The Holidays Begin

November, as I mentioned in my last post, is a month with many holidays.  Since my favorite holiday is Halloween, the festivities began October 31.  Luckily, we had a mandatory meeting in Casa that day and therefore all of the Fellows had to come to my town.  After our meetings and paperwork, we went for drinks at Sofitel Hotel.  The bad drinks and lackluster service were made up for by the incredible view as the sun set over the Atlantic and downtown Casablanca.  After returning to my place to get into costume, we went to the Irish Pub.  The solo musician was good, but quit too early and many people had to catch the train back to Rabat, so we didn't close the place down; we did that on Friday and Saturday nights.  Getting home at 5 am is not easy when you have to go teach the next day.  Here are some of our outfits.

Halloween 2019

Tuesday 3 of us caught the train to Tangier to spend a couple of days there.  I loved it!  It is like Casa, but calmer and the ocean is only a couple blocks away (because the city is smaller.)  Cars stop for pedestrians and there isn't constant honking.  We spent most of our time walking around and looking at different sites.  However, I did spend a few hours at the beach.  I was the only one in a swimsuit; everyone else had winter clothes on.  A famous theater there belongs to Spain which has offered it to Morocco for free if they will restore it.  So far, nothing has happened.  There is also an old Anglican church which I visited to see the combination of Moorish and Christian ornamentation.  We had fantastic meals, Italian and Spanish, in restaurants we chanced upon.  Finally, we tried to watch the sunset from the Phoenician tombs, but it was too far south.  It would have been better to check it out from the Caves of Hercules, 20 minutes away on the Atlantic side.

Tangier

Tangier

Nuestra Senora de Africa

Thursday we went further east to visit another Fellow and go to Ceuta, a piece of Spain in Africa.  It was so nice to sit in a cafe with men AND women and be offered wine or beer as well as juice.  One Fellow started her morning with an Irish coffee.  We wandered around and checked out the cathedral of Nuestra Virgen de Africa and the fort.  There was a free art exhibit of Bertuchi whom I had never heard of, but really liked.  Finally, we did some shopping before heading back to Morocco and the mountains to Chefchaouen.

Hercules in Ceuta

Bertuchi

Chefchaouen is known as the blue city because the walls in the old part of town are painted blue.  It's very beautiful, but very cold in November.  And the riads, or traditional guesthouses, have no heat.  We hiked up to the Spanish mosque and walked around.  Strangely, the best dinner we had was Chinese; there are a lot of Chinese immigrants in town.  Otherwise, it was the quietest part of our vacation since it is much more traditional (little alcohol or dancing.)

Chefchaouen

We returned to Casa on Sunday and I had a day to recuperate, thank you Mohammed (Peace Be Upon Him) for having a birthday.  My next round of visitors starts Tuesday.  I'll keep you posted.