Make Time: Chefchaouen, Morocco

I get to the bus station in Tangier via cab from my hotel - cost me about $1. Everything in Morocco is so cheap, which is a great change from my time in Europe. I buy a ticket on a 10:30am bus, which will get me into Chefchaouen about 1:30pm. Cool. I sit down because I have a bunch of time, and I watch people come and go. Always such a treat to watch people in such a foreign place - you learn so much in the details of everyone's movements and interactions with other people. Smiles. Nods. High fives. Shady looks. Suspicious character. It's all there if you look closely enough. I see a bus pull in from the same company which I'm taking, and I ask the head guy about this and he says for me to wait a second. I stand near him for a minute and then notice a European or American girl sitting next to me. I say hello and ask if she speaks English, and she says she's from Oregon. Ha. Nice. Her name is Morgan and she's in her junior year at Columbia University in NYC. Great school. Smart girl. Morgan and I talk a bunch about Morocco and our travels, and I find out she is studying in a smaller town in France for the semester. Very cool. As we sit on the bus a younger Moroccan dude gets on with a very stylish coat and hairdo, and he sits behind us and starts chatting us up. He's very into fashion and loves US culture, so we talk for about an hour about all things in the US from religion to movies to government. Very interesting insights from this young kid, and it's fun to talk with him. I forgot his name, but he gets off about an hour into our trip in the town of Tetouan, where he is still studying. For the next two hours I sleep a bunch and then we pull into the small mountain town of Chefchaouen around 1:45pm. Nice. Very small bus station. I exchange contact info with Morgan and we say we'll meet up later to have dinner at a spot that the Moroccan kid on the bus recommended. Nice. I head to where the cabs are and get in a van cab. As I get in and pull my things in I then notice both side doors open and one Moroccan guy gets in on the left side and one on the right side - squeezing me in the middle. Um - ok. There is another Moroccan guy in the passenger seat, as well as the driver, so I'm the one white dude in a Moroccan cab with four Moroccans. Random. I ask the driver how much and he says $20 dirham, which is the Moroccan currency. Everyone told me that cabs are $10 dirham, so I tell him that's what I will pay. He says nothing. We roll up the hill. We drop off two of the random Moroccans halfway up the hill and then it's just three of us. I talk a little with one of the guys but he's basically a hustler so I don't waste too much energy. We get to the top point and the guy again says 20 dirhams. Nope - I said 10 dirhams from the beginning. He then says ok 15, and so I settle on giving him 12 dirhams and call it a day. That's still just under $2 US so it's not a big deal - more the principle of the matter. I get out and am right at the edge of the medina of Chefchaouen, with a river running right next to me and a huge rocky mountain jutting up behind the city. Absolutely beautiful. Tons of Islamic dressed women and men all around me. As I walk into town I have my GPS set for my AirBnB location, and I find it very easily. The first thing that's easy to notice (and harder to miss) is that the entire town is painted blue from the doorways downward. You'll see it in my pictures, but it's both a light and electric blue color which you see on all the stone walls, doors, windows, and anything in eye level. These color blues happen to be my favorite colors, so I'm in heaven. I get to my little apartment and there are a bunch of kids playing soccer - very cute. I buzz a few times and then a kid, about 25, comes running up the steps behind me and introduces himself as Mehdi. This is who I was told to look for, so I'm glad to see him and he quickly shows me inside. The apartment is three floors - each very ornately decorated with tiled walls and each floor has a very cool chill out room with a couch running the perimeter of the room. Almost all living rooms in Morocco have this couch along the outside. I heard about the history of this from a guy at my hotel in Tangier: apparently the families used to live in this one living room, so everyone would sit and then sleep on this couch along the perimeter of the room. Love the vibe and the look - very relaxing and communal. My room is simple but quant, and then I check out the second floor and up to the rooftop - complete with an outside kitchen and amazing views of the town and the mountains around the city. Home. Feels great. I tell Mehdi that I want to take a bus back to Tangier tomorrow and he says he will jump on his motorbike and go get me the ticket. Wow. Good service. He runs off and about 20 minutes later he hands me my ticket back to Tangier for tomorrow (Saturday) at 10am. What a great way to start my time here in Chefchaouen!! Mehdi takes off but not before giving me some suggestions on where to go and what to do.

