Where I've Been

heyyyy

Long time no see! Sorry disappearing, life is as life does and mine has been very busy recently.

Last you heard I was leaving Lisbon. Since then, I’ve gone pretty far. For now, I’ll give you a quick rundown of everything, but very soon I will make a few more detailed posts of what I’ve been up to for the past month and a half!

---

So, after Lisbon, Jordan and I took the bus back to Madrid, and then a very hungover train ride to Granada where we stayed for a few days. After Granada, we spent one night in Algeciras before catching the ferry over to Morocco!! The ferry itself was pretty fun, and a lot warmer than the ferry we took in Ireland a few months back. Eventually we landed in Tangier and the Moroccan adventure began!

the ferry

We travelled around Morocco for about a week and a half, spending time in Tangier, Chefchaouen, Fes, and Marrakesh. We spent a few days in each of these cities, every place learning a bit more about Morocco. The food here is so good and so different from the food I am used to, through all the cities we got to try a lot of it, like Rfissa, Pastilla, Tajine, M’semmen. Hopefully, by the time I leave Morocco, I’ll have learned how to cook everything so I can share all the recipes!

After Marrakesh, we headed deep into the desert to volunteer at a hard tent camp for three weeks. During this time we weren’t that busy, but the days still went by quickly. We worked about three hours a day — two in the morning and one in the evening. Other than that, we mostly spent our time reading, playing chess, journaling, or napping. I had planned to write a lot for the blog, but power shortages made that nearly impossible. The camp ran on a single solar panel, which had to power all the lights and charging stations for staff and guests, so more often than not my computer was dead or I was conserving my battery.

After the desert, we stopped in Ouarzazate, aka the “Hollywood of Africa,” planning to check out the cinema museum and a few filming locations. Unfortunately, I came down with the worst stomach illness of my life. I spent the entire day stuck in bed, but thankfully, Jordan was feeling fine and was able to grab electrolytes. With a lot of water, electrolytes and luck, the next day we were feeling well enough to hop on a bus for six hours to the surf hostel we will be volunteering at for the next two months.

Since I got to the surf hostel I’ve also been pretty busy. Recovering from my illness. Catching up on all the work for my job. Life. Learning how to do reception at the surf hostel. Trying to surf. Becoming a birth doula to the cat that lives at the hostel.

Even though I’m working five hours a day and spending time with all the new friends I’m making here, I finally have the time (and enough power and wifi) to sit down and write everything I’ve been wanting to share. I’ve been taking notes along the way, so expect some blog posts soon! I’ll also link them here for easy access once they’re up.

Bye for now—hopefully, not for as long as last time!!

abby