Jewish Archives - Passport Overused

Three hours after leaving Casablanca, I was in Tangier. This city was at the northern part of Morocco. Close to the Mediterranean Sea, this city has such a strong Spanish influence. Some of the buildings have Spanish architecture. This area’s history with Spain goes back several hundreds to thousands of years. It almost looked like I was in Latin America.

The view from the airbnb apartment photo courtesy of Hugo Morel

Got to my Airbnb apartment, it was near the beach. This looks a like an awesome place to visit during the summer time. The cold breeze with the beautiful beaches confused me. I felt I like running downstairs to jump into the water. What stopped me was the need to have my winter coat with me. It was like a very cold Miami without the heat.

View of the beach photo courtesy of Hugo Morel

Some of the people here speak Spanish. You can tell where someone is from originally because of how they speak Spanish. The history this place has with Spain is interesting. When the Spanish Jews and Moors got kicked out of Spain, they had to settle in different parts of North Africa. Others converted to Christianity and left for the Spanish colonies in the Americas. So, the Spanish Moors and Jews that went back to Morocco settled in this region of the country. The Jews settled more in the “Blue city” or Chefchaouen that’s about an hour away by car.

Another view of the beach photo courtesy of Hugo Morel

Went to a mall near my accommodation. I wanted to eat out and try some Moroccan food. To my disappointment, all the food was American globalization flavored. I did have a conversation with a local that spoke Spanish. He couldn’t speak English and my skills towards this country’s governmental languages are horrible. Spanish was our common language. My new friend let me know that he learned Spanish from his parents. He even spoke Spanish with a Spaniard accent but he looked Latin American. It was surreal to experience this. I felt like the biggest history nerd knowing this guy has roots to the Moors and/or the sephardic jew. Spanish is taught at home by being passed down generationally. Same goes with judaism.

The beach with the hill in the background photo courtesy of Hugo Morel

Came back near the apartment I rented, I was a little annoyed. I went to Morocco to eat hamburgers and french fries. There’s a French joke here, but I’m not going to touch it. Anyways, I wanted to eat Moroccan food. Sadly, I started to noticed that local food is hard to come by when you are staying in the touristy areas.

Stay safe everyone and remember to wash your hands!

Sorry for posting on Thursday. Had a wild day yesterday.

Check out our eBook “How to Travel for Dirt Cheap” by Hugo Morel for ways to make your dreams of traveling come true without breaking the bank. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07M848M47?ref_=pe_3052080_276849420&fbclid=IwAR0_mRF-eE9tODIshljVr7CQ8h6vKT6hHn_8gZfJ94DySY1ylPO2Itu2Qe

For videos about cultures of the world and to see our travels, subscribe to our youtube channel!

For my underwater photos, I use the gopro hero 7 white.

We have partnered up with booking.com and working on TripAdvisor. Here are some links for each hope you all enjoy!Here are links to hotels and other deals.For Hotels, make sure to click here. For apartments make sure to click here. For Resorts click here. For villas click here. For bed and breakfast and for Guest houses, make sure to click the links!

When we think of Catacombs, we think of the one’s in Paris; however, Rome has a few as well. Although, they are not as dark as the ones in Paris, but they are still creepy.

Photo taken by Hugo Morel

As we were going down the steps, I truly had no idea what I was getting into. The further we went, the darker it got. I looked back and the image I saw, was something out of a horror painting.

A little history of Rome’s catacombs. The catacombs were built for the Christian and Jewish population. Since most of them were too poor to afford a proper grave, the ancient Romans just stuffed them in the catacombs. Also, the Romans back then did not believe in burying the dead. They preferred cremations.

Back to our story, the Catacombs were always at a cool temperature. As the group kept going, I somehow got lost. Being lost in a place like this was not a fun experience. You can sense something is always around the corner looking at you.

Every corner I turned, there were more graves with Latin written on them. My fight against anxiety was becoming a hopeless cause.

Eventually after running around in the dark for what felt like an hour, I found a tour guide. The guide looked at me twice, as if she was making sure I wasn’t some sprit haha. She lead me to the exit and there I found freedom from this nightmarish event.

Thank you for reading our post. Much love!! Safe travels and have an awesome weekend!