Once upon a time, on a Thursday, long long ago, Karin, Stephanie, and I met at the train station to go to the airport to get on a plane that would take us to Marrakech, Morocco. We just hung out at the airport until we boarded our flight. The flight was only two hours and it went pretty quick especially since we played MASH and no, I don't mean the 70s hit T.V. show, I mean the popular preteen life prediction game. Want to hear what my future life will be like? I will marry Tim (my boyfriend..¡Qué suerte!) live in an apartment in Detroit, MI, have three kids, be an animator, drive a Toyota, and have a pet sloth. I don't know about you, but that seems like a pretty good life, besides living in Detroit..eww. Anyway, once we landed in Marrakech, we arranged for our hostel to pick us up. They weren't there right away so we kind of did quite a few circles around the airport before our guy actually showed up. We definitely looked lost in front of all the other Moroccans waiting to pick up people, but who cares, we made it safe to the hostel, that's all that matters. Once we got to the hostel, we drank our first of many teas for the weekend (tea is a popular drink) and we talked with a hostel employee about Marrakech and what to do and such. Then, it was off to bed.
Friday, April 11th
Friday was really our only day to walk around Marrakech, so that's what we did, but not before eating breakfast at the hostel. We had a nice breakfast with freshly squeezed orange juice, bread, this crepe-type thing, and jams. Then, we walked around. I was expecting Morocco to be scorching hot and it was hot, but not as bad as I expected. It wasn't humid, so that helped and walking in the sun was nice. So, we walked to see the main mosque in Marrakech, Koutoubia Mosque, and walked around the park that surrounds it.
Then, we went to the main square, Jemaa el-Fnaa, where you can find a plethora of things, like a bazillion stands selling the same things: nuts, dried fruit, and freshly squeezed orange juice. You can also find snake charmers..yep, snakes, just out and laying on carpets in the main square and men "charming" them. And you can also find women asking if you want henna done, which brings me to my next story. I'll call it, "The Attack of the Henna." Basically, a woman asked us if we wanted henna, we kindly said "no thanks" and kept walking. She followed, we kept walking. Stephanie and I turned around to find Karin getting it done. The woman had grabbed onto Karin's hand and wouldn't let go. Obviously, when she was done, she kept following us for money. We gave her 10 dirhams. The equivalent of $1.22. Then, she kindly said "Eat s***" and walked away. The End. Good story, huh? I felt bad for Karin and couldn't believe that the woman just grabbed onto her hand. That is one cultural difference that we noticed right away. Just the people on the street calling and always trying to make money and rip you off. It was hard for us because we're not rude people, but you kind of have to be if you want to get out of there. If you say "hi" back it could mean that you want to buy something and they will proceed to show you five different things even if you continuous say that you don't want anything. Also, walking around the markets, everyone thought we were Spanish and gave us names..the most common being María José, but we also got María Carmen and María Clara. I will also take this time to say that the market workers know how to say "hello" in more than one language. At one point, we were walking behind some girls who were clearly speaking American English, but were of Asian descent and a worker said "Nǐ hǎo" to them. Needless to say, I don't think they were too happy about that and we couldn't believe our ears. We walked to the city wall and back and saw a bunch of school students and teachers. The teachers had on a white doctor-looking coat and we found out that that is what they have to wear to school to keep from distracting the students.
We then went to Ben Youssef Madrasa, an old Islamic college in Marrakech. We got to walk around and see all of the rooms and the main patio of the university, it was pretty. I will say the I really like the Arabic architecture (<--man, it took me a long time to figure out how to spell that in English).
After the university, we decided to dive in and try our first meal out. We heard to be careful with the food, but I wasn't too too worried, but we definitely were just eating street food, so I can see why we were warned. Our first meal was tagine (again, something that we would eat a lot over the weekend). Tagine is "a historically Berber dish from North Africa that is named after the type of earthenware pot in which it is cooked." (Wikipedia). I got the vegetable tagine all weekend, which had potatoes, zucchini, peas, carrots, a bunch of spices, among other things. Our lunch also came with Moroccan bread and salad, which is similar to pico de gallo.
