Agadir and Marrakesh: Our Long Weekend Trip

The first weekend in February, the entire nation of Morocco celebrates the Prophet's birthday, so we had Monday off, giving us a three-day weekend right off the bat! Back at Willamette we never have ANY three day weekends, so it was nice to get an extra day :) As such, the majority of us exchange students decided a trip to the beach was in order. So we booked our bus tickets for Agadir, and at 9pm that Friday, we boarded the bus that would be our transporter for the next 12 hours.

Agadir

12 hours on a bus?? You're kidding me right? No. It was an entire night ride to the Atlantic coast. The ride as a whole was not bad, I was seat mates with Maiya and we listened to and talked about music, and then slept. The first hour was killer: two people decided that they were going to puke their guts out, so the ENTIRE bus smelled of barf. On top of that, our bus driver decided to take the windy route, so the combination of switchbacks and puke smell was making me feel carsick. Poor Martina was sitting right next to one of the guys who puked, and from what I heard it got all over her shoes, so her ride was definitely worse than mine. At the rest stop, I caught some fresh air and dreaded getting back on. Jared thought it was a good idea to try and cover up the puke smell, so he sprayed his cologne all up and down the bus. That just made the bus smell like really strong boy perfume and puke, which just made it worse. Thank goodness for cleaning wipes and Seynabou's lemon deodorant, we made makeshift smelly rags to hold to our noses to keep the smells at bay. Once we were on our way again, the bus was cleaned up and an hour into it the smell went away so I was able to make it without puking myself (thank goodness). Oh so fun, don't you think? xD

Agadir

We made it to Agadir around 9am the next morning. We ran into Corentin, John, and Ahmed, who all decided to go to Agadir too. After bathroom breaks, we decided to walk to the beach. After 12 hours on the bus you think walking would be a good idea right? And usually it is, except when you end up walking for an hour when you thought it was going to be a fifteen minute walk.. tops. And when you really have to pee..... We ended up getting a great view of Agadir as a city though, and the fresh air did me wonders.

Finally we made it to the beach. Man, was it good to sit back down and just relax in the sun (In Ifrane, it's still cold, and had snowed right before we left, so feeling the warmth of the sun was super nice). I played my ukulele some, as did Austen and Dylan. People brought frisbee, so we threw the disc around for a bit. Maiya convinced me to go swimming in the ocean with her, and we walked along the beach afterwards. We also bargained with pastry sellers, though we still paid more for them than we did in other places we've been. But we were hungry, and they were delicious. A group of us decided to make a sandcastle, and it ended up being the most epic one I've made so far! Two outer surrounding walls, bridges, decorated towers, moats.. the whole she-bang. French and Moroccan people alike came up and took pictures of it, it was that AWESOME :)

Camels at the Kasbah

After the beach Ahmed took us to the fish market where we had fresh fish for lunch. What they do is show you the raw fish, ask you whether you want it grilled or fried, and then take the fish from the plate they showed you and cook it up for you. Just like that. It's incredibly fresh. I'm not sure what they do in the states, but I don't think they do it the same way in most places.. And it was probably some of the best fish I've had, excluding the bones and the eyeballs still left in it (Yep, they cook the ENTIRE fish).

Moroccan couple watching the sun set, The Kasbah in Agadir

We checked into the Hotel Suede for the night (our hostel, costing $10 a night, breakfast and showers included. And the beds were super comfortable. Really nice for really cheap). Then around 5pm we took taxis up to the Kasbah, or old city. It's basically ruins now: according to what I've heard, there was a huge earthquake and tsunami that destroyed everything, forcing them to rebuild Agadir down by the ocean rather than up in the hills. Saw my first ever camel there, though I didn't ride one. I'm waiting for the desert to get the "official" experience :) We stayed up at the Kasbah until the sun went down, watching it disappear beneath the horizon on the ocean- it was really gorgeous. Then, as it was Corentin's birthday, we made our way over to the apartment where the boys were staying to help him celebrate. We got lost on our way over and wound up having jus (french for juice/smoothies) and pastries in a patisserie and finally asking a random Moroccan girl to tell Ahmed where we were in order for him to come and take us to the apartment. Pretty amusing if I do say so myself, especially since we had to of the boys with us who you would have expected to know how to get back to the apartment from our hostel :)

Seynab and breakfast at the Hotel Suede

Desert City on our way to Marrakesh

Traversing through the Bird Zoo in Agadir

Desert City, cool car shot :)

