Week 10: Morocco
Exploring the hills.
Welcome back! This week started off with catching up on sleep on Sunday before heading on a nice long hike in the Tuscan hills with Florence. Due to where we live in Florence, it’s really easy to escape the city and find routes in surrounding neighborhoods. Olivia and I started our walk at Wild Buns, where I tried an amazing cinnamon bun. We then wandered back into the hills, choosing where to go based on which streets we thought we pretty. It was so refreshing to not only get some movement, but also see more parts of Florence and discover some gorgeous lookouts. I absolutely love the outskirts of Florence, even more than the city, because it’s cool to see where locals live and imagine what it would be like to live in a big villa in the hills :)
School continued as usual on Monday and Tuesday… Nothing much to report besides lots of rain and getting to visit the Palazzo Vecchio on Tuesday during class. This museum is an old palace of the Medici family, but today is the city’s town hall. The rooms are extremely ornate, decked out with paintings, sculptures, and other artwork. It was hard to imagine people actually living there; it certainly didn’t feel like a home.
View from lunch.
Wednesday we departed for a very exciting trip… Morocco!!!! I never thought that this trip would be possible, but this weekend ended up being the only one that would work. We had to book one way flights to Barcelona and then to Marrakech (always trying to book the cheapest options of course) which resulted in us nearly missing our flight out of Barcelona due to our flight out of Florence being delayed. We had no idea how big the Barcelona airport is… We landed in Gate B and had 30 minutes to get to Gate W before the gate closed. This included taking a bus that literally went on the highway to a different terminal and then SPRINTING to our gate. I’m sure we looked insane running as fast as we could through the airport (taking us 15-20 minutes anyways) with our huge matching backpacks swinging side to side and beat red faces. Of course we had to go through security again, Lauren’s bag got pulled over, Liv forgot her laptop in one of the bins, and the Ryanair workers refused to print our boarding passes. After some serious begging to get those printed, Liv running back to grab her laptop, and all 3 of us really putting our cardiovascular health to the test, we made it to our gate only for our flight to be delayed. We ended up having to wait 30 minutes before boarding anyways. At least we got a good workout!
Hostel pool.
We landed in Marrakech around 6:30 PM and were picked up to be taken to our hostel. I HIGHLY recommend Equity Point Hostel, it was so gorgeous and the staff was extremely kind. The cool thing about Marrakech is that you can only drive to the outskirts of the main city, so to get anywhere you have to walk through narrow streets and markets. Our hostel was right by the Souks, which are the winding streets filled with different vendors. We ate our first meal at the rooftop restaurant of our hostel, which was some amazing Moroccan food. We all shared a chicken pastilla, chicken and couscous, and creamy chicken and rice. Our dessert was sweet crepes and orange slices with cinnamon. We knew right away that we were going to be eating goooood that weekend.
After some much needed sleep, Thursday started off with breakfast at the hostel. This breakfast would be what we ate every morning for the rest of the trip: a sweet Moroccan pancake with jam, a savory Moroccan pancake with cheese, homemade yogurt, scrambled eggs, sliced apples, tea, coffee, and fresh-squeezed orange juice. We made our way into the Souks, admiring all the homemade goods, including rugs, bowls, plates, mirrors, jewelry, artwork, oils, spices, shoes, clothes, and so much more. These streets became very confusing very quickly; you could spend hours in there just looking at everything. The men that run these shops will try VERY hard to sell you something, so you kind of have to be discrete while looking at everything if you don’t intend on buying from them. They also don’t love when you take pictures! We all bought some jewelry, successfully bartering the prices down. We truly became masters at converting dirhams to euros! 100 dirhams is 10 euro, so it’s actually a very easy conversion. Overall, we felt pretty safe in there, even though it’s easy to get lost. People will definitely try their hardest to sell you things, but they’re nice and several people told us that they love Americans, which is kind of rare to hear in Italy. I could really feel a sense of community within the people that make their livelihood in the Souks. After visiting one man’s shop, they would walk us to their friend’s shop, saying hello to several people along the way. It was also super cool to hear everyone speaking in Arabic! One thing about the Souks is that the streets are so narrow and MANY people will try to get through there on motorcycles and bikes. They will honk and yell at you even when you have nowhere to go. It can become very overwhelming very fast, especially in crowded parts. I did really enjoy walking in an area with no cars though :)
Jewelry in the Souks.
