I am in love with the world! So we get back to the ship on Saturday night in Spain and were planning to stop in the Straight of Gibraltar for fuel the next day and then get into Morocco on Monday morning early for 4 days/3 nights. Our ship is considered the fastest in the world, but to do that, they had to sacrifice something in the engineering so our ship rocks pretty heavily on a regular basis. However, to go around the coast of Morocco on the way to Casablanca, Captain Jeremy had to turn off the stabilizers to make the turn. Everyone was warned over the PA system and told to make sure all our belongings were secured. Naturally we were all stoked. Em, Vanessa and I were eating in the dining hall during the announcement and decided to stay for the festivities. Oh. My. Goodness. I can’t even describe the angles the ship was going between. We could still see the lights off the coast of Spain so looking out the big windows on the 5th deck they would go all the way below the horizon then come back and disappear off the top at a greater than 45* angle. It was madness. Dishes were flying off the tables, food bins were crashing everywhere, chairs were falling over, and people were hanging on for dear life. It was so much fun! Some people got it on video and I’m definitely going to get a copy to show you all!
So the next day, Sunday morning I think, after all the damage had been cleared, we stopped in Gibraltar for like 6 hours which would have been way cooler if they had let us off the ship, but at least we were close enough to see it. Later that night when everyone is packing and getting ready to go off trekking in Morocco, they tell us that the sea was too rough to get fuel so we would have to wait another day to get it which means we wouldn’t into Casablanca until late Monday night☹Sad! We lost a day there and everyone was super upset but I was actually ok with it because I needed another day of rest, I was still exhausted from Spain! They tried to make Monday into a fun day which actually turned out to be awesome because there was a good talk on Islam and then we got to watch the season premiere of LOST in the Union! I was so happy! There is a huge Losty cult on the ship so I think were going to try to get all the new episodes here. But really? That episode only made me have like 50 million more questions and no answers!!! Ahh! Then we got to listen to Joe, our safety officer who is a retired LA undercover cop tell us how people pickpocket and how to avoid it and he taught us moves to use in case we got in trouble. After that we had mic night which is so much fun because the people here are so talented and everyone is singing along and having a good time. So Monday wasn’t bad, but the delay to Morocco messed everything up because all the trips were supposed to leave the first day and no one knew what was going on. A lot of the Semester at Sea trips had to cancel parts of their itineraries because of it. I was lucky that this was a port I was doing on my own because my friends and I were planning on taking the train to Marrakech to spend the time there and everything worked our perfectly. Once we got on our way it was amazing. Indescribably beautiful and exotic and different and tantalizing. I am going back at the first opportunity I have. Starting from the beginning, here is my Morocco:
So we let ourselves sleep in a bit on Tuesday morning then got packed and ready to go. SAS had brought people on the ship to help independent travelers make plans and book hotels etc., which was awesome because we booked our amazing Riad through them. During our pre-port they had warned us that a lot of cheaper hotels and hostels will give us scabies and other gross bug diseases so we decided we were willing to pay a bit extra in this country to avoid that. Turned out to be the best decision ever. We booked a place called the Riad Aladdan in Marrakech right next to the Medina. It included breakfast each morning and a Hammam (traditional steam bath) for each of us too. Unfortunately we ran out of time to take our steam baths but it was because we had so many other things to do! So we got off the ship and planned to walk to the train station to catch the train from Casablanca to Marrakech. We thought we would be ok because most people speak French in Morocco and none of us knew Arabic but one kid who traveled with us in Spain told us he spoke French. Ben and I had gotten everyone around Spain with our Spanish, and so I was looking forward to a break from translation but as soon as we get off the ship, the “French”speaker couldn’t even remember the word for train. So Sean and I, whom neither of us had ever taken French before, ended up speaking more French than the kid who had taken classes for two years! One of my new life’s goals is to learn French. Casablanca is a huge, dirty, industrialized city, which was disappointing because I had always had this romanticized view of Casablanca. After walking around for an hour and letting go of the Casablanca I had always dreamed about, we finally smartened up and got a cab to the station. The train ride was about 3 ½ hours with beautiful scenery: there were rolling green hills and lots of shepherds and their sheep grazing and every once and a while some villages trimmed with clotheslines and people watching the train roll by.