I walk out the front door and pass the kids still playing soccer - head through the main street of the medina area of the city, and just stroll. The blue walls and doors are absolutely mesmerizing. So majestic and beautiful. I love this place instantly. A few guys ask me for hash, which is apparently a huge reason a lot of tourists come here, but I decline respectfully. Really not interested. I check out some artists and then come upon this guy dressed in a blue robe and a huge turban with a cloth around it as well. He speaks impeccable English and I talk to him a bit outside his store about where I'm from and why I'm in this town. He's from a Berber community near Fes, but he's been coming here to Chefchaouen for 8 years. Berber's are nomadic people of the desert - very tough and known for being very spiritual. He takes me into the store and shows me the jewelry and blankets that he and his family have made (supposedly). He plays a guitar-like instrument for me which is very cool to watch and hear. I then think of my sister Rictavia, who's birthday was in May, and how she said she'd love a piece of jewelry that she can just throw on and not worry about - a day-to-day piece. I see a very cool white/blue-ish bracelet which almost glows, and I ask about it. He says it is made of moon-stones, which are harvested from the desert, and they kind of glow in the dark. Very cool. I negotiate him down a bit and then I buy the bracelet, but not before recording a video of him explaining the stones. Check it out here :) I walk away from him and wander for about another half hour - taking pictures and meeting nice people. Finally I get a little hungry and so I stop in a little restaurant and order some couscous, which is the specialty of this town. Very good - pic below. As I'm sitting there I notice a small man with the traditional Islamic robes come sit next to me, and then there are others sitting around him. As people pass by they either come kiss his hand or pat their hearts as they greet him. I'm guessing he is a very wise or religious figure. He seems very simple and monk-like. I like his demeanor. As I'm sitting finishing my meal I look up to see Morgan walking bye. HA! Nice. We talk and then walk through the city for a few hours. Checking out some stores, the river, a cafe, and then end up walking up towards the mountain. We end in this cool grassy area to watch the sunset. Such an amazing way to end the daylight of this second day in Morocco. Morgan is a very cool girl and so we enjoy just hanging out and having goofy fun and talking about culture and life. We meet a few locals who pass by as they are watching the sunset as well. Good vibes. After the sunset we head to my apartment so I can grab a sweatshirt and then we can head to dinner. We're planning to head to the main square in the medina, where I've had two people recommend. On our walk we pass bye an art studio which looks amazing - very deep blues with great shading in the images and scenes. We walk in and see it is both a gallery and a restaurant. The owner comes up and smiles and says hello. I ask him if he can help us get to the restaurant we are trying to reach, and he says he is doing a cooking class with a few Australians, and that we can always stay here and get a more authentic experience. Wow. Nice. We walk into the kitchen and there are two very sweet Aussies drinking and hanging out - James and Lara. Funny - I had heard from Mehdi that there were a few Australians staying in the other room of my house, so I randomly ask if they are the same people and to my surprise YES they are. Ha. I come to this town and randomly walk into a gallery to find the same people staying in my apartment. Classic. I love these chance encounters. Me and Morgan settle in and have some drinks and watch as some other guys prepare the food. They are cooking a big salad and couscous with chicken and veggies. Looks and smells amazing. There is a little dog walking around named Jolie - very cute and nice to have around. We drink, laugh, tell jokes, and just have a blast the entire night. There are three girls from another town in Morocco who are there as well. They have been in Chefchaouen for about a year studying, and they will continue for another year. Very nice girls, and they are actually sitting studying for a test they have tomorrow. Funny. They love our English-speaking humor, and we all laugh for a long time. Eventually the food comes out and it is UNREAL. So authentic and great. Everything is family-style - you don't even get your own plates. Love this. As we are eating another guy walks in, and I find out that he's from Montreal and he met the owner (and randomly the Aussies) earlier in the day. He's a play director in Montreal but he travels the world to direct and help work on different plays. Very cool guy. Also, randomly very tall. We all laugh and have a great time talking about our travels and different jokes we share. The owner of the place asks us if we would all like to do a 2 day trip into the mountains to see more of the remote areas outside of the city. Very cool. I'm totally in, but the others are a bit slow to respond. Meanwhile the owner of the place is completely drunk and he just keeps asking us if we want to go out to the woods. Hm. At first it seemed kinda cool, but after 20 times repeating the same thing it gets a little weird. It's about 3am now and the Moroccan girl-students have left, and so we are just hanging out and before we leave we have to tell the owner that we're not going to make it to the woods. This is where it gets a bit weird. The owner gets very insulted, because he's drunk and thinks that we all agreed earlier to the trip and now we are backing out. He apparently called a friend to help plan the trip and now he says he has to call him to call it off. He gets more and more agitated and eventually starts spilling over waters and you can see he's visibly rattled. Uh oh. No bueno. Me, Morgan, and tall-Montreal guy decide to walk outside and just leave, but the two Aussies stay and discuss it more with the owner. They have hung out with him for the last two nights without any problems, so they feel bad and they want to figure out what's going on. Apparently he got more and more madd with them, because he thinks they convinced everyone not to go to the woods. He apparently knocked over some art works and just got really pissed, at which point they just left and came back to the apartment to find me on the couch upstairs. I heard their story from the end of the night and we laughed and then ended up feeling bad for the owner. Not a good night for him in the end. We all chipped in and paid him for his services, but I think he was still insulted. Odd. Unfortunate. But also kinda amazing and random and funny for me. I pass out around 4:30am and then get up again at around 8am, just in time to get up and walk down to the bus station and head back to Tangier.