There is no such thing as the Marrakech Express

Four days ago we woke up in Africa. Casablanca, Morocco, to be exact.

One of the first Semester at Sea official trips we signed up for was a four day trip to the Berber Villages of the Atlas Mountains. So as soon as the ship cleared, 12 of us (7 faculty/staff, 5 students) met our guide and headed to the Casablanca train station ready to hike, sleep in tiny villages, and brave squat toilets.

The little we saw of Casablanca was overwhelming, industrial, and gritty, so we weren't too sad to head out of town. Unfortunately, as the title of this post says, there is no Marrakech Express. In fact, it took us 6 hours to make the normally 3.5 hour trip as the train frequently stopped for a long time and for no particular reason. Apparently in Morocco there aren't really arrival times for trains. As a result we had to quickly throw our suitcases down at our hotel in Marrakech and run off to the medina (old town) for a quick shopping trip before our scheduled dinner.

The main souk (market) was quite the experience. Vendors selling dried fruit and nuts, fresh squeezed orange juice, and other food called out to us - "Shakira!" "Lady Gaga" "My flower!" and sang rhymes about their stall numbers. There was a snake charmer with a viper and reportedly monkeys, although we didn't see them. Further in were what seemed like miles and miles of stalls full of scarves, rugs, tea sets, souvenirs, clothes, and anything else you can imagine. Haggling is part of the game, and Jason and I worked out a routine where I negotiated a price, then called my husband over to get money. He acted upset with the price I got and tried to get a better one. I'm sure we still paid more than any Moroccan would, but I think we did okay.

First Moroccan mint tea. We drank a lot of this and it was so good!

Marrakech medina

Fresh squeezed OJ

Sunset over the souk

We go nuts!

Olives and other jarred things

For dinner we headed to a restaurant that was geared towards tourists, but was delicious nonetheless. The best part was the music and dancing. The musicians were very good, but the first dancers were THE most apathetic, unenthusiastic dancers we have ever seen. No smiles, eye rolls, hardly any movement. It was amazing how bad they were. The rest of the trip we got a huge kick out of imitating them.

Beautiful tile work

Yes, she balanced a plate of candles on her head while she danced. And looked incredibly uncomfortable the whole time.

We couldn't care less if we tried.

 Luckily things picked up a bit after they finished. One group got everyone including Jason on the dance floor.

Any color-coordination with the apathetic dancers was purely accidental.

 And then we had an enthusiastic belly dancer.

A bit peppier

Exhausted, we headed back to the hotel to enjoy our last moments with Western toilets and real beds before heading off into the mountains armed with our own feet, a few donkeys, and a lot of Pepto-Bismol.