2 continents, 3 countries, 4 days

I have never smelled so many different scents in so few minutes. With each step I took through the Medina of Tetuan, Morocco, I felt like I was going further and further back in time. The Medina is the oldest part of the city, where the streets are the smallest and you feel like you are in a labyrinth of food and spices and smells. One of the neatest parts of the day was when we heard the call to pray, ringing out from the little mosques in all corners of the Medina. But, it wasn't a bell or a clock tower striking. It was more like a monotone cry that almost sounded like the voices were electronic. The sounds of these men traveled through the market from whichever mosque they were occupying. Many of the men stop what they are doing to gather 5 times a day on the old Persian rugs, leaving their shoes at the door behind them, just to pray.
We started the trip by driving down the coast of Spain. Then we got in a boat and traveled across the water from Europe to Africa. The first city was Ceuta, which is still in Spain but on the continent of Africa. It was beautiful. It is basically a little strip of land that sticks out from the continent and is surrounded by water. You have the option of swimming in the Atlantic ocean or the the Mediterranean Sea. It was really cool to stand on the land and look to my right to see one body of water and to my left to see the other.
Next, we crossed the border to enter Morocco and drove to Tetuan. The view from the hotel was spectacular. The mountains we were facing were called elephant mountains (or something like that...) because one of the mountains kind of looks like an elephant. :)
Tetuan was where I tried my first Arab tea at a tea salon. The tea is drenched with sugar and floating mint leaves. During this experience, I was surrounded by men. It is very rare to see a woman out at night. Even during the day, I was one of the few women without my head covered.
The Medina was filled with little trinkets to buy and different types of dried fruits and nuts and other foods to eat. The streets were so filled with people that at some points we couldn't move. Every corner led to another corner which led to another corner and every hole in the wall was a window or a door of someone's house. People actually live that closely packed together. Above the streets were hanging sheets, I suppose to protect from rain or sun and the ground held stray cats and garbage.
I was met with the same feelings when we entered the Medina in Tanger the following day. It didn't feel quite as old or packed with people but the size of the streets were the same. The Medina in Tanger led us to this amazing lookout point where you could see the Northern coast of Africa and look over at the city of Tarifa. We also stumbled across a small tea room where about 7 or 8 men were about to gather to play some music and have some tea. (In Morocco, there is absolutely no alcohol.) We were fortunate enough to be invited into this tea room to listen. The walls and floors were covered in Persian rugs and instead of tables, there were spokes in the ground to hold up the tea. The music was wonderful and some of the instruments, I had either never seen before or only seen in my music history text book. On the wall were written words in Arabic for one of the songs/chants and they played very lengthy tunes without any music at all.

The rest of that night was filled with tasting some of the Moroccan food and being surrounded during dinner by people watching the Barcelona soccer game. (Barcelona won, of course.) There was also some souvenir shopping and chasing sheep down the tiny streets to try to get a picture.


The next day we crossed back over to Europe and then crossed the border into another country. Although Gibraltar is located in the Southern part of Spain (Andalucia), it is British territory. My dream of someday seeing and walking on the Rock of Gibraltar was finally fulfilled. :)
There were monkeys roaming around freely, climbing on the cars and stealing people's food.
Another wonderful moment was driving to the southern most point of Europe to see the lighthouse.

I think one of the coolest aspects of the trip was to be able to clearly see the influence of the Arab culture that was left behind, all throughout Andalucia, after they were forced to leave that area. I have been living in an area of Spain where much of the original Arab architecture still remains. The old tiny streets, the patios decorated with flowers, the walls lined with tile.... These things may appear to be very "Spanish" but actually came from the Arab influence. Even in a now English city, sits a Mosque, seeming to be out of place in front of the famous "Rock of Gibraltar" and the modernity of the city, but instead is untouched and still used.