Marrakech

Good Morning Everyone! 

I was determined to have good coffee at least once before this trip and boy did Marrakech deliver. I found this place called Dar El Bacha which was the house of the pasha (aka governor). Where there’s politics there’s money, and the pasha wasted no expense building this lavish home to entertain. It was beautiful! Moroccan styled homes are interesting because they mix materials, you’ve got the patterned marble and mosaics, the carved plaster, and then carved and painted wood up top. There’s so many things to look at all at once it can almost be overwhelming.

My friends in LA that I have high tea with would have gone mad over the menu and options here at Bacha coffee. It was quite the production with over 200 coffee choices and multiple courses! I was in Moroccan high tea heaven!! That is until they poisoned me with almond extract. How is it that the desert took better care with my allergies than the fanciest coffee in all of Marrakech?! Thankfully, all I needed was a Benadryl and a nap. 

Now actually getting to that nap wasn’t so easy since the cab driver decided to not drive us to our hotel but try to take us on the tour of the city instead. Susan found some spare change left on the seat and tried to hand it to the driver, and he yelled at us telling us that our trip would cost more than just that spare change. Oh and to top it all off he would randomly decide to stop the car to “tell us something very important.” At some point we just hopped out of the cab and tried to figure out the rest of the way to our hotel ourselves.

After my Benadryl nap we decided to not chance another cab drive and walk to our next destination, which was the best decision because we found so many cool shops along the way. Susan found this amazing spiced coffee while I picked up a dress and some fresh cinnamon!

Our next stop was Bahia Palace. Which belonged to Moroccan royalty and used to entertain foreigners like the French. Actually, the French liked it so much that they took it for themselves as soon as they colonized the state lol. But what is most interesting about this palace is that it was built by a slave, Si Moussa who then rose through the ranks and became the Sultan’a most important aides. I can’t imagine what his life was like, but his store his very impressive. The palace is also home to the first stained glass window in Africa!! The only disappointing part was we had to drive to Casablanca before our flight the next morning and we were running out of daylight, so we rushed through the rest of rooms, raced back to the bed and breakfast, packed our bags and hit the road. 

As much as I wished to be home this trip, Marrakech really won me over and I found that it was hard to say goodbye. There was so much that felt undone and unexplored, we still hadn’t gone to the Yves Saint Laurent Museum and I really wanted to explore their gardens. But the drive to Casablanca was long and eventful and reminded me that I am really excited to come home and be stateside again.

I can’t wait to see you all soon!! 

Much love,

Carolyn  

The Road to Marrakech

Hello hello! 

Boy has today been a doozy. I keep thinking about how I was once told that in order to read you need both black and white colors to make words which in turn give both colors meaning and that life is just the same, you need good and bad. One without the other doesn’t make sense nor does it give substance. And boy was today just a mixed bag! 

We had a nice calm breakfast in the morning and quickly packed and hit the road for what we thought would be a 3 1/2 hour drive. Boy were we wrong!! Right at the city lines of Marrakech we were flagged down at the police checkpoints for speeding. This had happened before numerous times on this trip, but each time they checked our passports, warned us to slow down, and then smiled and let us on our merry way. Well this time we were actually going at the speed limit when we got pulled aside. Basically this policeman was running a scam and flagging down all the foreign cars and making them pay for their “ticket.” He was insistent that we pay otherwise he’d take Auntie Sureia’s license, and she told him to keep the license. It became a standoff which neither person wanted to back down from. All in all 150 dirhams is a $15 ticket. But what really smarted was this time we were following the rules. In the time Susan and I were sitting in the car, four other foreigner were pulled aside while the locals whizzed by above the speed limit. But to point out the obvious would have obviously make them more mad. Ultimately, we had to call the consulate who told us just to pay the bribe, ahem, I mean fine. I mean the guy literally gave us directions to the nearest cash machine when we first tried telling him we didn’t have any cash on hand. Major eye roll. Ultimately we paid and the scary cop did a 180 in personality and became our best friend, wishing us a good trip, telling us to come back to Morocco, and even offering us tea!! Sometimes I just can’t with people.

