Africa

Travel Diary - A semester in Morocco: Exploring the country

Dutch version here

Of course, I did not only go to Morocco to study. Luckily, I also have enough time to travel around and slowly explore the country.

Famous

After our visit to Skoura and Marrakech it was time to visit the biggest city of Morocco: Casablanca. The goal of this trip was to attend the world championship qualification match Morocco – Gabon on the 3^rd of November (under the guise of: If the Netherlands are not attending the World Championship, why not supporting Morocco?). Luckily, we were still able to get tickets, because it sold out very quickly. We also bought some Morocco shirts in the medina, we were ready for it! At the stadium we got a lot of attention. A group of girls at a Moroccan football match, of which half is blonde, just grabs a lot of attention. But this also had a positive side. The guards made us skip all the lines and security and we could easily get into the stadium. In the stadium you could choose wherever you wanted to sit. That was the reason why were already arrived at the stadium at 15h while the match only started at 21h, otherwise all good seats would already be taken. Luckily, finding good seats was not hard. The guards automatically leaded us to the most atmospheric part of the stadium. They positioned us right next to a guy with a drum, an enormous flag and a guy in a lion suit, right behind the substitutes. We really enjoyed the match and it was quite an experience. Apparently, it was completely normal to share a seat with multiple people, but luckily the atmosphere was very good, and everyone stood on top of their seats pretty quickly. The supporters sang many songs and slogans among which: ‘’The people want 3-0’’. And they got what they asked for. Through a hattrick, it became 3-0 for Morocco. Before, during and after the match we also grabbed the attention of the press and they took many photos of us. After the match I even got interviewed twice. The next morning, we turned out to be even more popular than we expected. The videos of the interviews I gave went completely viral on Facebook with together more than a million views. On Monday it became even more crazy when we found ourselves on the frontpage of the newspaper with a picture just as big as the one of the player who scored the hattrick. A group of Dutch girls fanatically supporting the Moroccan squad is apparently not very common...

Visitors

Exactly in the middle of my stay in Morocco my parents arrived in Rabat to visit me. Before coming to Rabat, they already spent 4 days in Marrakech. I showed them around in Rabat, and we also brought a visit to Casablanca. In Casablanca we went to the enormous Hassan II Mosque. This is the third largest mosque in the world (after Mecca and Medina) and the only mosque in Morocco which is accessible for non-Muslims. A major part of the mosque is built on top of the water, because according to the Koran the throne of God is on the water. I also heard the story, that ‘once upon a time’ when the Islam was spread along North Africa, and leader arrived at the west coast of Morocco, he sent back a message saying that they did all they could and that they could not spread it any more towards the west. Former king Hassan II built the mosque in the sea, so that after all, Islam was spread more toward the west by him. In Rabat, I showed my parents the most important sights like the Hassan Tower, the Kasbah Des Oudayas and of course, the beach! Together with my parents I also went back to the host family where I stayed for the first month. It was very nice to go back and we were received with a lot of delicious Moroccan cookies and Moroccan mint tea! My parents stayed at a riad in the medina, which made it possible for them to really experience the medina of Rabat, where I used to live.

Sleeping in the desert

A week later also my boyfriend, Stef, came to visit me. We started in Marrakech. I showed him the Djemaa el Fna square, the Ben Youssef Madrasa, the Palais el Badi, the medina with her souks and the Majorelle gardens. The next morning, we got picked up at 7 o’clock for our tour to the desert. It was a very long ride to the Erg Chebbi Dunes which was going to last 2 days. On our way we drove through the Atlas Mountains, stopped at some beautiful viewpoints and stopped at among others Aït Ben Haddou, the Tinghir Oasis and the Todgha Gorges. When we arrived at the Erg Chebbi Dunes, we had to hurry. We were supposed to see the sunset from our camels. Unfortunately, we were a bit too late and therefore, the biggest part of our 2-hour camel ride was in the dark. But that did not make it any less fun! The desert camp where we were supposed to sleep was in the middle of the desert. There was a campfire and live Berber music. We spent the first part of the night on matrasses outside looking at the gorgeous milky way, but it was full moon and after a couple of hours it became so bright that the stars were not visible anymore. It also became very very cold, so we spent the rest of the night in our tent. The next morning, we woke up at 5 to get back to our camels again. A camel ride seems very comfortable, but believe me, it’s not! I can still feel the pain when I think about it…This time we did see the sunrise from the back of our camels and it was absolutely gorgeous. On one moment we were able to get off our camels and walk around the Sahara sand for a bit. Beautiful, but so cold. Sleeping in de Sahara Desert and having a camel ride are two super nice experiences which can be ticked off of the bucket list. Amazing!!

After the desert tour we spent two nights in Fes. Another of the four imperial cities of Morocco. The medina of Fes was an absolute maze. Already on our first night we got lost. Luckily, we had Google Maps to save us. We brought a visit to the oldest tanneries of Fes. A tannery is the place where animal hides are processed and turned into leather products. One of the mixtures in which the hides are soaked is cow urine and another one is pigeon poop with water. These two mixtures make the place smell extremely bad. Luckily the owner of the terrace from where we took a peak, handed us some mint leaves. The people who work in the tanneries have to work in the burning sun under extreme circumstances. This was very special to see. In Fes we also visited another beautiful madrasa, had lovely dinners in various very nice restaurants (accompanied by cats), and wandered around the medina for hours. On one moment we saw an enormous camel head hanging at the butcher… Still hoping that was not one of our camels…