Like I already told you in my last post I will tell you all about my vacation in Morocco. It will be a short summary with the most important things about our time there.
Our flight was like 4 hours from Rotterdam to Marrakech and when we came back we flew from Marrakech to Agadir to Schiphol.
So I went with my friends and we stayed in a riad. The riad was located in the Medina in Marrakech. It was walking distance to almost everything that was a must see in Marrakech.
We ate a lot of traditional food during our stay there. We had an intercontinental breakfast at our riad every morning but then during the day we would go to a restaurant/ snack bar and at night we'll eat at the Djemaa el Fna square. After 5 days we did not want to eat tajine, couscous, mixed grills, harira etc. anymore. Luckily we found a good and clean restaurant just behind our riad where we could get pizza, French fries, panini's, doner kebab's etc.
During our stay there we did 4 tours. One was with a tour guide in the city of Marrakech. We also went to Essaouira, to the Ourika Valley and we went on a 2 day trip (1 night) dessert tour to M'hamid in Zagora.
We ended spending more money than we expected at first, but it was totally worth it. At first I thought that in Marrakech most things would be cheaper than in the Netherlands, but that was not the case. The only thing that was cheap there was the food.
What I did not like was the fact that there were no price tags in the shops in the souks so you had to negotiate every time because the locals see us as tourists with money (which is not the case because we are students) and they ask really high prices.
If I'm going to Morocco in the future I will need to learn some French. Most locals speak Arabic and French. Only a few people speak and understand Spanish and English. Some speak a little Dutch when we tell them that we are from the Netherlands which was Pays-Bas in French. If we tell them that we are from Curacao they get really confused because they don't know where that is. It’s funny how I speak 4 languages but I get to a place where no one understands me.
Well, what can I say about the local people? We did meet some very nice people and we also made some great friends. But overall, most of them were always trying to sell us something or take us somewhere and then ask for money. It is not easy to ask anyone anything there because most of them will charge you for it later.
I really loved being there. Let’s see. I am from Curacao. I have been to St. Martin, Saba, Trinidad & Tobago, Barbados, Panama, the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, England and France (hopefully I did not forget any country). But I never experienced a place like Morocco. The people, the way they dress, their food, their habits etc. was nothing like I have ever seen before. Some people were really poor and others were really rich but somehow I could not see the difference. Some people were more religious than others etc. There is a difference between the locals from Marrakech and Essaouira etc. I really liked the culture there.
We did see a lot of animal cruelty in the city but outside we saw most animals in their natural environment. In the city we saw many horses, donkeys, monkeys, cobras, lizards etc. In the countryside and in the mountains we saw sheep, birds, goats, donkeys etc. It was really amazing to ride on the camels in the dessert. For me that was the highlight of our vacation.
When in Marrakech I really liked the fact that you could see the mountains when the weather was nice. Oh, and during our stay there we experienced rainy days, cold days, really hot days and freezing nights, which I think is pretty awesome to experience in a short time.
That's it guys. That was my Moroccan experience and what is a great adventure-vacation-experience without great friends?
♥ Thania, Edonne, Jo-Ann and Jeavanny ♥
