, labas? (Hello, how are you?)

Well, it’s been quite a while since I’ve updated my blog, and for good reason. I was kinda in Africa for a week, so I think that’s as good an excuse as any. But anyway, the trip was pretty much INCREDIBLE.

It started out not last Friday but the one before, when we met for the bus insanely early to head to the Strait of Gibralter, where we took a ferry across the water to Morocco. After we got to shore, we exchanged money and then headed to the capital city, Rabat. We had lunch and a short tour of the city, where we saw the sister of the Tower of Giralda (which is in Sevilla), a mosque, and some other sites that I zoned out for since I was really tired from getting up early.

After the tour, we kept driving to the city of Fez, where we spent the night before heading on to the Sahara Desert the next day. Along the way to the Sahara, we made a quick stop at a forest where we got to see wild monkeys!! They were soooooo cute. Some people were able to get close enough to feed them. I didn’t try, though.

We kept driving until we got to a hotel where we picked up a bunch of jeeps to drive farther into the desert, since the busses couldn’t go any farther. My jeep was pretty fun because our driver decided not to follow the road like the other jeeps, and instead took all these back roads (except ‘roads’ is a bit of a stretch for the word) through the desert.

After nearly an hour of driving, we finally got to our hotel, which was basically paradise. Literally. It was the most amazing hotel I have ever stayed at, and actually, Angelina Jolie stayed there before. I like to think she stayed in my room.

Dinner was pretty amazing too, they had this huge party for Laura and this other girl since it was their birthdays, so they played the drums and had cake and sang and everything.

The next day we got up and took a walk to a nearby town, and then in the afternoon we took camels into the desert where we stayed the night. That was pretty fun, except the camels are a bit painful to ride. Before dinner we climbed this HUGE dune, that took us nearly an hour to ascend, but it was soooo worth it because we had an amazing view of the sunset.

After riding back in the morning, we took the bus back to Fez, and the next day we went into the old section of the city, called the Medina. This is the part that is surrounded by the old walls to protect it, and there are more than 9,400 little streets, so it is very confusing. We walked around for a while, went shopping (where you have to barter for everything), and saw some sites.

The next day we finally headed back to good old Sevilla. It was SUCH a long drive, we broke it up by stopping in a small town called Assilah along the way, but it still seemed like forever and I didn’t get back to my room til past 1 am. And that was Morocco. In a few days, I’ll post some more info about Semana Santa and the awesomeness that is Sevilla. But meanwhile, M’a ssalama! (Goodbye!)