The fog lies heavy over Lund. A train stands empty at the station, and suddenly, people come out of the fog towards the train. They look tired as it is early in the morning, but you can see excitement in their eyes. They come from different directions with bags in their hands and they greet each other with a big hug and a nervous look. Where are they going? The answer is that this is the #coupfcoupf gang who will spend the next 4 days in Rabat, Morocco. What starts as a nervous meeting in Lund will become a great journey with memories that will last for a lifetime (if they don´t disappear during a night at a nation).
But let us start with the most important question; why the hashtag #coupfcoupf? Even after endless discussions during the preparation of the trip we could not come up with a good hashtag. But in the check-in line at Brussels Airport it finally clicked. After a six-hour layover that had consisted of a search for the sun and at bit of grass to sit on for some, and a few Leffe Brune for others, we were all quite tired. It is common knowledge that these moments generate the best ideas; with a wordplay on the famous Moroccan dish and UPF, the name was born. It marked the beginning of the trip with a perfect combination of laughter and serious discussions.
On the topic of laughter, we must talk about one of the highlights of the trip; the first dinner in Rabat. After a long day of travel, we were all tired and hungry. We made a quick stop at the surfer’s hostel where we stayed (and yes, the owners had hair down to their nipples and said “bro” a lot), and went out to a restaurant they recommended for us. Supposedly, they were famous for the best food in town and cheap prices. The waiters sat us down at two big tables and ordered in food. We did not know what they got for us, but it sure was delicious! We ate like vultures and were all stuffed. What we didn´t realize was that this was the pre-course. In came 4 more plates as big as the first one with all kinds of food; chicken, beef, cabbage, rice, bread etc. We did not know that cabbage could taste that good (the bottom left on the picture bellow)! During the dinner, a local band played in the background with drums, flutes, and many other instruments we couldn’t identify. They were obviously payed to impress the foreigners; they moved off stage to play and invited us up to dance and sing. They even changed all the lyrics to “Bob Marley” and “Macarena” to make it easier for us to sing along.
We all ended up dancing around the whole restaurant with big smiles on our faces. It was the perfect end of a long and exhausting day. 30 minutes later we all slept like babies at the hostel, ready for the coming days in Rabat.
This post was written by Markus and Johanne, members of the Rabat 2017 travel committee.