spring break (part 2): MOROCCO!!

MOROCCO

Okay. I'm trying to pull my thoughts together. I jotted down notes throughout my week to be sure I would remember everything, and just the NOTES (bullet points) from the 3/4ish days in this country took up 4 big pages. front and back. And I write realllllyyy small haha. Here it goes.

My trip to Morocco was one of the most amazing trips I've ever been on. Morocco was so different than anywhere else I've ever been. There is just sooo much I want to share!! I broke it up into sections because there are so many pictures and stories. SO prepare yourself for some excitement!


TRAVEL DAY

stop sign in arabic!

Thursday was a long day. We had to wake up really early to make it to our flight, so we didn't get much sleep at all. Greg had told us how to get to the airport using the metro, so we wanted to give ourselves plenty of time. We made our way to the airport and got there with a little time to spare. Jada's two other friends from Valencia were going on the trip too, so I met Katie and Molly after we went through security. We hadn't eaten yet, so we grabbed breakfast in the airport before boarding. The flight wasn't too bad - a couple hours from Madrid. I slept most of the time since I only got about 2 hours of sleep the night before (Greg's bed was small for Jada and I to share and my light sleeping doesn't help with that).

We arrived in Marrakech in one piece! After going through passport control and getting a cool Arabic Moroccan stamp, we met our guide. We had decided to go through a travel program while in Morocco just to be safe and to get the most we could out of the trip. We chose Snow or Sand's "Camel Excursion through the Sahara" trip, and it was fabulous. Definitely recommended. Our local expert/guide person was named Simo and seemed great.

preview shot for later..

We hopped on our "minibus" (I don't know why they didn't just call it a bus) and got a run-down of the day. Apparently the Sahara was farther away then we thought. Simo told us we would be getting to our hotel around 8pm that night. That was about 8 hours away! He said it would be 6 hours of driving, but we would stop for lunch and shops along the way. At first I was a little disappointed that there was so much driving, but it MORE than definitely made up for the experiences that we had and all the things that we saw. But I'm jumping ahead of myself, let's continue with the timeline...

i got my orange!

The first stretch of the drive was 2 hours into the Atlas Mountains. About 3 minutes in, we were driving by the orange trees and I said something about how I'd always wanted to climb one in Rome. Simo stopped the bus and said, "come on!!" I was completely surprised, but jumped out of the bus anyways. Jada came with me, and the oranges were so high I couldn't reach them from the ground. After attempting to climb on Jada's shoulders and failing miserably, I climbed up the tree and grabbed one. SUCCESS! Simo told us not to eat it just because it tasted bad, but he said we could if we really wanted. I peeled it on the bus and handed it out to a few people. Literally, the sourest most bitter thing i have EVER eaten. Imagine eating a lemon straight up, then times that by 2394723480243148124903853 sourness. Yum..

Simo handed out sheets that had Arabic phrases for us to learn. He said the most important one for us to know would be "shokran" (pronounced shock-run). Jada was excited that there was a phrase on the sheet that translated to "i'm a vegetarian"! The mountains were beautiful, so much different than any other mountain range I've seen. The terrain of Morocco in general was much different than expected. It was very rocky and brown/red/pinkish. Sooo beautiful, though. I'm a big tree person, but being in Morocco made me appreciate how beautiful rocks can be too.

first moroccan food experience

Two hours in we stopped for lunch at a little restaurant on the side of the road. It's a good thing that we stopped - I was starting to get pretty queasy. Simo gave us the options for food, and I went with chicken skewers. YUM! They brought out Moroccan salad (tomatoes, onions, cucumbers, cilantro, etc), bread, olives, and some dipping sauces. It was so good, and so different than any of the other cuisines I've tried on my trips this semester! Olives were a big thing in Morocco - they brought them out with bread instead of butter (like Italy). We got to know the other people in our group during lunch. There was me, Jada, Katie and Molly (from Valencia with Jada), 4 other people who study in Florence (Michael, Zach, Camille, and John), and one person who works as an advisor in Florence (Malissa). Everyone seemed really great! For dessert they brought out fresh oranges for us. Simo told us that oranges with cinnamon was a big treat here, and that they ate that for dessert a lot. Mom, you would fit in juuuuuust perfectly!

