So Much To Say About Morocco

4/3

We’re here!! We got off the ship by 8:30 and had a long, long walk out of the pier, surrounded by men trying to rip us off for a taxi. We had a long talk about safety with a former cop who is on our boat and he probably scared us more than was necessary. We are not to look men in the eyes because that means you want to have sex with them… awesome. So we’re passing large crowds of men and you have to make sure and keep your head down or they will harass you even more, plus you have to be aware of pick-pocketers, which is a huge problem for foreigners in Morocco. I’m not gonna lie, it was terrifying. We walked for probably 30 minutes before finding a taxi that was not a rip off – 30 durham, which is like $3, the exchange is great- and made it to the train station. Their driving is not driving, we almost hit like 10 cars on the way to the train. The lane lines are ignored, even ones that separate cars going one way from another, so we’d be in an oncoming lane sometimes. It doesn’t seem like there are any traffic laws and cars will just stop in the middle of the road to talk to another car next to them. There is a definite sense of community here. We bought 1st class tickets to Marrakech for 125 durham - $12 about- and our train was almost full of SAS people, everyone had the same idea to head to Marrakech. We had no plans except for getting there by train- should be interesting.

It was about a 3 hour train ride, my first train ride really ever. The countryside outside of Marrakech was absolutely beautiful- green hills, covered in pink and yellow flowers. But then we would hit an area of poverty, mud houses and trash littering every plant and fence. But then we would hit an extremely rich area- there is no sign of a middle class here, just extremely wealthy or extremely poor.

Made it to Marrakech, grabbed a map and found a hotel that sounded like a good name (yes, we went off a name), plus we had a girl in our group who had been here before so she knew it was in the market area where we would want to be a lot. Well, that hotel was way too expensive so we walked across the market area to find one much, much cheaper – 80 durham a night, yes that is $8. It honestly didn’t look bad at all, you walk back into a beautiful courtyard, which led to another even more beautiful courtyard, so we were satisfied. We dropped our things and headed out into the market – people were everywhere! There are vendors and street performers and people scamming you into taking pictures of them or their monkeys or their snakes (yes, there were cobras all over) and then making you give them money for your pictures. It was a huge square of chaos, but so fascinating also. We found a place for lunch and sat outside – it was a little chilly, but sunny and we could look out into the square. We had couscous with chicken and targine or tagine, which was chicken and potatoes (that turned out to be French fries instead) in this crazy flavorful sauce. So very different from anything we know, but still so good. And they drink mint tea here like crazy and it’s so delicious! We didn’t even get close to finishing our meals and these 3 little girls came over, carrying cookies to sell and I thought they were trying to sell us some so I kind of waved them off but we realized they were wanting our food we weren’t eating. So we gave them bread and they started to grab everything we hadn’t eaten and piled it into the bread. They took all the pieces of chicken that I didn’t want to eat because they looked gross or unappetizing- it made me realize how wasteful we are, especially our food. They were so thrilled to get food that they didn’t care what it was. The waiter came out and I was afraid he was gonna yell at me because in the US they would never let you give your food away like that right at the table, but instead he came over and helped the little girls dish the rest of it into their bread. It was amazing and really hit me pretty hard.

We just walked around the market the rest of the day. It was a huge covered area where vendors are set up one after the other with everything you can imagine – scarves, light fixtures (that I’m still thinking about they were so beautiful), jewelry, clothes, shoes, fabrics, bags, spices, nuts, meat (in one we could see the live chickens in the back and the dead ones for sale in the front, it was real special), cow and camel heads hanging… seriously everything you could want. We got lost inside because of how big it was, it just goes on and on. The smells were probably the most vivid for me- they were constantly changing. You smell incense and you take a step and smell soap and then turn your head and you smell leather or spices. It’s just all around you, it was incredible, and so intense.

We have to be really careful about pick-pocketing here- you can tell when people are observing you to see if you’re a good target and you can feel when people are following you. Some people will even just scrape your backs or stick their hand in your pocket, trying to find anything. Luckily, we were warned about it so we had everything hidden away safely. Still freaked me out though, I wasn’t about to have my camera taken from me! It was in my bag but they can easily come from behind you and cut the straps off and run. I was tense the whole time.

It’s funny, we thought we’d be obvious Americans, and don’t get me wrong, we stood out big time, but we learned that they can’t distinguish us from Europeans, and British accents and our accents are very similar to them. Anytime they’d ask where we were from, they’d guess Spanish for me, and would be amazed when we said America. Most of the time they responded with a fist raised and yelling OBAMA which was just awesome but I’ll talk about that later – or they’d look at Perez and say no no you aren’t American, you China haha they would never believe her. Or we’d just be walking by and they’d say China, Japan! It was very entertaining. They’re not used to seeing many Americans here I guess. And when we pass people in the market place, they say hi in every language they know until you respond.

It was starting to get dark so we got out of there and were walking around outside in the market and stopped to see why a crowd was gathered around a street performer, but left quickly when we realized this was prime for pick-pocketing, we even saw men in the back of the group looking at peoples belongings, ready to take it away. We walked around a little bit and then tried to find a hookah bar but the man we asked thought we were asking him for hashish in an apple so we decided it probably wasn’t the best to keep asking around for it. We decided it was too unsafe for us to be walking around at night, it got really scary, so we went up to a terrace restaurant that overlooked the market and got more mint tea and some food and just sat up there and talked for hours and watched all the things happening below us. It was much more comfortable to be up there, to be able to look at people without being afraid of what could happen.

Our sleeping situation turned into a very interesting one. We started to freak ourselves out about how unclean this place was, and we had been warned about bed bugs and scabies so we decided to wrap our entire body from head to toe, literally, my head was wrapped in a scarf, my bra and shirt still on with a long sleeve tshirt on over it, tucked into my sweatpants, which were tucked into my socks. We didn’t want to sleep in the sheets or under the blanket so I used my tiny travel blanket instead and woke up freezing multiple times throughout the night and uncomfortable from sleeping in such a tight ball (there was no heater in our room). And when we were going to bed there were all kinds of noises outside and I started freaking myself out, thinking someone was gonna barge into our rooms or something. So I really didn’t sleep much that night haha but good news, no bed bugs or scabies! Crazy to be thrown into a culture so different from anything I have ever know. And so different from Spain, which we had just been in two days before. It’s a place that I still can’t find the right words to describe it, even after all of this. It’s unbelievable.