Lost in the Blue City: Chefchaouen

This past weekend I traveled to Chefchaouen, the Blue City. This city is known for being beautifully blue and picturesque, along with fields and fields of weed. So although weed is illegal in Morocco, it has been a part of the culture in this town for such a long time, that it is tolerated by the local police. Chefchaouen is in the middle of the hills with lots of beautiful hiking around it.

The trip was originally a small group of my friends and I, but others who I'm having some problems with (stupid drama stuff that happened over Halloween weekend) invited themselves. I tried to remove the negative from my life, but they just keep pushing themselves in my face and back into my life. My time abroad has become a bit stressful. I hate drama, and I've realized that some of the friends I once had really were not real friends and it's hard realizing that at the end, especially when there is still a month left here. Aside from friends issues here, my homesickness has gone away. I think it's because those friends were really mistreating me which made me sad, feel alone, and become homesick. But now they are mostly out of my life (except for this last weekend) and I'm feeling so much better. It's mixed feelings about my time here. I'm happier now that we're no longer friends, but since we started the semester together and made all the same friends, it makes social aspects of my life a bit difficult sometimes. I as an individual am happier with myself, but sometimes time goes by slowly.

Chefchaouen was beautiful, but it was an interesting weekend because I planned this trip but they invited themselves. I've never met anyone so obviously rude like that before.

Anyways, We left Friday afternoon and took a Grand Taxi to Fes, then a four hour bus ride to Chefchaouen. When we got there we didn't have any solid plans of where to stay. Luckily we ran into some local guys who showed us an apartment that we ended up staying at. Along with the landowner, another guy came with him trying to sell us weed. The guy showed us the apartment and it was perfect, blue, good sized, and had a view of the town. We sat down and the two Moroccan friends who came along with us began bargaining. We got the apartment for 400 MAD per night. That's like $45, and between the five of us that really wasn't much. After bargaining the price for the apartment, they began bargaining for the price of weed and hashish and all. It was really fascinating to me that this was just so casual and along with the landowner a weed dealer came too. So hilarious. In the end we scored good deals and spent the night just relaxing and going to bed early.

The next morning I was the first to wake up. I took a shower and climbed up to the top of our apartment roof and just enjoyed the view. Everything was so blue, it felt like being in Santorini except the city looked over a valley, not over the sea. I sat there waiting for the others to get up. Once we were all up and ready, we wandered our way through the town to eat breakfast in the town square.

The view from our apartment rooftop

Coffee and Moroccan tea at breakfast

On a side note about Moroccan tea, people here are obsessed with it and it's basically normal Green tea with mint leaves and a lot of sugar added into it. People have it with practically every meal and when it's served often times they're served in small cups that kind of look like shot glasses. Often times even if it's tea for just one person you will be served two small cups so that you can pour some in one, then pour it between the two glasses. This way you cool it down since the tea comes served so steaming hot. 

Anyways, after breakfast we wandered for about half an hour getting lost in the old medina. The skies started to clear and we decided to go hiking. We went back to the apartment, changed and brought our swim suits, and took a cab to the start of the trail. I can't tell you how much I missed hiking. At home in the summer I hike at least once a week, and it was such a good feeling to be in the mountains and in nature again, and FINALLY getting some exercise too. 

The beginning of the trail

On the hike we were hoping to get to the cannabis fields. We didn't make it because we didn't have enough time and the sun went down behind the mountains real fast. But the hike was still beautiful. People were smoking all around us the entire time. The entire hike was gorgeous. We followed along this river and stopped at an area where we went swimming. 

It was freezing cold water so I didn't go all the way in and swim, but I waded a bit. It was fun and really relaxing. I just loved being able to be in nature again. I missed it so much.

The sun was going down so we headed back to the apartment. We took showers, went to eat dinner and spent the chilling. It was peaceful (despite the negative people around me) just relaxing on the roof top under the stars. I think I only survived this weekend with the negativity around me this weekend because Chefchaouen is such a calm and chill environment. 

The weed dealer from the first day kept coming back to sell. So funny. 

Sunday morning rolled around, and again I was the first up. I took a shower and once all the others were up we began packing our bags and cleaning the apartment. We headed out of the apartment just before noon and spent the remainder of our time in the town wandering and doing some shopping before we left to head back to Ifrane at 3pm. Overall it was a good weekend. Chefchaouen is one of the most beautiful places I've seen in Morocco. If you ever come here, you should visit this place. I really could get lost in this town despite how small it is. It's so blue everywhere, everything kind of looked the same but different. I could get lost. But I enjoyed it, I saw so much beauty. I've really never seen such a magical and picturesque place. Here are some photos I took while wandering in the old medina. Enjoy!