Camellos y cous cous

Yesterday we got back from our trip to Morocco and it was very interesting. On Friday night we left Madrid on a bus to Algecirras in the south of Spain. The bus ride was very long (8 hours) and we didnt sleep much mostly because we were too excited to be going to Africa! We finally arrived to Algecirras and then took a 28 euro cab to Tarifa where our ferry was leaving. Our cab driver liked to listen to Nelly and Fat Joe. It was about 7:30am when we arrived in Tarifa and nothing was open at all. Since we had nothing to do until nine we walked around and found our hostel that we didnt even end up going to! We saw a few partyers dressed for carnaval wandering the streets probably just ending their night! The wind was blowing so much and we were freezing since the sun doesnt come up until like 8 here. The ferry building was finally open so we got our ferry tickets and stayed in the warm for a little bit. I got a coca cola light of course and then we headed onto the ferry. The ride was very shaky and windy and we werent allowed to go outside to look becuase the weather was so bad! They checked our passports on the ferry for the second time and I got stamped in Africa! We arrived to Tangier at 10:30am.
After we got off the ferry a man named Jamal was holdign a sign with my name of it so we obviosuly went up to him. Jamal was our tour guide for just the three of us so it was really nice! There is an hour time difference so we gained an extra hour in Morocco. First we went to a beautiful mosque in the center of Tangier. We werent allowed inside but the outside had very different architecture in green which is the color of Islam. People were staring at us taking pictures but we didnt care. Jamal then took us to some nice views of Tangier (California---the wealthiest part of Tangier). He then asked if we wanted to ride camels! For us that wasnt even a question! We arrived a little spot where three men had about 8 camels. We rode around on them for like 2 minutes for 1 euro so it wasnt long. And my camel didnt spit in my face! We took out picture with the man who gave us the camel rides and he was very excited to be in our pictures. A man came up to the three of us and put bracelets on us with the islamic charm that signifies good luck. The symbol is the 5 pillars of islam and it fights against evil. The bracelt was 3 euros so I bought it. And I also bought more of those charms later. Amanda lost her bracelet later in the day :( but bought another one from a different store. Jamal then showed us a cave which was right on the coast of Tangier and it was amazing. It was 2500 years old and had the shape of Africa on the outside of it. I think pictures would explain this better. We then saw where the Mediteranean and the Atlantic ocean meet. Jamal pointed out right where each one ends. I asked him who decided that. Jamal then said he did and laughed for a while about it. After that we walked around the city more and saw the markets medina and kasbah. Then it was time for lunch and we walked up this huge steep hill that seemd like it was going on forever but it was worht it for the meal. Jamal took us to this beautiful restaurant that was like a palace with colorful architecture and a band which we later got to play with. I played the madolin i think and Amanda played the drums! The restaurant was gorgeous and we ate like princesses. We had cous cous with chicken and this other soup. Amanda also peeled an orange for the first time at the restaurant which I thought was crazy. After lunch we walked around more to see other views of the beaches and city. Some of the children were rude to us as we were walking around and couldnt keep their hands to themselves. We learned a little more about the Moroccan rugs and went to this store that was very famous. The rugs were 500-900 euros. The people there didnt understand we didnt have that much money to spend and kept saying use your emergency card. They gave us some sweet tea and showed us their rugs but we left soon after since they kept trying to sell all these expensive things. We asked Jamal if we could go to stores more in our price range so he took us to a jewelry store that was still a little expensive but better. I bought a rug for my parents and some charms there. The people working there spoke English and lit the rug on fire to show it has good quality. They also lit Amanda's bracelet of fire. I think they just like fire. We went up to the top of the store to then see more views which we gorgeous and I took a lot of pictures. He showed us where Matt Damon filmed the Bourne Ultimatum which was cool becuase i remember the scene of the movie in Tangier. It was around 4pm so Jamal took us back to ferry since it was supposed to leave at four. We then found out that the ferry wasnt leaving until 6pm becuase of the weather. Jamal left us and then we waited for a little. We met other Americans and an Italian in the same situation. They looked like they were in their late twenties , early thirties so we stayed with them and got something to eat. After dark and without a guide in Tangier is a little different. A lot different. We all felt self-concsious and that everyone was staring at us so we didnt stay out for that much longer. We ate chicken sandwiches and then went back the ferry. It was still really windy which was worrying us since they dont take out any ferrys in that weather. After we got back we then found out the ferry wasnt leaving until 7:30 now. A half hour later we then found out our ferry wasnt leaving at all. So we tried to figure out what to do becuase we didnt want to be stuck in Africa for a week. We asked the other Americans what they were doing and they called their travel guide who gave them free tickets back with a different company. Since we didnt have our guides number we stood for awhile seeing our options. Since our company had no ferrys leaving that night and the weather was supposed to get worse tomorrow we decided we needed to buy tickets through a different company. The only problem was that it was 38 euros each and to a different city than our hostel. The other Americans gave us money which they didnt need to but was really nice to help us out. So we paid for our tickets and ran on the boat which didnt end up leaving until like 9:30pm. Both Heather and I passed out on the ferry for most of the three hours. We arrived to Algecirras at 12:30pm and it was freezing! We didnt think it was a good idea to go back to Tarifa even though our hostel was there becuase we would be spenidng more money and be there for less than 10 hours. We slept in the bus station. I woke up about every twenty minutes becuase it was so cold and i was shivering. We then found our bus company in the station at 7am and asked if we could take an earlier bus home to Madrid. They said yes which we were so relieved about and we didnt have to pay any more. We then got cafe con leche to warm ourselves up and waited for our bus. It was raining outside so we looked for it inside and it finally came at 8:40am! We got to go home! We all passed out on the bus becuase we were so tired and ended up in Madrid at 5:30pm. I came back and slept for three hours in my warm bed and then ate dinner and went right back to bed. I think that we all need a week to recover. My trip to Tangier was exhausting but amazing and well worth the stress.