Things I forgot to mention yesterday!
*I won a small photo contest in the Bicycle Touring group on facebook. Theme: Freedom, prize: The picture will be used as cover page for one month!

*My light switch didn’t really work yesterday, and while they were buying a new one, I had it like this for a time. Also, they don’t turn off the electricity while fiddleing with it (“This is Africa!”).

I headed out to buy breakfast, and then packed my stuff. At 1015 I started, with the hardest thing being getting out of the city. By using my compass and asking people, I managed. GPS really simplifies things!
I started biking, and the uphill were not steep at all. I had no problems keeping 20 km/h, even though I gained altitude. I saw a photographer on the way, headed in the same direction but by car, who took some shots of me when he got the chance. I stayed and talked with him, and he told me I could get the pictures later!

Walking away like a badass

I took lunch after 30 kilometres, and on the way I had taken some nice photos. I also used my home-made bicycle stand, just putting my walking pole as a stand.

The wind was strong, so the clouds were rolling over

I got up to 650 metres, without it being too steep. As Chefchaouen would be at 590 metres, there were two alternatives: more or less flat, or downhill with a big ass uphill in the end. You can guess which one…

300 steep height metres

It took an hour, with really steep road, but I managed to get up. Asking around, I got in the right direction for the hotel Veigar had told me about. Close to the top I saw a man with a nice hat!

After some steep biking in the medina, I got to the hotel. They only had the terrace rooms available for 100 dirham, but I took it. It was a nice view at least!

After eating some more, I went out to discover the place.

I bought pretty much of this in Tetouan

I bought some bananas and a baguette with omelette and french-fries in it (weird but good) while looking for some wifi. A cyber cafe cost 10 for one hour, so I bought dinner for 30 at a restaurant with wifi instead.
After that, I went home and fell asleep by eight o’clock.

The small mat I bought…

…and the big one, but I am not going to unfold that one!

I went out for breakfast, and bought some round bread and some triangle-things with chicken in it. Delicious!
After walking around for a while, I found a tea cafe with wifi, so I stayed there for a while. I met a middle-aged guy who started speaking with me, and treated me a glass of orange juice. Mfodal also showed me around for a bit, and I don’t think he wanted money from me, but was a nice guy. Not that I can know, as I am pretty paranoid about that as a tourist.
On the way to the hotel, a friend of his started talking to him, and he was on his way to a big market. I followed him, Ahmed, and this guy was more of a false-guide. He told me he would do this without wanting to get paid, and he showed me some nice places.

He took me to a top, which I admittedly wouldn’t have found without his help, and took some pictures.

He also showed me a tannery, where a guy seemed angry about the photos,

and a place where they were crafting things from the leather.

Then, he showed me an old place, I think it was Berber. What I didn’t know was that I was led right into a carpet-seller.

They view was free!

He started showing me carpets, of course after treating me tea, and I was trapped. They were beautiful, and I ended up buying two. Of course his starting price were pretty high, probably because of white-tourist-Sweden, but I got it down to about 1/5, and more importantly, to a price which I think was fair (500 Dirhams, about 425 Swedish) for one small mat, and one big (3×2 metres or something) kind of carpet-something. I can’t really feel tricked about this, so I guess it was a good price for me. The only thing I regret is that I should have done this in the end of the trip, now I will have to bike with those for a month!
Also, the whole experience was really cool, actually, so I don’t mind.
When I came down, Ahmed was waiting for me. I was pretty tired, so I went back to the hotel (he wanted me to look at other stuff, spices for example, but I felt that I shouldn’t buy anything right then). He asked for a tip, but when I said no, he didn’t get angry or anything (he actually said no money in the beginning).

I think this is the entrance to a children’s mosque.

I went out again a bit later to shop for food, and also found more cool places to take pictures of. There were another guy starting to talk with me, who if course wanted to show me things. I was headed the same way, so couldn’t really get from him. He asked for money for his autistic son (that was probably true, his son were with him) but I said no, and went in another direction. Now, I had no clue about where I was, but I had time.
On my way walking around I found a market which I had biked past the first day.

I also saw those nice colours, which are used for colouring the building, as I understood it.

After asking around a bit here and there, I finally found my way back to the royal palace.

My hotel is close to the palace, and I was in time for tea!
Also, they had fixed the wifi, so I could start uploading pictures and all that stuff again.

The alley

The entrance

People in the main room smoking stuff

Roof in main room

Some old wall, or something

My room to the left

My room

It was small and cheap, and I really liked the people working there! The quality was so-so, but as Nordin, one of the guys working there said, “This is Africa!”