My trip to Marrakech, Morocco, was the first time I had ever been to Africa. It was vastly different from anywhere I have ever traveled before. I went with my brother and seven other ISA students I have become friends with in Barcelona. We were there for three nights, and it was definitely one of the more memorable trips of my life. We booked an excursion through our hotel that took us to the edge of the Sahara Desert, where we rode camels and camped overnight.
On our drive to the desert, we stopped in Aït Benhaddou, which is a historical fortified village where they filmed Gladiator, Indiana Jones, and dozens of other movies and television shows. When we got to the desert after driving all day, our guides led us on a 1.5-hour camel ride into the desert. The landscape was absolutely gorgeous, especially at sunrise and sunset. I never realized how mountainous Morocco was until this trip. I was pleasantly surprised by how nice our camp was. There were several tents with beds, a tent with chairs and tables for meals, and we even had a bathroom with running water hooked up to a large water tank.
Our guides were incredibly friendly and fun. They made us tea, cooked dinner, and served us breakfast the next morning. Every single meal I had in Morocco was delicious and fresh. They are known for their tajine, which can be found at any restaurant. Tajine is a type of stew made with meat, vegetables, spices, and sometimes eggs.
That night, we sat around the fire, singing and dancing. Our tour guides played the bongo drums for us and even taught us how to play them (which is harder than it looks if you want it to actually sound good). At night, we dragged all the blankets from our tents out onto the sand and slept under the stars. I had truly never seen a night sky like that before, and I might never again—it was incredible. I had no idea you could even see so many stars at once.
My favorite memory from this trip was simply sitting on top of a sand dune with my friends and watching the sun go down. Spending the night so isolated in the middle of nowhere was such a surreal feeling.
After we got back into town, we spent a lot of time walking through the markets in Marrakech. The euro and dollar stretch far in Morocco, so I was able to buy several cool souvenirs. Everything—and I mean everything—in the market was negotiable, which made bargaining with shop owners a fun experience.
One thing I noticed about Morocco is that, for the most part, they love tourists. This was a big difference coming from Barcelona, where the opposite is true. Another interesting thing about the people there was that many spoke three to five languages. We literally did not encounter a single person who did not speak English. I found this very impressive because I am trying to learn Spanish at the moment, and just that is quite tough.
One of our tour guides said he had only been to three cities in his life, all in Morocco, and this is more than most people he knows. That really put into perspective for me how lucky I am to be able to spend the summer traveling to various countries. Morocco was definitely one of the best weekend trips I have been on during my time studying abroad. I certainly will remember that weekend for a lifetime.