SO EXCITING

After lunch on the terrace of the restaurant, we went downstairs to the shops. Simo told us that we may want to get a scarf if we didn't have one in case there was a sandstorm while we were in the desert tomorrow. I already had some scarves with me, but we tried on a bunch for fun. Jada was in love. She has this weird joy of wearing random things as turbins - I guess you could call it a habit? quirk? obsession? Either way, when Alli Baba (yes, that was the shop owners name..am I living Aladdin?) offered to make a turbin with the scarf Jada was looking at, she literally jumped for joy. She had told me before we got the Morocco that she REALLY wanted to wear a turbin while she was here, but didn't know if it was disrespectful. Once Alli Baba made that turbin for her, she didn't take one off for the majority of the trip haha. Perfecto. He helped everyone in our group made one, and taught us how to ourselves. It was so cool!!! Most people ended up buying one for the desert trek. As we were piling back on the bus, Alli Baba ran after us with gifts. He handed out little slipper keychains for us to keep. How sweet:) I got a pinkish/purple one. YES.

me and jada with alli baba

The next few hours until the arrival at the hotel were pretty exhausting. It was another hour or two of the windy mountain roads, so we had to stop a lot to keep people from puking. The driving was INSANE here. No side railings for the cars + driving too fast + thousand foot drops do not make me feel happy. After awhile I learned to just close my eyes and try to sleep so that I wouldn't have to watch! Our driver knew what he was doing though, I just wasn't used to that lifestyle. Dad, come to Morocco and THEN try to make fun of my driving! :)

our mountain hotel!

Lots of hours later we made it to our hotel for the night. It was an awesome hotel in the middle of a mountain cliff! We couldn't see much at night, but when we woke up the rock walls all around us were a fun surprise. We unloaded the bus and walked across a rickety old bridge (that was "patched" with slabs of wood over the pieces that had broken) and up and down tons of steps before arriving at the hotel. So Moroccan. Our group had the whole hotel to ourselves! We were literally in the middle of nowhere in Morocco. It was just outside of the town Ouarzazate..they may have pics online if you want to read about it. We were greeted with the "Moroccan Whiskey" as they call it - it's just mint tea haha. They literally drink it all the time and all over Morocco. Fabuloso. Jada, Malissa, and I shared a huge room with nice big (yet rock hard) beds. We dropped our stuff off then headed downstairs for dinner.

dinner yum

Dinner was incredible. We all sat around two big circular tables by the fire, chatting about our rooms and our experiences abroad. We had a full course Moroccan dinner - starters of olives/bread/sauces and Moroccan soup (a blended vegetable mix), main courses of chicken tangine with cooked potatos/carrots/olives and couscous with veggies, and oranges with cinnamon as dessert. Mmmmmmm:) So happy and SO full. Jada was excited because her madre in Spain doesn't like that she's a vegetarian so she doesn't make her lots of veggie food. She ate sooooo much because it was such a treat to get all this un-meat food!!

singing/dancing/drumming after dinner

In the middle of dinner, some guys who worked at the hotel came in and put the drum heads by the fire. This helps to warm up the drums. Pretty cool. We had a great time after dinner learning how to play the drums, singing along with their chanting, and dancing! Everyone in the group was either playing drums or dancing, it was awesome. After awhile we set up a game of musical chairs to the drumming. I made it about half way through, but it was okay because once you got out you got to be a part of the drumming wooo. It was a late night, but SO much fun. I was exhausted after all the traveling, so even though the bed was a little hard, I slept like a rock.

