My first time travelling as a backpacker through Morocco (and making friends!)

Morocco is overwhelming. 

When I got off the ferry from Tarifa in Spain to Tangier I entered a different world. 

Morocco!

I am now in a world where women and men wear shawls and traditional clothing. A world with white houses, the beach, mosques, beautiful old towers, stone walls, little shops and markets with interesting food, a labyrinth of cobblestone alleys and many people talking to me. 

Mostly welcoming people, who want to invite me to their restaurants or to give me their phone numbers in case I needed help. There are lots of cafes, bakeries, shops, hotels accompanied by a hectic chaos with taxis and their drivers.

A young man, maybe 17 shows me the way to the hostel. I was not sure if he expects money in exchange or if he is simply friendly. Tired of my long way by bus and ferry after a night without sleep, I was just thankful that the boy helped me through the confusing little streets and corners of the foreign country.

This is the view from the roof terrasse in my Hostel

After a shower and a nap in my hostel I felt hungry. 

As I knew that the Medina, the old city center with the main market, is not far away I took a map and left the hostel again to buy something to eat. 

The moment I went through the door and turned at the first corner, I was immediately lost again! 

It's so confusing because of so many dead ends and corners that even my map was of no help.

I had to ask many people to find my way to the ATM to withdraw money, then to the market and back to the hostel, with a bag full of delicious and cheap pancake breads with cheese and jam.

Everyone was friendly and willing to help me. Almost too friendly, to be honest. Some were really persistent which was just a little bit too much! It seemed that people had been waiting for me to have a confused look on my map just so that they can come up to me and start a conversation.
The same evening back in the hostel I met Scott from England and Jack from Australia. They seem laid-back and friendly. Not insistent at all. I overheard them talk about going to the Medina at night. As I preferred not to go out alone again, I asked them if I can join them. This moment marks the beginning of two weeks travelling through Morocco with Scott and Jack!

We spend the night on Tangiers markets and by the beach with some other travelers from the hostel.

The next day, Gabi from Lithuania played tour guide for us and showed us around the city and its most interesting and beautiful spots.

We had typical Moroccan tea (green tea with fresh mint and lots of sugar) in the famous Café Baba and typical Moroccan vegetable soup in Café Hafa, the oldest café in Tangier. Everything was so new and interesting! The ocean view was stunning and we felt like kings, enjoying life. To our standards, everything is super cheap! And the weather is extremely lovely!

In the evening, we tried Tajine for the first time, a Moroccan dish which is cooked in a clay pot that looks like a hat, traditionally steamed on an open fire like a barbecue.

The next day we left Tangier and headed to Chefchauen.  

The cheap public travel bus took us, sitting between locals, on a hot!!!!!, adventurous four hour bus drive through an interesting country with stunning mountains!

Free Sauna!!! ;)

The people of Chefchauen seemed to be less obtrusive and more relaxed than the people on the markets in Tangier. Maybe because the people are less poor. We were able to have a look around and discover the Medina without being disturbed or bothered. The city is very beautiful and surrounded by nice mountains..

This mosque helped us many times to find our way back to our place!

It's famous for its blue streets and houses in the city center. Almost every house in the Medina is painted either blue or purple. With all the other colors of colorful carpets, shawls, scarfs, clothes, jewelry, bags and sandals, spices and food the streets look absolutely magical. Like in a fairy tale.

Chefchauen by night. By the way, it's the capital of hash ;-)

Couscous with vegetables and meat is very typical for Morocco as well

We tried traditional clothes

We had a lot of fun and a really good time together, discovering the city and the culture in the warm late summer nights. It was one of the best places in Morocco for me!

One day we went to Akchor, a village in the mountains close to Chefchauen, to go on a day hike. It was a very hot day and we hiked up to the waterfall between beautiful mountains on a busy footpath. A group of Moroccan people walked for a while in front of us, loudly singing traditional Moroccan songs and playing the drums. They were funny!

On the way you could buy drinks and food everywhere. It was a beautiful walk!

3 hours later we arrived at the waterfall and took a refreshing bath. To be honest it was icy freezing cold!!!

