Asleamu Aleikum Everyone,
This is going to be a relatively short post about last weekend, and then I will get to my post about the Eid holiday that we have just finished.
Last weekend was very relaxing, about 18 of us boarded a northbound train and headed to Assilah, a beautiful beach town located right on the coast. We had rented a traditional Moroccan house for the weekend.
After the three hour train ride, we arrived at the station to find only one small taxi (3 person) running people back and forth between the station and the Medina. A group of us decided to walk, and we made it most of the way before scoring another taxi to take us into town.
We made it to the house and we were all very impressed with how clean and well maintained the Medina was. There was no trash in the streets, no strange smells, just walls painted blues and reds, with intricate murals.
An interesting thing about Morocco as I have stated before is the diver languages here. The Spanish had colonized both the far north and the deep south of Morocco, and we were in the former Spanish part. That means very few people speak French, and Spanish is the language of tourists here. A constant flow of tourists from Spain (Only about 1.5 hours away) keeps the language alive in Assilah.
Friday night was quiet, we went to a nearby beach, just outside of the Medina, with not as much trash as usual. I thought the water was going to be cold, but I was surprised how warm it was and jumped right in. After returning back to the house we ate a delicious dinner of pasta and homemade tomato sauce.
Saturday was a much busier day, after eating lunch, a couple of groups broke off to do a few different things. A group of us decided we would go to a place called Paradise Beach, supposedly the place to be in Assilah, we flagged down a taxi driver who told us it would be 300MAD for him to drive us out there, and wait for us to finish and drive us back. A man who ran horse carriages across the street told us he could have it done for 150MAD. Naturally we decided on the horse carriage, but we did not get into one of the nice Cinderella looking tourist carriages, the man let out a loud whistle, and another man came galloping up, pulling his two wheel flatbed.
We all climbed aboard and held on for dear life as we traveled through the town, people laughing at us. It took a moment before I realized that the taxi driver was following us. The horse driver told me that the man was mad and had actually called the police because he felt cheated out of customers. As soon as he could the taxi driver passed us on the left, pulled around in front of us, perpendicular to the road, blocking all traffic. At this point the horse man told us to jump off and move fast, we took his advice and kept walking.
Eventually we passed a small group of kids around 12 years old playing soccer,as we were standing there asking a man for directions, the kids soccer ball kept getting closer and closer, before finally one of them kicked it very hard into one of the girls.
I grabbed the ball, thanked the man for the directions and we began walking again. It took a minute before the kids realized what I was doing. They ran up and asked for their ball back, and I explained that they could have it only after apologizing to the girl, the loudest of them kept denying it was him, but eventually apologized and I threw their ball in the other direction.
I thought this was the end of the incident until I realized they were following us, and we were walking into an unpopulated field. Then I saw something land next to us, and realized they were throwing rocks. They never got closer enough to actually hurt us, but it was a moment for alarm.
As we continued down the coast, we came upon a group of Moroccans jumping from the rocks into the ocean, we decided it looked like fun and headed down to join them.
After reaching the jump spot, I was a little nervous looking down and seeing the bottom in some places, and noticing the Moroccans would only jump the 20 feet down to the bottom after a wave had just come into the crevice.
After watching one of my friends jump, I decided it was safe enough and followed him in, and after a few more jumps from most everyone, we just hung out on the rocks for awhile, before deciding it was time to head back. After crossing what seemed to be an even muddier field and interacting with some not so friendly animals, we all had a fun, more American Saturday night then we are used to in this country.
We woke up Sunday morning to a cleaning lady telling us that the next tenants would be there in two hours, and she was there to prepare the house, this got everyone out of bed as a few people started to cook the massive breakfast we had prepared for. After eating people grabbed their stuff and headed for the train station. This is where we met our horse driver friend for the second time, after he galloped up and tried to take us to the train station for free. 8 of us hopped up into the cart and the horse had trouble even walking, but eventually the driver got him to gallop and we were on our way. It was a crazy ride, but a memory worth having.
We hopped on the train, where at first we had trouble finding a seat in second class, but eventually squeezed into a cabin with an older American couple who had interesting stories to tell.
I will post about Eid tomorrow
Selam,
Kevin
Arabic word of the Day
حصان- HeSahen- Horse
This is going to be a relatively short post about last weekend, and then I will get to my post about the Eid holiday that we have just finished.
