A Final Adventure, Part 1: Marrakech

Hello again! It's been a while since I've last blogged. Over the past week I've been exploring the world for a final time - first in Marrakech and then in Barcelona. As you can imagine, I have a lot to share. Here is part one, Marrakech, in pictures and captions:

Marrakech is a large (and quite old) North African city in Morocco. It gets up to around 100 degrees Fahrenheit daily, which can definitely be brutal. Luckily, we had sunblock with us. Also, its "dry heat", so the shade is quite nice, around 80 degrees or so. This was probably the most radically "different" place I have visited, as you will soon see...

The architecture in Morocco is really quite interesting. This is the Koutoubia Mosque, which is the most famous Mosque in Marrakech. Unlike the Mosques in Turkey, it is more rigid and square. Unfortunately, as a non-Muslim, I am only allowed to admire it from the outside. Still quite an incredible structure!

There is a great view of Koutoubia Mosque from Jamaa El Fna, which is the main square in Marrackech. I'm trying not to melt in the sun...

This is Jamma El Fna - like most of Marrakech, it is always bustling with foot, car, mo-ped, bike, donkey, and cart traffic. At least out here, there is a little more room to operate than the narrow streets of the city.

One of our first tourist stops was the Bahia Palace, which is quite a stunning palace of beautiful gardens, architecture, and mosaics. Hopefully my pictures do it justice...

The Bahia Palace is a nice place to get out of the sun for a while!

The gardens in the palace were quite nice, especially when you're accustomed to the desert and dirt surrounding most of Marrakech. The trees even had oranges hanging from them!

I liked this fountain a lot. Look at the mosaic patterns on the floor!

Cool fireplace in Bahia Palace.

Most of the walls were like this - intricately detailed and just really nice.

Our next stop was the Badi Palace, which are now in ruin and located right next to the Kasbah of Marrakech. It was a really fun place to explore (check out those huge bird's nests above me!).

Though in ruin, a lot of the vegetation within the palace walls is kept looking quite nice. It's a lively and interesting juxtaposition with the dry and ruined surroundings.

Badi Palace gates.

I couldn't believe the water in some of these pools hadn't evaporated in the heat!

The ruins of Badi were also fairly interactive - meaning Katie and I could and did climb around and explore. It was a lot of fun!

We explored the network of caves ahead, which were possibly meant to be tombs or just an underground area to escape from the sun.

Amongst all the dust and dirt is the beautiful red-petaled tree. Katie really enjoyed it, as you can tell.

I really couldn't take enough pictures of Badi - it's so interesting!

Here are those huge birds and their nests. They like to splash around in the water from time to time as well.

More birds

From the top of Badi, you can actually get a decent view of Marrakech. That is Koutoubia Mosque way in the distance on the left.

This is a Mosque in the Kasbah. There is a large bird perched on top of it if you look closely.

After trekking through the busy streets to two different palaces, Katie and I decided to grab some lunch in Jamaa El Fna at a cafe with a view of the shops below. Good times!

After lunch, we ventured into the Souks, or marketplaces, to look for souvenirs and just take in the haggling-culture. It was a similar concept to the Grand Bazaar in Istanbul and luckily was shielded from the sun.

This is the roof of our hostel, which we had access to each night. Our hostel wasn't the nicest place in the world, but we managed. Katie and I often came up here at night to enjoy a nice breeze and large bottles of water and Fanta.

This is the view from our hostel roof. We were in a more residential area of the city and it was definitely hard to navigate with all the twists, turns, and unmarked roads. I don't know where I would be without GPS on my phone...

The next day, we visted the Majorelle Gardens, an oasis of sorts in the desert that is Marrakech. We spent a lot of time here because it was just so pleasant.

Hard to believe you're in Morocco when you look at this.

There were a lot of interesting plants, particularly Cacti in Majorelle.

I'm smiling like that because the shade is awesome.

This garden is a lot of fun.

Lily pads, turtles, and palm trees....still Morocco?

Look at this guy go!

Nice.

A prickly patch of cacti.

Katie and I also decided to eat lunch at Majorelle, because it was just such a fun place to hang out. We made sure to try the festive fruit juices that were available.

Enjoying some lemonade on a hot day!

Majorelle Gardens was definitely one of my favorite stops in Marrakech.

Later that day, we made our way to Ben Youssef Madrassa, which was an old Islamic college many moons ago. Like most important buildings in Marrakech, the architecture alone was stunning.

Seems like a nice place to go to school!

Each of those windows are dorm rooms.

Small dorms, somewhat uncomfortable dorms for college students...nothing new under the sun, huh?

A study area in one of the rooms. I joked to Katie many times that the arrangement of Ben Youssef, while beautiful, felt like a "Prison of Knowledge" (which would make a great band name...). Anyway, it at least seems like a quiet place to study.

Jamaa El Fna around sunset, when it really comes alive.

Katie and I decided to eat at these hilarious, makeshift restaurants that get built in Jamaa El Fna as soon as the sun goes down and then compete with each other for the business of whoever may be walking by. It was pretty good food for cheap, and also made for a quite a show just watching the restaurant workers try to lure locals and tourists alike into the their restaurant. There were a ton of them. We ate at "No. 117", mainly because the guy who chased us down was hilarious and it had a good view. Also, according to him, "No. 117 would take us to heaven" - luckily the food didn't kill us and we had a good time.

All of the make-shift restaurants at night, filling up Jamaa El Fna.

Koutoubia Mosque looks pretty great at night too.

The Marrakech Airport, from which we departed to Barcelona, and also had a laughable lack of security. Somehow, I felt safer though...

Overall, Marrakech was a fun experience and I'm glad that I went. Now I have been to three continents during my time abroad (briefly in Asia in Istanbul and now Africa in Marrakech). Unfortunately, not everything about Marrakech was easy - even though the difficulties sometimes were the more fun "memories". The hardest thing was navigation, as maps of any kind didn't really match up, street signs didn't really exist, and even posted signs for tourists seemed to be wrong. Moreover, literally - and I mean LITERALLY - every time Katie and stopped for more than 5 seconds, a local would come up to us and offer to help us where we were going for money. I didn't mind that as much as their persistence: even when we said no and walked away, they would sometimes follow us continuing to solicit their services and reminding us how we have no idea of where we are going. We managed fine in the end getting around (iPhone GPS is a godsend), but constantly being harassed got tiresome quick. Other more shady characters would outright lie to us about where we were headed or if what we wanted to do was open or not, which really got on my nerves because they must have assumed I was also an idiot to fall for stuff like that. It never worked and we always were able to do what we wanted, but it really made me mad at and distrustful of many people there, probably unfairly. Other than that, however, Marrakech was a fun time. It was certainly an experience I will never forget and I'm glad to have had. Walking down roads eight feet wide with mopeds, cars, carts, donkeys, and people competing for space was just as fun as it was stressful. I would definitely go back to Marrakech, but maybe with a guided tour or something so I wouldn't have to think as much as I did about the logistics of simply walking around.

Next stop - Barcelona, which may be my favorite city yet (along with Munich). Stay tuned!