Once we had spent adequate time in the Souks and didn’t have any more dirham on us, we walked back to the hostel, quickly changed into our suits, and head out to the pool to tan. Florence has been so rainy recently that we were eager to enjoy the sunlight. Our hostel had such a beautiful pool and a nice rooftop tanning area that we spent several hours just relaxing in the sun, drinking sangria and listening to music. Admittedly, my skin wasn’t quite ready for the African sun and I got a little burnt. As the sun died down, our hunger set in. We walked over to “the big square” or the Medina. This square is kind of like the Souks except its a huge open square with fruit stands, street food, henna artists, shops, restaurants, and then snake and monkey charmers… Our driver had briefly told us about the snake and monkey charmers but basically men would be walking around with little monkeys on leashes. Some of them would be dressed up in tutus and such but overall it just kind of made me sad. The snake charmers play a melody that hypnotizes the snake in order to handle it. Common snakes to see are pythons and cobras, but we stayed far away due to Lauren’s fear of snakes and my just general disliking of animals being pulled far from their natural habitats. The music plays throughout the square though which kind of created a cool ambiance.
We ate a late lunch at a rooftop restaurant in the square; I got the chicken and vegetable skewers which were amazing. After we ate we walked to Henna Cafe to get henna done on our hands. It’s important to go to henna spot that a) doesn’t rip you off and b) uses natural henna, not the black dyed henna! I haven’t had henna since Helena and I tried to do some on ourselves in middle school lol so it was awesome seeing an artist whip out the henna so quickly. Thursday night closed out with a big group dinner, hosted by the organization we were traveling with, where we welcomed more friends to Marrakech! The food was traditional Moroccan food: soup, chicken tajine, bread and wafer cookies.
Friday is definitely high up on my list of one of the best days of my life. We were up and at ‘em at 8 AM, ate our usual breakfast at the hostel, and then loaded into vans to travel to the Ourika Valley, located in the Moroccan High Atlas Mountains. When we flew into Marrakech I expected to see a lot of dessert but was shocked to see snowy mountains! The drive into the mountains was amazing, stopping at a scarf store so we could buy handmade headscarfs that protect against desert dust and sun. Our first stop in the valley was at a Berber house, which is Morocco’s largest indigenous group. We took a tour of one of their homes, where there was a living cow inside, and the walls are made from red mud or dried clay. I couldn’t believe how different their lifestyles were; they don’t even use currency but rather trade in their villages. There was such a strong sense of community! A family member of the Berber tribe demonstrated how to make the delicious and traditional Moroccan tea, using green tea, natural sugar, and mint leaves. They serve this tea literally everywhere in Morocco and it is SO good. The best way I can describe it is that it kind of tastes like hot, sweet mouthwash but it’s amazing. Trust me on that one. Our guide Ismail filled my cup up probably six times… Every time I would be halfway done with my cup he would come refill it. They also provided us with bread to dip in their homemade peanut butter, olive oil, honey, and butter from the cow downstairs! The peanut butter was my favorite; the olive oil tasted so distinctly like olives so it wasn’t my favorite.
We went on the roof of the house, looked out into the green mountains, took some pictures, and then continued our journey into the valley. The Ourika Valley was jaw. dropping. The mountains were so different from anything I had ever seen before, covered in dust and greenery at the same time. Even though it was a rainy day the colors were still vibrant. A river runs through the middle of the valley, causing us to cross over some bridges (they lowkey looked like they were barely hanging on) and begin our hike up into the mountains. We were told this hike was “easy”… Once again we shouldn’t have written it off like that…
Heading up!
