A Birthday I'll Never Forget

Sorry its been so long since I have blogged. I knew it was a long time when both my dad and Ann Louise were looking for blog posts. Traveling has been incredible but it takes a lot of planning and is exhausting. I now understand how much time my parents put into planning our incredible family vacations. And I thought planning for a weekend was a lot. Mix traveling in with some school work that I suddenly have and I've been busy. haha.

Anyways. Over my birthday weekend, Abby Burns met me in Seville and then we travelled to Morocco for the weekend. What better way to spend a birthday than traveling to Africa with a great friend! Abby got to Seville on Thursday. It was so nice to catch up with her, especially since I haven't seen her since Oktoberfest! We spent Friday dinking around Seville then got on a bus to head to Morocco in the afternoon. After a long bus ride and a ferry across the Strait of Gibraltar, we arrived in Morocco. Had some couscous at our hotel for dinner and headed to bed. Tomorrow was going to be a long day.

Saturday, we had to wake up at 6:30! We went to the cave of Hercules, supposedly where Hercules lived. Then we rode camels! We were in a smaller group of about 25 people so we got to ride the camels down along the beach. It was so fun! Kinda, like riding a horse, but not quite. You had to hold on when the camels stood up! Also, some of them were not the friendliest and would make a growling noise.

Selfies with the camel

After riding camels we took a bus to the blue city, Chefchauen. We ate lunch at a restaurant called Aladdin. We took a tour through the city and got to see all of the really pretty blue doors and walls. Then we had some free time to explore the city and shop around. In Morocco, it is very common to bargain with the shopkeepers. It was not the easiest to say the least. It was one of the first times I had really bargained, usually momma fron helps me. Also, it was all in Spanish, so that was interesting. The artisans and shop keepers liked it though. It was like a game to them. My first bargaining experience was when I bought a blanket and I started bargaining with the guy and he was smiling and saying "change your number, change your number" and was so excited about it all. After some more bargaining, it started to get really cold and windy. Luckily we had all bought a bunch of pretty scarves that we bundled up in. We drove 3 hours back to our hotel for dinner again.

Pretty curtains in the medina

Sunday, I woke up in Morocco on my 21st birthday! Had some crepes and nutella for breakfast. Then we took a bus ride to Assilah. It's famous for an art festival where people create beautiful graffiti on the walls. We explored the city a little. It was really cool. Some of the graffiti was still left from the last art festival. 

"the road that joins us does not need maps"

Spending my birthday in Morocco was one I will never forget. It gave me a taste of Moroccan culture and I cannot wait to return to both Africa and specifically, Morocco.