Visiting a whole new world

One of my favorite books growing up was A Little Princess (by Frances Hodgson Burnett). There is a particular passage in the book where the main character, Sarah, says that what she misses most from her hometown in India is the way the air is thick with the smell of spices. Growing up it was hard for me to imagine what exactly that meant, but this past weekend I got to smell this rich aroma with my own nose. I didn't go to India, but my roommate confirmed that the smell that filled the air in Marrakech was very similar to that in India.

Dejemaa el Fna

Morocco was an experience that I can hardly begin to describe. It is by far the most "exotic" of the places I have visited, a place where everything was so foreign to me that I learned something new with literally every step I took. We arrived to a triple-digit weather and made our way as quickly as possible to the main central square (Dejemaa el Fna) where we would then walk to our hostel. The square was bustling with activity - motorcycles, pedestrians, and horse-drawn carts all shared the same path, vendors selling everything from fresh-squeezed orange juice, dried apricots/figs/dates, and all types of food called out to us as we walked past.

We couldn't find out way very well and eventually had to follow an interesting old man who insisted on guiding us to our hostel, and by insist I mean he kept walking in front of us, gesturing ahead and repeating "Waka Waka" (the name of our hostel) over and over. We finally arrived and, after dealing with some logistical issues, walking to the building where we would actually be staying in, and drinking a cup of tea with our hostel staff, we were officially welcomed into Marrakech.

Our first evening we decided to find something to eat and explore the square and the surrounding markets. We all tried our best to avoid the motorcycles and aggressive vendors that swarmed the walkways, at least until we were fed and ready to tackle the markets with the intent to purchase.

I'm going to skip some details of the day and talk about one of my favorite subjects: food. I will soon be adding food pictures to the blog because I personally didn't take any, but my friends with better cameras did :) Our hostel included breakfast with our stay, which meant that each morning we got a beautiful fried egg with various breads, juice, and coffee - a breakfast fit for royalty! We also sampled a traditional Berber breakfast on our day trip which is Moroccan bread dipped in butter, olive oil, or honey (all of which were AMAZING) paired with Moroccan mint tea. The typical lunch and dinner dish in Marrakech is a tagine, which can be various types of meat and/or vegetables steamed in a clay dish and seasoned to perfection (an example pictured below).

Photo credit: Anna

There were also various fruit stands throughout the market, as well as dried fruit stands and food stands serving tagine, couscous, snails, and various other treats in the square. Once in a while you came across stands filled with colorful mounds of spices which created the wonderful aroma in the air. But we struck gold when we discovered fresh fruit smoothies - none of this Jamba Juice stuff, think more along the lines of a licuado - for the equivalent of 50 cents! We didn't have to spend very much money to eat well - and quite frankly, there are few things better than sharing a great meal with friends.

[stay tuned for camels, waterfalls, haggling, henna, and more!]