Coming into Marrakech was a completely different experience than coming into Casablanca. Marrakech was beautiful and more of the Morocco I expected. It was traditional and modern at the same time, a good mix that Casablanca seemed to miss. Soon though we were to discover the darker, dangerous, mysterious Marrakech that was not in the touristy public eye. And we loved it. We grabbed a cab to our Riad (cab rides are death wishes in themselves; there are no traffic rules or regulations) and the driver took us to the local, dirtier, authentic part of town and let us out and pointed in some general direction. This is what we do best though! We walked around a bit among the donkeys on the streets and the people buying their produce and men unloading trucks of carpets and materials. We walked in the direction that the man had pointed and it got us nowhere. We had come to a bit of a dead end by some fruit stands and Sean and I were trying to ask directions in our butchered version of French when a really nice guy our age started speaking English and was like, “O come with me, I’ll help you.”We were kind of sketched out because they had warned us on the ship that people would try and do this and then demand money. But we didn’t really have other options so being the adventurous travelers that we are, we followed him around a corner and down a pitch-black alley, which made us very nervous because it was still the middle of the day. Honestly, most us thought he was trying to kill us. It was the sketchiest thing ever. But he knocked on this random door next to a dumpster and the lady opened it up and ushered us into the most beautiful courtyard. It was open so we could see the sky and there were Moroccan decorations and furniture and a palm tree garden center, it was incredible. It was designed in a square so that the open courtyard was surrounded by rooms in two stories and went up to a rooftop that overlooked all of Marrakech. The lady of the house had us sit down and gave us welcome cookies and mint tea in the main downstairs area. We had a room for the girls and one for the boys and when we were done with our reception, they showed us up to our rooms. The girl’s room opened up into this cute room with two beds on one side and pillows on the floor in the middle and lots of curtains and amazing Moroccan art with big wooden doors and wooden window shutters. I decided I am decorating my house in a Moroccan theme when I’m older! So then we go into our bathroom and its all this beautiful colored stone and our bathtub is amazing. It’s the size of 4 US bathtubs put together. Amazing. I need one. Then we go over to look into the boy’s room and it’s even better than ours! Theirs opened up into a room with two beds covered in jeweled blankets and little tables and a huge wooden wardrobe. Then there was another level that opened into another bedroom with a double bed and the bathroom. This was the coolest place I have ever stayed and I recommend it to anyone if you ever go to Marrakech, the Riad Aladdan. After we got done squealing and settling into our rooms and taking pictures of everything (I’m sorry I don’t have internet on here but I’ll try and post pics in South Africa!), the hostess offered us dinner at the Riad. So we took up the offer because our philosophy when we travel is to just say yes. It was incredible too. It was a private room with a table surrounded by couches and pillows and candles everywhere and we had a three course dinner (amazing!) and wine and for dessert the most amazing oranges I’ve ever tasted covered in cinnamon and raisins ~ so good! I didn’t think I’d like the food here but we really had amazing cuisine. So after dinner and lounging we decided to go check out the medina (the central square) at night. There were lights everywhere and acrobats and crowds of people and the markets were still open and the atmosphere was just so alive. Every night too, vendors set up rows and rows of food stalls and there are always spice stalls with huge piles of spices and fresh orange stands. It’s incredible! We bought a few things at the Souk and then wanted to go out to see what Moroccan nightlife is like. Back at our Riad, us girls went up to our room to put on layers (Morocco gets COLD at night in the winter) and the boys went to ask the guy at the front desk where to go. Five minutes later, Jordan bangs on our door to tell us we can’t come out until they come and got us. Ten minutes after that they’re making us walk all the way up the stairs with our eyes closed and at the very top they let us open them. They had set up a table on the roof with trays of wine and glasses and lanterns with a full view of the Moroccan skyline. So cute! They were so proud of themselves too haha. It was a great night; we sat out and talked until early in the morning. A cool thing too about the rooftops of Marrakech; there are enormous storks that make their nests at the top of buildings and at night, they pair up and click their beaks together so we were serenaded by them all night long too.
