A Trip of Firsts

I never thought I would be heading to Africa when I left for Florence. We decided (my friends Mady, Libby, John and I) that we would go on a "Snow or Sand" trip to Morocco to lean how to surf in the town of Taghazout. With an afternoon departure from Pisa (04/07/11) we had a relaxed morning. When we got to Morocco it was a different story. We had to take a bus from Marrakech to Adigar, but unfortunately our bus was full and we had to wait two hours before the next one, which meant we got into the Surf house at 1am. It turned out to be a long day of traveling. Also in Morocco when you buy your bus ticket you have assigned seating, which was new to us, but worked out fine.

The next morning we woke up early to have breakfast and then head out to the beach to begin our surfing lessons at 9am. Along with the four of us a group of 6 other American students (who were studying in Padova - a small city 30 min from Venice-) were on our weekend trip. We started off with just getting used to the board and eventually learning more as we were in the water. With the waves crashing against you and continually we got tired pretty fast and at about 12 we got out of the water for lunch. After still tired Libby and I decided to continue our break and take a nap on the beach. Unfortunately we didn't apply enough sunscreen and felt the effects for the rest of the weekend. After a long day learning how to surf we went on camel rides down the beach. 8 year olds (or thats how old they looked to us) ran our camel rides, which was interesting. They are not the easiest animals to ride. Finally at the end of the day we showered and had dinner followed by traditional tea and a water pipe.

The next morning we again got up early for breakfast and headed to a different more advanced beach. The waves were bigger, stronger and faster, which kind of made it easier, but warred us out a lot faster. By 12 again we were eating lunch and no one wanted to really go back in. At this point we headed back into the city of Adigir to shop in the Bazzar. It was crowded and full of stuff. Literally stuff. We got to try on Moroccan outfits and a traditional almond butter with honey and bread. To finish up in Adigar we headed to a traditional Hammam spa. That was also interesting experience. After we headed back to surf house in Taghazout to have dinner.

We all had an even earlier morning when we had a bus come pick us up to take us back to Marrakech to fly home. We all ended up being on the same flight (all 10 of us) back to Bologna, but the people had us leave at 3am when we could have easily left at 5am. Basically we sat in the airport sleeping for 4 hours before our flight. Again it was an experience, but a good one.