Pretty low key today. It is fairly cold and rained all morning and afternoon. I huddled in my blankets
until about 11. I had planned on going hiking today but did not have
the wet weather clothing to do so effectively. I instead decided to
explore the city.
The distinct feature of Chefchaouen (if you haven't already noticed) is that all of the walls of the buildings are painted light blue. I was told this was originally done to ward off mosquitoes because they do not like the color but it has grown as an identity for the city. It also makes getting lost quite easy for tourists.
I eventually made my way out of the
medina and wondered around the main part of town. The city is
filled with long hills and steep staircases. As I was wondering
around I noticed this sign that happened to be in Japanese.
I was a little taken
back. It was obviously written by someone who didn't know Japanese
but it was at least legible. I would have never guessed that this
would be a go to spot for Japanese tourists. Up to this point I had
not seen anyone of Asian decent since I arrived in Morocco.
The rain had taken its
toll on my clothes and I was now pretty soaked. Around the corner
from where I spotted the sign was a sandwich board with a menu
pointing down a small alley. I decided I would catch some lunch and
get out of the rain for a bit so I followed the sign. It lead me down an alley to a locked door. Confused I turned around to leave and an
old lady approached me with a mouth full of Arabic phrases I didn't even
begin to understand. She then started yelling at the window above the
doorway and a small child eventually opened the door. He unlocked another door to the side and ushered me down to the small seating area. There were only three
tables in the small room and they were littered with hash
paraphernalia and cigarette butts. He cleaned up the tables and I had a
seat.
Shortly after an older gentleman came
down and took my order. Once that was complete the little boy sat
across from me in silence. It was awkward. I tried to ask a few
questions through gestures but it was only mildly successful. After a while it got too weird for
me so I pulled out my phone and showed the boy Angry Birds. He was
instantly fascinated. 10 minutes later I was surrounded by a handful
of kids all fighting to play, multiple fingers on the screen at once.
It was a big hit and it was really cool
seeing kids experience something like this for the first time. I would assist them here and there on the mechanics of the
game but they really took off with it. Eventually a British couple came and
sat at the table next to me. I think they assumed because I was engaged with the children I couldn't understand English. They started talking trash about Morocco right
in front of the the family who owned the place. When I finally
spoke up they and they realized I knew English they seemed pretty remorseful but only because they were exposed. It was pretty douchey.
The third table was later occupied by a
Japanese couple. They were even more shocked when they found out I
spoke their native tong. I guess the sign was there for a reason. I helped
them order but they mostly kept to themselves. After waiting for over an hour food finally arrived.
Again a mixture of chicken and
vegetables. I am finding that so far a lot of the restaurants I find lack variety. This dish was okay but they used way too many
olives so it was overly salty. I still managed to eat most of it. My clothes did not dry off much during my culinary detour so I decided to head back to my room to dry them out. Being that I only packed I a single pair of pants and shoes and well as a one hoody the rest of my trip would be
miserable if I didn't allow them to dry.
I returned to the hostel, hung my
things up to dry, and bundled up in my blankets again. For the rest
of the day I pretty much relaxed and got my xmas shopping done. The
rain continued throughout the day and it was very relaxing not
doing anything for a change. It was nice to
take a day off from moving around all the time.
Hopefully the weather improves. Tim will be meeting me tomorrow so expect the shenanigan factor to increase exponentially. We don't have any sort of phone communication so it will be interesting to see if we can actually pull this off. Fingers crossed.
