Morocco Trip :) with Pictures
I actually returned a few days ago but have been lazy and slightly twitter obsessed and almost totally forgot about my blog, which I want to be a lot more active with
Morocco was a wonderful country :) I arrived slightly anxious as I'd heard many stories about how much you can be hassled in the market, and that it can be quite easy to offend if you dress inappropriately. However, it was much better than expected. I've visited both Egypt and Turkey in the past and I personally think that merchants in both of these countries are much more persistent than those in Morocco.
The holiday started off with a lazy day by the pool where I sunbathed a little and tried my hardest to acclimatise to the heat without getting sunstroke. The day after however we ventured into the Old Medina of Marrakech for the first time. Before you actually reach the souks, you have to walk through this beautiful square that has snake charmers randomly sat under green picnic umbrellas. Also, sadly, there are men with monkeys on what look to be chains who try to ask for money to have a picture. The monkeys looked quite sad though so we tried to avoid them. Some of them even had nappies (diapers) on.
So after general pictures, and taking in the oddities of the square, we ventured into the souks and lost ourselves for a good three hours! The stalls sold so much from fabrics to carpets to shoes. We also found spice markets that were selling blocks of what they claim is jasmine, amber or saffron. You could rub them onto your skin to use as perfume. There were also lots of pet chameleons on tortoises in little cages to look at too. I guess just as another thing to pull the tourists in. Half way through the day we managed to venture back out into part of the square to buy freshly squeezed orange juices from the stalls. Then we just spent the other hours still shopping. We finished the day with the palava of having to haggle for a taxi, that they refused to put on the meter. Annoying to know we were being ripped off, despite the difference we paid being only £1 or £2
The following day as another one spent by the pool, mainly reading. We ventured back to the same square via caleche at night. Definitely worth how much of a bargain it was because I'd never been in a horse-drawn carriage before. My friend and I tried chicken tajine, which was gorgeous, cheap and such a large portion we fed leftovers to a sneaky little cat hiding under the table.
A couple of days later, we went on a camel ride! I'd done this before in Egypt but this was slightly different as we had five camels all attached in one line, and a little baby camel, named Fatima, tied to its mother and tagging along with us. It still astounds me how they can appear so skinny yet have the strength to carry loads for so long.
The following day, I had a slight ear infection and managed to argue the pharmacy into giving me some antibiotics. So interesting how easy it is to obtain them in foreign countries yet in the UK prescription of them is so restricted in order to prevent resistances building and anymore MRSA. Why even bother if other countries don't even consider it? Slightly scary, but useful to me in this case :/
So after a slight ordeal in trying to find the pharmacy, we headed out on a day trip partly up the Atlas Mountains to a place called Ourika. We first stopped of at a Berber village where the local women tried to sell us Argon oil, which is said to have medicinal properties. They gave us free tea and let us try this yummy paste made from Argon, honey and almond oil. It tasted like Nutella. Afterwards, we hired a guide to take us to a waterfall on quite a fun and treacherous route. We were basically scrambling over rocks among lots of other tourists (some of whom managed the journey in sandals- amazing!) and ended up at the waterfall.
We then spent the last day journeying back to the markets to pick up any other things we'd missed out on buying previously. We finished the holiday with a meal (which we attended in our newly acquired Moroccan dresses) in the more traditional restaurant of the hotel, which had a belly dancer! :D
Overall, I had a lovely holiday with quite a few new experiences. I would definitely recommend Morocco for sightseeing, as Arabic style buildings and mosques are so beautiful, yet different, to European architecture. You definitely feel as though you've been transported into a completely different culture. I didn't feel strange or out of place for it though, the locals are all very welcoming. You could say they hassle but as long as you take it as banter and enjoy the stereotypes they throw at you once they find out where you're from (Fish and Chips! Lovely Jubbly!) the trips through the markets are really fun.
I will hopefully get back to updating the Ten Day You Meme soon :)