The hike was amazing right off the bat as we crossed into monkey territory. There were monkeys in the trees! They were honestly ADORABLE and all I could think about was those poor monkeys stuck in the square… We were able to get super close to them, close enough that one of them jumped on Lauren! No person nor monkey was hurt in the process and it was honestly just really funny. We continued our hike, passing waterfalls along the way. Suddenly the hike switched from cute monkey town to steep incline, forcing us to really put in the work and trek up the mountain. The scariest part was how slick everything had become with the rain but we persevered, carefully watching every step. Every time I felt steady enough to actually look up from my feet I was blown away at the views. About 3/4 of the way up we were met with a bigger waterfall that was just absolutely stunning. Scenery like that is right up my ally; I was in my own personal paradise. The hike continued through the mountains with more challenging uphill, a short water break, and then a steep decline. We were even met with some hail? We stumbled into our lunch spot on the river with some tired legs where we were met with salad, lemon tajine chicken, and fresh fruit. Sitting with our whole group at lunch, we laughed and enjoyed the wonderful hospitality while also getting a break from the rain.
This was the angry camel ;(
The next included part of the trip was the much awaited camel ride. Admittedly, we were kind of stupid for not realizing that the Sahara desert is a full 8 hour drive away from Marrakesh, so we were a little bit shook when the “desert camel ride” was actually in what looked like to be a dirt lot… Technically, we were still in the Agafay desert, but that desert does not have rolling sand dunes like we expected, instead there is a whole lot of dirt and then a random pack of camels that look like they were just plopped down off the side of the street. To be completely honest, it was probably my least favorite part of the trip. The camels appeared so out of place and were being hit by the workers in order to get them to listen. They were also tied to each other, mouth to ass, and had absolutely no freedom. Riding the camel was interesting, I was a little bit nervous because the camel behind me was really agitated and kept making little yells. In addition to that, a little baby camel was tied to side of the camel I was riding. I felt so bad that it was in training for its life of slavery that I allowed it to chew on my shoelaces the whole ride. The ride itself was about 20 minutes long as we essentially walked in a long circle in the desert dirt. The camels were clearly not happy and one even bucked its rider off… Don’t worry, she’s ok and he got put in a timeout that included getting his lead tied to his own leg.
A long drive back to the hostel caused us to end up on the roof of the hostel to watch sunset and enjoy a couple pitchers of sangria. Meeting a new friend from Germany, we chatted, laughed, and watched the sun go down. The day closed out with a group dinner in the main square, where we had skewers and were thoroughly pestered about buying treats from this street vendor (No. 1) that had a rolling cart filled with desserts. Something we noticed while being in Morocco was the creative ways that men will cat call. Because it is illegal for men to comment on a female’s looks on the street, the men tended to shout the names of popular American celebrities at us instead. There were countless times we received Hannah Montana, Shakira, Selena Gomez, etc. On our walk back, however, some of the men broke the law a couple times and we got some names other than celebrities. All of a sudden when it’s dark out…
Up on the roof.
Our last day in Morocco started early with the usual breakfast at the hostel and then ATV riding! Returning to the Agafay desert, I enjoyed this SO much more than the camel ride. We stated out on a practice course, learning how to drive the ATVS. Not to brag or anything, but I feel pretty good about my skills considering I’ve frequented the up north Wisconsin trails with Tori and Lauren ;) After the guides felt we were sufficiently comfortable with driving, we began our journey. We drove in a long line on paved streets until we reached the desert, where we had such amazing views of the Atlas mountains. Since we weren’t going that fast or anything, it really allowed my mind to wander as I scanned our environment. The terracotta colored dirt and desert atmosphere was so incredibly different from anything else I have experienced before and of course I made up a whole pretend scenario that I was on a mission for National Geographic to entertain myself. Halfway through our ride we stopped for, take a guess, some tea. I swear I drank my body weight in tea this weekend. Several cups of their addicting mint tea later, we were back on the ATVs where the wind had really picked up; dirt was swirling everywhere! Keeping the same steady pace on the way back, we returned dirt-covered and quickly had to change before heading back out into Marrakesh for a guided tour.
