Chefchaouen - The Blue City Day 1
The day started with the earliest wake up of the trip so far. That seems a little crazy because I'm used to waking up early on vacation to go to monuments first or go for a hike or something, but we've had a very relaxing week so far for the most part. Our bus time to Chefchaouen was at 8am. That meant leaving the hostel at around 7am to make sure we were there early. That meant waking up at 6:30am. We were professionals on walking to the bus station because of our travel escapades the day before, the walk takes about 15 minutes and a decent chunk of it is uphill.
At the bus station, it was the typical Moroccan chaos. We kind of walked around with our bus tickets out until someone told us where our bus was. A guy got our bags and put them under the bus. Of course, this was an extra 10 dirhams ($1). Everything in Morocco costs more than it says haha. We sat on the bus for a minute until we realized we were kind of dumb for not eating breakfast and for being the first people on the bus. We went back into the bus station and got some lefse type of bread and orange juice for breakfast. It was really good! After we got back on the bus, some beggars and salespeople got on the bus and asked everyone for money. Then we took off!
The bus ride was an experience! Surprisingly Lacey did not get motion sick at all. Moroccan roads are not flat. There are dips and dives and undulations and honestly, I don't think the bus ever sat still the whole 4.5 hours. Moroccan roads are also super skinny. Like no shoulder at all. There are big trucks and small trucks and lots of coach buses so passing another vehicle was kind of insane every single time (and we passed a lot of trucks and cars). It seems that the coach buses are consistently the fastest vehicles on the road. There was also trash EVERYWHERE. I swear 80% of the drive had trash in the view at some point (along the road or by a building or whatever).
The terrain changed from rolling hills with farms to more steep hills along a river to legit steep mountainsides. We rode a local bus which meant the bus would stop more often at roadside places and towns along the way. We had one actual pit stop along the way with pit toilets that cost 1 dirham. There was an Australian couple behind us and a few other Europeans on the bus, otherwise, it was all Moroccans.
Like I said, the trip took about 4.5 hours so we arrived at Chaouen at around 12:30pm. The directions to our hostel said it was about a mile walk or a quarter mile walk with a taxi ride. We opted for the taxi ride and boy were we glad for that. It was basically straight up the entire way to the Medina entrance. The taxi was only 20 dirhams ($2).
Chefchaouen is similar to other Moroccan towns where it has a Medina with narrow streets and lots of people selling things. The big difference in Chaouen is that the buildings are almost all painted blue. IT IS GORGEOUS. Like I would love to write 10,000 words trying to describe how incredible this place is but I just don't know how. Also, even the pictures don't truly do it justice. No one really knows why the walls were painted blue in the first place. Some say it was to keep away mosquitos and others say it was a religious thing. Doesn't matter the reason now, it's perfect for tourists haha.
We stayed for 1 night in a place called Casa Amina. It was about a 5-minute walk into the Medina. The owner was incredibly nice and helpful. The room was on the second floor and the whole place was really pretty and really leaned into the blue theme. The bed was soft and it had a nice fan. The only downside was that it legit stunk in there. It seriously smelt like cat pee every time we opened the sweet Moroccan type doors. I read on the Hostelworld website that the blankets used to stink but the owner said they switched the laundry soap so they don't stink now. Luckily our actual bed sheets didn't smell at all but the rest of the room still must have been "cleaned" with that really bad smelling chemical. It's just too bad because everything else was incredible.
It was past 2pm and we hadn't eaten lunch so we walked to the market square where there are a few restaurants. Just like in Thailand, some people tried to pull us in but we walked down the line and went to the restaurant on the end because it had a decent amount of people at it. Unfortunately, this was a food fail. Lacey had one of the worst sandwiches of her life (so bad we didn't even take a picture of it) and I had chicken couscous that was fine but had like 20 huge vegetables and not that much chicken. Our first food fails of the Morocco part of our trip.
We went back to the hostel to hang out and caught up on internet stuff quick. Then we decided to really explore Chefchaouen before heading up to watch the sunset. To walk all of the Medina streets would probably take like 2 hours if you didn't take any pictures at all or ever stop to look at anything. However, that's literally impossible to do. Every single alley, every corner, every step, every door, every street is picture worthy. It's like disneyworld with kids but for people with cameras. We spend an hour or two exploring one area and taking lots of pictures.
Then we made the 30-minute hike up to a mosque on a hill opposite the town to watch the sunset. We purposefully got there an hour early. The view of the town was spectacular and the sunset was awesome. It was fun to watch with everyone else sitting on the wall and take pictures for others and have people take pictures for us. There were 2 annoying American girls (the only other Americans we've seen or met the whole Morocco part) but they were fine. This hike was our favorite part of Morocco so far and a highlight of the whole trip for sure.
We hiked back down after sunset and ate dinner at one of those restaurants in the market square. We got lucky and got seats near the square to watch people go by and just enjoy our food. We had olives and bread for a starter and both got meat skewers with rice. They were pretty tasty and definitely not a fail. For dessert, we got a Moroccan cake we had seen a bunch. We went back to our stinky hostel, wrote a blog post, and went to bed.