In the morning we got to eat a breakfast of all the types of bread you can imagine with delicious honeys and jams and tea and coffee and fresh-squeezed OJ, so good! Then we went to hone our bartering skills in the Souk. I got so many awesome things and I must admit I’m a pretty good at bartering, everyone was impressed. I’m thinking of trying it out at Nordstrom’s when I come home. A guy in the markets offered the boys 14 camels to buy me and we all got kind of creeped out cause he was pretty serious. They joke now that if they had gotten him up to 20 camels I wouldn’t be here anymore. Not so funny. We had a really good lunch and then went to go find camels to ride. We got a cab out to this place called the Palm Groves where they have a bunch of people just standing with their camels on the side of the road. Our driver took us to an awesome one. We all got on our camels and went off for long ride through this beautiful palm tree desert forest area. Again I’ll try to upload pics soon because it was so beautiful! We went back to the medina after and there were all these guys who had monkeys on leashes and they would come up and throw the monkeys on you for a picture. The one that was thrown on Jordan started eating his dreadlock too, it was pretty funny. There was a British guy next to us who had a lollypop in his mouth and the monkey grabbed it form his mouth and started eating it! There were snake charmers too but I steered clear of them. The medina was such a fun place to just be in and look at everything happening around you. We ate dinner there that night too at one of the stands and that was definitely one of the best meals we had. Its fun too cause even if you are just walking through the guys who work there try so hard to get you to come in and eat, they practically drag you in. So knowing this, we walk right into the middle and have them fight over us to see where we’ll eat. It was super funny and we ended up sitting down at this great stand because the guy promised us a bunch of free stuff. Everyone started clapping when we sat down and so we continued the tradition and would clap and cheer whenever a new party sat down. That was a great night. A Moroccan man tried to steal me later though when we were laving dinner. We were just walking back through the Souk (and I’m traveling with 4 guys so I felt pretty safe most of the time) when out of nowhere this guy grabs my arm and starts saying, “You come with me.”I was like, “Um, no, let me go”and tried to pull away but he was holding on super tight and the boys were like, “Let go!”and tried to pull me back but the guy wouldn’t let go! Kind of scary but I eventually got away. We met up with some friends afterwards and went to a hookah bar and just chilled. It felt so good just to live and be and enjoy life with great people. Plus they have great shisha in Morocco too! (Yes, shisha is legal)
Waking up early the next morning to take an early train back to Casablanca was not fun because it was cold and rainy and windy outside…I did not want to get out of bed. But we got up and had out last meal in Marrakech and tried to pack all the stuff we bought into the small bags we had brought. This train ride was better because we got first-class and we all got to sit in the same car. Back in Casablanca we dropped our stuff off at the ship and went to eat at Ricks Café. I love the movie so this was a must for me. It was pouring down rain and there were eight of us going. We took cabs there and when we got to the door, the doorman wouldn’t let us in. he kept saying they were full and wait five more minutes. So we waited outside in the freak monsoon that happens once every 30 years in Morocco. People kept coming out and saying that it wasn’t busy so we kept asking and he just kept saying five more minutes. After 45 minutes and dripping wet, we were getting really angry and we tried to just go in and he told us they were closed! We were so mad…and starving. We then walked around and got lost in the backstreets of Casablanca trying to find a restaurant and still in the pouring rain. After an hour we gave up and went back to the ship for cheeseburgers and pizza. Morocco was awesome. Marrakech was the best and Casablanca could have been better but I love it there, we had such a good time and I cannot wait to go back and spend more time there. I talked to a lot of people afterwards who had really bad experiences there and even left some trips to come back to the ship. They stayed in really shady places and got harassed and did super touristy things. We loved it though because we put ourselves smack in the middle of their culture and embraced it. And had such a good time.
The night we got back on the ship too, Captain Jeremy had to turn off the stabilizers again. We were all super stoked because now we knew how to make the most of it. Tons of people went to Tymitz Square where the floors are made of marble and we all sit down and then slide when the boat is rocking back and forth. So much fun. Until the BIG wave came. There are big desks on either side of the square and I was sitting kind of on the edge so this HUGE wave hit and I flew upside-down into the big desk with me head and everyone was thrown on top of me. Couldn’t breathe, head completely smashed, and no one could move because the ship was almost on its side. A bunch of people got hurt; there was a broken wrist, lost of sprained ankles, head lacerations, and busted skin. But it was way fun. All our rooms were destroyed afterwards too. Furniture had come loose and broken and everything was overturned, all our stuff was everywhere. It was AWESOME! Can’t wait for turning the coast of South Africa because I hear it gets even worse!
For now, were on the ship sailing down the African coast. Neptune day is the day after tomorrow and there’s going to be lots of festivities so I’ll update then. Namibia is close and I have planned something awesome but I’m not telling anyone until after I do it! Hehehe, be excited. I am!
Love, Al
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