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Published: June 11th 2007
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Ah, we´ve survived a week in Morocco, which was a much harder than i had originally expected. Lisa and I began our trip in Marrakech on the 2nd, after flying in from Madrid. We planned a full week here due to our preconceived notion that it would be quite difficult to get to the desert for some camel riding. Turns out this was not the case....so here goes....
MARRAKECH
First arriving in Marrakech was incredibly overwhelming, to say the least. We took a bus in from the airport and showed him where our hostel was. He dropped us off at the Djemma el Fna and told us to go left. Hilarious. The Djemma el Fna is Africa´s largest medina, or city square. It is filled with snake charmers, storytellers, boxing, people selling everything, etc. There is no way we would have found our hostel on our own. With the help of a young man, we made our way to the hostel.....and trust me, in Morocco, don´t ask for directions and expect them for free. Our hostel was dirt cheap, and we definitely got what we paid for.....it was incredibly hot. Luckily, we met a group of people
Laura of Arabia
Me on the camel on the terrace cooking kebabs and drinking vodka. Some aussies, brits, and even an american. They generously offered us a few drinks and we enjoyed their company for a few hours.
Funny Story: Lisa and I walked through the Djemma el Fna the next morning to head towards the new'part of the city, hoping to explore marrakech outside of the Djemma el Fna. We were stopped by two arabic women attempting to sell us henna tattoos. We graciously declined, but they continued to grab our hands and began tattooing us. We told them we had no money, they said ¨don´t worry, it´s a present, this will bring you good man, it´s a present¨. They wouldn´t stop, my palm was covered in ugly orange henna. To make matters worse, when we were finally able to regain custody of our hands, we had to pay these women. They claimed that the tattoos last 3 weeks, it´s been a week and a half and mine´s almost gone. Thank goodness. Seriously, it looks like my 5 year old niece had a field day on my hand with an orange sharpie. Awful.
Besides our henna fiasco and the scorching heat (it was definitely
over 100 that day), we made it through the day. We even enjoyed some fine dining at pizza hut...haha. One of the English girls staying in the hostel directed us towards Sahara Expedition, a company that offered Moroccan tours, ranging from one day to four day trips. Lisa and I chose a 3 day/2 night tour that included camel riding in the Sahara, awesome. The tour left the next day, cost only 950 Dirhams (about 120 US dollars), and included everything except lunches and beverages.
My lovely alarm clock broke, so Lisa and I slept on the terrace of our hostel the night before, hoping that the prayer at sunrise would wake us up (well, of course it would! it would wake the dead it´s so loud!) and also to escape the inferno that was our hostel. Oh, the prayer begins with a call to prayer anounce over loud speakers before sunrise....at like 345am! It´s followed by a long prayer to Allah. It´s an incredible, weird, and crazy thing to experience. You definitely feel like your in a different world. So....off to the Sahara.
SAHARA
The first day of our 3 day trek was nuts, 8+
hours on a bus with 13 other people, and a guide that spoke only french and arabic. We saw a few sites that day, but I have no idea what they were. We explored the Kasbahs in the town that part of the movie ´Gladiator´was filmed at. Our accommodation for the night was a quaint hotel situated in the Dades Gorge. Pretty, but not amazing. The next day was more interesting, we had an english speaking guide meet us. He took us to an old Kasbah and Temple built over 500 years ago, took us through part of Morocco´s largest oasis, and took us to another gorge (a prettier one). That night we arrived in Merzouga, on the edge of the Sahara. We grabbed a blanket, through it on a camel, and hopped on. With my head wrapped with my cream-colored-wal-mart-bought shawl, i was ready to go. Two words: simply amazing. The desert is gorgeous at sunset, and so peaceful. It was awfully windy though, and I dropped my sunglasses (sorry tourtellotte, the th sunglasses you gave me have been eaten my the sahara, haha), but oh well. It was such a great experience, minus the wonderful nosebleed I received
from the dry air. We all ate dinner and hung out underneath the desert stars until sleep in our berber tents. (let´s just say i didn´t sleep well, due to a member of our trip telling us about scorpions......ahhhhhh). The next morning we picked another camel and were off. The ride was much nicer due to the lack of wind, but my arse was definitely sore.
We headed back to Marrakech and booked a hotel that Lisa and Tim, our new English friends (a couple we met on the desert trip), were staying at. It was much nicer than our scorching hostel, we had a room to ourselves, and it was actually cheaper! Thursday night we all shared a bottle of vodka and headed out to the Djemma el Fna for dinner....hahahaha, being tipsy made the hassling much more easy to deal with. Us girls were daring each other to do things in the Djemma el Fna...like smack an arabic guys butt, etc. Tim kept telling us "no...don't do that, we're going to get arrested". Us girls kept it quiet and decided not to execute our dares. But, only 2 minutes after we walked into the square, we began
to get hassled by women offering us henna. Within two minutes Tim had taken my shawl off of my shoulders, wrapped it around his head, took my pen, and walked up to the lady, took her hand and scribbled all over it! HILARIOUS!
CASCADES D´OZOUD
Ah, we then booked another trip through Sahara Expedition to the Cascades D´Ozoud, gorgeous waterfalls a few hours outside of Marrakech. We spent the day there on Friday. The trip was definitely worth it, it was so nice to escape the heat and swim!
We headed back to Marrakech for another night before heading back to Spain. I must say I´m glad my Moroccan adventure is over, although some of the funniest travel stories will come from here (being tipsy in the djemma el fna, yelling back at arab men, falling at the waterfalls, etc - stuff that i don´t have time to write about...yet). The hassling in the square was overwhelming. In fact, so overwhelming that by the end of the week I found myself yelling back at the men. Our friends lisa and tim told us that they were hassled more when they were with us, than when they
were by themselves. So, my case in point, travelling with a male is less difficult in marrakech. The berber people were much nicer, we didn´t deal with as much hassling with them. Morocco was great, and although i can´t say i would ever return to the country, i can say it was an incredible experience.
Next up: Barcelona, Spain
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Nichole
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Damn it! My glasses!!
You lost my glasses!! You bitch. Juuussstt kidding. So which one of you made the first moves on that guy, Tim. wink wink especially drinking...hello!! lol Anyway what about the drunk stories!!!! I wanna hear them! The falls are beautiful. They remind me of the ones I saw in Mexico. I started grad class. yay. And...yeah my life is pretty boring, unlike yours. So nothing new here! Well be safe!!! Talk to you later, chica...peace