On the Brink of the Sahara Desert

So my final major adventure in Morocco was to take a two day overnight desert trip from Marrakesh to Zaroga. Despite Marrakesh being quite inland and near the desert it is still quite a trip to make it to the desert. This is because the atlas mountain range is in-between! So on the day of the trip we were up bright and early and the caravan was packed and on its way by 8:30 am! Most of the day was spent driving as we crossed the mountains, but the sights of the mountains and the desert on the other side was well worth it. We stopped several times to take pictures, stretch our legs and get some food here and there. Towards the evening we finally made it to our final destination just outside of Zagora Morocco. Zagora is probably only a couple hours from the real Sahara desert (but after many hours in the car we were not complaining about stopping here), and already the landscapes around us resembled much of what one would expect from a desert with dry barren landscape, an occasional oasis, sand dunes, and of course camels!

Our first major adventure in the desert was to ride the camels into our camp sight for the night! This proved to be a fun and unique experience. While I cannot say I prefer camels as a mode of transportation I will say that it was fun and I would do it again! By the time we made it to our camp it was night time. Once at our camp sight we made ourselves at home for the night in our Berber tents! The Berber people are the locals of the region. That evening our Berber hosts fed us and provided us with entertainment by signing around a camp fire (it gets plenty cold at night in the desert, so a fire was appreciated). That night a bunch of us tried sleeping outside under the stars. While I have heard a lot about how great the stars look from the desert I will admit I was not overly impressed. I have seen much better in northern Minnesota, but that was probably because a lot of dust from the desert was in the air obscuring the view. By the end of the night basically all of us ended up back in the tent as the temperature continued to drop. In the morning we could finally see what was around us and it was a neat sight. Sand dunes in almost every direction, and the general rough landscape of the desert surrounded us. After some exploring in the area and a quick breakfast though it was time to hop back on our camels and begin the trek back out of the desert and then the car ride back to Marrakesh.

SAISers in the Van to the Desert

Atlas Mountains

Town along the route!

Desert Oasis

Our Camels await!

And we are off!

On my camel

Our place for the night

Inside of our tent

Eating with our Berber hosts

Music at the campfire

Sunrise in the desert

Exploring the sandunes

More sandunes

Getting ready to head back

Once we made it back to Marrakesh we had an evening to relax and find dinner, before we needed to head back to Fez. That night we took a night bus back to Fez. In the morning we had a little time to go into the old medena in Fez to get some food before heading to the airport and flying back to Italy to complete the Moroccan adventure!

Marrakesh

After my crazy stay on the roof in Marrakesh I actually got to spend some time exploring the city! I spent two complete days in Marrakesh and parts of another two there, so I had a good amount of time to see some of the different sights and engage in the local culture!

The first full day in Marrakesh I spent most of the day wandering the souks (markets) of the old medena. The Souks go on and on and on....and you will get lost in them. As you pass each souk the owner will come out and try and get you to enter their shop, and no tactic is below them. Some just ask you to enter, others tell you they have the best stuff in town, others still will run after you once you pass them and try and bring you back, and once they get you in their shop the haggling and bargaining has only just begun! There is no such thing as just looking as the owners are normally in your face telling you how great each thing is and trying to negotiate a price and then offended if you leave without buying anything. It is a stressfull environment, but it is more then worth it for the fun of seeing all the different Moroccan things you can buy and to try your hand at bartering. Throughout the day I did not really buy much, but it is still fun to bargain and watch your friends do the same.

Photo of the souks in Marrakesh

Overlooking the old medena and souks of Marrakesh from the terrace where we had lunch

After essentially a full day in the Souks my friends and I decided we wanted to relax for a bit so we headed to a traditional Moroccan Hammam! A Hammam is basically just the local type of spa, but Marrakesh is well known for the quality (and low prices) of its Hammams. So we decided to give it a try and experienced their massages, steam rooms, and other amenities. It proved to be an excellent way to relax after a busy day.

Another fun activity in Marrakesh was the main square. There you could get all sorts of different food. Watch Snake Charmers charm snakes, take photos with monkeys, get henna (a type of tattoo that last only about a month), listen to local music, and do a number of other things!

My second day in Morocco I headed with a friend to some of the local gardens. We were trying to go to the Kings gardens in Marrakesh but apparently the current King does not allow people to visit his gardens. There were others though outside of the city center that we were able to explore and relax in though. So we spent a good part of the day wandering around the gardens and exploring the outskirts of Marrakesh and in the
afternoon we made our way to one of the old palaces.

In the gardens

Fish pond in the gardens

Palace

In the evening we met up with a bunch of other SAIS students for dinner and had a good time relaxing and having a leisurely dinner in the new part of the city. Also some of us decided that the following day we would leave Marrakesh for a two day desert trip which would be our final major adventure in Morocco!

A $5 Night

After spending some time in Rabat, I decided to go on to Marrakesh with some friends. My friends already had a place to stay in Marrakesh, but as the typical last second student traveler I of course did not. As far as I was concerned booking ahead for places in Morocco was not advantageous, as many places did not have websites and those that did were normally more expensive. So of course I figured the best plan for this trip was just to show up and find places once I got into town!

