Maroc (Tanger, Meknes, Casablanca, et Marrakech)

Finally...the last installment of my February travels! On Valentine's Day, we left Madrid for our six day Moroccan adventure. We flew in to Tangier, where it was really comforting to hear some French again after a few days of not knowing which end was up. We arrived in Tangier, and I have to admit it was one of the oddest sensations I've ever had. I have never been anywhere where I was very clearly a minority and I felt really vulnerable. After going through passport check, we changed our money to Moroccan Dihrams (1 Dihram is about 11 Euros), and grabbed a taxi to our hotel. Our taxi driver was really nice and basically talked our ears off. I got the impression that Moroccans are extremely friendly. As we got into the city, I realized that the driving situation in Morocco is CRAZY. There are no lanes, and few stop signs. Driving is more like a game of chicken than an organized set of rules and traffic laws. And I thought European drivers were crazy! There also aren't seat belts in cabs, which was weird for me. I feel naked in a car without a seat belt, so I grabbed for it every time I crawled into a petit-taxi, with no seat belt to be found. Somewhere between our first taxi ride and hotel check-in, we realized that the currency was going to be a problem. What was good was that everything in Morocco is really cheap, but the bills are really big, so we were in a constant cycle of Mandi-owes-Lauren-who-owes-Sadie-who-owes-Mandi. It was slightly terrifying going from the airport to the hotel with 2,000 Moroccan Dihrams in my wallet. Yikes! By the time we checked in, we realized we were really hungry, so we went across the street to a small restaurant that the Lonely Planet book had recommended called Number 1. We were the only customers in the restaurant, so we had excellent service. They took our orders and gave us some olives to munch on while we waited for our food. I'm not a huge olive person, but I really tried to like them while we were in Morocco. I warmed up to them a little...but I can't say that I really enjoy them very much. Our food came after a bit, and it was possibly the most heavenly thing I have ever eaten. I ordered Tagine d'Agneau with plum sauce. The lamb was perfectly cooked in its own juices and plums...delicious. We all had excellent lunches there. We went exploring for a bit after lunch. We walked down to the coast, where we could see Gibraltar across the straits. Very cool! The only downside of the coast was that we were constantly harassed by guys who were shouting at us in Spanish, English, French, Arabic, and various other languages. Little did we know this would be a theme throughout our trip. I kind of knew this would be a problem because we were three girls traveling alone, but it was still annoying. We caught a petit-taxi to the Medina (city center), where we literally got lost. We ended up past the shops near the Kasbah wandering around through narrow walkways to peoples' houses. Being lost in the Tangier Medina was slightly invigorating, but also kind of terrifying. I had some weird emotions going on because I've never been put in a culture that is so different from my own before. I really was experiencing quite a bit of shock and, as I said, vulnerability. I really can't describe how I felt besides uncomfortable. I kept saying that I felt like I was intruding on someone else's life--that I was in a private place, where I really wasn't supposed to be. It began to rain as we made it back towards the shops, so we caught a taxi home. We we really excited to find the Olympics in English on the TV in our hotel, so we watched them for a while. It's really not that safe/acceptable for women to be out alone after dark, so we got dinner in the hotel restaurant and watched some more Olympics before going to bed.

In the morning, we were supposed to take a train from Tangier to Meknes, but apparently the trains were not running from Tangier. I have yet to figure out why. So, we ended up taking a bus to Kenitra and then getting on a train from Kenitra to Meknes. A really nice grand-taxi guy took us from the train station in Meknes to our hostel. This was my first experience in a Hosteling International hostel...it was a little bootleg, but we made light of the situation. More on that later. We were starving by the time we got there, so we went out to El-Hdim Square to find some food. When we walked into the square, I was floored. Not only was it beautiful, but it was filled with people watching musicians, listening to storytellers, and vendors trying to sell magical cures. This is the Morocco that I was talking about. We sat down to eat a restaurant overlooking the square and were thrilled to see food. I ordered my first mint tea of the trip, and it was everything I could have hoped for it to be! Unfortunately, there were stray cats lurking. I have never seen such aggressive cats in my life. They could clearly smell our food and were just about jumping up onto the table to get at it. I love cats, but we were shooing these ones away every 30 seconds to keep them from jumping up onto our legs and begging for food. We moved inside the restaurant, hoping it would get better, but no luck there either. The cats followed us. Then, the heavens opened up and it started hurricaning. Okay, perhaps hurricaning is an exaggeration, but it was pouring rain and the winds were knocking umbrellas over like crazy. About this time, we decided to get out of there. We went back to our hostel and stayed in for the rest of the night. Speaking of our hostel...it was interesting. Kind of like glorified camping. Our door opened up to the outside, there was one window in the room and one light. Our beds were configured in a tight U-shape, and we were freezing. They charged for the showers, and the bathrooms were a short walk away. This would have been fine...if they had provided toilet paper (which we had to buy at the market), and if the water hadn't been completely shut off after 11 PM. Woot. But, we made the best of it by spending our evening trading stories and playing cards. Just so you know how big of French nerds we are, we played BS in French...making it MT (merde de taurau), which amused us for hours. We had a good time just being goofy, and eventually went to bed.