Since we weren’t sure what day we’d arrive in the city we hadn’t booked a hotel but figured we would be just fine since it is a major city after all. We, tried calling around but didn’t have much luck reaching the staff so then we just decided to show up at the place and speak in person. Well the hotel was in a teeny tiny street and we got our car stuck! And I mean stuck stuck. Literally 20 people surrounded our car to try and help us get out, people moved motorbikes aside and tried to push the planters out of the way. At some point Susan and Auntie Sureia got out of the car and one of the locals tried to back the car out. I kid you not he had at least two people watching each corner of the car and banging when he got too close. He was mumbling in French and getting increasingly stressed as a HUGE tour group decided to pass using the very same alley. Auntie Sureia thought she could do it and told him to get out of the car when a skinny, short, young guy named Soufraine from the hotel confidently hopped in. What a riot, after moving the seat way forward he literally shushed everyone giving him directions and gunned the car out of the alleyway, dodging all the obstacles, and started pulling the car out to the street and driving away. At this point Auntie Sureia and Susan were laughing so hard, because at this point what can you do and I can only imagine how my stricken face must have looked as we began driving away. I figured well, if he did drive off with me they’d at least know what car I was in and it meant we successfully made it out of the alley. Luckily he pulled into the next block, but not before giving me his number and telling me to hit him up. Even as I tell this story for you I STILL can’t believe the chaos that occurred!

At this point, it was late in the day and I was hot and tired and still had nowhere to sleep. I found a little cafe down the road and suggested to Susan that we stop there and search for hotels in the shade. I got myself a mint lemonade, which in this country literally means lemon juice. They don’t seem to put sugar in anything, so it was tart but actually really refreshing. We kept searching for hotels only to learn that the entire city was fully booked out by the French because they were on holiday! 

I don’t know how we got so lucky but Susan has a friend in Minneapolis who has a friend Jane who runs a bed and breakfast in the Old Medina. Well she had a last minute cancellation and offered us what was probably the only available room in the entire city! You guys know me, I never get homesick. Sometimes I really miss certain things and obviously all of you guys, but I never really wish for a trip to be over. This trip all I wanted to do was go home and end our bad luck streak. Coming to the bed and breakfast with the friendliest American in town was such a relief I almost cried. Jane was so helpful and offered us advice and tips to navigate the city. 

It shouldn’t surprise you by this point when I say we couldn’t get into any restaurant anywhere for dinner, even after Auntie Sureia tried to pretend I was Angelina Jolie’s daughter haha. Not sure if the host believed her or not but he did at least ask his manager and call us back. Jane directed us to a cute cafe that had yummy food and available seating near the city square. Bellies full and feeling a lot better about our evening we ventured into the town center for the night market. 

It was wild! It was basically a county fair with food and lots of souvenirs. Most of the city was hawking and hustling. Also, so many people stopped me to ask if I was Moroccan or even would come up to me speaking Moroccan Arabic before apologizing when they realized I couldn’t understand them. Go figure, apparently I needed to go down south to fit in and find a friendlier crowd. I wonder if my Ramadan and Eid would have been different if I had started down south. Oh well. 

This city keeps night owl hours and the markets shut down by 11:30. It’s kinda crazy that little kids stay out so late on a week night! The hustle and bustle died down as we slowly winded our way home. I’m feeling positive about tomorrow. It’s our last day in Morocco and Susan and I have come up with a Jane approved plan for seeing the best of Marrakech in the day before we need to drive back to Casablanca at night. I’m keeping positive thoughts and hoping for a way better day tomorrow. 

Love you guys lots,

Carolyn

Ait-Ben-Haddou

 Hello Everybody! 

Today we woke up in the Sahara, which was beautiful, albeit a little bit too hot for me at 7 am. We had the most amazing breakfast in the restaurant tent! The cakes were super light and fluffy and it was the best msemmen (basically an Indian paratha) from the entire trip. Breakfasts here have been pretty uneventful, lots of breads and jams and sometimes eggs, but the lack of noteworthy food seems to be the theme of this trip. Moroccans have all these spices surrounding them and yet their food is so bland. Often we’re the troublesome patrons asking waiters for salt, lemon, pepper, hot sauce or olive oil just to add a little something. I feel like if the country were a person it would definitely be a meat and potatoes only kind of guy, especially if you replace the potatoes with bread. I will say though that the orange juice has been amazing, freshly squeezed with no added sugars, I’m super impressed and this is coming from a total California girl!

