So last weekend I was in Marrekech, Morocco with my study abroad program. It was so crazy being in Africa! It felt like another world. Our hotel was so nice and they had amazing food which was awesome to have a little break from my host mom’s food (not that her food is bad, but this place had like real food, and an actual breakfast! AND hot chocolate! I really miss hot chocolate as well as chocolate milk). We each had queen size beds, it was such a nice change from the tiny bed I have here in Sevilla. The hotel also had a huge beautiful pool! We only got to lay out for about an hour on our last day there, but it was still nice to be in the warmth!
Our first day after we got settled into the hotel we walked around and went to some random plaza. Then we had dinner and a few of the girls and I hung out in one of our hotel rooms then we all went to bed. Morocco isn’t the safest place for girls so whenever we went anywhere we had to travel in big groups and we also couldn’t leave the hotel at night. But it was nice to be able to just hang out with the girls in my program because since we all live with host families and aren’t allowed to have friends over, we never get to just hang out.
The next day we had the AMAZING breakfast at the hotel. I swear I was so ecstatic to be eating eggs and drinking hot chocolate again! After that we went on a tour of the city. Our tour guide was this really funny Moroccan lady, she brought us to some place where a bunch of sultans are buried, the old royal palace, a Moroccan “pharmacy”, and then the market. The “pharmacy” was very interesting. It was literally just a few rooms with thousands of herbs. All of the walls were filled of shelves that had herbs that are used for different sicknesses and things. They also had a lot of cool spices and stuff, the guy who worked there let us sample everything it was pretty cool. The market was a very interesting experience. It seriously reminded me of the market from Aladdin. Almost all of the women had headpieces covering their hair. There were also a few with full burkas, which was really weird to see in real life because its something that you always read about, but it was strange seeing it in real life. There were people selling fruits, veggies, spices, herbs, jewelry, souveneirs, lamps, rugs, and much more. The bummer was that although the fruits looked amazing, we couldn’t eat anything. The water in Morocco has bacteria that our bodies aren’t used to so we couldn’t drink any water, or eat anything raw for the whole trip. Luckily the fruit at the hotel was okay to eat, but it was really weird having to use a water bottle to brush my teeth! So anyways, the market was really cool. Once again we had to stay in groups though because its kind of dangerous, but everyone had a great time and made some good purchases.
Tombs
Shot of Streets
Market
Pharmacy
After our tour and the market came my favorite part of the trip, our camel ride! We were bused out about 15 minutes outside of the city to a desert-ish area. We were brought into a hut house type thing and served tea. The tea in Morocco is awesome its really minty and they LOAD it with sugar. Then they gave us some of this bread type stuff and really good oil with herbs in it. After the delicious tea and bread they put turban type things on us. They smelt really disgusting and I’m pretty sure my forehead is still breaking out right now because of it; however, they looked pretty cool and definitely got us in the mood to go camel riding. So after much anticipation, they FINALLY brought us out to our camels! We each went into groups of 5 or so and they camels were in groups of 5 all lined up single file. My camel, who I named Charles, seemed kind of angry when I got on him, probably from all of the delicious food at the hotel I’d had that morning, oops. So once we got on our camels they lead us out into the desert where we walked around for about an hour and a half. It was so much fun! A little scary at times because it felt like I was sliding off and that would have been a long fall! So yeah, overall it was an amazing experience!
The next morning we went on a hike in the Atlas Mountains! It was kind of hardcore at times, so thanks a lot Mom and Dad for making me go hiking so much as a kid because I was totally able to show off my skills to everyone. The mountains were beautiful. There were small creeks running through them and a few pretty big waterfalls! At one point we had to climb this really rusty ladder that was on this like wet boulder thing, I was a little scared that it was going to slip, but luckily there were no injuries. It was really beautiful from the top and we all had a great time!
My friend Eileen and I
Bottom of Mountains
Top!
My friends Eileen, Brittney, Elena, and I
After the hike we went to a traditional Moroccan restaurant that was on the side of the mountain. The main dish was chicken and a bunch of cooked veggies with all these different spices it was yummy. The dessert was awesome, it was orange slices with cinnamon sugar on them! Anyone from home reading this, seriously, you should try it, you don’t know what you’re missing out on!
After the hike we went back to the market for a while, had dinner, then just hung out in the room with the girls. Dad I promise I left the market before it got dark out, but being in the market at night was so cool! There were so many people and all different kinds of entertainers – snake charmers, monkeys, etc, it was crazy. The only thing about the entertainers is that they hassle you for money if they see you watching them so we didn’t really watch much. Regardless, there was so much life and culture in the market, it was really great to see. The next morning we had our last breakfast then had about an hour and a half before we had to check out of the hotel. A few people went back to the market, but my roommate Brittney, our friend Elena, and I decided to soak up some of the African sun. The pool was gorgeous and it was nice and warm. It was only 70 or so, but Spain these days has been cold and rainy so it felt amazing to be in the sun. After that we packed up, checked out, and flew back to Sevilla! What a trip!
Market
Pool at Hotel! Beautiful!