Last weekend was very relaxing, about 18 of us boarded a northbound train and headed to Assilah, a beautiful beach town located right on the coast. We had rented a traditional Moroccan house for the weekend.
After the three hour train ride, we arrived at the station to find only one small taxi (3 person) running people back and forth between the station and the Medina. A group of us decided to walk, and we made it most of the way before scoring another taxi to take us into town.
We made it to the house and we were all very impressed with how clean and well maintained the Medina was. There was no trash in the streets, no strange smells, just walls painted blues and reds, with intricate murals.
An interesting thing about Morocco as I have stated before is the diver languages here. The Spanish had colonized both the far north and the deep south of Morocco, and we were in the former Spanish part. That means very few people speak French, and Spanish is the language of tourists here. A constant flow of tourists from Spain (Only about 1.5 hours away) keeps the language alive in Assilah.
Friday night was quiet, we went to a nearby beach, just outside of the Medina, with not as much trash as usual. I thought the water was going to be cold, but I was surprised how warm it was and jumped right in. After returning back to the house we ate a delicious dinner of pasta and homemade tomato sauce.
Saturday was a much busier day, after eating lunch, a couple of groups broke off to do a few different things. A group of us decided we would go to a place called Paradise Beach, supposedly the place to be in Assilah, we flagged down a taxi driver who told us it would be 300MAD for him to drive us out there, and wait for us to finish and drive us back. A man who ran horse carriages across the street told us he could have it done for 150MAD. Naturally we decided on the horse carriage, but we did not get into one of the nice Cinderella looking tourist carriages, the man let out a loud whistle, and another man came galloping up, pulling his two wheel flatbed.
We all climbed aboard and held on for dear life as we traveled through the town, people laughing at us. It took a moment before I realized that the taxi driver was following us. The horse driver told me that the man was mad and had actually called the police because he felt cheated out of customers. As soon as he could the taxi driver passed us on the left, pulled around in front of us, perpendicular to the road, blocking all traffic. At this point the horse man told us to jump off and move fast, we took his advice and kept walking.
Eventually we passed a small group of kids around 12 years old playing soccer,as we were standing there asking a man for directions, the kids soccer ball kept getting closer and closer, before finally one of them kicked it very hard into one of the girls.
I grabbed the ball, thanked the man for the directions and we began walking again. It took a minute before the kids realized what I was doing. They ran up and asked for their ball back, and I explained that they could have it only after apologizing to the girl, the loudest of them kept denying it was him, but eventually apologized and I threw their ball in the other direction.
I thought this was the end of the incident until I realized they were following us, and we were walking into an unpopulated field. Then I saw something land next to us, and realized they were throwing rocks. They never got closer enough to actually hurt us, but it was a moment for alarm.
As we continued down the coast, we came upon a group of Moroccans jumping from the rocks into the ocean, we decided it looked like fun and headed down to join them.
After reaching the jump spot, I was a little nervous looking down and seeing the bottom in some places, and noticing the Moroccans would only jump the 20 feet down to the bottom after a wave had just come into the crevice.
After watching one of my friends jump, I decided it was safe enough and followed him in, and after a few more jumps from most everyone, we just hung out on the rocks for awhile, before deciding it was time to head back. After crossing what seemed to be an even muddier field and interacting with some not so friendly animals, we all had a fun, more American Saturday night then we are used to in this country.
We woke up Sunday morning to a cleaning lady telling us that the next tenants would be there in two hours, and she was there to prepare the house, this got everyone out of bed as a few people started to cook the massive breakfast we had prepared for. After eating people grabbed their stuff and headed for the train station. This is where we met our horse driver friend for the second time, after he galloped up and tried to take us to the train station for free. 8 of us hopped up into the cart and the horse had trouble even walking, but eventually the driver got him to gallop and we were on our way. It was a crazy ride, but a memory worth having.
We hopped on the train, where at first we had trouble finding a seat in second class, but eventually squeezed into a cabin with an older American couple who had interesting stories to tell.
I will post about Eid tomorrow
Selam,
Kevin
Arabic word of the Day
حصان- HeSahen- Horse
No comments:
Post a Comment