The Great Moroccan Adventure

Turban time!!!

Its love in the sand dunes...

Our camp guides inside our tent in the Sahara dessert...

Sunset in the Sahara Dessert... Absolutely Incredible!

The camels that we rode into the dessert...

View from the bus on our 10 hour excursion into the dessert...

Just practicing my yoga in front of the Kasbah...

One of our multiple detours on the excursion...

View from the restaurant where we enjoyed Moroccan salad and bright yellow soup!

Just enjoying the view on one of the excursion stops...

Archway into the market place...

Kenny and I on our horse drawn carriage tour :)

The mosque in the center of Marrakech...

Crazy snake man and a cobra!!!

Just a little water snake...

Lamb, apple, and cinnamon tagine...

Learning how to tie a turban!

A man dying fabric with natural dyes... We found out after taking this photo that they don't like being photographed!

Moroccan Mint Tea... Heaven on the lips ;)

I left Prague on a Wednesday evening in order to meet Kenny in Marrakech, Morocco on Thursday morning. I used one of the lovely European budget airlines and created my own seven hour layover in the Frankfurt-Hahn International Airport. Mistake. First off, the Frankfurt-Hahn airport is in Hahn, Germany not Frankfurt, Germany, so there is literally nothing near the airport. I tried to sleep before my flight, but the ground was tile, and it was ice cold (in other words, a horrible combination.) This was probably the worst night's sleep I have ever had. I think I had a total two hours sleep. Oh well... I boarded my next flight the following morning at 6:00. I didn't realize it was a four hour flight to Morocco; I was luckily able to sleep the entire way. I gained two hours in the air, so by the time Kenny and I reached our Riad it was only 10:00. Just so you know, a Riad is probably the most amazing form of accommodation known to man. Our room wasn't quite ready when we arrived, but we checked in anyway. Then, the owner of the hotel poured us our first glasses of Marrakech Mint Tea. Amazing. We left our backpacks and headed out into the market place. As we wandered the streets we were hit up to purchase various items every few feet. We stumbled upon a shop that was using natural ingredients to dye material. We got a tour and then we were suckered into buying scarves. One benefit to the tour however, was the guy teaching me how to tie the scarves into turbans... this would come in handy later, as you will see. After bartering with a few more shop owners we made our way to the main square. The first order of business was finding a restaurant for lunch. We ate our first Moroccan meals on a rooftop terrace... We each had some form of lamb; mine came with apples and cinnamon and Kenny's was barbecue. It wasn't half bad. I am pretty sure they season every thing they eat with curry and cumin... As Kenny would put it, "this tastes like Morocco..." After lunch we headed on to the main square where we saw snake charmers, back flipping monkeys, and enjoyed 30¢ glasses of fresh squeezed orange juice. The snake charmers were absolutely nuts. They had cobras and vipers, and they kissed them! I was a little scared when the guy draped a cobra around my neck, but I do love snakes, so it wasn't too bad. After hanging out with the snake charmers for a while Kenny and I got a horse drawn carriage tour of the city. It was pretty cool because it took us through some back streets and we got to see people carrying out their daily tasks, plus we were able to see the main attractions of the city like the mosques. After the tour we stumbled across our snake charming friends again, and this time we got to take pictures with the vipers. I still can't quite get over how crazy those guys are. From the main square, we headed back to the Riad and meant to just take a nap, but we ended up going to bed for the night.

The next morning we woke up bright and early for our excursion into the Sahara dessert. The bus ride lasted for about 10 hours, but along the way we made several stops and enjoyed some tasty food. Our excursion group had about 10 people plus the driver. Everything started out just fine and dandy, but its funny how quickly perceptions can change over the course of 24 hours. The lady and her mom, who were from Panama, went from being snobby rich women to actually being quite friendly; the 80 year old woman turned out to be one of the most interesting worldly travelers I have ever met; and the down-to-earth younger girls were actually high strung and crazy. We stopped in several small villages and at multiple highway viewpoints. So far, Morocco is the most tropical place I have ever been too. Even though it is primarily dessert there were palm trees and beautiful flowers everywhere. We stopped for lunch in the Hollywood of Morocco and enjoyed some more tagines. Before we knew it, we had reached the dessert and were riding by camel into the sunset. It was at this point that our scarves, a.k.a. turbans, came into use. That's right, we rode camels through the Sahara dessert at sunset wearing turbans. One of my top experiences so far. Once we arrived to our camp, we were greeted by the camp hosts who enjoyed more tea and dinner with us. We all gathered around round tables on our knees in the center of our tent and shared a communal tagine of chicken and vegetables. After dinner we headed to another tent where we enjoyed several camp hosts singing and playing water jugs. Awesome.

The next morning we woke up at sunrise and got back on our camels. We headed towards town where we were met by our bus driver. On the way back to Marrakech everyone seemed to be a bit on edge and got into it with the bus driver several times. Immaturity is all. Kenny and I just sat back and observed while thoroughly enjoying our journey. The bus drive back was much quicker... I think it only lasted about six hours. We headed back to our Riad to drop off our backpacks as soon as we reached Marrakech. We were in a different even cooler room than the first night. We decided to go back out into the market and look for some more sweet deals on Moroccan goods. Kenny and I both scored a pair of Converse... I am not sure if they are real or not, but they were only €10... Score! We had dinner in the main square. That was an experience and a half. There are tons of tents set up in the main square at night and it is thriving with people. All of the tents are serving dinner and everyone is competing for your business. We settled on a place and enjoyed chicken and vegetable kebabs, calamari, and more Moroccan salad. We ended the meal with some more fresh squeezed orange juice, and then we headed back to the Riad.

The following morning we had to wake up bright and early for our flight to Madrid. Thanks to the lovely volcano in Iceland our flight was delayed. Fortunately our flight was the only flight into Europe that didn't get cancelled. After anxiously waiting around for our plane to arrive it came, and we were headed to Madrid. In all of my travels thus far, I have not had as culturally shocking experience as I had in Morocco. Things were so different and so interesting. I had a fantastic time, and I will always remember the fantastic experiences Kenny and I created.