Midnight in Morocco

Studying abroad in Europe has been a wonderful experience full of highs and lows. From seeing the must-see landmarks to experiencing the downright weird traditional holiday celebrations, the stories I will return to the US with will be endless and forever with me.

Having previously spent some time in Europe I felt very comfortable with the idea of spending three months wandering the streets of these large labyrinths of cities. As different as each city in the continent is, there is a sense of continuity across each of them. The pedestrian-traffic relationship is roughly the same in Lisbon as it is in Prague, the same clothing stores are in each city, and there will most definitely be a delicious bakery tucked into some dark narrow alley. I knew no matter which country I was in I was going to find myself in a situation where nobody around me spoke English, and I was going to have to fake it until I made it…out of that situation. These are all the reasons one chooses to study abroad and going into this trip I knew that these experiences were going to bring me to the edge of my comfort-zone, but for me, that just wasn’t quite enough.

Rewind the clock to mid-December 2018. Meghan, my girlfriend, and I are staring at a world map discussing the places that we’ve been together and hypothesizing on where we should go next. Knowing that she’d be coming to visit for her spring break, we started brainstorming places neither of us have been to and began to weigh the pros and cons of each city or country. Maybe we go to Southern Italy, or maybe we go to a Scandinavian city like Oslo or Stockholm. For a while we listed places that all sounded fantastic, but there was never an option that stood out from the rest; they were all equally good in their own right.

Then, one country just stood out above the rest and sounded absolutely perfect: Morocco.

We raced to the internet and dug up as much information as we could regarding tourism in this North African country. Countless travel blog posts later, and a call to a friend of hers who had previously been, we had our two separate Riads (hotels) booked and an overnight tour scheduled in between. Our four-day trip was planned and now all we had to do was wait.

On March 7th around 9:00pm we stepped off the plane onto a whole new continent.

After clearing customs at the Marrakech airport and finding our guide named Mustafa, we were on our way to our Riad in the Medina, or the Old Town. This would prove to be the first moment where our comfort-zone was stretched. When we reached the Media wall, we quickly realized that there is no way for our van to go any further. Multiple phone calls and about a 30 minute wait later the manager from the Riad arrived. We then found ourselves winding our way through a literal maze of hallways and alleys, not really knowing if we were indoor or outdoor, toward our accommodations for the night. When we reached the Riad we were greeted with tea and a young kitten with a bell on his collar. After enjoying our tea in the central courtyard and admiring the beautiful building we decided to turn in for the night, as we had a long day ahead of ourselves.

Waking up to roosters was something that had never crossed my mind when I was planning my semester abroad, but there I was laying in bed listening to the chickens. Luckily my alarm was scheduled to go off minutes later so instead of getting upset by it and rolling over, I just appreciated the moment. After a surprisingly complete breakfast we were picked up by our guide and began our long drive from the heart of Marrakech through the Atlas Mountains, past the second highest peak in Africa, through the desert, and to the smaller city of Zagora, roughly 350km away.

As we got further and further away from the hectic city buildings started to spread out, people became scarcer, and the gigantic mountains began coming over the horizon. The road started to climb through the foothills the scenery began to become more lush. Green hillsides dotted with small villages were around every turn in the road. Everything was beautiful, like we were in some sort of a movie.

And then something also straight out of a movie happened. Smoke started pouring out from under the hood of the car and next thing we know the van is on fire.

To our luck there happened to be small remote café exactly where it needed to be on the side of this mountain pass. Multiple men came running to our aid with buckets as we pulled our luggage from the car and ran to a safe distance.

It wasn’t long before the fire was put out and a new vehicle was on the way, but we now had some time to kill and there wasn’t exactly much around. The view was beautiful though, so I couldn’t complain.

At this point another movie moment happened. I spotted a man playing with a small monkey.

I was so caught off guard by it as I at no point had expected to see a monkey, let alone come this close to one. I immediately made my way over to the man watching as he playfully tossed the monkey up in the air; both the man and the primate were having a great time, and I needed to be a part of it. I gesture to the monkey, and the man smiles and nods to me. Next thing I know the little guy is crawling all over me. That bucket list item could now be officially be checked off.

Eventually that moment had to come to its end and our journey to Zagora had resumed with our new guide, Khalid. He picked up where Mustafa left off and we continued winding our way up and over the mountains through sunshine, fog, rain, snow, hail, and then back to sunshine. Eventually our long yet beautiful drive had brought us to our destination: the side of the road, just outside of Zagora, where a few men and about two dozen camels were waiting.

As the sun began to set, we hopped atop our camels and began the journey to our campsite about an hour’s ride away. We arrived just after the sun had fully dropped below the horizon, and we were met with traditional music and delicious hot food.

After the night’s festivities had come to an end it was time to get some sleep but not before climbing up a nearby sand dude to take in the most beautiful night sky either of us have ever experienced; words are incapable describing it.

The following day was a reverse of the previous day but with more stopping to see sights along the long drive and less fires in the engine by of the guide vehicles. It was a welcome change of pace.

We returned to Marrakech in the late afternoon and got ourselves checked into our final Riad for the final night of our adventure. This gave us enough time to see some of the sights that we wanted to see and experience what it is like to try and navigate what appeared to by one of the most dense, chaotic cities I could have imagined. We set off for the Koutoubia Mosque which was just a short walk away, but in that short walk we were able to learn a lot about how the city dynamic worked. The main point I learned from this is that if you want to cross a road you just have to go for it and to not be alarmed when someone speeds right behind your back because you created an opening and that driver has somewhere he needs to be. On the surface it was chaos, but as observed I began to notice just how organized this type of chaos was.

Unfortunately, when we made it to the Mosque we couldn’t go inside, but that didn’t mean we couldn’t admire its beauty from the base of its 80m tall tower.

The last thing on our list for this trip was to experience Marrakech’s marketplace. Having been to chaotic markets across the US and Europe I thought I’d be somewhat prepared for what Marrakech had in store. I was not. What was awaiting us was an absolute endless maze of intersecting narrow streets with countless different ways to turn. Every shop had its owner in the entryway trying to lure in anyone from the endless flow of people which was made up of primarily locals with the occasional tourist sprinkled in.

After bartering into our possession some fresh tea, leatherwork, and sandals we found ourselves one last dinner and wrapped up our cinema-quality experience in Morocco.

My time in Morocco was absolutely wonderful, and I could not have asked for a better adventure. The landscapes were beautiful, the architecture was historic and unique, the food was delicious, the people could not have been more kind and helpful, the cultural experience was top notch, and I could not have had a better travel companion. I had successfully pushed myself out of my comfort zone, and I could not be happier that I did. I HIGHLY recommend visiting Morocco. Just be sure to do your research before you go and you will have an absolutely wonderful time.