Chefchaouen is a small town in the north of Morocco most famous for it's skyblue buildings. They are apparently painted this way to keep away the mosquitoes. It's only 4 hours by bus away from Fes and a lot of people just do it as a day trip, but we decided to stay overnight. This turned out to be a good plan because they day we arrived (around noon) was raining so we basically spent the day inside reading and watching the cricket.

Chefchaouen is a gorgeous although rather boring little town. It certainly has a quieter vibe than either Marrakech or Fes, though that doesn't stop plenty of people from trying to sell you stuff or drag you into their restaurant. The second day we were there was a perfect day. Warm and sunny. We walked around the town a bit, taking photos of the all the blue buildings. Then we caught a taxi out to the edge of the town where there is some famous blue door. Not really sure what it was for or exactly why it's famous, but anyway. From here was a great view of the town and there were more great views on the walk back to town.

One of the restaurant owners of the place we had lunch both days was a pretty cool guy. And when Rikard was talking to him about buying a Jalaba he said his father owned a shop and took us there. We had some mint tea which is pretty customary when you enter someone's shop. The visit ended up turning into another carpet search for Gabrielle. However, we left with neither Rikard nor Gabrielle buying anything. But the next day as we were heading to the bus station Rikard did manage to buy a golden silk sort of Jalaba from a random guy on the street who went all the way down to 30dh. We're pretty sure it was probably an item stolen off someone's clothes line.

That's really all there is to say about Chefchaouen. Nice place, worth the visit, but not exactly a whole lot to write about. Our plan after this was to go back to Fes, and spend the next day doing a day trip to Meknes and visit Volubilis (the Roman ruins). Unfortunately we didn't get enough people to go on the trip with us and we didn't want to pay the extra to cover it. So we just spent the day in. Rikard wanted to watch the hockey final anyway, and I watched us collapse in the cricket. All in all it was just another lazy day. And the day after that was basically an 8 hour train trip followed by a 2 hour flight back here to Seville.

So that's the end of my 2 weeks in Morocco. It was certainly an interesting 2 weeks, and I'm super glad I did it. It was almost like a holiday from my trip. Not in the sense that it was relaxing or anything like that, but that it was something different. I don't think it could have come at a better time. Right around the halfway mark, just to change things up. Honestly though it was a lot more like I thought it would be than I expected it to be. That is to say I thought it would be one way but kind of expected it would be nothing like I thought it would be, as was the case with central Europe. But it really was pretty much exactly like I thought it would be. I would say now that I'm glad to be back in Europe. I'm over people being in your face all the time. I do think I'll miss the food a bit though, I certainly enjoyed it a lot more than I have Spanish food (not really a fan at all). I won't miss the lack of alcohol though.