Morocco!

     Life has been wonderfully crazy over on this side! Finally just getting around to update my blog. I couldn't decide on which pictures to include (I had over 1,000) so I just made a video! It does have sound.

Day 1:

   We got to Casablanca in the morning and went through customs and got stamps for our passports (yay!). Then we walked outside and it was GORGEOUS out! It was sunny and warm and there were palm trees. Who knew that Morocco had palm trees? I didn't. Our bus driver wasn't there when we were ready though so we had to wait for like 20 minutes or so. It wasn't that bad though. So we get on the bus and we head off to the Big Mosque (yes, it's actually called that). We had a tour of the mosque which was nice. Once we got inside we had to take our shoes off which was a little weird. Well, it just felt weird walking around a public place without shoes. At least I had socks on! The mosque can fit 25,000 people inside at one time! The men pray downstairs and the women pray upstairs. Underneath the main prayer room there are wash rooms. One for men and one for women. Before they pray, they must wash three times. Then they are considered clean. There was also a Turkish bath that was intended to be part of the social scene at the mosque, but it has never been used.

    After the mosque we drove down along the water and then went over to lunch. It was definitely stressful trying to find something that I would actually like. Everyone was hounding Gabriel, the ISA director, about what was safe to eat and what was cooked and what did something mean. We had to be extra careful not to eat anything that had tap water on it. After our meal we had mint tea which was sooooooo good. Then we left for Fes which was about a 4 hour bus ride. It was about 9:30pm by the time we got to the hotel and we were exhausted. When we went up to the room I decided to shower since I was all gross from the plane and the bus. Well it was quite an interesting experience. The shower head didn't stay on the wall, so I had to figure out how to not completely flood the bathroom. I couldn't turn the shower off because it took a while for me to find a good temperature, so I just resorted to letting it hang and cleaning up the water afterwards. I passed out pretty quickly once my head hit the pillow!

Day 2:

    We woke up bright and early and had breakfast in the hotel. Then we ventured off to the medina! It was built in the year 789 and has over 9,000 alleyways. It was a good thing we had a tour guide! It was really interesting walking through the alleyways. Some of the spaces were so small that you had to turn to the side and duck down to get through. There was also barely any sunlight that reached through. Most of the buildings were so close together and had tarps draped across them. You would hear, "Ballack! Ballack!" which means to watch out. Guys were coming through with donkey's and large carts. Most of the shops are family owned and have been that way for generations. Once the man makes enough money to feed his family then he will close the shop.

     First we went to a carpet shop. They had laid out a ton of different sized carpets, and different colors, and different shapes. After making a whole presentation, the guys finally asked who wanted to purchase a carpet and only a few people raised there hands. My friends and I couldn't help but sing "A Whole New World" from Aladdin. The guys then kept coming up to my roommate and trying to get her to buy the carpets and the best response she gave them? "Um sorry, but my whole house is carpeted." Literally the greatest response of life. Afterwards, they brought is mint tea which was sooooo good. 

    Our next visit was to a medicine/spices guy. He also gave a whole presentation on the different spices and remedies and oils. Every time after he could show us something, his helper would come around and put the lotion on us, or oils, or the best thing though, was this black stuff. The guy put it in a little sac and he came over to every single person and jammed this thing up one nostril and covered our other nostril with his finger. It left black stuff on everyones face... and to make it even better, he used the same one on every person! So gross. But the stuff was supposed to help with hangovers and headaches and broken ankles and basically everything. I did get some stuff there though. I got chap stick with argan oil. Probably my favorite thing ever. Too bad it's almost out. 

    After that we went to a textile place. We got to see some scarves being made and the whole process of putting on the yarn and hand maneuvering the loom. The colors in the shop were so overwhelming I didn't even know where to look.

    The next stop was to a tannery. I don't think I will ever buy anything with real leather again. The smell was so horrendous. We were given mint leaves to help with the stench. We saw hanging skins and pools of different dyes. Ew ew ew ew ew I want to gag just thinking about it.

    We left the medina and headed over to where all the pottery was. It was weird leaving the medina and being out in the open and fresh air. Some people never leave. I can't even fathom the idea. The bus was so hot when we got on, but it was a quick ride to where all the pottery was. We went into a room where a guy was making bowls and cups and using his fingers to make different designs. He was making them so fast that I don't even know how they came out so perfect. We left his little room and went up the stairs to where there was a line of men shaping tiles and hammering them. It's crazy when you realize how much of this stuff is hand done and not done with a machine. It actually made me kind of sad. Outside there were a bunch of guys playing soccer on the dirt. I really wanted to go out and play! But I just settling for taking a million pictures instead. 

    Afterwards we went back to the hotel to relax and have dinner. Later that night we went to a folk show at a restaurant. It was interesting to say the least... There were a few guys on the stage playing some type of string instrument. Then out came a belly dancer that was waving around a cane and she kept hitting things with it, like the curtails and the drapes. We were like, "Um is this amateur hour?" Then she left and a whole slew of other guys came out and they danced around and played the drums and the scissors and other weird things. It was fun to watch. A few other belly dancers came out and I got pulled up with one of them. So I danced too! 

Day 3:

    Not a whole lot happened this day. It was a 7 hour bus ride to the desert and then an hour 4x4 jeep ride to our camp site. The one complaint I have is that by the time we got to the camp site it was pitch black so we had no idea what we were surrounded by. Plus, the lights were run on generators so if the lights in the dining tent were on, then the lights in our sleeping tents were off. Needless to say, it was pretty dark. We wound up eating around 11:00pm and we were all starving and exhausted. The guys that worked for the tent camp all had us sitting on little stools and they played the drums well into the night.

Day 4:

    We woke up bright and early to have breakfast and then walk around the dunes a little bit to see where we actually slept the night before! Wandering around we came across the camels that were waiting for us all! IT WAS THE BEST PART. Although, riding camels is not quite as smooth as a horse so it was kind of uncomfortable, but totally worth it. We all got on the camels and rode to a huuuuuuge dune. At the top, we all looked like ants. It was hard to climb all the way up there. It was very hot and the sand kept sliding down. I found though that if you stick your hands deep into the sand then it's cooler. We hung out at the dune for a while then it was off to the oasis. It was weird being surrounded by nothing but dunes to seeing palm trees and a little town. We got to the pool, even though we couldn't go swimming because only a few people brought swimsuits, which was nice to put our feet in. They brought us lunch and then we got henna tattoos. After that we walked back to the tent camp and had free time until dinner. It was so nice to just wander around the dunes and hang out with my friends. There was a dune that had created a little divot so we sat there then thought it would be a good idea to bury Billy. We watched the sunset and then gazed up at the stars and saw the Big Dipper and Orion's Belt. It was so relaxing. Then we got called for dinner around 10:30pm then went back out to look at the stars. 

Day 5:

     This was another day stuck on the bus for 8 hours. Not too much happened. Once we got to the hotel in Meknes we had dinner and then Lindsey, Haley, and I decided to watch some vamp diaries on my phone since no one was allowed to leave the hotel.

Day 6:

     We left Meknes and drove to Casablanca which was about 2 hours. We got some lunch at the airport and then headed back to Paris. 

It was a long trip with a lot of time spent on the bus, but it was the best trip!!