I went to North Africa! On Friday, my friends Alison, Courtney, and I went to the Sevilla airport with the destination of Marrakech, Morocco. Alison's parents were staying in Marrakech after visiting her in Sevilla and generously offered that we could stay with them in a riad. For starters, Moroccan riad's are somewhat similar to a bed and breakfast (I will explain more in a bit). After going through customs, we were greeted at the airport by Alison's father and their guide, Mohammed. Our sightseeing began as soon as we got into the shuttle. Common modes of transportation besides walking are open-bed trucks, motos (mix between a moped and a motorcycle), bikes, and donkeys....all of these were on the road with absolutely no traffic rules. There were also camels! Courtney and I were so excited to see camels because we have been joking about riding camels in Morocco for a long time. To be correct though, these animals are actually called dromedaries because they only have one hump whereas camels have two. The area of the city we stayed in is known as the Medina, or the old city. After getting out of the shuttle and making our way through a maze of streets, we made it to the riad. We were very thankful that we had gotten picked up because the route would have been impossible to navigate on our own. Also, I was very thankful that Alison's family invited us to stay with them because unless we had gone with an organized group travel company, I would not have gone to Morocco.
On to our stay, one of the typical aspects of Moroccan houses is that they focus all of their money and efforts on making the inside of the house beautiful and the exterior is very plain. What I mean is, we walked up to a normal looking wooden door on a wall lining the street - nothing to be impressed about - and were amazed by what was inside. By definition, a riad is a typical Moroccan house or palace with a garden or courtyard in the center. Our garden had an orange and a lemon tree, many flowers, a small fountain, a tiled wall with water running down it, and decorative pool! The pool's actual purpose is to cool people off in the scorching hot summer. We joked about jumping in, but the water was like ice and we didn't bring swimming suits (otherwise I probably would have). After getting a tour of the house, we sat down for a delicious Moroccan meal that was made by the riad's cooks: salad (cucumbers, tomatoes, avocado), meatballs (beef! unheard of in Spain), and a confusingly great desert. The desert looked like a big pie and we could smell the cinnamon, but when we cut into it there was chicken and hard boiled eggs on the inside. The most peculiar part, everything tasted sweet and cinammony...we never really figured it out, but it was definitely good. At lunch we also met Alison's parents friends who were staying there as well. This couple and Alison's parents were very nice and we had a lot of good laughs together. No time for rest or for the constant rain (annoying) to get us down on this trip, we were only going to be in Marrakech for 24 hours.
Marrakech sightseeing: the first thing we did after lunch was see a palace style riad. Long story short, Alison's dad knew the owner of the place we were staying in and they had just recently bought this palace and were happy to show us around. This one is actually very well known and it was incredible. There was a very large center garden, a big pool, grand rooftop terrace, and 6 bedrooms/bathrooms. Like most arabic architecture I have seen, there was great tiling and lots of detail in every aspect of the home. After our tour, it was raining pretty hard, but with Mohammed's help, we made our way through the maze of suks - traditional markets. There were scarves, jewlery, shoes, metal and wood pieces, food, and more. We watched one of the owners carve wooden chess pieces using a bizarre contraption and his feet! We saw another vender dying scarves. My host parents warned me that the venders would be very very pushy, so I was at least a little prepared for how the suks would be. I enjoyed looking at everything, but you couldn't point at anything or let your eyes linger for more than a few seconds or the shopkeepers would literally jump out at you and push their products into your face. Other interesting shops sold arabic sweets (small, sugary pastries) and every herb/at home remedy you could imagine.
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| me, Courtney, & Alison in our riad |
The suks led to the Jamaa el Fna, the most famous square and market place in Marrakech. Here you could primarily buy fresh produce or get haggled by snake charmers, women giving henna tatoos, and people with monkeys. We also walked through the food stall area. Honestly, I'm not a picky eater but was pretty disgusted by some of the options, sheep brain and snail soup are just a few. Next we took shelter from the rain by sitting in a covered rooftop terrace that overlooked the market. I got traditional mint green tea and snapped a lot of market pictures from the safety of the roof. (if you take pictures of the venders, snakes, etc. they will demand money from you). Mohammed is fluent in English in addition to several other languages (they speak primarily Arabic and French in Morocco) and he talked to us extensively about the history of his country. At one point we heard, loud and clear, the call to prayer that is part of the Islamic religion. Strict followers of Islam go to mosques to pray 5 times a day. In the square we saw several minarets (the tall tower part of a mosque). One looks exactly the same as La Giralda in Sevilla, and that is because it was built by the same person. After a pizza dinner, we all went back to the riad to relax by sitting by the fireplace and playing cards.
The next morning the sun was out, so we ate breakfast on the roof. Everyone was heading to the airport at 11 (Alison's parents and family friends were going to Madrid for a few days before going home to the US) so we had a casual morning hanging out and enjoying our palace.
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