Marrakech

Aside from the night in the Sahara, I'd been most looking forward to Marrakech on this trip, and it didn't disappoint.

The drive from Aït Benhaddou, though early and cold, was beautiful with the sun coming up over the hills. We drove along a narrow and winding mountainous road and actually had a close and terrifying swerve when crossing paths with a (presumably) drunk or sleeping driver.

In the mountains, we made a stop at an argan oil collective, which Morocco is known for. We saw a demonstration of how the women cracked the nuts and ground them up for oil, using roasted ones for cooking oil and raw ones for cosmetics. We headed down into the city after a few purchases.

Lunch for me was a Moroccan soup, salad, and kefta (meatballs) grilled on a skewer with fries -- one of the better meals I've had this week. We sat on a rooftop patio overlooking Marrakech as we ate.

We then started our brief city tour, the first of three stops being the Saadian tombs, which were marvellous and worth seeing, but there was a long line for a short glance through a window.

The second stop was the Bahia Palace. With painted ceilings, archways, and courtyards, the place had a lot to admire, and we walked around for some time.

Our final stop was the medina, and I wouldn't have wanted to end my time in Morocco any other way. I'd heard so much about these marketplaces; they've inspired the setting for many stories and art, and I could immediately see why. In the square, snake charmers played as cobras casually swayed on the pavement. There were falcons and monkeys and lizards and henna artists and rows upon rows of fruit and street food. Within my first few minutes there, I tripped over the stone walking while staring at a hooded cobra feet away. It was a scene out of a storybook.

We had free time to wander the marketplace for a few hours then, and it was a maze. With one girl on my tour, I went in deep, past stalls selling metals, jewelry, scarves, leather goods, rugs, ceramics, trinkets, spices, soaps, oils, and so much more. We walked street after street, not noticing how many turns or aisles we ventured down. When it was time to turn back, we climbed to several rooftop terraces to orient ourselves with the mosque as a landmark.

That night, as our farewell dinner, we ate street food in the medina -- couscous, bread with olives, skewers, salad -- a bit of everything to see us off before taking the public bus to our hotel and sadly saying goodbye.