Morocco - Days 3 and 4

Marrakech Day 3 - Culinary Action

Morning time meant cooking time, my traveling group and I made our way across town by taxi to the hotel "La Maison Arabe" to partake in a Moroccan cooking class.

It is worth mentioning the somewhat flexible pricing structures of Moroccan Taxis and merchandise in general. A group of 9 of us split into 3 taxis on the way to the class and bargained for our fares individually. Upon arriving my taxi had paid 40 dirham ( ~5$) for the three of us to make it across town (seems reasonable to me!). Our friends who arrived after us revealed that they had only to pay 20 dirham much to our embarrassment. It was only when third taxi arrived a few seconds later and shared that they had only paid 5 dh. (~63 cents) that we realized how badly we performed. This was a lesson well learned for me in terms of bargaining, a skill necessary in every facet of commerce in Morocco.

When we made it to our class we got to work on learning how to make Chicken Pastilla; an awesome half dinner, half dessert dish that is big enough to replace both.  It consists of:

Chicken and scrambled eggs in delicious stuff, covered with almonds tossed in butter and brown sugar, wrapped in Filo dough (crunch wrap supreme style), fried in oil and dusted with powdered sugar, cinnamon and almonds. Also of note, I now know how to make a rose out of a tomato skin which will most definitely come in handy some day.

After class, which turned our creations into a fantastic lunch and made our way back to the hostel before visiting Marrakech's massive outdoor market in the heart of the city. They sell everything a tourist could want in morocco: spices, soaps, oil, slippers, garments,  instruments, tagines, tea sets and lamps, wood work, scarfs, carpets and all types of street food. I tried my hand at bargaining to various degrees of success then had a few glasses of freshly squeezed orange juice before heading to the train station to catch the evening train to Casablanca. Fun Fact: the McDonalds in the station sold both a "Royale with Cheese" for all you Pulp Fiction fans and a Toblerone Mcflurry, the latter of which I purchased while waiting for our train to arrive.

Day 4 - Casablanca

I spent the first part of my last in Morocco exploring the fisheries of Casablanca as a field extension of my Marine Biology class. Afterwards I broke off and explored Casablanca with a few friends. I hopped a taxi to the Hassan II Mosque -the second largest in the world I believe- had a quick meal at the underwhelming Rick's Café of silver screen fame then walked back to the main port area through some back roads where we ran into an actual Moroccan market. No more souvenirs, this  had fresh fruits and vegetables abounding, butcher shops, kids playing soccer and no other tourists in sight. It was a brief but nice glimpse behind the curtain and something I plan on seeking out in other countries.  After we made it through the market we arrived our ship. I boarded the MV Explorer at 4pm and had made it through the first port on my Itinerary intact.

Thoughts:

Morocco in my opinion was the perfect choice for the first port of my itinerary,  it was definitely out of my realm of normal travel and as a result provided me with significant challenges. Bartering is something I had never dealt with previously and as my taxi example illustrates, I wasn't perfect. Though as time went on I got better (talking down an item from 200 to 25 dh on one occasion!) and it helped to prep me for the rest of the itinerary going forward.

There were many negative things about the country as well, I felt like a walking dollar sign in many areas, especially those frequented by tourists. There was a noticeable discrepancy in the treatment of the male and female students traveling with me. And ultimately it proved to be a little bit dangerous, with a small number of students who were intimidated, robbed or even mugged while we were in port (though admittedly some of those were walking around with their cameras around their wrists or money belts hanging outside of their shirts)

For me personally, Morocco was an overwhelmingly positive experience. I will always remember my trek under the stars,  the satisfaction of bargaining successfully, trying my hand at Moroccan cuisine and the incredible time I had just talking with a  car full of Moroccans on the train ride back to Casablanca. Its incredible to think that there are still many more countries to go.