Some people jumped from an approximately five or six meters high rock into the water. When one of the crazy guys was preparing to jump in the low water with his head first everyone around the waterfall watched him anxiously. All of a sudden someone began to clap and to cheer on him and then everyone, including me, got involved. He had no choice but to go through it and jump. And he did so. I felt really relieved when he turned up on the surface of the water again and he got loud applause from everyone around. :)

After three days in Chefchauen we moved on to Fes, which is one of the biggest cites in Morocco. 

Fes from our roof top terrasse

The bigger the Medina of Moroccan cites, the bigger the variety of items they sell on the markets!

During my time in Morocco I saw the most delicious and interesting food you can imagine!

Apart from olives, fruits and veggies you find irresistible sweets, different kinds of bread and pancakes, meat, beans and couscous dishes, juices and smoothies and much more. Jack and I were brave enough to try the cooked snails. They are served hot and in a little bowl with a toothpick. We had to poke the snail's body out of its shell. I counted down from three and then we ate it. So exciting!!! The consistency feels like meat and the taste is difficult to describe. As the smell. Somehow meaty. So exciting!

The bigger the city, the louder are the prayer chants, which are very characteristic for this Muslim country. Five times a day, the whole city starts chanting and humming which is really impressive!

However, the most impressive to me in this country is the simplicity! There are many poor people compared to Germany and Europe. For me it felt like time travelling to the middle age or something similar. It still feels unreal to walk through the streets in this foreign country and I often laugh about funny little incidents that would never happen in Europe!

To give some examples: Between cars and scooters you can always see horses and donkeys on the roads, transporting goods and people through the city, even in the most crowded and narrow streets.

When we arrived in Marrakech and walked to our hostel at night we saw even garbage bags being collected with donkey carts.
In general, people transport the weirdest things on bikes and scooters and donkey carts. I saw very young kids on scooters, a boy transporting a six meters long metal pipe and many people transporting huge plastic bags full of clothes and other things. Sometimes, you can see people carrying piles of bread or other food on their heads.
On long bus drives, buses keep on making short stops at kiosks and cafés for passengers and drivers to buy food. On the way from Chefchauen to Fes a boy bought a bread filled with meat. When he came back into the bus he offered his food to everyone and shared it with all the strangers around, including us.

When Scott ordered a bottle of water in a restaurant in Tangier the waiter went to the kiosk next door and bought a bottle of water for Scott, because they didn't have water on their menu.
Another waiter once dropped a whole bag of fresh bread on the floor in the restaurant. It spread out all over the ground and he just picked it up and brought it to the kitchen, from where it probably got served to the next customers.
Hygiene is not taken too seriously. The same streetfood is often still sold the next day and the day after and the day after... In Fes I ate something that had gone bad and got stomach sick, like many other travelers do who are not used to the hygienic conditions.. The air in the Medinas in big cities like Fes and Marrakech  the air is dirty and smelly. Stray cats stroll around everywhere, especially in Chefchauen were many cats jump on restaurant tables begging for food. It is always crowded, loud and hectic on the markets, in every city I saw.

This is Marrakech!

In the Medina markets of Fes I saw that after closing hour the sellers have to climb over the counter of their little kiosk shops because they don't have a back door.

The people live a very simple life and they are generous to each other. In the tourist spots they try to make money of tourists in every possible way, sometimes cheating with no mercy! For example the taxi drivers in front of train and bus stations tell tourists a price that is three times of its value. But as soon as you really get in touch or in a deeper conversation with them, or as soon as they realize that you know Morocco they are suddenly the most honest, lovely and generous people you can imagine. Especially to each other. They call themselves all brothers and sisters and they act like it. 

Even though it can be quite exhausting to deal with dishonest people who try to use your openness and honesty to make money and despite the bad hygiene and the stomach sickness that I had to go through, I find this country truly beautiful and impressive! It's a different world and I like different worlds. It's a unique experience and enriching for me to experience this different lifestyle in poverty and richness at the same time. 

The poorer the people are, the more they have to fight to survive and the more deceitful techniques they have to develop. They are not bad people and they don't want to be irritating. They are good people at heart, always ready to help and generous when they can. Always happy to share their culture and their beautiful country. For some of them tourism is just their business and their way to survive.