ATVing in the Agafay desert.
Our first stop on the tour was a traditional pharmacy where we learned about the healing properties of their natural remedies, available in oils, creams, balms, teas, spices, seeds, etc. Our entire group was sitting in the back of this pharmacy while an employee enthusiastically explained every. single. product and honestly left our heads spinning. I swear he had a product for any health problem… I’ll admit, he was a pretty good salesman, having assistants circle the room and allow us to try or smell different spices, perfumes, oils, and lotions. At the end I kind of realized he was trying to make a profit because his assistants walked around and passed out individual baskets to everyone in the room and then started shouting out the items and their prices as if it were an auction. If you wanted one of the products, he would yell it out and you had to raise your hand for an assistant to come drop one in your basket. He would even close out each item with “going once, going twice…”
The Ben Youssef Madrasa courtyard.
I think a lot of us came to our senses in the checkout line and ended up putting a lot of stuff back as we realized we only have an already stuffed backpack to fit everything in. Once that pharmacy made quite a large sum of money off us American girls we continued on our tour to The Ben Youssef Madrasa, which is an old Islamic college founded in the 14th century. Despite it’s old age, it is extremely gorgeous with the colorful tiles, intricate architecture, and small pool in the middle courtyard. Our tour guide took some time to explain modern Moroccan culture to us, which I found really interesting. The first thing she taught us was that their current king, King Mohammad the 6th, is well-loved by women in Morocco because he gave them a lot of rights, including requiring men to have their wife sign permission for them to have a second wife. She laughed, telling us no man would ever have a second wife again. She also explained that Morocco has instilled a culture of acceptance; nobody in their religion will judge you for having a different faith or not following their rules, such as Ramadan or dressing a certain way. I had noticed that I never experienced any weird looks or felt uncomfortable wearing tank tops or more Western style clothing, which I really respect and adore their culture for.
After we finished walking around the college, Lauren, Liv, Lily, a few other girls from the group and I left to be brought to the Hammam Bath and Spa. Let me preface this by saying that we thought we were going to a traditional spa, complete with massages, saunas, steam rooms, etc. Well, there were some of that… in a communal room with other women… with very little clothes involved and Moroccan women actually hand scrubbing us down and putting mud masks everywhere… I will admit that my skin felt super soft afterwards, but I could’ve done without them scrubbing my feet and then using the same scrubber mitt on my face moments after. They would fill up buckets of water to dump on us to rinse off soaps and mud masks but since I was so much taller they never once reached the top of my head and I was essentially just water boarded for a minute straight. I could see my friends all holding in their laughs as I tried to catch my breath.
It was definitely a bonding experience. We even got a sweet souvenir: our scrubber mitts that were still covered in our dead skin! Sorry to give you all that visual but don’t worry they all went straight in the trash. The spa experience ended with more tea of course and then getting “massages” but it was actually just having other Moroccan women rub oil all over us. My curly hair overall was not happy by the end of this and I did a thorough scrubbing of my own in the shower back at the hostel.
Another ATV moment.
As a final hurrah for our trip we decided to go out to a little bit nicer dinner in Marrakesh, which was a 30 minute walk away. This walk would have been totally fine if I didn’t fall off a curb and break my sandal completely… resulting in completing the rest of the 20 minutes wearing one platform sandal and one of Lily’s socks on the foot foot. Granted, these sandals were from high school so I don’t know why I had so much trust in them, but they died an unfortunate death in the hostel trash can. Our dinner was in a super cool restaurant, Azar, with Moroccan music and hookah, which we didn’t partake in but was cool to observe. I had some mini sausages that were kind of a scary red color but were honestly amazing. It was such a fun end to the trip, even though one foot was just chilling barefoot under the table.
We left right away the next morning and struggled through Ryannair’s questionable policy… resulting in having to pay too much for our backpacks and Liv having to check in. After a flight, bus, and train, we made it back to Florence and entered sleep comas pretty much immediately.
See you next week!
