Hopping the Pond to Lisbon and Morocco

We enjoyed watching two movies before Josh slept on the floor of the overnight plane to Portugal. The customs check upon entering Europe was quick and easy, and we found ourselves in the bright morning sun of Lisbon. A five hour time change, combined with the red eye flight made us quite weary.

Our couch surfing hosts Paulo and Sofia were preparing for work when we arrived at their apartment. We had arranged a visit with them before leaving Brasil, and their hospitality was much needed and refreshing. They left us a cell phone and maps to the city. Although we only stayed one night with this awesome couple, we had a great time! We learned about LOMO photography, a low-fi camera brand from Gemany, while we made a delicious vegetarian dinner together. We traded travel stories and laughed a lot throuoghout the evening. For our first couchsurf, we were elated to have this awesome cultural exchange. If we hadn't had our sights so strongly set on visitng Morocco, we would have stayed much longer. Thanks Paulo and Sofia! We can't wait until you visit the US so we can host you in our fair river city! :)

During our one day in Lisbon, we went to the beach. The water was really cold, but we warmed up by practicing yoga on the shore. That night, we caught an overnight bus to Tarifa, where the ferries cross the Straight of Gibralter to Tangiers.

Another night with little sleep made our fist day in Morocco slightly surreal. We took a small guided tour of Tangiers during our first afternoon. He took us to the Medina, the shopping district of the city. The streets are quite narrow and filled with tailors, fabric stores, and food stalls. We went to the roof of a carpet seller to catch this beautiful panorama of the city.

After climbing down the four narrow flights of stairs, the owners tried to sell us carpets and tapestries. They brought out many beautiful samples and we smiled and said they were very nice but we were traveling and didn't want to carry a carpet with us. The prices included shipping home, of course. They persisted by giving us mint tea and showing us more carpets. The situation became quite ridiculous, as they kept shouting at us to name our best price for the carpet, and we just kept smiling and trying to tell them we didn't want to buy anything. This went on for some time until finally we stood up and shouted NO and then left the building. We laughed all the way back to our hostal and promptly went to bed to catch up on some much needed sleep.

We only had three days to spend in Morocco, not enough time to visit our first pick, Marakesch (a twelve hour bus ride from Tangiers). A few fellow travelers mentioned Chefchaouen, a city three hours inland, as a good place to visit if time was limited. We made the trip on a croweded hot bus and arrived in time for the town's anual music festival. An otherwise sleepy small town, this hot July weekend was the place to be in Morocco! It was quite nice to see other Moroccan tourists from all over the country enjoying music and relaxing by the cool river.

View of Chefchaouen from the Rif mountains.

The city was settled in the 15th century. Jewish residents painted the doors of the city blue at one time, and this accent color is still visible from every point. A more typical Muslim color would be green, but the color choice persists. Perhaps our top city for inspiring views and vistas, we took lots of fotos!

Each little streeet had a perfect foto waiting to be snapped. It was easy to get lost in the Medina, the streets were so narrow and winding it was hard to tell where you were. The winding walks were full of tourists and children during our three day stay.

The festival had three stages throughout town. It was fun to see Moroccans boogie! Well, there wasn't really much dancing going on but we think everyone had a great time just the same.