Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Morocco and the Sahara

I spent 6 days travelling in Morocco during Semana Santa and it was truly an eye-opening experience. I have nothing else to compare it with - it was a once in a lifetime opportunity. We travelled through Rabat, Fez, Assilah, and spent one night in the Sahara desert. We had to ride camels out to our camping spot and let me tell you riding a camel for 2 solid hours is not a pleasant or comfortable ride. Camels are very smelly and like to grind their teeth. We were very well fed while we were there - lots of vegetables and tangines (slow-cooked mixes of meat and vegetables). We went to the medina in Fez - it has 9,000 streets and we walked all of them! Haha, just kidding :) We walked a good bit of it and went to a tannery, a pharmacy, a scarf factory, and a rug factory, so it was cool to see how products I use all the time are made.
At one point on our trip we saw snow and monkeys - at the same time. I'm absolutely amazed at how quickly the scenery changed - within a matter of minutes we would go from desert type landscapes to lush forests. This is something that I definitely was not expecting. I think the hardest adjustment while I was there was the language. The main language is Arabic, but there are obviously lots of dialects. I don't like it when I can't understand what someone is saying because I like to have a general grasp of a language, but I felt completely lost the whole time. They also speak Spanish and French too as secondary languages. It was definitely a great experience and I'm thankful I was able to be able to see Morocco!

1 comment:

  1. I have absolutely no words at all to describe how jealous I am.

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