What? You want fancy feast?

We slept in since we weren’t meeting Hamid until 11 A.M., but Megan woke up feeling like shit. I felt so bad because today was our last big day of the trip, and we were supposed to ride camels. We went down to breakfast at the hotel together though and took a look at the menu. They seemed to have a lot of great choice, but we could only choose between the Moroccan breakfast or the continental breakfast. Why do you give me so many choices then?

We got fresh squeezed orange juice (they really are into that here), and I got the Moroccan breakfast while Megs and Dice got the continental breakfast. They were both all carbs except for a small container of yogurt, hard boiled eggs, and some weird looking pieces of meat. The Moroccan breakfast was made up of this yummy bread, crepes with nothing in them, and these holey pancake things. I just put honey on everything and dug in. Dice and Megs basically got a bunch of croissants. Yummy. Megan really wasn’t feeling well, so we were going to ask Hamid if we could ride camels with her close to the hotel, bring her back, and then go to the mountain.

Just as a side note, this weird thing started to happen with us and Hamid. Every time he picked us up, I would sit in the front, Dice would sit behind Hamid, and Megan would sit behind me. Also, anytime Megs or Dice wanted to say something to Hamid, they said it, and then he would look at me to repeat it. It wasn’t like I was translating or anything, but I kind of was. I think he just liked me a lot because I went to Pitt and so did he, but I would just repeat what they said slower and with some hand motions. It actually became a little joke between us girls.

So, Hamid arrived, and we asked him if Megan could ride camels close by. He said “No Problem!”, so we all hopped in. Before we took off, he pulled out this big envelope with a ton of pictures of him from the 1980’s in Pittsburgh! He had a picture of Forbes which looks super different now, and a picture of the cathedral. He also had pictures of himself at Kennywood and The Pittsburgh Zoo. It was seriously the coolest thing ever. The best part was that in most of the pictures, he was rocking some old school Pitt gear. It was some of the same stuff that my dad used to have. It was seriously really cool. He was obviously really excited to show it all to me too. After I looked through them, we started to drive. I noticed that we were headed in the direction of the mountain, so I reminded him that Megan wanted to ride a camel and go back. Hamid basically refused and said that she needed to see the mountain. He also said that she would regret it if she didn’t because she would see all of our pictures and be really upset. I could tell Megan was super pissed at this old man for tricking her into coming along, but she was a trooper and agreed.

So, let me set the scene for you. We are all in our assigned seats, rolling through the most beautiful mountain range, while Lady Gaga’s Judas is pumping out of the speakers. Definitely an experience. The road was super windy and became more and more narrow as we got farther into it. The mountains had this red look to them because the dirt is pretty much red, and they were spotted with green plants and trees. It was so beautiful. Hamid is a big fan of using the horn and basically honked it at every corner to let people know we were coming. We drove through Ourika which is the region we were in to get to the village named Stivadma. After about a two hour drive and a ton of pictures, the road ended, and we had to park the car. We walked around the village a little, and we saw this little goat that was tied to a pole in the middle of a porch. It looked so helpless because it was tied up with a piece of ribbon, but Hamid wasn’t afraid and picked it up! I stood behind it for a picture, but we learned that it was eventually going to get killed. You know how we knew that? We saw its brother’s head hanging in the shop next door along with its body and legs. EWW.

Then, the most amazing thing happened. IT RAINED! I honestly never thought I would be so excited for rain in my life, but it was awesome. I missed it these past two months! It rained really hard too. We took shelter in this outdoor restaurant that had a tin roof so the rain sounded even louder than it was. Hamid ordered mint tea for us which were SO good. He then ordered more tagine but this time it was egg and ground beef. He called it a hamburger, but it was honestly better than any hamburger I ever had. There were so many spices and deliciousness in it. Ah. So GOOD. We sat and ate for a while which I felt bad about because Hamid couldn’t eat. He was fasting along with almost the whole village we were in. We didn’t ask him to get us food though, but as I said, he doesn't take no for an answer. We started feeding some of the food to a bunch of stray cats that were around and before we knew it we looked like a bunch of cat ladies. One of the cats had a face that looked like a dog though, so we named him Catdog. Hahaha. Some of the cats were a little picky though, and we had fun making fun of them (see album title). Hamid kept getting up and walking around while we were eating, and he eventually came back with a honeydew melon. He got the restaurant owner to cut it up, and it was really good too. Good old Hamid. Gotta love him.

The rain had slowed down by the time we were finished eating, and Hamid wouldn’t let us pay for our food yet again. We started following him through the town, and we started to head down a side road. There were a bunch of chickens everywhere which was really funny. But then it started POURING rain again. Hamid literally started running through this alleyway filled with rocks and mud, and I couldn’t even keep up with him. We were all laughing at the fact that we were running through the rain, and a 64 year old man beat us to shelter. We jumped into this little store, and Hamid said he would bring the car down to meet us. We refused and told him we would run to the car with him, so off he went like a lightning bolt again. Haha. Oh Hamid. We all jumped into the car and headed out of the little town. We were all soaked, but it was really funny and refreshing.