The next morning we got up and ate breakfast on the roof terrace of the hostel. It was a gorgeous morning, the sun bright and warm accompanied by tea and croissants. Around 11am Dylan, Seth, Seynab, Rupinder, Maiya and I took off towards the bird park (basically a small zoo) and then got a grand taxi to Marrakesh around 12:30pm. It was a pretty squished ride, but fun as we drove through desert-like towns and got to see some of the south. Around 4pm we stopped at a rest area for bathrooms and food (kefta and tagine, best thing ever when you are hungry). We saw some really cute feral kittens curled up in the sun, I really wanted to take them home with me. We arrived in Marrakesh around 5:30pm, and walked all the way to the medina to find a hostel. What felt like a really long trek was only about forty minutes or so (I think?) but when you've been traveling all day and carrying all your baggage with you, it seems like forever. We walked through a Saturday market, and I got caught up by a music stand where they were selling Berber guitars: man, are the gorgeous. And look just like a ukulele. I really want to pick one up before I go home, but I don't know if that'll work unless I ship it home... still something I'm pondering over about getting... By the time we had looked into our third hostel, I was ready just to stay put, along with everyone else. Which is where we ended up staying, at the Hotel Chellah, a five minute walk from the main square of the medina. And man, was it the place to be! After we checked in and dropped all our stuff in the rooms, we headed to the square, and it was packed! The crowds were huge! Seynab linked arms with me in order to stay with the group, and it was hard to keep those ahead of us in sight as well as those behind us. We met up with the West Point group and went around sight-seeing. Lee bought me some cinnamon tea, which I had never tried before. It's really good, probably one of my favorites. Though beware: It has such a strong flavor that it burns your throat as it goes down :) We met up with the WestPoint darija teacher and he took a group up to see a overview of the square from above. A smaller group of us decided that it wasn't worth the 15 Dhs to go up so we walked around below, looking at shops, food stalls, and snake charmers. I saw a half-jalaba (Moroccan coat) and wasn't really going to buy it, but the seller caught me looking at it and offered me it for 200 Dhs. I told him no, and he lowered it to 180. Seynab told him that she had a friend that bought one for 120, and he said his final offer was 150. I told him no again, and started to walk away when he said, "Okay okay 130 Dhs." Seynab looked at me and said, "I'd grab it now, that's the best price you'll get." He was already wrapping it up in a bag for me, so I went with it. I now have a too big Moroccan coat that is wonderful to wear around my dorm room and keeps me really warm :) We then got Seth and Brian jalabas, both 300 Dhs. It was great seeing Brian speak Darija with the shopkeepers and to see him bargain (I'm slightly envious of his language skills, but I'm learning some Arabic too, so I know that if I want to I can get there eventually). We went and got harira soup next with some of the other kids, and then headed back towards the shops. We got Maiya a half-jalaba (200 Dhs) and while she was looking at shoes and other things, I ended up walking by the jewelry shop I had stopped at earlier that evening where I told the jeweler I was just looking and maybe would come back tomorrow if I was interested. But he then saw me with my jalaba bag, and told me I HAD to at least look again at his shop. So I obliged, not really intending to buy anything, just look. I looked for a good 15 minutes until I found a ring that I really liked. He let me give him the price I was willing to pay, and then told me how much he wanted it for. I brought the price down from 300 to 250 Dhs, which isn't a huge decrease, but enough to make him and I both okay with the price. I now wear the ring almost every day, which means I really like it. For 250 Dhs, a real silver ring is pretty good, especially if I like it that much :) While ring shopping we stroke up a conversation, and by the time the transaction happened, he offered to send a camel home to my family. A little creepy, for he's roughly my dad's age, but I politely laughed it off, telling him that there was no need. He then said that the ring I bought would remind me of our "friendship," and even though it wasn't a huge turning point in my stay here, I definitely remember the process of buying it whenever I wear it, and it always brings an amused smile to my face :)

The feral kittens

Around 1am that night we headed to the Club Teatro, which is one of the most famous clubs in Marrakesh. Me, I'm not a huge clubber, but it was fun to go and experience it. It's a lot nicer than the one in Ifrane and big enough to where the cigarette smoke doesn't clog up the entire air supply of the club, so I was able to breathe pretty well. We Americans were the only ones dancing for the first part of the night, but then everyone else joined in too. We were out until 5am, and had a horrible time getting taxis (they wanted 50 Dhs a piece at least for a 5 minute taxi ride). I ended up catching a taxi with none of my hostel mates, but Chris, Jamie and Nour all walked me back to the Hotel Chellah, which I was grateful for. I felt really bad calling the hotel front desk because I didn't want to wake up the hotel manager so early in the morning. But the hotel door was shut, so I had no choice. I got a hold of Seynab and told her to call me when they got to the hotel so I could let them in. When we woke up Monday morning around 9am, we explored the square again for a couple hours, eating msemen with chocolate right off the grill for 4 Dhs a piece (so yummy). We returned to the hotel and packed up our things to head out. The manager speaks French so he and Maiya were able to communicate, and he made a jest at Seth when he came back to the hotel the night before (he did not go to the club with us). Maiya explained later on that the manager had asked Seth if the girls (us) had come back, and Seth didn't reply. He ended up waiting up for us to get back to the hotel to make sure we got back safely. As I heard this, all my intimidated feelings toward the hotel manager disappeared. He didn't even know us, and yet he cared about our safety enough to stay awake until 5am when we came back from the club. Moroccans may come off as intimidating, but they are some of the most caring people I have met.

The six hour train ride was a long one. I slept and listened to music, which wasn't bad, but after more than 20 hours of traveling in a span of three days really got to me. By the time we reached Fes I was ready to sleep, but another hour back to Ifrane at 6:30pm was still in store. When we got back to campus I ate some food and then headed straight for my dorm where I relaxed. Traveling is exhausting, no matter how fun it is. But the trip was completely worth it :)