Morocco! Alesh la

For our last trip, we decided to take on Africa and go to Morocco. Since Spain is an amazing country and LOVES its holidays, we ended class last Thursday and didn't start again until this Thursday (tough life I lead, I know). Anyway, we flew out on Thursday afternoon and came back Tuesday. We went to Marrakech, the Dunes of Erg Chebi, and Fes. I'll give a brief summary of events because otherwise this will be super super long.

Highlights of Marrakech
we decided to do this city on our own, so it was more exploration and less structure. we went to the spice souk (market) which was really cool and then a palace and gardens. In the afternoon when we to the markets and haggled our way to a few good purchases. Of course we got heckled at the whole way because we definitely did NOT blend in. Some of my favorite comments included "Spice Girls" (from 5 different people), "Fish and Chips", the ever-creative "Nice", "Nice eyes", "Hannah Montana" (we had a blondie with us) and "Snow White" among many more. Definitely a different cultural experience.
Besides the shopping and walking and people watching, we also tried some AMAZING food. Lots of steamed veggies and freshly prepared deliciousness with spices! what a NOVEL idea! (spanish cooking has ZERO). Unfortunately I learned that I have quite the weak stomach, but there was lots and lots of bread at every meal which definitely helped

Highlights of THE DESERT
So after some time in Marrakech, we moved on to the second leg of our journey, starting with an 8ish hour car ride to the desert with a complete stranger working for a company that we didn't do very much research on (safe, right?). I wasn't that nervous to start out because Hamad seemed nice, and I took some Dramamine so I pretty much passed out (also we started our drive at 6:30am)
After a few forced stops along the way to take pictures/ let Hamad rest and talk to various friends, a few slow downs to allow Donkeys to cross the road, and a couple mandatory stops by "control" who questioned Hamad a few times (nerves started to set in), we made it to the desert!
We were running late and needed to get on camels immediately so we wouldn't be stuck in the dark, so we had little time to question our decisions. Omar was our appointed tour guide, a Berber man who spoke very little English but seemed nice enough, and after he and Hamad helped us onto our camels, we were off!
The dunes were incredible. I couldn't stop thinking that I was in Aladdin, but seriously, that's exactly what it looked like. I was waiting for that lion face to come up out of the sand...you all know what I'm talking about.
So we walked along up and down the dunes, straight into the desert for 2 hours. A few things to note: Camels are VERY uncomfortable to ride after about 30 minutes. Also, all dunes look the exact same, so we had no idea where we were (bad for trying to escape) but Omar seemed to know everything, even when complete pitch blackness fell over the Desert and he had to whip out a flashlight.
We thought we would never get to the camp sight (/that Omar might turn around with a machete) but luckily we made it!! This is getting too long so I'll get more to the point, sorry. Our abode for the night was a man made long-house type structure from bamboo shafts and cloth stuff. It obvioulsy wasn't heated, so we had some heavy blankets to keep us warm. Tagine that Omar made us for dinner was AMAZING. When we went outside to see the stars, we were all speechless. Well, actually I probably said OH MY GOD like a dumb American 20 times, but whatever. As Allison put it, you could see the milky stuff of the milky way. Better than any planetarium and just completely awe-inspiring. We slept on a couple of matresses (inside) with 3 heavy blankets each and hoped that Omar wouldn't steal our stuff in the middle of the night.
Next morning, we saw the sunrise on the dunes and hopped back on our comfy camels for another 2 hour ride.
Got back to the tour group's main building and had a nice breakfast, washed our faces (feeling pretty dirty by this point), and jumped back in the car for another 8ish hour ride with Hamad
Still a little nervous that we wouldn't make it to Fes, we went along our merry way, listening to Hamad's CD of about 5 different songs (that skipped) on repeat. Welcome to Morocco.
Finally we made it to Fes! We paid Hamad and bid him a tearful farewell

FES
Collectively all of our favorite city, probably because we got a guide to take us around. We saw one of the biggest mosques in Northern Africa (there are 360 in Fes!) which fits 21,000 people, WOW. Since Muslims pray 5 times a day, we got to see lots of mosques as people were just entering to pray. Pretty interesting. We also went to the Tanneries where they transform skins to leather which was really interesting and also smelly. We also went to a Rug store which was SO COOL. ugh i wish i was really rich/had a house to furnish so I could buy rugs because we got amazing deals, since the salesman was obsessed with Marissa marrying his Son, Mohammad... Then we went to a pharmacy which had all of these natural products, and of course hit the markets hard. Everything is so cheap in Morocco (compared to Europe and the US) and haggling is such a part of the culture that it's really fun to shop. It started to get dark, so we went back by our riad (like a bed and breakfast) and had one last tagine and mint tea combo.

Airport
Quick observations about the Morocco airport: security is a JOKE. To get in, you have to go up to these officers by these dinky metal gates outside the airport doors and they just look at your passport and boarding pass. Actually it's not "they", it's one guy, and his other officer friends just stand there and watch. efficient. Then after you get your passport stamped inside, you put your bag thru a scanner without taking out any liquids or anything. Then if you want to buy a bottle of water, it's 20dihram (like 2€), whereas in the cities, it's about 5dihram.
Anyways, despite the lack of security measures in the miniscule airport, we made it to Spain safely! Tired, but home, now it's time to enjoy the city for the very few days that I have left.