And the travels continue (Gibraltar and Morocco)

My second trip to Gibraltar, and much the same. Monkeys... 

...on a giant rock...

...overlooking the city.

 And, of course, some fish and chips. As the only British place anywhere near Spain, it was an appropriate place to be on the day of the royal wedding.

 After spending a night there, we took a ferry to Morocco. The wind was rather exciting.

First stop in Morocco: Tangier.

 We did not get to spend as much time as I would have liked in Tangier, but moved on to the next city, which was fascinating in turn. The best thing about Morocco was simply how different it was... I never realized that I had never seen a donkey pulling a cart as an actual means of transportation until I saw it there.

 It was in this town by the sea that I rode a camel, which was an exciting experience in itself. Mostly because I was not all together confident that the saddle was going to actually stay on the camel.

 The camels were very cute, though.

After that, it was off to some ruins. I'm sure I have an itinerary somewhere that will tell me what these ruins were, but frankly I am quite a bit too lazy to go searching for it. Whatever the place was called, we stopped to wander around there for a while and though it was drizzling mildly, as it seemed to be for the majority of this trip, it was rather cool. There were eels there and, legend has it, if they eat the egg you throw into the pool, you will become pregnant or have a child or something of the sort. I, personally, did not try my luck (little too early to be thinking about that), but our guide did.

Next on the agenda was the Mausoleum of Mohammed V. I had to look that name up, and came across the name of the ruins above as well... They are called the Chellah Necropolis, and they are Roman and Medieval ruins, according to wikipedia.

We stayed for two nights, I believe, in Rabat in a homestay. The homestay was an interesting experience, to say the least. We ate Moroccan food from a giant communal dish, drank large amounts of sweet Moroccan tea, and tried on Moroccan clothing and head scarves. Also in Rabat, we got henna, went to a public bath, and toured the markets, which were strangely reminiscent of the many Moroccan shops in Granada. 

Next, we traveled to a small rural village in the hills. The scenery was breathtaking, though our walk was cut short by pouring rain. 

In the village, we talked with a family (with the help of a translator), and had another delicious meal of couscous (delicious, but I think it will be a while until I eat couscous again... one of these delicious meals resulted in almost two weeks of miserableness). And then it was off to the last city, Chefchaouen. Chefchaouen was a fascinating place, filled with shops, and when the shops were closed, very blue and very beautiful.  

 It was in Chefchaouen that I discovered my talent for bartering. Unfortunately, there are not many places in Minnesota where I can practice those skills.