The Day I Rode a Camel...Tanger

So I almost did not make it to Morocco. We had to go through Customs exiting Spain to ride the boat to Morocco, that makes sense, but what happened during the process greatly confused me and the tour director. I placed my passport on the desk as usual, but then the questioning began. "When did I arrive in Spain?" "Where is my stamp for Spain?" The list went on. Having landed in Warsaw back in August, I had no stamp for Spain or Italy; the first place I touched EU ground was in Poland and I haven't left the EU since, so no other stamps. This was not acceptable for them and they proceeded to question my student Visa and my permesso receipt which was in Italian. The entire group managed to pass me in another line, so the tour director came to my rescue speaking rapid Spanish. His explanation was that the guards just wanted a pretty lady to keep them company, oye. Luckily I encountered no other problems.

So after that entire escapade, I settled in my cozy business class seat on the boat. How we obtained the fancy seats is beyond me, but I didn't complain. I did venture outside to catch a bit of the scenery but it was too cold and windy to stay outside for very long. The entire journey took about an hour.

A bus was waiting for us in the parking lot, complete with tour guide and a "crowd controller." The first bit of the tour was on the bus, which was wonderful for me, because I was rather tired from the early morning wakeup call. The mansions and palaces in the city were unbelievable. There were green and red guardhouses outside many of the entryways. Small school children were seen wandering back from class for the lunch; many of the children's parents are employed at the mansions so they will go visit their parents during the day, getting a glimpse of the grounds.

After the bus tour, we ventured to lunch; a delicious Moroccan feast complete with couscous, chicken, mint tea and cookies. Then the "shopping" began, touring a carpet factory and a perfumery; wandered the streets with gaggles of boys peddling items, none of which I bought.

Then the fun came! I RODE A CAMEL, twice! Yes, I am still excited about this. Their names were Sophia and Sabrina. Neither were that good at listening to instructions and couldn't grasp a few concepts. Once everyone was on and standing up, the camels were arranged in a line and tethered so they wouldn't wander off with us. Well both times my camel was directed to the back of the line, they just could not understand that if you are tethered to the camel in front, you CANNOT pass the camel in front of you. Despite this fact, I greatly enjoyed myself. Another camel got quite friendly with me and was looking rather hungrily at my shoe, luckily it refrained from having a snack.

Climbing on

Success!

Hey! Don't eat me!

Not understanding the line

Trying to pass unsuccessfully 

Down we go

We made it

Getting down

Relaxing

The last stop on the tour was to a cave, inside there was a rock with an opening similar to the shape of Africa, pretty cool. Overall the trip was nice to Morocco, I am glad I went, but will probably not be back anytime soon; too many other places on my list to visit.