Don Felipe's Travels: Fuheb in Marrakesh

This past weekend I visited Marrakesh, Morocco. It was a relatively short trip but quite exhausting. I traveled with one of my friends, Lauren, and we saw basically everything Marrakesh had to offer. We arrived Thursday night and took a cab from the airport to the hotel. Our first taste of Moroccan culture was when the taxi driver asked me how much I Lauren cost. Still not sure if he was serious but Lauren was angry because I said I would sell her to him for $500 haha. Our hotel was a 2 minute walk from the main plaza(Plaza Jemaa El Fna) and across the street from one of the largest mosques in Marrakesh(La Koutoubia). Our room was small but it had air conditioning that saved us each night.

We definitely got a full dose of Moroccan culture our first day. After our breakfast, which was served on the hotel's terrace, which looked over at the mosque across the street, we headed out into the “souks”. These are the stereotypical Moroccan vendors that are in a maze of alleys. We spent 4 hours lost in this area getting harassed by every vendor we walked past. This got fairly annoying after a while and by the end of those 4 hours I just wanted some peace and quiet. We took a quick break at the hotel and then proceeded to see every possible sight in Marrakesh. We saw tons of palaces and mosques, each quite distinct. There are a bunch of pictures of each place that I’ve put at the end of the post. This tour of Marrakesh took another couple hours but we were able to see the Royal Palace, Palace Badi, Palaca Bahia, Madersa Ben Yousseff, and the Museum of Marrakesh. By the end of that I was tired, dusty, and in need of a good shower.

So after a shower and some time chilling out in our room with the AC on max we headed back out to the main plaza for dinner. By day the main plaza is packed with women doing henna, snake charmers, fruit stands, and all sorts of crazy people trying to earn some money, but by night the whole plaza transformers into street vendors selling typical Moroccan cuisine. We were able to enjoy chicken tajine, (real) kebap, and Moroccan salad(just cut up tomatoes but still delicious) all for really cheap.

Our next morning was another early morning but with camels on our mind we were up and out really quick. The hotel was nice enough to hold our bags while we took our camel tour. The tour took place 30 minutes outside of Marrakesh in an area called the Palmary, which is basically dry, sandy ground with palm trees all over the place. I received the Moroccan name "Fuheb" from our guide, thus becoming a true Moroccan and able to ride camels. Not quite the desert and dunes we were expecting but still a really cool place to see. Following the tour we had a couple hours to kill before getting on the plane so we hung out at a park and grabbed some lunch on the plaza.

So after about 42 hours in Marrakesh I was ready to go home to the peacefulness of Valencia, my home away from home.

P.S. I will be on my eurotrip of Dusseldorf, Amsterdam, London, and Dublin for the next 11 days. So expect a large post in the beginning of May.