The next morning, we went to Volubilis, just outside of Meknes, which is a UNESCO site of well preserved Ancient Roman ruins. We called our taxi driver from the day before and asked him if he could take us out there. He said he could, but he ended up switching with another driver who shares his car because it was his day to work. To switch, we ended up going right into the slums of Meknes. That was really eye opening. That was the first moment when I realized that I really was in Africa. Morocco is very well developed, but the slums look just like any other African country. That was one of the first moments in my life that I felt truly grateful for everything I have and the opportunities I've been given. We drove out of the slums and into the countryside. It was so beautiful green and lush. After about 40 minutes, we finally made it to Volubilis. Despite the mud and rain, this was one of the coolest things I've ever seen. It's literally like a Roman city in the middle of North Africa. Amazing. We hired a guide to show us around the grounds, and he kindly took our pictures throughout the site while he explained the history of the ruins. The mosaics were incredible, and the hammams (baths) were recognizable. The giant arch near the forum was probably my favorite part. I stood in the middle of the forum and smiled as I thought about how thousands of years ago, ancient romans stood on that same spot discussing politics and who knows what else. One of the more amazing moments in my life. After our tour, we went back to the train station and were on our way to Casablanca. After we got there, we had "linner" at a nice place called La Taverne du Dauphin, where I had a delicious piece of St. Pierre fish. The staff was extremely nice and complimented us on our French. That was a common theme throughout Morocco which was really nice. Definitely doesn't happen in France! After our meal, we wanted to walk around a little bit, but it started to rain again, so we went back to the hostel to hanging out. Sadie read to Mandi and me about the history of Morocco. Easier to follow when you're reading it yourself, but still interesting.

On our one full day in Casablanca, the first thing we did was tour the Mosque Hassan II. This mosque was so incredibly beautiful! I've never seen anything like it. The prayer room was absolutely stunning! Almost everything in the mosque came from Morocco except for some marble and glass from Italy. The mosque can fit 25,000 people indoors, plus a bunch on the grounds outside. Our guide was really nice and took a liking to us because we spoke French (even though we were on an English tour). We also saw the hammam downstairs (it's not operating yet, but it is expected to be in a couple years), and another room where people can wash their hands before they pray. The entire grounds were incredible, and I think it was one of the best sights we saw in Morocco. After the mosque, we went on an adventure to retrace Sadie's grandmother's footsteps. We had some problems getting a petit-taxi because they wanted to rip us off because we are tourists, but we knew better. We eventually got one and headed over to the old stade (stadium) where Sadie's grandmother used to go running. After that we headed over to find her old house. It was pretty cool seeing someone reconnect with their family's past like that. By this point, we were getting pretty hungry, so we stopped at the nearby Café Rif for lunch. Of course, I had tagine and mint tea--it wouldn't be Morocco without either of them. After lunch, we did a walking tour of Casablanca, as laid out by Lonely Planet. It was really cool to walk around and learn a little bit about the history of Casablanca with Sadie as our guide. At one point, we were in a square full of pigeons--literally--and all of the little kids were running around chasing them, laughing their brains out. It's moments like those that make you realize that people aren't always as different as they seem, and the same things make all of us tick. Those children were so adorable to watch! After our walk, we went back to our hostel to rest for a little bit, then headed out to dinner at Squala--a restaurant in a old castle near our hostel. Our food was really delicious and the highlight may have been dessert when Sadie ordered chocolate fondue and they brought her trough full of fruit and chocolate. We returned to our hostel with full bellies and had a very restful night of sleep.

The next morning we caught our Harry Potter style train to Marrakech--compartments and everything! Unfortunately no Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans, though. The scenery from the train was incredible--from the slums, to the greenery, to the desert. I'd never seen anything like it. When we arrived in Marrakech it was pouring...surprise, surprise. Our hostel was in the middle of the Medina, so finding it was quite a challenge. The directions we had were something to the effect of "walk straight into the souqs, turn left at the jewelry stand, go under and arch, turn right, go under another arch, walk past a goat, walk down three stairs, duck under a beam, walk straight, and you'll see our door!" Right. Not at all simple. After a long time, we finally made it there. We settled in, but went out right away to go find some lunch. We went back out towards the Djemaa El Fna Square, where we basically just sat down at the first random place that looked cheap and appetizing enough. It was hilarious though, because the longer we sat there, the more we got to hear of the guy working the front: "Hello tourist! Shish-kabob! Hola tourist! Couscous! Thank you tourist!" Too funny. We were feeling pretty ambitious after we were fed, so we set out to see some sights. Trying to go through the Medina to get to said sights was apparently not the greatest idea, because we got super lost in the pouring rain. Eventually we made it back towards the hostel and just chilled until the rain calmed down a bit and got some dinner before going to bed.

The next day--our last in Morocco--we finally got to do some sight-seeing, and the weather was beautiful! We went to the Marrakech museum, which was beautiful. It was an old palace and housed collections of Moroccan artisanal products. Then we went over to the Madrasa Ben Yussef, which used to be an Islamic college. If only Marquette looked like that college...wow! I have to admit that our dormitories are significantly larger, though. The tile work all over Morocco is really impressive, and this college made no exception. We also got admission to some old hammams, which were fun to walk around. After touring, we went back to the souqs to do some shopping. We wandered around haggling with shopkeepers for the wares, and stopped to get lunch at a really delicious café for pita sandwiches. We walked around a bit more after lunch, then headed back to the hostel to get our bags and go to the airport. And so ended my exhausting and wonderful February vacation! Actually, when we got back to Paris, we saw on the news that a mosque in Meknes had collapsed, killing and injuring countless people, because of the unseasonable rains just three days after we had been there. It's amazing how much more connected you feel with the world when you're traveling. If I had been in the United States, I would never have known of the event even occurring or where in the world Meknes is located. I feel a lot more connected to parts of the world I wouldn't have thought twice about before, and I think that's the reason why seeing the world is so important. As cheesy as it may sound, we are all in this thing together, so we need to learn to look outside ourselves and see what life is like for someone else. Compassion makes the world go around.

A lot more pictures on mobile me. Check them out!