Arriving in the chaotic environment of the main square in Marrakesh (it was crazy with performers, street vendors, and street restaurants)

That strategy worked fine at first, but fell apart (or perhaps worked splendidly) in Marrakesh. After an evening train and some delays we arrived in the old medena of Marrakesh at around 11:00 pm. So I confidently strolled down the streets and alleys in order to find a place, but I was met at each reception by a full sign. As I found more full hotels/hostels, ran into random Moroccans who claimed they could find me a place (really just wanted my money for taking me to already full hotels), and the hour started to creep into the early morning it had appeared that I had finally struck out and was in a dire situation. But that is exactly when fate intervened a hotel offered to allow me to stay on the roof terrace for just $5 (WHAT A BARGAIN!). I checked it out and it looked good enough for me so I agreed! They provided me with a mattress but were out of blankets (there were a bunch of other people already up on the terrace sleeping). So I went into the town and bought a cheap blanket for the night. After a quick dinner with my friends I went back to my hotel and slept the night away on the roof!

Outside my home for the night: Afriquia Hotel

Overall it I did not think it a bad experience (although I did not sign up for another night on the roof). It was a little cold but not really all that bad. I will admit that the 4:45 am call to prayer was a bit of a rude awakening....but then again I was just getting a taste of the local culture! When I finally got up in the morning around 7:45 am I looked around at the other hotel terraces around me and quickly noticed that many other hotels allowed people to also sleep on the roof! So I am glad I did not miss out on such a important Moroccan experience! Many other students from SAIS arrived in the following days also later in the evening and ran into similar housing problems (ie nowhere to stay), while they all were offered the chance to stay on the roof as of yet I am yet to meet anyone else who did so! Most of them continued to look much longer and ended up paying quite a bit of money for their rooms (way more than $5)!

Sleeping quarters on the terrace

My home away from home!

View from the terrace

As a final note, I would like to say that this officially sets a new personal record for me for the least amount of money spent for a night while traveling at $5 (excluding home-stays). Previous record was at $20 in Spain. As most of my previous travels had been in Europe this is not too surprising. Should I ever break my new record, I am sure it will be quite the experience and provide me with another great topic to blog about!

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

Fez: Launch Pad for a Moroccan Adventure!

So after mid-term exams were finally over I got the chance to head out on Vacation! Thursday morning I took the train from Bologna to Milan and then a bus from the Milan city center to the "Milan" Airport to catch my Ryanair flight (Ryanair never flies out of convenient airports, the airport was an hour outside Milan...but it was cheap!). Finally a three hour flight later I was officially on spring break in Morocco!

Arriving in Morocco!

We planned to just spend the afternoon in Fez as we had plans to meet up with other people from SAIS in Rabat the next day. So we caught a Taxi into town (after negotiating a price first...always a must in Morocco) and found a restaurant to have lunch at in the old medena (city). The place served us all sorts of different foods in three different courses, with meats, couscous (very fine rice, typical in Moroccan foods), breads, fruits, and of course tea which is essential at any time of the day for Moroccans. Throughout the trip I think I drank enough tea to last me a lifetime, especially as I am not a huge tea fan in the first place! All the food at our restaurant was amazing though and the restaurant was in a beautiful old building and a great way to start our trip.

At lunch in our first Moroccan restaurant

Fancy interior of the restaurant

After lunch we decided to explore a bit of the old medena before heading on to Rabat to meet our friends. A friend of our taxi driver explained to us that the city is very confusing and that we will get completely lost no matter what and offered to take us to a couple cool spots. We were skeptical at first, thinking he just wanted money, but he brought us through tons of different small streets (which we would become lost in), told us a lot about the city and its history, and even took us into a Riad (fancy Moroccan Hotel) that was being built. Inside the Riad we got to see the handcrafted wood decorations being made and were able to climb up to the top terrace where we had an overlook of the entire old medena, which was beautiful! Eventuallly we wandered out the city with our guide, who actually refused any money, and headed off to Rabat!

Blue Gate entrance to the old medena of Fez

In the old medena, notice the Arabic!

Handcrafting the wooden decorations

Inside the Riad

View from the top of the Riad overlooking Fez

A week later I would eventually make it back to Fez (barely) in order see some last bits of the city and catch my flight back to Italy! A more general experience that this trip provided me with was a chance to try using my Arabic (both reading and talking). After seven months of only classroom Arabic it was really refreshing to try and use it in the real world! That said, it was most definitely not all smooth sailing. Seven months of Arabic does give a base, but only a very small one. As one of my friends put it "The problem with speaking Arabic is that people speak back to you in Arabic!" essentially meaning we could put phrases together but what we heard back was much more complex and used words we were not yet familiar with, making sustained conversations difficult. It was very convenient to be traveling with friends who spoke a good amount of French as it is also basically a universal language in Morocco! Despite the toughness and challenges of trying to speak Arabic I will admit that this experience has only re-encouraged me to continue taking it and trying to improve!