It was a good lunch and after, we went to the Marrakech museum. I really couldn't even tell you what was in it. They had some art and furniture I think, but mostly I was looking at the building in general. It was super pretty and we made our way back to a corner of the museum where a guy was doing calligraphy, which was awesome. We stood there for soo long looking at his work and watching him do it and then we each got one. I got one that says what other than "Don't Miss Out." Actually, literally translated, it says "Live the Moment," but that's the best translation he could come up with from "Don't Miss Out" and I would say that is a pretty good synonymous phrase, so that's what I got and I think it's gorgeous!
After all that, we walked around the markets more and bought a few things after bargaining. I think I have said this several times before throughout the last three years of blogging, but I love the markets! I could look at place after place, even if they have the exact same things (and usually they do) and there are hundreds to see in Marrakech, which is awesome. However, the not so awesome part is that you can't look without being hassled to buy something. I mean, I get it, they want you to buy something, but it makes for annoying shopping, so we mostly walked and didn't look, which I guess is okay, otherwise we would have been out for HOURS! We made our way back to the hostel and chilled for a little bit on the roof. Our hostel was right next to a mosque so when they had the call to prayer for the Friday prayer, we sat there for quite awhile listening to the men sing the Jumu'ah. After that, we ventured back out for dinner. We went to the orange juice, snake charming square for dinner and found a place to eat. They have all sorts of make shift restaurants in the middle of the square at night and that's where we ate. This time, we got couscous, which was also really good. I don't eat near the vegetables that I do when I am in the U.S., so it was nice to have a lot of veggie dishes in Morocco. Dinner was good despite being slightly ripped off for the bread and we made our way back to the hostel and went to bed.
Saturday, April 12th
At 7 a.m. on Saturday morning, Stephanie, Karin, and I got picked up for a two-day desert tour. We were joined by our guide, Mustapha, our driver, and an Italian couple. A lot of the weekend consisted of driving and stopping and more driving. So, of course, we started in the car and drove for quite awhile and made our first stop for breakfast. While at our breakfast stop, Mustapha gave us some information about the area (which was the start of the Atlas Mountains), the Berbers, and what we would be doing for the next two days. He told us that the Atlas Mountains is a mountain range that extends for 2400km through Morocco and Algeria and it's highest peak is at 4167km and it is not accessible by car. There are three sections of the range in Morocco: high, middle, and anti. I don't remember which one we spent the majority of our time in, but if I remember right I think the highest point we hit was 2750 (not sure though). We had our breakfast apparently in the only area in the mountains where there is green and clay (see picture below).
Mustapha also told us about the people that live in Morocco: Berbers and Arabs. The Berbers were there first. They were free noblemen that came form Holland and Germany. Then, the Arabs came, looking for peace and freedom and with them they brought Islam. Berbers were not Muslims before, but now 98% of Moroccans are Muslims with 20% being Arab and 80% being Berber. As for the languages, there are four spoken in Morocco: Classic Arabic, French (because it was a French colony at one point), Berber (three dialects, which is only spoken), and Popular Arabic (which is only spoken). He told us a little more about the Berbers, too, like how they marry in the family and "have babies like printers." He finished it off by telling us that Morocco has the 3rd best weather in the world. Don't know if that is really where they are on the list, but I did find that they have good weather. It can be super hot temperature wise, but you can't feel it.
We also stopped at Ksar of Aït Benhaddou, which is a World Heritage Site and is important in the movie industry. Apparently most major movie producers know about that site and movies like Lawrence of Arabia and The Gladiator, were filmed there. We then sat in an apparently important cave room of a house (its appeared in films, too) and talked to a local who was in The Gladiator as an extra. He still had the shield that he used in the movie and he talked about how they got paid for the movie; however, they didn't see a lot of the money, because they government took it from them. We also drank tea in the cave, of course, and they told us about the process of making the tea. It is a pretty lengthy process and the act of pouring it, is pretty important, too.
After that, we had lunch and I had tagine again. It was good. The potatoes in it are delicious.