OFF TO THE SAHARA

The next day was my favorite day of the whole trip. Probably one of my favorite days of my entire life, actually. Jada and I had a plan to do yoga early, but that failed miserably when my alarm didn't go off. Oh well, we needed the rest! We had a quick breakfast of bread, honey, jam, mint tea, and an egg then were off for a hike to the gorge. When we walked outside in the morning it looked SO different than the night before! It kind of reminded me of Star Wars (thank you, Travis and Brett, for influencing my knowledge as a child).

laundry in the river

The hike was so cool. We walked through the trees and rocks on this tiny little path to the Todka Gorge. We passed lots of little towns/houses, people doing laundry in the river, and farmers along the way. It was really awesome to get out and about after being in the minibus for so long the day before. The little kiddies were so cute!! One of them came up to me with this really cool grass design that he made into an animal. I thought he was trying to sell it so I smiled at him and shook my head no thank you, but he pressed it into my hand gently and made a giving motion with his hands, then touched his heart and smiled as he walked away. It was a gift! I almost cried. It was so cute, he was precious. I even reached for my purse and he shook his head no. Everywhere you go in the world, we all have something in common. People just want to feel and give love.

We walked for an hour or two to and through the gorge. In the actual gorge, it's a really big place for rock climbing. We saw tons of people doing it, it was really neat. It looked scary! So tall! AH! I really enjoyed getting to see the daily lives of the people in this tiny Moroccan mountain town. It was something that I would never have the chance to do if I had stayed in one of the touristy places like Marrakech. I felt so lucky! One of my favorite things about Morocco is the Arabic writing everywhere. It's so beautiful. Jada probably hated me by the end of the trip because I kept gawking at how gorgeous it was. It kind of reminds me of a more lyrical version of sanskrit. It's interesting because the writing is so beautiful, but the actual pronunciation of the language is a little harsh. Curious.

jada, kati, molly, and i

The Sahara was still a few hours from the Gorge, so we grabbed a drink at a cafe in the Gorge (the coke bottles were sweet because they were in Arabic) and were on our way. We stopped an hour in for lunch, and I tried the chicken tangine with lemon. We got bananas for dessert this time, YAY! We made a couple more stops along the way for wine in the desert and at a shop known for its silver (since it's made right around there). I got a really cool ceramic pot for candles, aromas, etc. It's awesome. After I purchased my thingy I sat outside with the boys. They'd made friends with a local who'd offered them mint tea, so I had a glass and talked with them. Everyone's so nice in the mountains in the desert, I haven't heard as nice of things about the cities though.

SAHARAN CAMEL TREK

and we're off!

The rest of the drive was amazing as we watched the rocks from the Atlas mountains turn into sand for the Sahara. We reached the little hotel that the camels departed from and got our things together for our night sleeping under the Saharan stars. We left our bags at the hotel and made our way to our camels! Jada and I were in the very front of the caravan. Simo told us that they didn't name their pets in Morocco like we do, so we were allowed to name them if we wanted. Obviously we did. Mine was named Mufasa because he was at the front and was the leader, just like lion king. Jada went with Alli Babwa in honor of our friend from the turbin shop. Mohommad was our camel leader, so he grabbed Mufasa's reigns and we started the trek.

IT WAS SO COOL. Getting to the camp was a little over an hour trek. It was such an amazing experience. The hotel was right on the edge of the Saharan dunes, so we walked to the dunes and then were on our way. Soon enough, there was only sand to be seen in every direction. We were trekking during sunset, so it was a nice time of day (not too hot). We took TONS of pictures. The dunes that we camped near were the tallest ones in Morocco, and some of the tallest ones in the northern Sahara! We made it to the camp right before sunset, unloaded our things, then headed toward the tallest of the dunes to climb as the sun set behind us. IT WAS SO TALL. The one we climbed was the dune of Chebbi.

mufasa and i <3

I went most of the way up then sat down on top of the dune, looking out over the desert. Our group was all spread out across the dune, sitting in groups and talking or trying to make it all the way up. I closed my eyes and it felt like I was living The Alchemist. I watched the stars come out slowly as the sun sank further and further down. It was so surreal. Simo sat and talked with me for awhile, and I taught him to meditate. He gave up after a few minutes and headed down the dune with the others. I stayed on top of the world for a little while longer, meditating and doing a little bit of yoga. It was absolutely amazing. Never in a million years would I have pictured myself sitting on top of a dune in the Sahara desert, meditating as the sun sets and the stars begin to peek out. I was so happy.

our tent!

