What you will never read in a guidebook...
I DID NOT want to go to Morocco! "There's nothing but for dirt, dust, forbidding landscape, dangerous Muslims waiting to screw on you (...) I will never visit this place!" - I said exactly 1 year ago having watched famous "Babel" movie, and believe me or not...I was very serious at that point and spooked out. And very wrong as well as I found out just recently. Thanks God.I'm not going to elaborate on these all marvelous places I saw, naming them which you won't remember unless you go there and feel this country with all your senses. Speaking of...I've never could expect how nice Casablanca can smell! The rest of country, towns...everything is clean, tidy but still unspoilt and not commercialised yet (exception – Marrakesh:/ ) Morocco offers the best of Africa – palmeries, real desert, mountains, ocean – and still maintains its middle eastern character.
There are hundreds of things that amazed me there, like this 2 young Berber boys that acted as our "guides" or rather shadows of them providing us with all interesting info on their villages, culture in a mix-language: Arabic/Berber/French/a bit of English, or another old man from Ait Benhaddu who unselfishly was telling us the history of his village hidden in Atlas and afterwards invited us to his home for traditional meal with all his family. We didn't even dare to take a picture of that special moment... Hmm...delicious tajine – eaten from 1! plate with your hands only. Or this brave Canadian-Hungarian couple of globetrotters who gave us a lift in the middle of nowhere;) 3h of squeezing in the back of their car with our huge backpacks on our knees wasn't the most desired journey you could have but I'm grateful to meet this people and for being inspired to see more....experience more...and don't be afraid until you try it.
Sleeping in a desert was also something outrageous what we didn't include in our plan. Another surprise: instead of going to the desert with the caravan and some other tourists...there are only 3 of us plus 1 local guy who eventually prepares
great dinner in the evening, Berber tea (from a well in the desert! I was to avoid that but didn't work....yikes:/, and set a bonfire...Then we're sleeping under a tent made of camel wool, covered with only 2 sheep-wooled blankets while outside (in a tent all in all) is around 5C...I slept like a baby;) Everything in close neighborhood of Algeria (not recommended to go there though). The trip also built up my negotiating skills;) Dealing with arranging transport, hotels, buying food, souvenirs required patience, wit and cunning. Telling people that you are from Eastern Europe was also very helpful (and my dearest Belgium friend was converted into Romanian or Polish during any negotiations;)
Oh, yes, I brought some pretty snaps from this journey (as attached) but the best ones have been imprinted in my mind, as even the best camera can capture neither the beauty of this land nor its inhabitants' behaviours. How can you show on a picture a fusion of smells of Casablanca with post-colonial buildings breathing history of French domination times?...how to present the taste of fresh, juicy oranges and crunchy bread served by friendly Moroccans? How to catch a sound of electrifying Muslim prayers coming to your room from a mosque at 6 in the morning? Is there a way to express and measure my thankfulness to people that helped us, advised, guided there? But also! To my companions – Laurence & Oana who made this journey unforgettable experience.
If you visit Morocco some day in your life you may get different image of it – yes, you may be disappointed, scared, neutral to what you see, or annoyed by intrusiveness of local salesmen – it's up to your perception that you are developing every minute of your life. I had a luck to learn this through AIESEC and everything that happened as a consequence of it.
Here's some facts of the trip:
*time of overall trip's planning – 2h...2 days before leaving
*number of visited places – 9 through the whole Morocco
*number of attendees: 3...girls which makes everything a bit more difficult (challenging;)
*mean of transport: couches, local buses, minibus, petite & grand taxis (cheap!), camels, lorries, hitch-hiking etc
*accommodation, transport arranged on the spot
opublikowane przez
Ewa Bryła @
22:32
komentarzy: 0
