Adventure called Morocco, part one

Adventure called Morocco, part one

When you leave Europe for the first time and step on another continent, it is when the adventure starts. You get overwhelmed by a mixture of colours, smells and noise and everything looks at the beginning as it is happening to anybody else but you. Everything looks like a movie scene you are watching from your chair at home. But, it is happening to you and all the new impressions, no matter how much they look incredible and overwhelming, are a part of an overall experience and will change your life forever.
My first encounter with the African continent was in Morocco, that incredible country in the northwest of Africa. As a part of my final Master project, together with six other participants of the group, we made a travel guide of royal cities of Morocco: Marrakesh, Rabat, Fes and Meknes. We divided our group into sub groups and, my colleague Davi and I got Fes and Meknes as our destinations. Those two cities are just incredible and, even though they are situated only 60 km from each other, they represent, in my opinion, two completely different worlds. Fes, which has one million inhabitants, is a perfect representation of Arabic spirit and Meknes, a smaller city with 650,000 inhabitants is a combination of Berber and Arab spirit.
Every day spent in Morocco was a new adventure and we kept a diary during all of our nine days long trip. I hope my diary will explain you well how I felt during my stay and how much I loved the country.

Photo: Jovana Kostić and Davi Carneiro

 

20/o7/2012
Barcelona

The final countdown

“To awaken quite alone in a strange town is one of the pleasantest sensations in the world.” –

Freya Stark

 

“It´s already very late, the darkness in my room reminds me it´s time to go to sleep and leave all the thoughts behind…Little butterflies in my tummy don´t let me stay still even for a moment.  A strange feeling fills my body up with a mixture of  fear and excitement.  Soon, very soon I´ll be there. A new, promising adventure is waiting for Travelpills altogether with the ground that can´t wait to feel our feet,  the air that wants to mess our hair up and the atmosphere that will try to get to every sense of ours. And above all, new people, a brand new culture that wants to present itself in its best light. I really can´t wait to get out of the plane and step on the ground of this land, can´t wait to experience it truly, with all my senses. I close my eyes and see the mixture of colors and lights. Now I´m flying over the royal palaces and  I´m watching the world from above. Everything calls me to get down, to get to know to this amazing country and leave my trace there. I´m so ready for this. Travelpills are ready for a new adventure! Here we go! Fasten your seat belts, please!”

 

21/07/2012

Fes

My first adventures

 

“This morning was more pleasant and certainly less hot comparing to last few days in Barcelona…The clear blue sky was promising. I hear my steps, in a perfect accordance with my suitcase’s wheels going down the street, approaching the metro. The green then the red line, the river of people, locals and tourists brought me to the bus station. My trip began there. Then the bus ride to the airport of Girona, waiting in the queue to do the check in, get my passport stamped and soon I found myself on the plane watching the big African continent from above. The sky was incredibly blue, the ground brownishly yellow and there was some kind of a lake with the most beautiful green color I have ever seen in my life. The landing was a bit rough, screams, going up and down like on a roller coaster but, relieved, we finally touched Moroccan ground. In a very cute small airport I got my passport stamped and officially entered the country. Then I had a chat with a pretty nice airport staff and 10 minutes later I was waiting for a taxi with a Mexican girl and a French guy. Then, suddenly I find myself in a real movie scene, with a taxi driver trying to leave me somewhere very far from my destination, explaining in a very lousy French that my hotel was 10 minutes walking distance from there…Then, like in  another scene, some local guys appeared from nowhere, shouted a little bit at the driver and I found myself one more time in the taxi with a bit angry driver and a local guy who wanted to make sure the driver would get me to the hotel safely.
What a relief to find my friend Davi in the hotel, smiling as always and giving me a friendly hug.

Photo: Jovana Kostić and Davi Carneiro

We decided to have a walk around the neighborhood but after some minutes of walking through narrow streets, pushing through the crowd, consisted of men mostly, we found ourselves a bit lost, surrounded by kids and curious locals. Everybody was following us, trying to talk to us, to find out where we are coming from and, above all, everybody wanted to be our guide. We decided it was time to get back to the hotel. Ramadan is a strange period, people don’t act like they normally do. They don’t eat all day long, they get a bit crazy in the evening. And above all, a lot of them look at tourists as a big euro sign. ..
On a small terrace of our hotel we are drinking some coffee with milk and making our plan for the next day. Suddenly there is a noise. It is a sign that it is dinner time. Everything suddenly becomes different. People seem alive. They are happy. We can hear noise from everywhere. Kids are playing, men are talking, Fez is getting its color. But tonight we are not going to discover it. We’ll do it tomorrow. After all, today was a long day.”

Photo: Jovana Kostić and Davi Carneiro

You can continue reading about my trip to Morocco here.

 

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