Before long the workers loaded our bags onto the roof of the car!!! Thankfully I just packed a backpack that was crammed in the back. We, the Germans, and the Brits were driven back out of middle of the Sahara to the town where we left our cars. 

From there, Susan, Auntie Sureia, and I made our way south towards Marrakech through the Atlas Mountains. The goal was to do the 10 hour drive in a day but at about hour 7 we were getting pretty hungry and tired and decided to pull into a small town called Ait Ben Haddou. Here they have a UNESCO site which is a dwelling of homes called a kasr. If the buildings look familiar is probably because you’ve seen it before! Hollywood has filmed both the Gladiator and Game of Thrones at this site, along with a bunch of other movies.

Today, most of the homes are used as shops that sell tourist trinkets, but there are still five families that actually live there! We met a nice gentleman who was actually one of those people. He explained that the families at the site slowly moved into the city across the bridge as the world modernized. Apparently until the government built a bridge 10 years ago, the river would flood the locals in and they wouldn’t have access to food or water for periods of time. They still mainly use candles for light and have some solar energy but no electricity. Also, Hollywood frequently casts these local family members as extras in their films, a fact he was very proud to share with us. The site is beautiful in its own rugged charming manner, but I can’t say I’d ever live without modern amenities.

At the top, we soon found out for ourselves they have massive winds that literally blow you away! I have never experienced anything like this!! Jes used to complain about biking in the Netherlands against the wind but I always figured it was wind. How bad could it really be? I’m sorry I ever had an inkling of doubt Jes! I could barely stand straight and had to hold onto Auntie Sureia for support. Thankfully we made it down in one piece, but we won’t talk about the millions of knots this little excursion left in my hair. Between that and the sand, combing my hair through was quite the process, I was so tempted to just chop it all off!

We accidentally stayed and explored way later than we intended to and weren’t feeling confident about tackling the mountain switchbacks in the dark. So, we scrambled to find a hotel for the night. Actually the issue wasn’t finding a vacancy, the issue was finding a place not abandoned! Throughout this trip, many people in the tourists industries have referred to Morocco as sleeping for the past few years during Covid and they weren’t kidding. What was once a gorgeous mansion hotel was now covered in a layer of dust and only had one employee. I’ve seen brought horror movies to know that being the only guest in the boonies with an abandoned dwelling never ends well for the main characters. So we backed out of that hotel pretty quickly and then started driving around until we found a more populated place to stay for the night.

Honestly we were just grateful to have a clean space with a working shower. You wouldn’t believe how sandy we all were! I had to wash my hair out twice and I still found some sand after. At this rate, I’ll probably be bringing some of the Sahara home with me and I’m pretty sure my white Nikes will never recover haha. Oh well, guess that’s a small price I’ll happily pay for an adventure! Can’t wait to arrive in Marrakech tomorrow and explore.

Love you lots,

Carolyn

Sahara

Morning everyone! 

You would never believe me if I told you that I was woken up at 7:30 am and was dressed and packed in 2 minutes, but I swear that’s exactly what happened. Susan wanted to go to the Sahara but couldn’t get a tour, and Auntie Sureia wanted to go up north to Tanger and surrounding beach cities. I went to sleep while they both were at a stalemate lol. I was simply ready for any adventure out of Fes, which was how I ended up jumping out of the bed and into the car for a 7 hour drive to the Sahara. It was definitely a race to the desert because we were trying to beat nightfall so we could ride camels in the sunset. 

Probably the only perk of not driving a stick shift is that I was a permanent passenger/navigator while Susan and Auntie Sureia took turns at the wheel. The scenery was beautiful and we crossed the mountains. It was cool to see the transition from green, lush farms with plentiful livestock to red rocks! Interestingly, the red rocks looked just like I was driving through Utah or Arizona. I swear!

