On Moroccans and Cataluña

by dmottier

Hombre ! Cuanto tiempo, eh ? Por lo menos tres semanas, no. Pues, lo siento amigos, es que I’ve been caught up learning convenient Spanish expressions…

Okay, but in all seriousness, it’s been too long since I’ve paid this blog a visit and I have plenty of stories to share with you. So, here it goes.

Let’s rewind to a couple of weeks ago; the 20th of February to be exact. That was the day I left for Morocco. The week leading up to our trip was hectic. Well, let me rephrase that… the week would have been a walk in the park at Stetson, but was hectic for a study abroad student. I had two midterms, a paper and probably something else due for Medio Ambiente; all in Spanish of course. In retrospect, it really wasn’t too bad. It’s just, I’ve been getting used to traveling on the weekends, you see, and not having “major assignments” to worry about during the four days I’m in school. But, I survived.

Soleil and I didn’t go to Morocco with the Stetson/Marist crew, we decided to signup through European Vibe with some friends from another program. We went in with no expectations, other than knowing we got a major deal with SO much included. We were instructed to meet at Plaza de España at 23h00, where a bus would take us to Tarifa (southern tip of Spain. Takes a normal person 6 hours to get there from Madrid by car). 171 of us, accompanied by some “coordinators,” were crammed into three private buses and ready to go by midnight. Soleil and I made sure to wear ourselves out that day so we could sleep on the bus, which ended up being a complete mistake when they told us we were required to stop every two and a half hours for an unnecessarily long amountof time. To put it lightly, by the second break each and every one of us wereregretting signing up for this “weekend of a lifetime.” The ferry in Tarifa was scheduled to leave at 9am on the dot and we arrived to the port at 9h02. The next three and a half hours were spent wondering the city and visiting the castle, something that would have been more enjoyable had I slept. To be completely honest though, after all of us got over our crankiness and stepped onto the ferry to Tangier, we had completely forgotten how long it had taken us to get there. Something about crossing continents on a giant boat filled with a bunch of new friends made it hard not to be happy.

Soleil and I in Tarifa, Spain

Most people in the northern part of Morocco speak (in order of fluency) Arabic, French, English and Spanish; so with Gabe and I’s French (Soleil and I’s roommate for the weekend) our group had three of those languages down. Since we were running behind schedule the buses took us straight to the beach to ride Camels. The water was beautiful, with burt orange sand resembling clay. I was surprised though… Camels are dirtier than I though they would be. I mean, I didn’t expect them to be shiny and groomed like a pet dog, but they sure do find a way to lather as much dirt on them as possible. And the sound they make left Soleil and I close to peeing our pants (check her Instagram to hear it: soleilmershon). The ride wasn’t long, just a little stroll along the water, but we all looked like fascinated little children climbing onto those awkward looking creatures. 

After the Camel ride we payed a visit to Hercules Caves (Les Grottes d’Hercule) which are considered something of a symbol for Tangier, with their strange sea window, shaped like a map of Africa. It was beautiful to see and hear the waves crashing beneath us, somewhat peaceful after a tiring journey across continents.

The rest of our time in Africa was spent haggling with or ignoring the Morrocans that cluttered the narrow roads, crying from laughing so hard at either the Morrocans or each other, eating mysterious curry chicken on a plate we were convinced hadn’t been washed, asking the waiter for the check in three different languages and some how still having trouble communicating, and spending our hotel free time having deep conversations and making toasts to our new friendships.

Determined hagglers

Spice Factory in Tangier (and Noah getting a massage)

My trip to Morocco was definitely one for the books. I’ll never forget our new friend Achmed in Asilah who attempted to impress us with his one-of-a-kind artwork on cardboard paper “space case, case space.” Or the haggler who was so desperate he almost took the 20 pence I had in my jacket pocket in exchange for a toy Camel instead of the 30 dirham he was originally asking for. And even though our night at the “club” started off feeling like an uncomfortable high school dance, we turned it into one of the nights I’ll most definitely remember from my trip abroad (if you know Noah Turrett, ask him how cold the Ocean was in Morocco that night).

Some of the crew

Though I could go into much further detail about our Moroccan adventure, I’ll spare you the time and move on to talk about my trip to Barcelona.

Barcelona is obviously nothing like Morocco, and our journey there was a bit easier as well. Soleil and I took the AVE (high speed train) and dozed off comfortably for a short two and a half hours. We took a taxi directly to Alex’s tienda, Antonio Miro. Alex is one of my dad’s best friends who used to live in Aspen and worked at Gusto & Campo De Fiori with my dad. He was nice enough to let Soleil land I crash at his pad on Thursday night, so after a warm greeting and a tour of his super hipster work we freshened up at his even more hipster apartment. Alex took us to a place called Microteatro, which apparently is big in Madrid and Miami as well. It’s a cool concept- you go into a little lounge-y restaurant/bar and pay a few euros for a 15 minute show. They take you to a room that’s the size of most American bathrooms and you sit on stools edging the corner of the room. The room is set up according to the story (the first one we went to was a girl’s dorm room) and there’s two characters that act out a scene. You’re basically sitting in on a scene from a TV show, just super 3D and way funnier. Afterwards we went to a fancy bar that very much resembled the Caribou Club in Aspen. We didn’t stay long- Alex just wanted to show us the bathroom that had a DJ was covered in mirrors. To end the night we went to a mellow bar and watch some acoustic guitarists play 30 minute shows- all ranging from Spanish classics to Bob Marley.

Our room at Alex’s apartment

Our hip friend showing us the town

The perfect tour guide

Friday we ate breakfast at a place called Brunch and Cake… all I can say about it is go if you’re ever in Barcelona. We ate there everyday that weekend. Friday and Saturday we stayed with Soleil’s friend from High School, Juliana. Her apartment is on the same street as Alex’s, and even closer to Brunch and Cake, so we were in heaven. Juliana was our tour guide for the day. We walked through las Ramblas, got fresh juice at the Bocharía market and wondered over to Port Olympic. We grabbed some food and wine at La Fonda (highly recommended- 10 euros for a 3 course meal) and met up with my “cousin” Tyler for some more exploring. We saw some interesting people on the beach, including a nude man posing for everyone to see (mind you, it was not warm enough to even be in shorts that day). On our way back home we past a restaurant where Johnny Depp casually sat deep in thought. If I were to ask you how you picture Johnny Depp looking while drinking a coffee, that’s exactly how I saw him. Legs crossed with his elbow resting on it, pointer finger under his lower lip making a distinct I’m-pondering-about-life look, glasses lookin stylish, hair all swoopy… as you can tell that’s all we talked about for the next five minutes. That night we shared spectacular tapas and many laughs with Tyler, Andrew Goldberg and their friend Josh followed by some clubbing, Spanish style.

So nice to see Tyler

Saturday was spent visiting Gaudí sites and Park Guëll, a home cooked meal, and watching everyone dressed up for Carnival stumble down the sidewalks (Mardi Gras times 10). Sunday morning we accompanied Juliana to a spinning class at her gym, which is way more fun in Spanish by the way. After a work out and a long steam we ate one last meal at Travel and Cake (same owners as Brunch and Cake) and said our farewells. We finished off our trip with dessert at a funky cafe with Alex and headed on home.

Both weekends were incredible. We made so many new friends and caught up with some old ones. I got a taste of home when I saw Tyler, Goldberg and Alex and I even found out about some new cultures…which is the point of studying abroad, right?

To spare you the time, I’ll tell you about last weekend in the next post.

Un abrazo muy fuerte a todo… now off to Amsterdam.
-D