After a little while I walked down the dune in the pitch black and met everyone else at the camp.  I made friends with a kitty in the camp and named him Timon..I wanted to take him home with me!! We had some mint tea and smoked hookah with the caravaners and nomads while dinner was being prepared. Jada and I were laughing because there's a hookah bar in Richmond called Saharas, so when we go home we can go there and talk about how we actually smoked hookah in the REAL Sahara. Silly silly.

tea and hookah

Dinner was ready pretty quickly, so we all sat on the floor of our tent area around a few tables and ate up. There was so much food! Chicken Tangine, veggies, bread, olives, oranges for dessert..the usual. As always, it was amazing. This was probably the yummiest meal out of all of them! Jada and I split a bottle of wine with dinner, which was yummy too. We hungout with the caravanners and nomads after dinner, playing drums, singing, and just talking. We sang "In the desert, the mighty desert, the camels sleep tonight" and their favorite "i don't like couscous, every night couscous" songs.

mohammad and friends on the drums

I had some of the most amazing conversations that night with them. It was so crazy that we could relate and talk about the deepest and most interesting things together, but our lives were literally worlds and worlds different. Mohammad told me that they don't go to school, they just learn languages by the tourists that come through. He spoke English, Arabic, Bourbor, Spanish, Italian, and a little Japanese. How crazy is that. He also told me about the natural medicine that people do in the desert, which was really interesting since I'm considering going into that.

My favorite thing that I heard that night was from Mohammad as well. He was trying to teach me the drums, and I told him I'd have to come back to learn. He said "yes just stay for a few weeks and you will be great". I joked that I would probably need forever to learn, and he smiled and said, "There is always time, but no watch". I loved that. He was referring to life in the desert, but I am taking that into my every day life with me. After he said that I started to think. I asked him, "So do you live your life by days, or by experiences?" He told me "I only live by adventures." Wow. Deep stuff right there.

beautiful desert moon

The whole night was kind of like that, just one amazing experience after another. They were just so wise. Mohammad spoke the best English, so he was the biggest talker. At one point he said something that my mother tells me, "you can sleep when you die." How cool is that?? The world really is a universal place filled with love, and we're all here to help each other grow. An incredible night.

We ended the night with some more singing, drumming (Brett, I thought of you the whole time you would have loved it), and riddles. They really liked riddles and they'd get annoyed if we didn't guess. I suppose it's because they have so much time in the dessert it's silly to just "give up" on riddles - you actually have the time to think it out! We slept under the stars and tried to keep warm. Yayyy.

Other amazing quote from the night: "Travel is like a disease. Don't let it go away" Dontcha worry, Mohammad, I won't.

BACK TO MARRAKECH

adios, jimi hendrix!

Saturday morning we woke up super early to head back to the hotel. The hour trek wasn't as exciting at 6am, especially for Jada ("i am NOT a morning person"). Actual quote from Jada that morning: "it doesn't matter how exciting something is, if i have to do it in the morning i will not enjoy it." Hahaha it was still really cool though. The night before I had asked Mohammad about the camels names, and he said they actually do name the ones that they really like. Apparently Jada and I had camels they really liked, because he said both of ours had names. Mine? Jimi Hendrix. Jada's? Hubbly Bubbly. Haha PERFECTO. So Mufasa and Alli Babwa were no more.

our campsite

At the hotel, we got breakfast (Moroccan pancakes yum) and then were on the way to the long drive back to Marrakech. It was going to be about 12 hours in the minibus. Yuck. At least we were stopping a lot along the way. And honestly, I could care less about the drive because the night in the desert was just too incredible and unforgettable. Before we left I bought a necklace from Mohammad that is the south cross as they call it. It's really neat - it depicts the camel trek through the desert, the tent, the 4 cardinal directions, and the stars. See if you can look it up online, if not I can add a picture in or show you when I get home!

so many herbs!

