Clearly I am ridiculosuly slow when it comes to writing my
blog. On the 8th of May I finally pulled myself together to write about my trip
to Morocco, which was in January. To be honest I have been crazy busy with
school and my final thesis and stressing out about it, so the time since
January is like a big blur to me anyways. But finally spring is here, sun is
out and time to remind the last time I was in a hot weather.
Trip to Morocco was very random, another country that has
never been on my list of countries I definitely want to go, but somehow ended
up there. Main reason I chose Morocco was the weather. Even in January it feels
like a proper summer and since I wasn’t able to get more than a week off, then
there was no point to fly somewhere very far. But sun was needed, Morocco is
still relatively close and flights were quite cheap.
First I was in Rabat,
which is the capital of Morocco, for few days and to be honest I did freaked
out a little bit, because no one spoke english and it had hardly any other
tourists there. Probably because it was the low season, but I still felt like I
am the odd one out, while I was walking around. (Btw fun fact that I didn’t
know before, then although the official language is arabic, then french is
widely spoken out there)
Rabat has a lovely coastline and is a quite known
destination amongst surfers, so it was lovely to walk down there, listen to
locals play music, play football and just breath in the tropical air. All and
all there is not much to do in Rabat, as I mentioned it is not very touristy,
but that is actually why I am happy that I went there and would recommend it to
others as well, because it is much better to see the true local life in such
places, rather than in places that only focus on tourism.
After two nights there it was time for a half a day train
journey to Marrakech, which is one
of the most known places in Morocco and the whole vibe was totally different.
It felt like being back in a western country, where everyone speaks english,
lots of international shops and food places around etc. Marrakech has many palaces,
massive market, gardens and in general if I could choose I would definitely
pick Marrakech to go to.
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What I did like about Morocco is that as mentioned the
weather was already amazing, like European summer, in January, but since the
cultural differences, I wasn’t able to enjoy it, because it is polite to cover
yourself in public and in 25 C heat I was wearing a long skirt and a scarf
around my shoulders, when my normal me was crying inside, because I wanted to
wear shorts and a tanktop. Although in Marrakech I did saw people with t-shirts
and knee-lenght shorts, but I think it is important to respect the country and
it’s culture when travelling around, so I chose sweating underneath my scarf
instead.
Another thing I liked was the food- all those tagines and
cous-cous, which were available everywhere. One of my favourite thing when
travelling around is to try typical food in each country and I definitely
approve Moroccoan food and sweets. What was a surprise then althought Marrakech
is very touristy, then alcohol is not available almost anywhere. We spotted one
restaurant that served it, but the price was ridiculous, way more expensive
than in a bar in Estonia for example.
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| Cous-cous meal |
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| Serving Moroccoan tea in Rabat |
Thirdly I liked the culture. I could feel it straight away
how much culture this country has and it was so different from places I have
visited recently.
What I didn’t like about Morocco was that you always have to
haggle about the price and I suck at this. Secondly felt very exhausting, we
stayed in a riad (Moroccoan typical house, with an open courtyard) and it was
in the middle of the markets, so to get to our riad, we always had to walk
through the market and BOY it was massive and exhausting. For the locals we
just looked like to walking dirham bills (currency there).
Thirdly we had few occasions when what we ordered was not
what showed up. Firstly it happened in Rabat when I ordered vegetarian tagine,
and infront of me was placed a minced meat tagine. And secondly in Marrakech
market, there are pop up restaurants, which are numbered (avoid them!!) when we
ordered one cous-cous and one tagine and the guy asked if we wanted fries or
salad as well, although we said no, then all of this, including with untasty
bread was placed infront of us and we were charged for it later. So in Morocco
you can order whatever you want, but you get what they want you to eat :D
And finally, SNAKES!!!! In the markets there are several
spots, where local guys play flute or smth and then there are bunch of cobras
and other snakes chilling around them, FREELY, without a gate or anything. I
still have nightmares about that creepy flute music, knowing there are snakes
in the same area with me. One guy started to approach me with one, thinking I
want to take a photo or smth. I didn’t see it myself, but one moment my friend
was poking me and I almost had an heart attack. Fastest I have ran in years.
All and all I do recommend Morocco and although I didn’t had
enough time to explore the country not even near as much as it should be
explored, then I think I did get a quite good idea what it is all about and
although I am not going to rush back any time in a near future, because my
logic is that the world is wide and I want to see everything, then this is
definitely a good spot to experience something new and enjoy the sunshine.
