We jumped on the bus that took us to the heart of the city and eventually to the highlight of our FDP, the Hassan II Mosque. It was right on the ocean and in the middle of a huge open area. We had to take our shoes off and put them in plastic bags to enter the mosque. The inside was gorgeous - there was so much detail in the tiles and carvings all over the floors, ceiling and walls. We explored the main floor where people prayed and the downstairs area where there were fountains for the washing rituals. There also was a Turkish bath, but it was only for show.
After the FDP, I went around with Hayley, Alex, Rayelle and Chad. We met up with three other SASers to see Rick's Cafe from the movie Casablanca. After getting some dirhams, the local currency, we went to a restaurant to enjoy some local cuisine.
After a quick stop back on the ship, I met up with Alanna and Chels and went out again with a bunch of other people. Since Morocco is an Islamic country, beer wasn't easy to come by. Back on the ship, I went to bed immediately as I was exhausted after a long day.
About four hours later, I woke up and got ready to leave for the camel trek. And 3.5 hours after that we arrived in Marrakesh, which I thought was our final destination. Surprise, it wasn't! After stopping 3 or 4 times on the bus and eating Chicken Tajine for lunch, we arrived in the Sahara Desert 11 hours later. Yes, 11 hours later. At this point it was dark and the majority of people were scared because they had no idea it was going to take this long. Oh, and yes, we were in the middle of the desert.
We got off the bus and were happy to find camels sitting down all around us...which meant we weren't going to die in the middle of no where. So each of us got on our camel in the dark and trekked for about forty minutes.
The stars were amazing - the most I've ever seen. Our tents were located in a sort of camp. All of the beds were in a group and there were five in our tent (me, Alanna, Chels, Mitch and Steve). They served us more Chicken Tajine for dinner and we listened to our hosts play drums and sing around the fire.
Chels, Alanna and I walked up the mountains of sand and sat under the shooting stars. We had bought headscarves so we used them to block out the sand blowing around. We wanted to get up early to watch the sun rise so we headed to our tent and off to bed.
We woke up to the sun rising over the mountains. After bread and jam (Moroccans love their bread!), we got back on our camels and were led back to the buses. Another couple of stops...and 10 hours later...we got to Marrakesh! We had quite the experience walking to find our hostel, the Riad Rahgba. Two people we asked in the street showed us to it - which we DEFINITELY needed considering the streets were crazy.
Mike, Brad, Alex, Will, Sarah and I all got settled into our rooms before going out to try and get dinner. We ended up in the central market where there were at least 100 food stands with people aggressively trying to get you to come to their stand. Each stand was numbered and my favorite one said "One four seven is just like heaven" - great marketing. We finally picked one and had some good kababs and french fries (how cultured, I know).
We ended up at the British Pub, which of course, had no British people and immediately started playing 50 Cent when we walked in. I made friends with some of the locals there and had a lot of fun.
The next morning we walked around the markets, which were amazing! I ended up buying an awesome embossed leather bag. Mike and I caught the train back to Marrakesh, luckily in first class, and walked around to try to get rid of our last dirhams.
Then we headed back to the ship where our bags were searched, passports checked, and sea legs returned.
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