8/11/2009
My third day in Morocco rivaled the Bulgarian Jeep Safari in terms of randomness. After what became my morning routine of breakfast, a quick swim, an even quicker shower, and then catching the bus, we went to our planned event for the day – Olympiad games! None of us really knew what to expect, but we were all pleasantly surprised. Upon arriving at our destination, we were split into four teams, and each of us had a team leader. My team was the read team (team Hmar Hmar: the word for both red and donkey in Arabic). The first activity was camel racing. Four members from each team chose their camel, and raced them through a set of cones and back to the beginning. While at this point – after having been in Egypt – almost everyone had ridden a camel, that simply entailed sitting while someone else guided them. For this event, after sitting on the camel, we were supposed to make them get up, go, steer them through cones, and somehow get them to stop again after crossing the finish line. I think it was more entertaining for the guides than it was for us. I had a blast though, and my team won! My camel also passed a few of the other camels during the race! After the camel race, one member of the team was nominated to participate in a blindfolded ATV relay. After that, another ATV relay took place – this one without blindfolds – and after cheering for my team, I went over to take pictures with some of the camels with Lexi, Anna and Meredith. We then had a snack break with mint tea and flat bread before continuing on with the games. The third even was an egg hunt, with actual raw eggs hidden in the palms, and then we selected teams of four to play Berber polo (polo on donkeys). It was hilarious! Each donkey had a guide pulling them around and there was lots of yelling and cheering. After a very intense tournament, my team ended up coming in second (I blame a bad call from the ref, but who is counting anyway). Lastly, there were bike races on rusty old bikes across the rutted up and dried field. That ended the game portion of the day, but there was still a lot left.
After finishing up all of the games, we all got on ATV’s (two per ATV), and got to drive to lunch! I got to drive the ATV because Betsy didn’t want to drive at all, and I loved it. We followed one of the group leaders in a long caravan and made it to the program owners house for a traditional Moroccan lunch served out of tagines. It was topped off with mint tea and cookies. We rode the ATV’s back to the main area, and then we got to ride camels. We were given scarves, and lined up to have our heads wrapped with them, and then we all got into groups of 5 to be matched up with a camel caravan. We took off, and all named our camels. Anna aptly named hers Frank Sinatra, and throughout the trek, he would sing to me (as he was right behind me so his head was right by my knee). My camel was named wooly. I got to practice my French with our guide, and it turns out I remember more than I thought!
It had been a long day in the sun, and we were all pretty relieved to get back to the hotel and clean up. After relaxing, dinner, and cleaning up, I took a taxi back to the square with Lexi and Amanda. Lexi was going to meet up with some other people, and so after we made sure she had safely located them, Amanda and I took off to do some last minute shopping. After walking around in the square for a while and checking out some of the entertainment, we made our way into the market, where we met up with Youssef, a vendor who had sold Amanda several dresses the night before. He invited us in for tea, and we got to talk with him for a long time about his work, and what he thinks of Americans and how he likes Morocco. It started getting late, and we saw some of the other shops closing up, but I still wanted to get spices, so he took me to his friends store that was still open and helped me (he also helped me get them for half of what I would have been charged had I not been with him!). As we were leaving the spice store, Amanda and I ran into Michelle, and he joined us to wonder around some. As soon as he was with us, we got much less attention, which was a welcome change. He, on the other hand, said that he got much more attention with us than without us. All three of us were so excited and wanting to soak in every last second of out last night in port, and so when we were done looking around the square, we took a taxi back to the hotel, where we dropped off our purchases and headed back out to explore near our hotel. We ended up at McDonald’s were Amanda got a McFlurry and we sat outside people watching.
As we sat there, a lot of people were leaving (it was almost 2am!), and several little boys started getting closer and closer to the seating area and asking for money. The security scared them away by squirting them with spray bottles, and they would scatter before slowly creeping back in. We just sat outside talking about our favorite part of the trip, and how amazing it all it, and the extreme differences from what we are used to. It was really interesting talking to Michelle, because he has such a different perspective to begin with. He made it to 16 different countries during the course of the summer, because he did some traveling before SAS! After we all started to lose energy, we took a taxi back to the hotel, and called it a night. We made plans to meet up for a swim after breakfast the next morning before it was time to head back to Casablanca.
