Day 1: Arrival in Marrakech Morocco.
The first thing I do immediately after the plane lands is text my family group chat and inform them that I made it to the Motherland! I was so excited, my friends and I had been planning this trip since last semester before we were even in Florence that we would be going to Morocco for one of our school breaks, and we finally made it! After going through customs and being asked if I was Tanzanian or something because my name is Arabic we made our way to the taxi's and hitch a ride to our hostel. As soon as we get out the taxi this man asks the taxi driver where we were headed then proceeds to show us the way. I assumed that he was with the hostel and was trying to help us out. But nope, apparently its a thing that people will show you where you need to go then expect a tip.
After tipping the guy 20 Dirham (Around 2 euro) we get settled at our hostel then decided to head out to the square Jemmaa el Fna. There everybody is fighting for your attention. Speaking french, english, waving products in front of your face following you hoping you would buy something. It can be quite overwhelming because everybody is vying for your attention and money and your don't know where to go. Instead of eating at the square, because we had heard stories of people getting food poisoning, we decided to eat at our hostel which I highly recommend. We stayed at Kasbah Red Castle Hostel, which was $6 a night including breakfast and the traditional Moroccan dinner that they served was only $6 a night for a lot of food. We had a Tagine which is basically this cone shaped dish with vegetables such as onion, potatoes, carrots, etc. with meat in the middle, seasoned with salt, pepper, cumin and other traditional Moroccan spices.
Day 2: Camel and Quad
Before we had came we had booked a trip online to ride a camel and ride a 4 wheeler. This happened to be my first time riding both. I had never ridden an animal before and being from the south, kids would often come to school with broken legs from a 4 wheeler accident. But, this tour was honestly an experience of a lifetime. I rode a pregnant camel I named Tepedrica (after my step dad) and we walked around a palmeraie for about an hour and some change. After getting off Tepedrica, my legs were killing me as if I was putting in work walking around. After the camel ride we went to some neighborhood, got taught how to ride the 4 wheeler and with in minutes we were riding around for quite a while observing the widespread area of Marrakech, Morocco.
Day 3: Hammam Spa
When looking on the internet for things to do in Marrakech one of the main things to do is the traditional Moroccan Hammam, which is basically a hot steam bath followed by a massage with a body scrub. So, my friends and I decided to do a package deal where we got the Hammam spa and body scrub with a massage. In order to get the full picture I was with my friends, Taylor and Tyrone. We get escorted in to a tiny room where we are told to take off our clothes and put on a robe. So we shyly undress in front of each other and get butt naked under our robe. Taylor informs us that we are supposed to receive a pair of little throw away undies, which neither of us can find so we go out and then get escorted in to the hammam room. The lady takes off my robe so I'm sitting there naked in front of my friends and then takes off Taylor's robe so we both sitting there uncomfortably trying not to make direct eye contact. And then tries to take off Tyone's robe and he's like nah, and the lady was like "you guys don't have any underwear," and in my head im like um... obviously not. She then proceeds to get our fake undies we put them on feeling a little bit more comfortable but not by much. We then get splashed with buckets of water my friends compared to the slaves getting splashed with buckets of water before getting on the slave ship. We then get scrubbed and oiled down for 45 min. The whole time trying to enjoy my first spa moment, but just being super confused about what was going on the whole time. We then get an hour massage we all wish had a little but more elbow grease then put back on our clothes and head back to the hostel trying to find words to describe our experience...
Day 4: Ouzoud Falls
My friends had a caught an early flight back to Florence so I decided to book an all day trip to Ouzoud Falls. My mom had told me that her friend said that I absolutely had to go and see the falls. It had been raining the past couple of nights so the river were all muddy but still beautiful. It was actually a great time to visit. There weren't really any tourists, and the weather was decent. I did wish it was little bit warmer but considering the summers can get up to 120 degrees fahrenheit, I was content. On the tour of the falls, I had a monkey climb on my head (which you may have seen in my Instagram stories or twitter), I almost slipped in the very muddy trails, and got extremely dirty. But, the views were beautiful and the experience is seriously something I will never forget.
Day 5: Bye Marrakech!!
This was an experience of a lifetime and I really want to go back and bring my family with me. So, hopefully my experience in Morocco won't end here! Also, hopefully I'll get the chance to get to come back to the beautiful continent of Africa and visit another country.
