I had thought spending a week in Ireland would be enough of an adventure for me. But for Thanksgiving weekend, I realized I needed to celebrate the holiday by taking my travels to the next extreme: Morocco! The country seemed like an incredible place to visit, but I had another motive as well. I’ve traveled around the world with my family and had visited every continent except Africa. Morocco is in Africa and is just a quick flight away from Europe. How convenient! A week and a half before Thanksgiving weekend, I booked my trip.
Now that winter has arrived in Copenhagen, I was looking forward to scenery like this.
Last Wednesday night, I flew to Milan, Italy to spend the night in a hotel. The next morning I would meet my friends Kira and Kara who are studying in Torino, Italy, at the Milan airport to fly to Marrakech, Morocco. Conveniently, I hadn’t been to Italy yet this semester- add another country to my list! After getting a good night’s sleep, I arrived at the airport with plenty of time to catch my flight and leisurely went through security. I met my friends at the gate right before boarding time, and we chatted as we waited to hand the airline attendant our boarding passes. When it was my turn, she took my pass that I had printed out in advance, scanned it, and looked back at me. “This ticket is for yesterday.”
Was I not going to be able to see the Sahara?
Confused, I thought I might have given her my boarding pass for Copenhagen to Milan by mistake and looked at the sheet of paper. It definitely said Milan to Marrakech, and it definitely said Wednesday- not Thursday. I was instantly horrified. I had been looking forward to this trip all week, and it was about to be ruined because I had made a huge mistake and purchased a ticket for the day before. I told Kira and Kara to get on the plane and that I’d figure something out. I sprinted with my luggage back to the ticket counter to see if there was any way I could get on the flight I was supposed to be on, but the man said the gate was closed and that he couldn’t sell me a ticket, even though the flight hadn’t left yet. I immediately burst into tears. The ticket man seemed pretty freaked out by this and started fiddling around on his computer. He found me a flight to Morocco that left Milan at 4:30pm that afternoon and told me to go to the other terminal to get on it. When I got to the other terminal, I spent 15 minutes asking around and trying to find the Royal Air Maroc check in desk before someone finally told me that it wouldn’t open until three hours before the flight’s take off time. I went to that terminal’s ticket counter, explained my situation, and asked if there were any earlier flights. There was one, but it was full, so the 4:30 flight was my only option. And it was going to cost me $400. I started sobbing again as I cursed myself for being SO DUMB not to pay more attention when I bought the original ticket. I tried to put some of the blame on airport security, who let me through with a boarding pass for the wrong day, but I knew it was my fault for not examining my own ticket at any point. The woman at the ticket counter also looked freaked out and asked if I wanted to think about it, but I had no choice. I wanted to go to Morocco more than anything, and this was the only way to do it. I bought my ticket and spent the rest of the day sitting at an isolated table by a window. I read books on my Kindle and called my friend Emily and my mom to cry to them some more.
Kira and Kara were already in Morocco without me!
Finally, I checked in for my flight. I would have to fly from Milan to Casablanca to Marrakech, arriving in Marrakech at 10pm that night. While my bag was carry on size, it was 3kg heavier than the maximum weight and I was forced to check it. That nearly set me off crying again as I became convinced that I would end up in Marrakech without any luggage. I tried to think positively- buying a ticket for the wrong day was the worst possible thing I could have done, so the rest of my trip had to go smoothly, right?
Spoiler alert: In case you haven’t figured it out already, I made it to Morocco and took my “all seven continents” picture.
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Well, mostly right. My layover in Casablanca was smooth and quick, and both my luggage and I made it to Marrakech. I had been calling Kira all day to figure out what to do, and luckily we had come up with a plan that seemed like it would work. Originally, a guide was supposed to pick the three of us up from the Marrakech airport, show us around the city, and then drive us out to a town halfway between Marrakech and the Sahara Desert. Now, Kira and Kara saw Marrakech as I sat in the airport, then they went with Yousef, our guide, to a mountain town closer than the one we were supposed to stay in. I was picked up at the airport by Yousef’s cousin, who was also named Yousef, and taken to the Marrakech bus station. Other Yousef sat with me for an hour and a half as we waited for the midnight bus that would drop me off in the town where my friends and guide were. I hadn’t been too enthused about taking a bus in Morocco by myself, but both Yousefs had assured me that it was completely safe. The bus turned out to be a coach bus and I was able to get two seats to myself so I could lie down and try to sleep. Five hours later, I was dropped off in Ouarzazate, a town in the mountains. I had to wait at the bus stop for about seven minutes alone, which was a little scary, but Yousef soon picked me up and took me to the hotel where Kira and Kara were sleeping. I took a shower and tried and failed to sleep for another hour before my friends woke me up. Finally, my REAL trip to Morocco could begin.
Yousef, Kira, Kara and I in front of our first hotel. I am barely awake.
The rest of my trip was amazing. Landing in Casablanca alone and realizing I was in Africa and on my seventh continent was anti-climatic, so I re-celebrated the next day with Kira and Kara. We had breakfast at our hotel and piled into Yousef’s SUV to begin our six hour drive out to the desert. I stared out the window the entire time. Morocco is absolutely stunning because all of the landscapes are so diverse. I was looking at flat, desert-like land with a background of snow-capped mountains and the occasional patch of lush green space with palm trees. It was pretty unreal.
Plus there’s really old buildings like this kasbah.
The view from out the car window.
