Advertisement
Published: October 16th 2006
Edit Blog Post
Arousal of the Senses
The old medina in Marrakesh...can you just feel the energy? Ok, so I am actually writing you from our new city, Barcelona! Believe it or not, we have a front door, and our OWN beds, in our OWN apartment (Spain blogs to come, I promise!). So technically I am not a backpacker anymore...but I can still taste my backpacker life, so here it goes...
You know you are a backpacker when...
-Having a front door and your OWN bed, in your OWN apartment is SO exciting!
-Having access to a DVD player is a HIGHLIGHT of your day (read below for more info).
After a fulfilling trip around Egypt, we jet-setted to Morocco. Well, it wasn't actually that glamorous...a bit of advice to you since I care about your well-being...if you can avoid taking Air Maroc, please do so at all costs! Trust me, you will thank me later!
Thank goodness the airline wasn't a representation of the country because we enjoyed Morocco MUCH more than we enjoyed the airline!
We flew into Casablanca and headed to Majid's house, a good friend of my cousin. Majid was at work, but nonetheless, we were welcomed into his home with open arms. His helper, Taria, let us in,
Jardin Majorelle
Selam and I surrounded (literally) by a majestic garden! showed us our own room and bathroom, prepared a delectable lunch for us, brought us delicious Moroccon Mint Tea, and introduced us to the MOVIE room! I know what you are thinking...In Casablanca, and excited to have a MOVIE room?!? Yep, that's right! We were ECSTATIC! Majid had DVD after DVD and the hardest decision we had to make, was, WHICH ONE DO WE WATCH FIRST?
You can probably gather that after almost 6 months of constant travel, we felt ready to be more settled and do the non-touristy thing. Don't get me wrong, there is still more exploration to be had, but some down-time was much needed at this point in our trip! That said, Dawn and I spent our first afternoon in Morocco soaking up the movie room! It was PERFECT...the only thing missing was a little kettle corn and some junior mints!
That evening my friend from the Bay Area, Selam, arrived! Selam was a client of mine from my sales days, but was so cool, that I scooped her up as a friend! She was to travel with us for the next week and a half.
The next morning, the 3 of us
I told you!
Have you ever seen this MANY different types of Cacti?!?! took the train to Marrakesh, one of the most popular tourist destinations in Morocco. We soon understood why! This city is so cool! The old medina awakened every sense in your body!
The fresh orange juice stands made you instantly salivate.
The baskets of spices tickled your nose hairs.
The smoke from the food stalls watered your eyes.
The song and dance from the street performers made your ears perk.
The smell of the tajines made your tummy grumble.
And the energy all around made your heart pulsate.
It was so animated, so ALIVE!
We spent a few full-on days in Marrakesh becoming great friends with some locals, Abdul, Facil, and Zach who kindly showed us around this magical city. We visited the Jardin Majorelle which consists of plant life from 5 continents. (My favorite section was the display of cacti...I had NO clue there were SO many different types?!?) We wandered around the souk and had a lesson about the benefits of different herbs, spices, and ointments. We even bought ourselves famous Moroccon mint tea and some anti-aging creams (let's cross our fingers they work!). The culmination of our time in Marrakesh being an UNBELIEVABLE dinner
Farewell To Our Friends and to Marrakesh
Abdul and Zach sending us off. We had such a great time! at Riad Omar. In addition to numerous small plates of Moroccon salads and tapas, the famous Moroccon dish, bastilla, which is kind of like a chicken-filled pastry puff with cinnamon on top, BUT BETTER, helped land this meal at Riad Omar one of the BEST throughout our trip! Not to mention, we had so much fun laughing at the dinner table with our new friends, which, of course, added to its noteworthiness!
From Marrakesh, we caught the train back to Casablanca and probably sweated off about 5 pounds just sitting in our compartment. Funny thing is that, although I will always remember the exciting times I had in Morocco, I will also remember that I ALWAYS felt hot...and I mean unbearably, sticky hot! So...another piece of advice for you train-goers in Morocco...bring your own air-conditioning system...you'll need it! heehee.
Casablanca was a nice city...but nothing extraordinary for the typical tourist. We walked about the Corniche which is the path along the water and checked out some of the downtown, but in general, unless you have friends to visit (Majid...thank you for your generosity), it is totally skipable in my book. I did try to watch the movie Casablanca
The Chaos Of Fez
The colorful markets of Fez! whilst in Casablanca, but the heat wore me out and I fell asleep about 20 minutes into the movie...oops, I guess there is always next time!
After Casa, we checked out Fes which was a complete phenomena--painting a perfect picture of what life was like living in a genuine medieval city. The crazy thing is, the people in Fes STILL live life in a genuine medieval city! You enter the old medina through a grandiose gate and uncover a labrynth of streets crowded with fruit stands, spice stands, carpet shops, leather shops, and copious amounts of cheerful, helpful people. The streets are paved with cobblestone and horses cart goods throughout the town. It was interesting to see with our own eyes that medieval life still exists to a certain extent.
Fes was our last stop in Morocco, so we made sure to do all the things we loved doing in Morocco before departing...drank fresh OJ, ate mouthwatering tajines, practiced our arabic with the locals, and people-watched about the town. All in all, its safe to say we had a remarkable time!
And as our time in Morocco came to an end, I must admit...we were excited to
leave...not because we didn't love Morocco, because we did! But leaving Morocco meant we were heading to Portugal, and heading to Portugal meant we were about to see our BEST FRIEND, Catherine, for the first time since we embarked upon our adventure! I think we were more excited than Miss Piggy felt when she got her first kiss from Kermit...full of zeal and anticipation! Off to Lisboa it was...
Advertisement
Tot: 0.097s; Tpl: 0.016s; cc: 8; qc: 24; dbt: 0.0738s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
P.Lahiri
non-member comment
Casablanca
I was expecting some photos of the place where Humphrey Bogart's film was shot. Where did it go? Was all, in the American studios? Pinaki Lahiri from Calcutta