The next morning we left for Assilah. We did some shopping in that medina and went to the beach. I bought 2 pairs of leather sandals, a cool little yellow dish, and henna tattoos on my foot and arm. There was an awesome view of the beach from the walls of the medina and the medina was full of whitewashed houses with turquoise and blue trim. We only had 2 hours there, so we had to hurry to see it all but it was a lovely little down, with a pretty large medina/shopping area for its size.
When we got back on the bus, we had about an hour before we made our last rest stop before the border. We were then told, right before we got off, that we were not to tell anyone where we were going. If anyone asked, we were to tell them that we were not leaving that day. When we got back on the bus, Eric and Ryan (DiscoverSevilla guys) explained that if we had told people that we were heading towards the border, chance are that at least a few people would climb under the bus, into the inner workings of it and try to hide and sneak across the border. They said that kids especially to try to do it. It’s terribly sad but they said it happens more than they would like to believe, even if nobody tells anyone where we are going, people assume we are heading for the border to go to Spain, or at least to another country. And, right before the border, we hit a few stop lights and at the lights I looked back, behind the bus and about 15 kids started running towards the back of the bus and a few got on and climbed under. I was shocked. How sad to see young kids, like 7 and 8 running towards to bus to sneak across the border, alone, with nothing, just happy to escape! I guess at the border, they do comprehensive checks of the busses before loading them onto the ferry. They said they found a couple kids under the bus. We then got on the ferry at Tangiers and took it too Algeciras, and bussed back to Sevilla. We got in around 1 am and I happily went to bed.
A few ending notes: I forgot to mention the mules that go through the medina in Fez. The streets are pretty narrow, but there are hundreds of mules in the medina, carrying huge loads and it’s all you can do to step to the side, hug a wall and crouch down. Even with the tiny streets, the mules are very efficient and can carry massive loads; you just have to make sure to stay out of the way (and watch out for manure that follows!)
Bartering: as I said, I am terrible at it, but just an example…Hannah and I were in the medina in Assilah and we (yes “we”, Hannah was my helper) we bartering for my 2 pairs of sandals. The man gave us a terribly inflated price to start and Hannah got him down to 6 euro (60 dirham) a pair (120 dirham total), then I decided to step in a clarify the price I was to pay, so I typed 160 into the calculator on the counter and said, “dirham” to clarify. (Yes, I am an accounting major and I like to believe I can do basic math, but it was a bad idea for me to step in). He smiled and contentedly said yes, and then sold them to me for my suggested price of 40 dirham more. Well done, Margot, well done. I bartered UP, to 8 euro a pair.
Overall, it was a short, but awesome trip and I saw so much in so little time! I learned a bit, bought a bit, and ate some delicious food!
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