MOROCCO!

        It’s hard to believe I have already been to three countries this semester. Wow. Morocco was quite the switch from Spain. I couldn’t really tell you any similarities. Different language, religion, buildings, cars…pretty much everything. There are some parts of Spain that have a lot of Muslim influence, but I didn’t really see that. During my time in Morocco I stayed mainly in the Casablanca and Marrakech area. It was a very interesting stay, but I enjoyed it for the most part.

        We got a pleasant surprise on our way to Spain. The Dean announced that we would be arriving in Morocco a day earlier than expected. That was good and bad. It was good in the fact that we got to spend more time in Morocco, but bad in the fact that it didn’t even give us a full day to recover from Spain. I spent almost the entire time between countries sleeping. I think I slept for 12 hours. It was much needed.

        When we got to Casablanca, Jon, Amanda, Damien, a few others, and I went out to explore the city. We didn’t really have a plan..we just started walking. We found our way into the medina, which is the market of the city. Every prominent city in Morocco has a medina. Some have just one. Casablanca has a new and old medina. We only went to the old one. We spent hours in the market that afternoon. After we walked around, we headed back to the ship for dinner. We weren’t quite adventurous enough yet to try the food. After we ate dinner, we all decided to go back out the medina again. We just walked and looked around some more. We played soccer for a bit with a few younger boys. That was fun. We also had some gelato. It was so good. I had peach and berry topped with whipped cream and chocolate syrup. After walking around for a few more hours, we called it a night.

        The next day I headed out to Marrakech with Gina and Annie. We took a taxi from the port gate to the train station. At this point, we hadn’t heard what you are suppose to pay for a taxi, so we just paid what the driver said it cost…which was 100 Dirhams (about 12 dollars). We later heard that you aren’t supposed to pay anything over 15 Dirhams to go anywhere in the city…oops. Oh well, we got to the train station and that’s all that matters. We lucked out and happened to get some of the last 1st class tickets. They only cost 140 Dirhams, so we decided to get it. That ended up being our best decision so far. We had our own seats and air conditioning…unlike 2nd class. In Morocco they pack as many people on a train that want to go. You aren’t guaranteed a seat if you get 2nd class. We didn’t feel like taking the chance of having to stand the whole way to Marrakech. It was even a better decision when we got about 2.5 hours into the train ride when our train came to a halt and shut off. Yep, our train broke down in the middle of nowhere. We were stuck out in the desert with no air conditioning or water. We ended up getting off the train and walking around taking random pictures because we were so bored. We didn’t move again until 2 hours later when a diesel engine came to take us to Marrakech. It was great to be moving again, but we still had no power, so that meant no air conditioning. The 3 of us and 2 others that we had met stood in the front of the car with the doors open for almost the rest of the ride so we could have some air movement.

        The 2 we met on the train ride were very interesting. One was from the US, but was working for Boeing in Saudi Arabia. The other was his work partner from Germany. They were just working in Morocco for a few weeks at the Casablanca airport. We spent almost the entire train ride talking to them. It made the time go a lot faster. We just ended up taking a bunch of pictures with them and messing around.

        Once we finally made it to Marrakech, we headed straight for...you named it…McDonald’s haha. It was the first place we saw when we got in the station and we were starving because they don’t offer food or drinks on the train and we had been on there for about 6-7 hours by that time. I had to try all the new items that I saw on their menu. In Morocco they have steak fries, mozzarella sticks, and toblerone McFlurrys. All of them were delicious. The only thing I had to complain about was that they only give you one packet of ketchup. I usually drench my food in ketchup, but the steak fries were still good.

        After we ate our delicious McDonald’s, we got a taxi and headed to our hostel. As we were driving, we noticed our taxi driver stopping frequently to yell at people walking on the streets. At first I thought he just knew a ton of people. I couldn’t understand him because he was speaking Arabic and French. Then I realized after awhile that he had no idea where the place was that we needed to go to. We drove around forever before he finally found someone that knew where to go. We found out that our hostel wasn’t on a street that you can drive down, so that made sense why he didn’t know where it was. He dropped us off and told us a general direction to walk. We started walking and ended up in a really small tunnel walkway type thing. It was getting sketchier and sketchier as we kept walking. We got to a point and figured we should just ask someone. We found someone that knew where to go and started taking us to the hostel. We had heard from people before that Moroccans love to show people around, but they expect a pretty hefty tip at the end. I got some money out but not nearly as much as I knew he was going to want. Once we got there he stood outside the door with us…waiting for the tip. I waited for a bit then handed him what I had. He instantly started yelling at me saying it wasn’t enough. I just yelled back that it was plenty and to go away. I really gave him a lot, but they know Americans will pay more if you get mad at them. Someone just happened to let us into the hostel at that time so I walked in and shut the door on him.

        Once we got settled into the hostel and changed, we went out and walked around the medina for awhile. The medina in Marrakech is much better than the one in Casablanca. We didn’t have a lot of time though, so we just stayed close. We were getting really good at bartering at this point. We found a lot of cool items for cheap. The medina there was really easy to get lost in though. They are all enclosed and just street after street of shops. They all look the same so you really have to pay attention to where you came from so you know how to get out. We didn’t pay that great of attention obviously and got lost trying to get back to the hostel. We eventually found our way back without anyone helping us so we didn’t have to pay.

        Once we got back, a group of us headed out to dinner. Salo made a reservation for us at a really up-scale restaurant in the new part of Marrakech. I didn’t bring any nice clothes with me to Morocco, so I felt pretty out of place, but it was still fun. The restaurant was 2 stories tall. It was very cool inside. We had eaten lunch so late from the train so we weren’t very hungry. Instead of ordering a huge meal we just ate the bread they served and ordered some wine. About 30 minutes after we sat down, the lights all dimmed. Then from all over, belly dancers came out. It was so cool. They were all dancing with huge trays of candles on their heads and crazy stuff like that. After the show, about 5 of us headed back to the hostel because we had to get up at 5am for a camel trek.

        Well I am off to class again. I will write again tomorrow about the rest of my time in Morocco. See ya!