Marrakesh - Morocco

Pretty CHUNKY post today - I was going to do it in two parts but I just thought it would be easier grouping all the pictures in one. On Sunday afternoon I got back from spending a few days in Marrakesh, Morocco and I can honestly say it was one of the best places I've ever been to. You could see from the plane above Morocco already how much of a completely different land and culture it was going to be - I've never been anywhere like it before so it was such an experience.

I had to get up at like 3.30am to arrive there which was fun times. I ate an entire full English breakfast at the airport at like 5am and I basically just ate LOADS the entire week and I'm not really sure why it's actually so bad. When we arrived, we travelled in some dodgy taxi with a dodgy man and no seatbelts to our hotel, seeing loads of stray animals milling about on the weird rocky terrain - so much of the land there seemed to be disused barren wasteland but it looked cool SO IT WAS FINE. 

The hotel we stayed in was so lovely and it was all-inclusive which is probably the reason I ate so much actually. We spent the first few days lazing around by the pool which was the most relaxing thing ever omg and such a good chance to destress from school and work and #whatnot. I did get slightly cremated by the sun though but it will probably be the last warm sunshine I see for another 30 billion months so it was acceptable. This first batch of pictures are random ones I took in the hotel resort - not showing a lot of true Moroccan culture but I thought some of them came out quite well. And also yes, there were lots of feral cats which I quite frankly had to photograph .

The header photo of this post, along with this following batch were taken at the market in central Marrakesh. THIS WAS ACTUALLY ONE OF THE BEST DAYS OF MY LIFE. We had a guide which was totally necessary as otherwise we'd have got really lost and probably kidnapped by the dodgy salesmen (I'll get onto that in a minute). The guide firstly took us along all these little alleys full of workshops where craftsmen fashioned metal ornaments, lanterns, mirrors and traditional furniture. There were no tourists in this part at all and it was all really authentic and amazing to watch. Then we went on to the main open market where they were loads of stalls, and also men with monkeys and snakes that just come around and literally put the animals on you and get you to give them money to take a picture of it. There were actual cobras on the ground. Slightly unnerving. But we did get pictures with monkeys in dresses and nappies because monkeys in dresses and nappies. 

There was a metal district with all the craftsmen, then a spice area where we were led into this shop where a man made us stay for like 30 mins whilst he made us smell all these exotic spices and teas.

Dodgy salesmen: basically when the Arab workers notice sunburnt foreign white girls they try and lure you into their shops as if we don't understand what they're doing - at first it was weird but in the end I just could not stop laughing about it. They used some weeeeeeird phrases / chat up lines to try and get us to come over. Personal favourites:

"I like your milky skin"

"Skinny prices for skinny girls"

"I'm Chris Brown" (?)

"Nice chick nice chick very nice duck"

I'll give you a chance to reflect on those romantic, poetic quotations.

the monkey is eating my actual hair

If you've actually read the post this far down I am surprised and also grateful. You are a nice chick nice chick very nice duck, as it were. I mostly put it up just so I can look back on it personally but let me know if you liked the pictures in the comments! I'd recommend a holiday there to anyone purely because of the amazing difference in culture. French is the main language spoken there which was great, but it was fascinating seeing and hearing Arabic everywhere too. I will have to return one day!

Eloïse 

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