Unfortunately, in the morning, the pool was closed, and so it was just breakfast, gathering everything up, and then heading to the bus. On our way back to the ship once we made it to Casablanca, we stopped by Rick’s Café, where we were able to take pictures, but not go inside. Once back to the ship, we had to wait in a very long line to get back on, and barely made it to lunch. After lunch on the ship, I headed back out with Amanda, Sara and Dan to explore Casablanca for a few hours before on-ship time, and also to try to spend the leftover dirham that I had. It was fun to get just a few more hours on land before heading home. After returning to the ship for the last time, I unpacked, showered, and met up with my friends from different trips for dinner. We all went on to the front deck to watch the ship pull away, but got told to go inside, since there was a potential for waves while exiting the port. It was sad to see Morocco go, and it was amazing that I got to experience everything that I did in just one summer.
Sunday, September 27, 2009
Maroc
Sorry for the delay in getting these last few posted, but hope you enjoy reading about how my summer adventure ended!
8/10/2009
Day one in Morocco was primarily a travel day. After waiting for the ship to clear, there was not enough time to go out in Casablanca before my trip, so the first time I left the ship was to go down and load the bus to Marrakech. A nearly four hour bus ride later and we were in Marrakech, checking into our hotel, which was very nice. My randomly assigned roommate for the trip was named Lexi, and we had a room with a balcony overlooking the pool! Morocco as a whole was not what I expected at all. I guess I was expecting something more along the lines of another Egypt, but was surprised at the amount of effort put in to making the areas I saw appear to be pretty. There was landscaping, and the buildings were very nice and finished, unlike those in Egypt. It was almost like being in an amusement park town though, in that at face value, it looked nice, but upon unloading the bus and walking around, it was clear to see that it was in fact only the looks that were nice. The sidewalks were falling apart, and there were still some buildings that were under construction, but still had people living in them because they provided a shelter (despite the lack of walls). The first night in Marrakech I went walking around with Lexi, Meredith, Anna, and Dan (not the same one from Egypt), and then we called it a somewhat early night.
I woke up earlier than wake-up call for day two in Marrakech, and Lexi and I headed down to breakfast. It was delicious! Not only was there cereal, fresh squeezed orange juice, real hot chocolate, and pastries, there were also Moroccan crepes being freshly made by a chef. They were flaky and mix of crepes, tortillas and pancakes. They were also good with pretty much any topping you can think of. After breakfast, Lexi and I went for a quick swim, and then it was time for the day to begin. We loaded up the bus, and headed out into the city. Our first stop was a brief photo stop at one of the mosques. We didn’t get to go inside, but instead walked over to it from where the bus stopped, and took some pictures while we listened to the history of it, then walked back. Our next stop was the Palais Bahia, a gorgeous palace with intricate tiling, hundreds of doorways, and detailed carvings in every room. We went through the rooms and learned what they used to be used for. After the palace, we continued on to the Tombeaux Saadiens, or burial tombs. It was fun to finally have all of the years of French I took on school pay off, as Morocco has a very strong French influence, and many of the signs are in French as well as Arabic, and many of the locals speak French. We stopped for lunch at a Moroccan restaurant, where the food was very good. They came around to all of the tables and washed our hands – and then we all passed around hand sanitizer, because who knows how clean the water was – and then our food was served in a traditional Tagine. A tagine is a clay pot that they both cook and serve the food in. Lunch was good, although it was very slow, especially since we were all eager to go out and explore more. After lunch, we stopped at a pharmacy, where we learned about the medicinal uses of some traditional Moroccan spices, oils and lotions, and then finally we moved on to the long anticipated square in Marrakech! As we wondered through the souks (the open markets) to get to the square, I was talking to our tour guide to get a rough idea of pricing and inflation so that I would be able to recognize a good deal when I was bargaining for prices.