I try my best to keep it real on our blog and in reality, we don't really love Morocco but everything we don't love here pales in comparison to how incredible Chefchaouen is. We are so glad we came here.
 |
| Bus Station Breakfast |
At the bus station, it was the typical Moroccan chaos. We kind of walked around with our bus tickets out until someone told us where our bus was. A guy got our bags and put them under the bus. Of course, this was an extra 10 dirhams ($1). Everything in Morocco costs more than it says haha. We sat on the bus for a minute until we realized we were kind of dumb for not eating breakfast and for being the first people on the bus. We went back into the bus station and got some lefse type of bread and orange juice for breakfast. It was really good! After we got back on the bus, some beggars and salespeople got on the bus and asked everyone for money. Then we took off!
 |
| Taxi Ride in a tiny van up Chefchaouen hills |
The bus ride was an experience! Surprisingly Lacey did not get motion sick at all. Moroccan roads are not flat. There are dips and dives and undulations and honestly, I don't think the bus ever sat still the whole 4.5 hours. Moroccan roads are also super skinny. Like no shoulder at all. There are big trucks and small trucks and lots of coach buses so passing another vehicle was kind of insane every single time (and we passed a lot of trucks and cars). It seems that the coach buses are consistently the fastest vehicles on the road. There was also trash EVERYWHERE. I swear 80% of the drive had trash in the view at some point (along the road or by a building or whatever).
The terrain changed from rolling hills with farms to more steep hills along a river to legit steep mountainsides. We rode a local bus which meant the bus would stop more often at roadside places and towns along the way. We had one actual pit stop along the way with pit toilets that cost 1 dirham. There was an Australian couple behind us and a few other Europeans on the bus, otherwise, it was all Moroccans.
 |
| Blue, stinky hostel room |
Like I said, the trip took about 4.5 hours so we arrived at Chaouen at around 12:30pm. The directions to our hostel said it was about a mile walk or a quarter mile walk with a taxi ride. We opted for the taxi ride and boy were we glad for that. It was basically straight up the entire way to the Medina entrance. The taxi was only 20 dirhams ($2).
Chefchaouen is similar to other Moroccan towns where it has a Medina with narrow streets and lots of people selling things. The big difference in Chaouen is that the buildings are almost all painted blue. IT IS GORGEOUS. Like I would love to write 10,000 words trying to describe how incredible this place is but I just don't know how. Also, even the pictures don't truly do it justice. No one really knows why the walls were painted blue in the first place. Some say it was to keep away mosquitos and others say it was a religious thing. Doesn't matter the reason now, it's perfect for tourists haha.
We stayed for 1 night in a place called Casa Amina. It was about a 5-minute walk into the Medina. The owner was incredibly nice and helpful. The room was on the second floor and the whole place was really pretty and really leaned into the blue theme. The bed was soft and it had a nice fan. The only downside was that it legit stunk in there. It seriously smelt like cat pee every time we opened the sweet Moroccan type doors. I read on the Hostelworld website that the blankets used to stink but the owner said they switched the laundry soap so they don't stink now. Luckily our actual bed sheets didn't smell at all but the rest of the room still must have been "cleaned" with that really bad smelling chemical. It's just too bad because everything else was incredible.
It was past 2pm and we hadn't eaten lunch so we walked to the market square where there are a few restaurants. Just like in Thailand, some people tried to pull us in but we walked down the line and went to the restaurant on the end because it had a decent amount of people at it. Unfortunately, this was a food fail. Lacey had one of the worst sandwiches of her life (so bad we didn't even take a picture of it) and I had chicken couscous that was fine but had like 20 huge vegetables and not that much chicken. Our first food fails of the Morocco part of our trip.
We went back to the hostel to hang out and caught up on internet stuff quick. Then we decided to really explore Chefchaouen before heading up to watch the sunset. To walk all of the Medina streets would probably take like 2 hours if you didn't take any pictures at all or ever stop to look at anything. However, that's literally impossible to do. Every single alley, every corner, every step, every door, every street is picture worthy. It's like disneyworld with kids but for people with cameras. We spend an hour or two exploring one area and taking lots of pictures.
Then we made the 30-minute hike up to a mosque on a hill opposite the town to watch the sunset. We purposefully got there an hour early. The view of the town was spectacular and the sunset was awesome. It was fun to watch with everyone else sitting on the wall and take pictures for others and have people take pictures for us. There were 2 annoying American girls (the only other Americans we've seen or met the whole Morocco part) but they were fine. This hike was our favorite part of Morocco so far and a highlight of the whole trip for sure.
We hiked back down after sunset and ate dinner at one of those restaurants in the market square. We got lucky and got seats near the square to watch people go by and just enjoy our food. We had olives and bread for a starter and both got meat skewers with rice. They were pretty tasty and definitely not a fail. For dessert, we got a Moroccan cake we had seen a bunch. We went back to our stinky hostel, wrote a blog post, and went to bed.
 |
| Moroccan cake |
I try my best to keep it real on our blog and in reality, we don't really love Morocco but everything we don't love here pales in comparison to how incredible Chefchaouen is. We are so glad we came here.
Comments
Post a Comment