Moroccan Parliament & Rabat

After the day in Fez, my friends and I traveled on to Rabat where we checked into our hotel. That evening we wandered out into the old medena and markets of Rabat in order to absorb some of the local culture at night! The markets were full of life with all sorts of things to buy or foods to eat. We tried some foods, and tried our hands at bartering (useful skill in any trip to Morocco....as basically any price in Morocco is negotiable). I had great sucsess in my first bartering experiences, but after getting the seller to decrease his price by 60% on a Soccer jacket I decided I still was not that interested in buying it after all. I learned an important skill, if you are willing to walk away from the vendor they will run after you and continue to lower their price....I still did not buy the jacket but I definitely used the tactic in the future when I did want to get something! After a fun evening out we returned to our hotel exhausted from traveling (Bolonga to Milan, Milan to Fez, and Fez to Rabat) and settled down for the evening.

Markets in Rabat

Main street in Rabat the following day

The only planned meet up for most of the SAIS students was the second day in Rabat where many of us met for a privately organized tour of the Moroccan Parliament. We were given quite the reception. There was an official photographer there documenting our visit and we were greeted by a Moroccan counselor (a type of Parliamentary member) who took us into a fancy sitting room where he told us about the political process in Morocco and gave us a chance to ask questions about Moroccan Government (all while enjoying cookies and hot Moroccan Tea). The session was neat as we got to discuss intruiging topics such as the Role of the King in Moroccan Government (much more active and still has real power), controversy over the Western Sahara territory with Algeria, and other prominent issues. After the session was over the President of the Parliament came and introduced himself to us as well! After a brief chat we moved on to touring the different parts and chambers within the Parliament building and having several more talks with governmental officials. Overall it proved to a very exciting visit.

Parliament building

Meeting with the Counselor (notice the portrait of the King in the background, we saw these everywhere from the Parliament to local street vendor shops)

First House of the Parliament

Second house of Parliament