As we got further into the Sahara there was only one paved two way road down the middle, and nothing else. The gps kept telling us to turn left, and we kept looking left and there was just nothing! We circled twice before deciding to off road and follow the gps. Well apparently, there was a “road” in the sand but the only way to know if it was a road was whether or not there were other tire tracks. We looked absolutely ridiculous in our little Toyota Yaris competing with all these  4runners. I have to hand it to Auntie Sureia though, we made it five minutes after 5 pm, just in time for our camel ride.

I feel pretty guilty, the camels were not well taken care of or handled nicely. I wish I could have done something different once I saw that but my options were to stay in the tent alone or be with others in the group, obviously, I hopped on. But in the future I think I’ll be more intentional on what tourist activities I participate in. It’s a bit crazy how much power we can have as foreigners and I think if people realized we cared it would make a difference.

The camel ride was wild! Instead of a pretty sunset across the Sahara, we got a desert storm. And let me tell you, that sand was biting! Sand was literally everywhere and within 30 seconds I could taste the grains in my mouth, despite being super covered up. Actually, it was funny, when we were driving over Auntie Sureia was complaining about it being dusty with the window cracked in the car and the guide just laughed and said “lady, this is the Sahara.” Now I understand why, to fight the sand is futile, we just had to learn to lean in to permanently being covered in a layer of it. Also, looking at these photos I can’t help but laugh because I look like a total desert gangster! 

After the camel ride, we were sent to our luxury tent, which by the way was AMAZING! There was electricity and running water,  the ceilings were draped with fabric, and they had both heat and air conditioning!! The only thing missing was steady service and wifi lol. Talk about ultimate glam!! Actually, the tent was the nicest place we stayed in AND the nicest food we had eaten the entire trip. Trust me, the fact that the best hospitality was in the middle of nowhere desert was definitely not lost on us. All we could do was laugh about it and enjoy ourselves. 

After dinner we had musicians come to play indigenous Berber music. They have this instrument called krakebs, the metal ones shaped and played kind of like the castanets (guy on the right in the photo is playing them). They make this haunting sound that represents the shackles of slaves or the hooves of a horses as people were dragged away in grain sacks, which seemed so contradictory to the lively drumming and singing. The beat was unusual, I couldn’t quite figure it out, but I wasn’t going to be deterred from dancing. This might be my biggest claim to fame, we had two Germans and two Brits in our tent with us aka the most stoic and reserved people ever, and I convinced them to dance!!! We were having so much fun that even the a group of Moroccan guys from Tangier who weren’t really participating in any activities walked by and joined our dance party. One guy even taught me some of the local steps! I know I looked a bit silly, but I tried! The musicians let us all play their instruments for their last song. After our impromptu dance party, one of the Germans came up to me and said “For Germans, that was too exciting. We normally don’t do that.” 

Dancing always makes fast friends. Even after the musicians left, all of us stayed around to chit chat. Turns out the British couple were from Manchester and had traveled both to the States and Morocco before. They had some really good advice for our trip to Marrakech! It was funny because they were telling stories about their mishaps while driving automatic cars in the US, which they insisted was way harder than driving a manual. I can’t say I quite agree haha.

The Europeans slowly peeled off until it was just Auntie Sureia, me, and the Tangier Moroccans. So we sat around playing a local card game pretty similar to spades until 2:00 am! It was funny watching Auntie Sureia beat them even though she has just learned the game, but if you ask me I think she was secretly counting cards. The rest of the night felt like I was in undergrad all over again! Turns out I wasn’t too far off since we later learned the three guys were all in college. You should have seen their faces when they found out I had graduated so long ago, they were so shocked!! Thanks mom and dad for the good genes. Unfortunately, my almost thirty self will probably regret staying up all night, but that’s a tomorrow problem.

Anyways that’s all for now! 

Love you all,

Carolyn

Eid in Fes

Eid Mubarak Everyone! 

We woke up early this morning to go to a mosque for morning prayer. Well, I guess it’s more accurate to say that we took a two hour nap before going to morning prayer since Auntie Sureia and I were up until 4 am trying to figure out how to actually find a mosque open on Eid day. 

