Hi Everybody!
Never did I ever think it would take me three years to write my next blog post but that’s the world and the COVID era for you. My frequent flyer skills are totally rusty but that didn’t stop me from trying to pack a carryon 4 hours before my flight for a 15 day trip. We won’t talk about how I missed some of the basics of international travel like an adapter and my spare foreign change. 🙈 All rookie moves that won’t be repeated in July.
Boy was that car ride eventful! So remember when I said I was rusty traveling? I’d also like to add the Air France was too scared to actually feed me food because of my allergies (which I reported but no one got the memo). So I broke my fast on the plane with French prisoner food - baguette, cheese, and water. And then proceeded to be fed that exact same meal for the rest of that day. Soooo arguably my brain wasn’t working right, which is why I completely forgot to change some money at the airport.
We thought it would be fine, since we were going directly to the hotel, but we reached a toll road, and none of us actually had the proper money to pay! The dumbest part? There’s no way to get off the toll and it was only 1 dirham (for reference $1 is 10 dirham). What’s worse is we blocked 7 lanes of traffic because we got in the wrong line, had to cross over to the cash register only to be told that they don’t take credit cards. Susan had a 2 euro coin in her bag, which is 21 dirham, and we had to BEG the lady to let us through with the euros. Thankfully she did after 20 minutes of cajoling and a very very long angry line of Moroccans behind us. Oops.
We kept hoping that it would be our only toll. However, our luck ran out a mere 30 miles later when we got to the second one! Auntie Sureia being the fearless person she is literally pulled over next to a cop and called him to our car. She basically explains our whole situation to this guy in Arabic, and he has a good chuckle before telling us he’s the boss and he’d take care of us. We then got a POLICE ESCORT to the toll station and he waived a magic plastic card that we now refer to as “the get out of jail free” card which allowed us to pass the toll station without paying. I’m still laughing at the entire situation. I can’t believe my first police escort was to get me onto a road that cost about 10 cents!!!
After that whole ordeal, we took a much needed breather in the hotel which is right on the river! There on the left you see the tallest building in Africa, it’s 250 meters tall and a total knockoff of the Dubai Burj Al Arab.
Actually the hotel itself was quite charming with the patio and live oud artist.
Before long we were ready to explore the old markets! However, we quickly learned the hard way that Morocco has its own siesta for Ramadan, which is when all the shops close down after iftar so that the owners can go home or to the mosque for taraweeh prayer. Thank goodness we happened upon a Syrian Christian restaurant and had dinner at 10:30 pm followed by some late night juice and ice cream! Here is the face of three exhausted travelers who only remembered to take pictures of their food after it was all finished! I’ll do better tomorrow, I promise. P.s. if you’re wondering, the ice cream was amazing, but it was unlike anything I’ve had before. I’d say the texture was in between American ice cream and gelato and the taste had a certain uniqueness to it, like when you have yogurt from an Middle Eastern restaurant or store.
Around 11 pm the streets went from dead to this lively crowd in a matter of ten minutes! Not to be deterred we took our second lap around the markets where we tried dates, smelled teas and spices, and even got henna done! I wish I could have tried all the amazing sweets they had along the streets.
Also, there is a definitely language barrier as people only speak Moroccan Arabic or French. I speak no more than a few words of either, so a lot of the time I pick a Arabic word I know and then respond with holding up my fingers or choosing a French word or if all else fails desperately trying an English word or two. It’s quite a challenge and I’m sure all these poor locals are confused by me and my inability to pick a language but thankfully everyone we’ve met has been nothing but super patient and even some have gone as far as literally walking us to our destinations! The good news is I’m not the only one struggling to speak. Even Auntie Sureia, who speaks Egyptian Arabic, got confused and ended up eating perfume crystals instead of gum crystals! Yup, you heard me right, their gum comes in a form that looks like sugar rocks but doesn’t taste half as good. All the vendors had a good laugh at her mistake, but to be fair they did kinds look the same. I’m thinking this is going to be the first of many mistakes to come, thankfully we’re an easygoing crew and not afraid to laugh at ourselves!
Anyways, I just finished suhoor here and should get a few hours of sleep before we begin our drive to the blue city. I can’t wait to update you all tomorrow!!
Love you lots,
Carolyn
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