Upon showing up at the square, we set a meeting time and place to go back to the hotel for lunch, and then I set off with Lexi to get some shopping done. The square was full of performers, and monkeys and vendors. All of them wanted to charge for pictures, and some of them would even do things like put a monkey on your arm and then charge you to get it off. Luckily I managed to avoid that. After wondering through the market and making some purchases, we made it back to the bus (barely) and then headed back to the hotel for a quick dinner and freshening up. After dinner, the bus took us back to the square, where we were greeted with an entirely different scene than there was during the day. There were people everywhere, bright lights and food stands set up everywhere, and circles of people congregated around games, performers, story tellers and more. Henna tattoo artists were set up all over the place, and with the number of people and the sounds and smells, it seems like it was a festival, but it was just an average Monday in Marrakech. I set off with Anna, Meredith, Betsy, Lance, Courtney and Michelle. After getting our fill of the square at night, we split two cabs back to the hotel and all went to bed.
8/10/2009
Day one in Morocco was primarily a travel day. After waiting for the ship to clear, there was not enough time to go out in Casablanca before my trip, so the first time I left the ship was to go down and load the bus to Marrakech. A nearly four hour bus ride later and we were in Marrakech, checking into our hotel, which was very nice. My randomly assigned roommate for the trip was named Lexi, and we had a room with a balcony overlooking the pool! Morocco as a whole was not what I expected at all. I guess I was expecting something more along the lines of another Egypt, but was surprised at the amount of effort put in to making the areas I saw appear to be pretty. There was landscaping, and the buildings were very nice and finished, unlike those in Egypt. It was almost like being in an amusement park town though, in that at face value, it looked nice, but upon unloading the bus and walking around, it was clear to see that it was in fact only the looks that were nice. The sidewalks were falling apart, and there were still some buildings that were under construction, but still had people living in them because they provided a shelter (despite the lack of walls). The first night in Marrakech I went walking around with Lexi, Meredith, Anna, and Dan (not the same one from Egypt), and then we called it a somewhat early night.
I woke up earlier than wake-up call for day two in Marrakech, and Lexi and I headed down to breakfast. It was delicious! Not only was there cereal, fresh squeezed orange juice, real hot chocolate, and pastries, there were also Moroccan crepes being freshly made by a chef. They were flaky and mix of crepes, tortillas and pancakes. They were also good with pretty much any topping you can think of. After breakfast, Lexi and I went for a quick swim, and then it was time for the day to begin. We loaded up the bus, and headed out into the city. Our first stop was a brief photo stop at one of the mosques. We didn’t get to go inside, but instead walked over to it from where the bus stopped, and took some pictures while we listened to the history of it, then walked back. Our next stop was the Palais Bahia, a gorgeous palace with intricate tiling, hundreds of doorways, and detailed carvings in every room. We went through the rooms and learned what they used to be used for. After the palace, we continued on to the Tombeaux Saadiens, or burial tombs. It was fun to finally have all of the years of French I took on school pay off, as Morocco has a very strong French influence, and many of the signs are in French as well as Arabic, and many of the locals speak French. We stopped for lunch at a Moroccan restaurant, where the food was very good. They came around to all of the tables and washed our hands – and then we all passed around hand sanitizer, because who knows how clean the water was – and then our food was served in a traditional Tagine. A tagine is a clay pot that they both cook and serve the food in. Lunch was good, although it was very slow, especially since we were all eager to go out and explore more. After lunch, we stopped at a pharmacy, where we learned about the medicinal uses of some traditional Moroccan spices, oils and lotions, and then finally we moved on to the long anticipated square in Marrakech! As we wondered through the souks (the open markets) to get to the square, I was talking to our tour guide to get a rough idea of pricing and inflation so that I would be able to recognize a good deal when I was bargaining for prices.
Upon showing up at the square, we set a meeting time and place to go back to the hotel for lunch, and then I set off with Lexi to get some shopping done. The square was full of performers, and monkeys and vendors. All of them wanted to charge for pictures, and some of them would even do things like put a monkey on your arm and then charge you to get it off. Luckily I managed to avoid that. After wondering through the market and making some purchases, we made it back to the bus (barely) and then headed back to the hotel for a quick dinner and freshening up. After dinner, the bus took us back to the square, where we were greeted with an entirely different scene than there was during the day. There were people everywhere, bright lights and food stands set up everywhere, and circles of people congregated around games, performers, story tellers and more. Henna tattoo artists were set up all over the place, and with the number of people and the sounds and smells, it seems like it was a festival, but it was just an average Monday in Marrakech. I set off with Anna, Meredith, Betsy, Lance, Courtney and Michelle. After getting our fill of the square at night, we split two cabs back to the hotel and all went to bed.
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