We drove alot alot alot. We had a few nice stops for coffee (nus nus is their specialty YUM) and drinks, but most of the stops were after lunch. We had a good lunch in a bigger town right before the mountains. I had the regular meal there with a big water to rehydrate from all the traveling. After lunch we went to an Herbalist which was AWESOME. He showed us all kinds of cool natural herbs and oils and spices for different ailments. So neat!! I got a few things to bring home:)

huge loom

The next stop was the rug shop! I had requested this stop because I really wanted a tapestry or rug from Morocco, and Travis would love to see the things that they had there. I took lots of pictures and videos of the loom, and we had a nice explanation of all of the different products. They were so beautiful. My big gift to myself was a gorgeous blanket made right there in the shop. It was absolutely beautiful. I can't wait to use it all the time to remember this incredible trip!! The owner of the shop was getting a little too friendly by the end("you beautiful, where you from? you welcome here all the time, any time. please come back", but I took advantage of it to get a good price on my deals. When he asked for my name to find me on facebook, I took that as a good opportunity to thank him and leave. At least I got a bunch of cool stuff!

We stopped at Alli Baba's one more time for a drink before our last 2 hours to Marrakech. I had lots of dirhams (their currency) left because everything is SO cheap in Morocco! So I bought a little hookah there to remember our time in the desert. I figured I could exchange the rest of the money at the airport. The last 2 hours of the minibus ride were looooong, but we finally made it. IT WAS SO CRAZY THERE. I'm so happy we didn't spend the entire weekend just in Marrakech, because I feel like we got so much more of a cultural experience the way that we did it. We really immersed ourselves into the culture and lives of the people. The city was really cool though, just SO overwhelming. I also probably saved a lot of money by not spending the weekend there because I WANTED EVERYTHING haha. Another plus? Only getting catcalled at for one night instead of 3 days. The best name I got called was "Shakira", while someone yelled "sex machine" to Jada. Awesome..

atlas mountains

Dinner was really cool. We went to one of the main market squares and sat down at an outdoor restaurant there. It looked more like a market area than restaurant area, but that just made it cooler! We ate soooo much, once again. Bread, olives, tomato sauce, spicey sauce, veggies, rice, couscous, skewers (chicken and beef), and ended with mint tea. YUM. I don't know why it's so amazing everytime, but it really is.

We wandered around the main square after dinner and got to see all the craziness going on! SO MANY PEOPLE EVERYWHERE DOING SO MANY THINGS! Simo told us this is where you usually see snake charmers, but they weren't out at night because the snakes had to sleep. There were games, vendors, shows, you name it. The girls got henna on our hands which was awesome (it didn't stain very well so it didn't show up barely, but that's okay it was like 3 dollars). Back at the hotel, Jada and I shared a room. We packed up everything then took our first shower since Spain!! Ew, I know. It felt so nice to be clean, even if the shower wasn't that awesome (cold water, no curtain..the usual). I slept SO well, literally didn't move all night until my alarm went off at 5:45 to catch my plane. Ugh too early.

I caught the minibus to the airport and made it back to Rome safely. It was weird because it was completely empty in Marrakech at 6am, as opposed to more than crowded at midnight the night before. Europe's daylight savings thing started/ended (I never know which it is) today, so we're back to being 6 hours different from the east coast of the USA. WHAT A WEEKEND. I am so grateful to be living a life where I can travel so much to unique places like Morocco. I learned so much from this trip! It's great to be back in Rome, though. I missed my home sweet Rome :)