We stopped for lunch to have chicken tagine, a traditional Moroccan dish, then continued on. When we were almost at the desert, Yousef announced we were going off-roading. And off-road we did. I gripped the handle above my head as the car bounced around in all directions. We stopped to take pictures in the middle of the stretch of land we were driving through, then Kara asked if we could ride on the top of the car for a few minutes for fun. It sounded like a great idea, so we all climbed up onto the grill on the roof of the car and Yousef started driving. Fast. Soon, we were back on the highway and zooming past other cars. We stayed on the roof until we reached the hotel that we would leave our luggage in overnight. By the time we climbed down, all of our hair was completely disheveled, Kara’s eyes were tearing because she had taken most of the wind, and my teeth were covered with blood because my lip was dry and had started bleeding. We were a pretty scary group.
The chicken tagine with lemon I ate for lunch.
We stopped holding on long enough to take a picture from the top of the car.
We left most of our luggage in a room and shoved the warmest clothing we had into Kara’s bag. That night we would be sleeping in a Berber tent in the middle of the desert, an area only accessible by camel. We all got turbans to use to cover our faces with, had some tea, and climbed onto our camels. I rode a camel for about 15 minutes when I went to Israel, but this time I was on my camel, Camelo Anthony, for over an hour. While I was in a bit of pain once we reached the camp and I climbed down, the experience was worth it. The Sahara is one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever seen. We trekked through huge reddish-brown sand dunes that stretched on and on. I couldn’t believe the scenery and colors I was seeing were real and were not coming from a movie.
Kira, Kara and I on our camels!
Our camel caravan.
The landscape was stunning.
By the time we reached the camp, the sun was setting. We had just enough light left to grab some snowboards to go sand boarding! I’m a skier and tried snowboarding for a week and absolutely hated it, but sand boarding was actually really fun. I was especially happy that I didn’t fall and smack my face into the sand. After sand boarding we hung out in the dining tent with the three other people that we had traveled to the camp with until dinner. We had delicious bread and chicken tagine again, and I was ready for bed by the end of the meal. I stayed awake long enough to hear our guides play some Berber music, but by 9:30 p.m. my eyes were pretty much closed.
Showing off my sand boarding skills.
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The three of us were excited to go to bed early, but all of us were woken up in the middle of the night thanks to the holes in our tent. It was raining on and off all night, and the blanket that served as the roof of the tent had holes in it that were letting water in. Instead of sacrificing a few seconds of sleep to move my belongings under my blanket with me, all I did was pull my hood over my face and try to fall back asleep. I paid for that the next morning, when my shirt, sweater, turban, and jacket were all wet. I had to put them on anyway since it was 6:30 a.m. and still cold outside. We had woken up to see the desert sunrise, and by the time the sun rose about 20 minutes later, our camels were packed up and ready to take us back to the hotel. The ride back was especially painful because my body was still sore from the day before, but I managed to distract myself enough to make it back to the hotel before dismounting from my camel.
Sunrise in the desert.
We took quick showers, mostly to try to get our hair under control, and ate breakfast before leaving the hotel at 9:45 a.m. We had a 10 hour drive ahead of us to get back to Marrakech. The rest of the day was spent in transit, with a few stops for food and henna. We had lunch at a hotel and sat outside by the pool so the sun could finally warm us up for good. I had made sure to bring plenty of sunscreen to Morocco, but sadly I wound up barely using it because I was always wearing a sweatshirt.
Our henna!
We arrived in Marrakech at 8 p.m. that night, and Yousef brought us to our hotel right by the main marketplace. We set our bags down and had tea before setting out to see some of the city. Since I had missed a day of sightseeing on Thursday, I was worried I wouldn’t have enough time in Marrakech. It turned out that there wasn’t very much to do in the city as far as we could tell. We walked around the market for a while and bought some freshly squeezed juice and $3.50 knockoff Ray-Ban sunglasses, but constantly getting harassed by men got old after a while. We walked right outside the souk over to the main mosque, the highest point in Marrakech. Then we got ice cream from down the street and wandered back to the hotel. Yousef was picking us up at 8 a.m. the next morning so we could do a little more sightseeing before my flight home, so we didn’t mind having an early night.
The mosque at night.
It was great to get a full night’s sleep, and we were all out the door on time the next morning. We walked around the Majorelle Garden, a beautiful property with exotic plants and a memorial to Yves Saint Laurent, and the Bahia Palace. We even had time to go back to the marketplace and get some more freshly squeezed juice!
Kira and I in the garden.
The three of us at the Bahia Palace.
I had been worried I wouldn’t get to see any of the animals the souk is known for since it was too cold for them to be out the night before or early that morning, but when we went back for the last time they were all out! We saw snakes swaying to live music, but we could only take a picture from far away because if you got too close their handlers would make you pay. We did agree to pay to get pictures with monkeys. I was holding two in my arms when all of a sudden one was on top of my head! It was a little surprising but made for a great photo.
It wasn’t super comfortable to be used by the monkey as a jungle gym.
I couldn’t believe how much we got done in just two hours. At 10 a.m., I said goodbye to Kira and Kara and drove with Yousef to the airport. I had double checked my flights with the woman at the Milan ticket counter on Thursday so there wouldn’t be any surprises. Thankfully, everything worked out, and I arrived in Copenhagen at 8 p.m. Sunday night as scheduled.
I was sad that I couldn’t bring my monkey friends with me back to Copenhagen.
Morocco was beautiful, nerve-wracking, exhausting, stupefying and overwhelming. I was glad to have a guide with us the entire time. Going out to the desert was completely worth it, for my trip would not have been as great without that experience. I’ve traveled to all of the continents now, but there are still so many cities and countries that I want to see! Next on my list is Berlin, where I’ll be this weekend! I do need to get work done at some point, but who can concentrate on exams and papers when all of Europe is just a flight, train, or bus ride away?