As we headed out of the thick of the mountains where Hamid said it rains a lot, we drove past a bunch of old, rickety bridges that cross over the river. Hamid decided to pull over (he makes all the decisions..seriously though..he does), and he led us over to the bridge. Candice is really afraid of heights, so when Hamid basically started to run across this bridge, we were all taken aback. It was rocking back and forth like crazy and the bridge had a ton of holes in it. It was made of tree limbs and cable wire, and it was really scary to walk across, but we all did it. Once we got to the other side, we walked down to the river, and Hamid started climbing on top of all these big rocks. By this time, we had traded hats. He was wearing my Pitt baseball cap, and I was wearing his traditional Moroccan straw hat. We took a picture together that is pretty adorable.

We hung out down there for a little, and then we headed back across the bridge. We all jumped back in the car and headed back out of the mountains. By this time, Megan was feeling a lot better (gotta love medicine), and I think she was really glad that she came along. The drive and the town were probably one of my favorite parts of the whole trip. I love getting out of the city and seeing these countries for what they really are. As we drove out of the mountains, Hamid had the radio up loud, and we were all singing to Chris Brown and some other American artists. We also taught Hamid how to pound it or “knucks” which he loved. We really bonded with him.

Once we were almost out of the mountains, Hamid pulled over where there was a large group of camels chilling on the side of the road. Guess it is time to ride a camel! We all hop out, and Megan is the first to mount her camel. I had no idea how BIG camels were. I was really surprised. They are SO huge. The way they stand up and sit down is pretty funny too. They first go down on their front legs and then on their back legs. It was really funny, but these animals are also kind of gross. They were covered in flies and flees, and I really wasn’t a big fan. Yet, I still jumped on! We all got on our camels, and the guy who owned them led us around for a couple of minutes. Hamid was snapping pictures like a pro, so we caught the whole experience. He really liked the fact that my camera could take videos, so he swallowed up my whole memory card with a video of the experience. I wasn’t mad though. It is a pretty hilarious video.

After riding camels, we headed back into town while singing and dancing in the car. It was a lot of fun. Hamid took us back to the hotel and said he would pick us up at 9:30 to go out. Apparently he wasn’t sick of us yet! When we got back, Megan took a nap and a shower while Mandice and I walked to the train station to get tickets for the next day back to Casablanca. We stopped to get postcards and water, and a few guys were yelling stuff at us while we walked. Can’t go anywhere without Hamid! We got to the train station and were lucky that the attendant spoke English really well. We also ran into another SAS girl who asked to borrow Megan’s phone which I took in case we got jumped. Hey, you never know! We hung out in the hotel and showered until it was time for Hamid to pick us up. Even though we were basically best friends with him by this point, I was a little nervous getting in the car with him again. I just don’t know why he wanted to hang out with us.

He started driving and decided that we were going to go to Chez Ali which apparently means the Two Alis. It is this really famous show that is pretty similar to Medieval Times. I think it is probably where Medieval Times originated. We were a little nervous on the drive there though because this place is kind of far outside of the city. Megan wasn’t feeling well again, so we were hoping it wouldn’t be a late night. We arrived, and the place looked like a palace. We paid for just the show because we had apparently missed dinner and got our pictures taken with some women dressed in cool outfits. The place was really cool with a place in the middle for the performance, and a big palace build around it. We got a table, and Hamid ordered a coke and some water. There were a bunch of groups of performers that came around to each table, and they made us get up and dance with them. Hamid just took pictures. Haha. He showed us around the place, and apparently Reagan had visited at one point. This place was really famous too and had won all kind of awards.

He showed us all the indoor seating which was really authentic, and then we took our seats for the show. It was a story about a woman being married off I think. It started with a girl who did belly dancing, and then there were two people on a flying carpet above. It was hard to follow because it was in Arabic, but it was still cool. They also had guys on live horses that charged the audience and shot these really loud guys. Candice screamed when it happened the first time. Pretty typical. Haha. They also had a couple of guys who did tricks on horses which was really cool. At the end of the performance, they lit a bunch of letters on fire to spell goodbye in Arabic. It was a really cool experience. Megan still wasn’t feeling well though, so after the show we asked Hamid to take us back to the hotel. He wanted to just drop Megan off and take Candice and I to get dinner, but Candice and I didn’t want to leave her. So, we all headed back to the hotel after a LONG day. I felt kind of bad because he was obviously disappointed, but it really wasn’t a good idea for us to split up. It was just really hard to explain things to him without sounding rude or ungrateful. :-(