We ended up calling reception, who then personally arrived at our door because Auntie Sureia refused to believe a landline with no dial tone was a working phone. When we opened the door we were shocked to see our waiter from last night! Poor Ayouh couldn’t catch a break with us haha.  P.s. I was right, the landline WAS working without a dial tone. Anyways, Ayouh told us that only a few mosques in Fes were open for Eid prayer, which we hadn’t heard of before. Usually all the mosques are open and you just pick one! Apparently in Morocco, it’s not unusual to host a massive prayer outside the mosque and that is how we ended up praying on the hills of Fes. 

And don’t worry, we literally walked over to the next hill to do a photoshoot because I was not going to get kicked off the first hill for not having my hair covered. I literally couldn’t leave the hotel without my hijab on because no one believed I knew how to go to mosque covered appropriately and would stop me in my tracks and gesture wildly. You’d think they’d get the ethnic memo based on my clothing choices…but guess not. They practice some weird form of Islam here. I am SO glad I never moved to Morocco liked I planned to in 2017. Literally, most of my Eid was spent explaining myself to others as they refused to believe I fasted this Ramadan or any Ramadan before! I think I need to learn to give up earlier, you can blame law school for my tenacity, but it didn’t really serve me well these past few days in Fes because let’s be honest, none of these men will ever change their minds so I should save my breath for better causes.

At least I had an amazing breakfast after prayer and the three of us felt like queens on our throne! That is, until the birds in the lamp above decided to poop on both my plate AND in my orange juice!! The waiters definitely had a good chuckle as they had to replace my food and drinks two separate times. I wonder if real princesses back in the day had endure similar hardship as they lounged around their palace. The open to the elements floor plan is cool until there are actual elements lol.

We really enjoyed our midday taking in all the peace and beauty the hotel lounges had to offer. And by we I mean, Auntie Sureia and Susan sat outside while I went to our room to take a “twenty minute” (aka two hour) nap hehe. Afterwards, Auntie Sureia’s friend, Youssef, who’d been taking us around Fes the past days joined us and took us to the market to have street food for lunch. The butcher was right next to the griller, so he literally cut and spiced the meat and then handed it to the stall next door to cook. The stall next to the griller was empty, and the butcher informed us that his cat has a litter in there. The locals just pick random street cats as theirs and then feed them. The babies were too little to come out but the mom sat by us to say hi. Okay, I’ll admit that she was more likely there by us to beg, but let’s just interpret it my way for the story’s sake alright? Also, I can’t help but wonder what kind of fine dining the butcher’s cats have! 

Auntie Sureia, Youssef, and Me 

The butcher then invited us to his home for tea. When we opened the front door I was shocked to see a tree in the middle of his house! This is not uncommon in Morocco since there aren’t really gardens in the traditional English sense. Here there have terraces and indoor gardens as the center of their homes. Still, it’s very strange to be able to walk out of your bedroom and pick oranges from a tree growing under tiled floors. All the rooms surrounding the center garden have a raised threshold to keep the rain out, which is very clever. Susan and I were clearly impressed!

We were served traditional Moroccan mint tea, which has a really lovely flavor depending on who brews it. So far, only one of the places made mint tea the way I liked it. The coolest thing about the tea is the way they serve it, pouring at a distance from the little glass. If you’re curious, the coffee here is not even worth talking about, which is wild since they have Ethiopian beans grown nearby! I can’t wait for a cup of good coffee when I go home. 

After a bit of time we bid the butcher goodbye before making our way back to the hotel to plan and prepare for our trip tomorrow. We are tentatively going north or south. Yup, you read that right, we’ve got no clue what we’re going to do but I’m excited for any adventure to come. 

Speaking of adventure, it seems like our day wasn’t quite over yet. Once back at the hotel, we went to ask the manager how to get more cash converted. He told us we’d have to walk to a bank to withdraw it because nothing was open that evening. Susan cleverly mentioned we were getting cash to settle the bill with the hotel and politely inquired whether it would be safe to walk back with it in our bags. That genius move is the reason why she and I got a tour of Fes from the hotel owner in the first electric car in the entire city, a Porsche Taycan no less. Can’t say I minded driving around Fes in style. Nevertheless, I’m very excited to be leaving, this city and I didn’t mesh well. I’m hoping for better luck in the next! Wishing everyone a great Eid back home. 

Much love, 

Aisha