Morocco Day 2: Chefchaouen, The Blue City

The next city we visited was Chefchaouen (Chaouen for short), Morocco's famous "Blue City." The city is located among the Rif Mountains, and gets its name from the shape of the mountain tops. Said mountain tops resemble two goat horns or "ichawen" (chaoua) in berber. It was surprisingly cold, and unfortunately raining almost the whole time we were there, but we still had a great time.

The Blue City!

Our bus left Tangier at around 12nn, but we couldn't do much in the morning as it was raining. We chilled a bit in our hostel, and then left after 11 to walk to the bus station (thankfully it was only drizzling a bit by this time). At the bus station we bought some snacks and lunch, then boarded the bus and were on our way. We had a pit stop at Tetouan, which we originally thought was just for dropping off and picking up passengers, but we seemed to be stationed there for quite some time. Almost 45 minutes later, we were told that there was something wrong with our bus so we had transfer to another.

We ended up arriving in Chefchaouen close to 4pm and took a taxi to the medina. There were one or two taxi drivers waiting outside the bus station, so we went with one guy, and only later realized that he wasn't a legit taxi driver. He was just a guy with a van, but we were able to to negotiate a good rate to get to the medina, and he dropped us off safely. In Morocco, there are two kinds of taxis: petit taxis and grand taxis. The petit taxis stay within the city, while grand taxis can take you to another city. The color of the petit taxis depends on the city your'e in (they were red in Fes, blue in Chefchoauen, beige in Marrakesh), while grand taxis are usually white, but it depends on the region you're in. Neither of the taxi types are metered, and you should negotiate a rate with the driver before getting in. From the bus station to the medina, the way is uphill, so we were pretty glad we took a taxi. (Going to the bus station the next day, we had time to spare, and more or less knew the way, so we opted to walk).

One of the entrances to the medina

In Chefchaouen we stayed in a small and charming place called Casa Amina. The medina is relatively small, and we were able to find our hostel fairly easily. It's a family run hostel, and the receptionist, who was more like a host, was extremely warm and friendly. He offered us free mint tea (which turned out to be the best mint tea we had in our 10 days in Morocco), and was very helpful with anything we needed. We had a private room on the top floor, and right outside was a small area with a couch and a heater. We spent most of our time in the hostel hanging out by the heater because of the cold. Unfortunately, we had no heater in our room, and even with two thick wool blankets, it was still quite cold at night. Other than that, the hostel was alright.

Getting ready to explore Chefchaouen

After settling in, we decided to head first to the main square, Plaza Uta el-Hammam.

Plaza Uta el-Hammam

In the square stands the kasbah, a 500 year old fortress which has since been restored. We went in for 10dh to explore (it's quite small), and climb up the tower (though it's not that high) to get a nice view of the city.

The kasbah

View from the courtyard

Rif Mountains in the background

Up in the tower

View from the tower

Grey skies but see all the blue houses?

After, we decided to just wander around the medina taking a lot of pictures, since the city was just so beautiful. During the Spanish Inquisition, the Jews (and the Moors) fled Southern Spain and took refuge in Northern Morocco. The Jews settled in Chefchaouen and painted the city blue, which in Judaism denotes divinity, as blue is the color of the sky and the heavens. Most Jewish families have since left the city, but the tradition still holds today, and the medina is a beautiful maze of walls and doors of different shades of blue. (Warning: many pictures up ahead).

In the middle of the medina

It was so much fun to walk around and see the changing hues of the blue walls - from the actual different shade of blue, to how different they looked in the afternoon and at night, and before and after the rain.

Arabic street signs

A small plaza surrounded by blue buildings

Another small plaza

The blue doors were also so captivating. I wanted to take pictures of all of them!

One of the many fountains, though we stuck with bottled water

Another fountain

A pop of color in the blue city

Some street art too

My lovely sister who took majority of the pictures that you will see on my blog posts :)

It was drizzling on and off the whole day, but despite the rain, we still really enjoyed walking around. Though at one point it the rain started to get stronger, so we ducked into a café for some shelter. We ordered some orange juice and a snack to share. Unfortunately we had an unpleasant experience with the owner, who very rudely responded with "Then leave." when we asked how much longer our food would take (we had been waiting for over an hour). So we just left some money on the table for the orange juice and then left.

Cozy café, but rude owner :(

By the time we left it was nearly dinner time, so we looked for Casa Aladdin, a restaurant we wanted to check out. It was a quite popular spot as one of its level had a terrace that looked out into Plaza Uta el-Hammam. Nevertheless, the ambience was nice and the food was good. Similar to Spain, the restaurant (and most all restaurants in Morocco) offer a menu which consists of two plates, a drink, and dessert. 

This way to Casa Aladdin

The kitchen where you could watch them prepare your food (and drool as you smell all the dishes)

At Casa Aladdin we decided to all share three full menus (at 85 dh each) so we could taste different kinds of Moroccan dishes. For starters we tried:

• lentil soup (top left)
• zaalouk (top right) - an eggplant spread with tomatoes, garlic, olive oil and spices
• harira (bottom middle) - the most common Moroccan soup, made with tomatoes and lentils (or sometimes I feel, whatever leftovers they have)

lentils - zaalouk - harira

For the main course we had couscous (my personal favorite of the three), a tajine, and a pastilla.

• Shrimp tajine (top left)
• Couscous with caramelized chicken and onions. Trivia: it's traditionally cooked on Fridays (the Muslim holy day), so if you eat/order it on a Friday, it will be freshest.
• Chicken pastilla - a sort of flaky pie, with cinnamon on top. It has an interesting mix of sweet and salty flavors. It was traditionally made with pigeon, though nowadays, chicken is more common.

Main courses

The zaalouk was delicious as was the chicken couscous. I wasn't a big fan of the pastilla, though Angela loved it, and I must admit it had an intriguing taste. We had some dessert too, though it was nothing special, just some yogurt and flan.

We hung out a bit at the restaurant (because the free wifi was quite fast), then headed back to our hostel to call it a night. Hope you didn't get sick of all the blue in this post! Coming up next: our second day in Chefchaouen -- visiting a hammam and shopping in the souks. :)