The Blue Pearl: Chefchaouen (شفشاون)

 I now see why many claim that Chefchaouen is one of the most beautiful cities in the world.  Almost all of the buildings are painted a shade of light blue and rolling mountains are their backdrop. The pictures that I took do not show the pure beauty of this city. You will have to discover that for yourself. 

 When we were in the pre-planning stage of our trip to Chefchaouen, we learned a valuable lesson. Chefchaouen is a very popular location for Moroccans and tourist alike. Therefore, the few buses that go to Chechaouen fill up quickly. Three of us went to the bus station to buy four tickets. We were excited to see a time that would work for all of us. However, upon selecting that time we became aware that only one seat remained. Our other two options fell between arriving to Chefchaouen at an extremely late hour of the night or leaving early in the morning before our classes were over. After contemplating the pros and cons of each time outside of the bus station, we finally settled on the morning option because we knew this would be our last trip to a new city.

The majority of our meals took at restaurants with roof-top seating because we wanted to take full advantage of seeing the city from above. At the first rooftop meal, we could see a mosque with a mountain back-drop and majority of the city. It because astonishingly beautiful as the sun began to set.   

After the sunset, the city came alive. Live music and lighthearted conversation floated around the streets. In general, this city is very lively, but as soon as the sun sets music and food seem to fill the main city square. On the first night, we tried snail and chickpeas from a food cart. The first sight of this food cart was interesting. A little boy was running the stand as well as he could because his father had gone to prayer. This child was spilling chickpea-water everywhere and dropping things, but he was trying so hard. As we got to the front of the line (the word line is not the correct term because it is more of a cluster) an older fellow came and said we needed to wait until the owner came back. Giving the little boy, who could barely see over the cart, a break we waited. Escargot is interesting. I tried it; I didn't hate it but I don't think I will ask or pay for it again. 

On a side note, Chefchaouen felt like one of the safest places to walk at night. It was beautiful and everyone was friendly and willing to help.

 The next day the sky was overcast, but that somehow made the city even more pretty. 

We spent most of our time walking around taking as many pictures as possible. 

This city was amazing. However, I do not recommend going during winter unless you have many layers to sleep in at night. The place that we stayed did not have heating, which after talking to some locals, we discovered is not uncommon in Chefchaouen. When it was time for sleep, we all put every coat, jacket, scarf, and even hats on for warmth. We half-jokingly proposed the idea of pushing two beds together and sharing it for body warmth. None of us took showers, instead, we did quick cleans. Why you may wonder? There wasn't hot water. Long story short, be prepared for the cold if you travel during the winter. I would imagine that a cold shower would feel quite nice during the summer months.

 

We walked a short distance from our hostel and got to witness a large line of sheep being herded across a bridge.

 The Kasbah is one of the few buildings in the city that is not blue. It is still magnificent to walk through because it has beautiful gardens and gives you some amazing sights of the city and surrounding mountains. 

In fact, the next ten photos are all taken from inside the Kasbah.

 

Our next adventure in this city was a moderate hike up the mountainside to the Spanish mosque. This mosque is the only building on that ridge of the mountain. Its white color stands out against the mountainside.

This is a picture of the Spanish mosque. Unfortunately, this angle had trees blocking the pristine building.

Before we walked up to the Spanish Mosque, we decided to walk along the trails of the rolling hills. We met a man walking along the trail. He was very pleasant and invited us to his house. Normally we would have accepted the invitation because it is culturally rude to refuse hospitality. However, he invited us to drink tea and smoke marijuana. An important thing to know about this city is that there is an abundance of marijuana being smoked. As far as my knowledge runs, it is, in fact, illegal in Morocco. Due to the fact that I am a rule-abiding citizen, and the idea of being arrested in a foreign country is terrifying, we promptly (as politely as possible) refused his invitation. We hiked to the Spanish mosque and away from the friendly man.

The views from the Spanish mosque are arguably the best views of the city.

On the hike back down we ran into a few little girls who were trying to sell flower necklaces to us. They were impressively made; eventually, we got guilted into buying the necklaces. As you can see they only fit as crowns. I so badly wanted to put it on this goat that we found but I couldn't get close enough to the goat.

I used the flower crown as a photo prop because, in my opinion, the contrast was astounding. Then I gave mine to a little girl who was running by because I knew that she would get more use out of it than I would.

 Our trip ended with sharing breakfast with some new found friends and then lunch at the location with the orange umbrellas in the picture above. After we finished eating they walked us to the bus and we said our goodbyes.