We then got in the car and drove and drove and drove, until we reached where we were supposed to get on the camels, but a different group had stolen our camels so we had to wait. We used our waiting time to play soccer with the local children, but actually, we didn't play with the local children, our tour guide paid the children to let us use their ball. I don't know why we didn't just play with them, but whatever. We played guys vs. girls and Karin rocked the girls' team and we won. YAY! Then, our guide paid the children, but the thing was, the children were from two different villages and he did not have change for his bill, so what did he do? He ripped the bill in half and gave one half to each group. He told them to go to the nearest store get scotch tape and then split the change. This is the only solution he had because if he would have given one group the whole bill, they could have taken it and ran, but they were forced to go together to get the money. I don't know how it works in Morocco, but I was thinking about how a lot of places don't accept damaged bills like that, so maybe neither group got money that day. :/
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| The windy road in the Atlas Mountains |
Then, we got in the car and drove some more. Because I am writing this so late, this may not be in the exact order we did things, but we stopped at an Argan place, which produced and sold Argan food and hair products. We got to sample the food and they had this delicious spread that tasted like peanut butter. Also, I should say that we stopped there because Argan is common in some places of Morocco. Also, I learned that goats climb Argan trees, weird...here's a picture though.
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| The sunset and our goalie |
That was just about too much. Ha, but we made it to our camp, sat down, and drank tea with a bunch of other tour groups. The biggest group there was actually a group of Moroccan high schoolers. They were visiting from the north of Moroccan and were on a school trip. Our tour group ate dinner, what other than tagine, and then we sat out by a group of musicians that were playing music for everyone. Then, our guide showed up and kind of took over. He was already kind of rubbing me the wrong way, but then after this night I think I decided that I definitely didn't care for him too much. We were obviously with a huge group of tourists and the musicians were playing their music and he told the musicians to quiet down and pretty much demanded the attention of the group. Also, we knew he had been drinking so maybe that played a part in this as well, which is a whole different story. If you are a tour guide in a group, you probably shouldn't get tipsy and you probably should sit at meals with your groups and answer questions because you're getting paid for it, but that's a different story. Anyway, he demanded the attention of everyone and told stupid, but somewhat funny jokes and then took our group to the sand dunes and talked about himself. Not all about himself and maybe at this point I was annoyed enough that I had just stopped listening, but all I needed to know is that I asked him several questions about Morocco, the Berbers, etc. and I did not feel like my questions were answered. I think I was just hoping/expecting to learn more than I did, but it's okay. After that, we went to bed and had one more day in the desert.
Here are the two popular songs from the weekend: Aïcha and C'est la vie by Khaled. I also have posted a French/Spanish version of C'est la vie because I like it. :) Also, I should say that Stephanie, Karin, and I were graced with Moroccan names, but we think our guide messed up because my name was Karima and Karin's was Aïcha, and Stephanie's was .
Sunday, April 13th
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| All the camels in the morning |
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| Our camp |
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| Karin, Stephanie, and I on our camels |
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| 52 hours to Tombouctou |
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| Me at the largest oasis in northern Africa |
On Monday morning, Karin and I walked Stephanie to the bus, so that she could go to the airport. Karin and I were on a different flight because we were heading to Granada, Spain and Stephanie was heading to Istanbul, Turkey. After we took her to the bus, Karin and I walked back to the hostel, packed up our stuff, and just relaxed for a little bit. One of the ladies at the hostel, also kindly showed us how to wrap a head scarf, which I have since practiced a few times. :) Karin and I then left the hostel and went and got freshly squeezed orange juice in the square. It was delicious and we also got to take a picture with the guy who sold us the juice. We still had a little bit before we had to be at the airport so we sat in a park for a little bit and then took a taxi to the airport. At the airport, we ran into Stephanie again because her flight time changed so we hung out until she left and then Karin and I didn't leave too long after her. Karin and I had a layover in Madrid, where we ate lunch and just waited for our flight to leave and then we had a quick and easy flight down to Granada, which is in the south of Spain. The Granada airport is outside of the city so we had to take a bus to the center and then we walked to our hostel. We spent the rest of the night relaxing and we went ahead and paid for the rest of the nights to spend in the hostel. It wasn't the ideal situation because we spent more money than we intended, too, but in the end it all worked out. Stay tuned for stories and pictures from Granada. :)
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