The final installment of my Moroccan Trip! Today is all about my “take aways.” (If you are new to all the Moroccan news, you might want to start with Part One,Part Two and Part Three.) 🙂
I took a lot away from this eye-opening trip and we are referring to it as our “epic” adventure! And…if you want some fabulous travel tips I shared yesterday over at ABFOL. Let’s just say I had some good first hand experience to talk about!
Take Away #1 – God’s beauty is everywhere.
(Gibraltar)
(The Blue City)
(The Sahara Desert)
Take Away #2 – Things are not always as they appear.
We stayed in very nice Moroccan hotels (also known as Riads), but their exteriors were usually nothing like their interirors. It was the perfect example of “don’t judge a book by it’s cover.” The tunnel above led us to one of our hotels. (NOT your typical entrance to a hotel.)
But once we entered the hotel it was a completely different feeling.
Each of our hotels had beautiful courtyards with fountains, greenery and seating.
Keeping an open mind is always a good thing.
Take Away #3 – My cat is fat.
This is NOT my cat. This is a cat from Morocco. We saw cats everywhere. Cats that were sleeping, playing and even dumpster diving. It broke our hearts to see the number of them running free with very little attention, specifically to their basic needs. (If you don’t care for cats, you can just move on at this point. )
Culturally cats are not generally treated as pets, and I get it. However, my takeaway is that my cat needs to go on a diet. Which is exactly what happened when we got home. I’m sorry, I’m not sorry, Fiona. (Fiona is our cat.)
Take Away #4 – We’re all just moving from here to there.
Regardless of where you live in the world, we’re all just moving from point A to point B. Whether by car, train, bus, bike or donkey, we’re just moving. Life is movement. Movement is also cooking, laundry, shopping, cleaning….life is all about the daily “to do” – no matter where you are in the world!
And sometimes you DO have to stop.
Take Away #5 – Food helps to connect people.
Each hotel would welcome us into their courtyard or onto their terrace and offer us some yummy tea and some sort of pastry. It was their sign of hospitality.
This is a picture of a public bakery. Boys will go from homes to the bakery carrying dough to be baked and then return the fresh-baked bread back to their owner.
What a great idea!
I will also never forget the number of times I would look out as we drove through towns and I would see groups of men sitting outside, sipping their tea.
We really enjoyed eating the food. Their main specialties are tangine usually with chicken or seafood and then a side of couscous. And every meal was served with homemade bread. Tangine is made in special pots like the bright blue one below. (These tangine pots are designed more as condiment dishes, but they make larger size tangine pots that are used to cook the meat in.)
Take Away #6 – Grocery Shopping is not for the weak at heart.
Well…I would love to share some pictures here, but that just wouldn’t be very nice. We’ve already had some big eye openers just being in Europe, but Moroccan grocery shopping was QUITE different. I’ll say this, I had never before seen someone use their foot to hold a piece of meat while they were doing whatever butchers “do” to a slab of meat. Oh my. Not to mention the flies, the hanging meat (everywhere) and animal heads.
On one side it is good to be more in touch with where our food comes from, on the flip side, it might just be a little too close at times!
Take Away #7 – Make friends wherever you go.
One of my highlights was chatting with the local people. I really enjoyed asking them questions. Finding out how many languages they spoke. Learning their stories and gleaning more about the Moroccan way of life.
A personal struggle I had on this particular trip was being able to stay in such nice hotels despite the poor conditions that we would see day-to-day. My heart ached for the people we would see working so hard, just to daily live. We tried to show love and compassion everywhere we went and to show much appreciation for the service we were given.
At one point we hopped out of our van at our hotel and some young boys came rushing up to try to sell us things they had made. One of our friends pulled out pencils and the boys clamored to get them from him. Pencils!
A painful reminder to not take what we have for granted.
Take Away #8 – Try new things.
My friend and I opted to got to a Hammam – which is a traditional bath house.
The hammam is a public steam bath, very popular in North Africa, particularly Morocco and Tunisia. Hammams used to be the only place people could come to bathe and scrub, since a private bathroom in a house or apartment was a luxury few could afford. There are fewer hammams now since modern plumbing means people can bathe in their own homes. But taking a public bath is still very much part of the culture in Tunisia and Morocco. Getting a good scrub at a local hammam is a wonderful, eye-opening cultural experience. It offers women travelers in particular a good chance to meet and chat with local women.
What.an.experience.
I have never been that clean in my life. When I had a bucket of warm water dumped on my head in the first five minutes – without any warning – I knew that we were in for an experience. I will never forget how much my friend and I laughed continually throughout the process. Our sweet girl helping us probably didn’t know what our problem was.
I talked to some of the locals and many of them said that they frequent a bath house weekly. I should note that they are set up as women only and men only. 🙂
Other things I will never forget.
*Having a guide is worth every penny.
*Freedom is a gift.
*A camel ride is not much different from a riding a horse, minus when they go to stand or sit. (They act like a four-year old child who doesn’t want to stand up and walk – *insert, loud protest – or the most annoying noise ever.)
*Bartering is not for the weak.
*Understanding money conversion and tip standards are always helpful when traveling.
*Vacationing with others can help keep people on their better behavior, children and adults alike.
*Having a roll of toilet paper can be your best travel accessory.
*Patience when traveling makes traveling possible.
Hoping you have a FABULOUS weekend!!!
