My First Impressions of Morocco

Bab Agnaou Gate – Marrakesh

My First Impressions of Morocco

I’ve arrived in Marrakesh, Morocco! It’s my first time in Morocco as well as my first time on the African continent.

I’ve been here five days now, getting familiar with my local Moroccan neighborhood, the daily life & customs, people, food and the lay-out of Marrakesh.

It seems like a good time to write my first impressions of Morocco, while they’re still fresh in my mind, and well before I become too familiar with things and start taking them for granted.

So to sum things up in brief: I think Morocco is wonderful! I love it!

The streets are practically immaculate all the time. Locals are friendly, welcoming and helpful. Food is delicious, diverse and super-cheap (which I love, of course). The traditional architecture, particularly interiors, are phenomenal.

spices in Marrakesh

Marrakesh is also full of beautiful landscaped gardens and parks. Fancy horse-n-carts are clacking through the streets, carrying visitors on city tours. Shops showcase tidy piles of fresh vegetables & fruits, colorful spices and teas, breads, pastries and many other eye-catching wonders.

Local men and women are walking around in all sorts of capes, tunics and unusual clothing I’ve never seen before. Everywhere there’s a huge visual concoction of wonders here.

Of course I can only speak of Marrakesh thus far. I have yet to visit Morocco’s other towns and cities. But I’ll be traveling around Morocco for two full months, in great part because of having an assignment to review 45 luxury & boutique hotels in the country, so I will gradually get to know Morocco in much more depth and diversity.

Looking back at a post I wrote two weeks ago in the USA about 10 things I most want to experience in Morocco, I see that in the first five days here in Marrakesh I’ve done half of them already! It looks like I’ve really jumped into the culture here.

tangine

Of those 10 experiences, I’ve already tried various Moroccan cuisines, drank tasty Moroccan mint tea, visited a ‘hammam’ (local public bath house), watched snake charmers in Marrakesh’s main plaza and visited one of the country’s most plush luxury hotels.

That hotel visit was just on my own, out of curiosity. I have an appointment there later this week, so I’ll get to see the rooms and other facilities. What I saw of the common spaces practically blew me away! Talk about the height of refined luxury! I can hardly wait to go back and then to see all 45 hotels I’ve been assigned to visit.

Bathing at the local public bath house was a very interesting, slightly awkward experience. All the local women bathing inside didn’t quite know what to make of me being in there, but I just smiled, watched what they were doing and copied them. I’ll be writing a full article about that visit since it was so interesting.

avocado and almond juice

I’ve eaten a variety of delicious meals, drinks, sweets and fresh produce. Here’s a sample…

Fancy, tiny sweets, sold at traditional pastry shops and made mostly of nuts and honey, cost just 1 diram each – aka $0.10 US. I bought 10 pieces for a whopping $1 US. I bought an entire bag of mandarin oranges for $0.35 US.

I’ve had several amazing fresh-made juices. The best so far was a huge glass of avocado and almond juice, topped by almond shavings and strawberry slices. Practically a meal in itself! That cost 15 diram / $1.50 US. I’ve also had avocado -with-dates juice and fresh orange juice.

I’ve also eaten several different traditional meals, including tangine, meat satays, Moroccan ‘pizza’ and grilled chicken. A full meal costs $2-3 US. They’re served with bread, marinated olives and a small vegetable dish.

One thing I was nervous about Morocco before visiting is their infamous, persistent touts who hound tourists to join tours, go to various shops & hostels & restaurants, or help visitors find their way around the maze-like streets – for a fee.

I have to say that I’m very pleasantly surprised to find considerably less hassle than I’d expected, based on reports from other travel bloggers and travel friends. Yes, I have encountered a couple of these guys each day. But I’ve found them extremely easy to deal with. I will say hello, but if I then see that they’re tout, I just completely ignore them. They go away. Done.

I’ve also had a few instances of mild forms of unwanted sexual attention from guys. One man called me ‘princess baby sexy’ ! Now to me that’s just funny, it’s so ridiculous. I also had two young teens on a motorbike yell, ‘nice ass’. But when they saw me shaking my head, they actually shouted, ‘I’m sorry!’ Wow! That, too, I find pretty funny.

I can imagine that much younger western girls, with long hair, and skimpy clothing, could quite easily have to deal with a lot more attention than I do. So that would certainly become aggravating. But for me, thus far, I have nothing much to report.

I will also say that it is extremely difficult to find places here! The roads & alleys just wind all over the place. There are huge walls surrounding big chunks of city that don’t show up on maps and which are difficult to get around. All the small alleys look pretty much the same. And anyone with a poor sense of direction would have an even harder time.

typical clean alley in Marrakesh

Before coming to Morocco, however, I prepared quite extensively for dealing with these winding city roads. I printed out dozens of Google maps, at different scales, for different parts of Marrakesh. Then I marked on them all the points of interest that I wanted to visit as well as all the hotels I’ve been assigned to review.

I also bought a small compass, figuring it would help a lot. That was absolutely correct! I have to admit that even with my extensive maps, an excellent sense of direction and my compass, I’ve still had a lot of trouble finding places!

In fact, I don’t think I’ve found any of the hotels I searched for on the first try! It took me two to three passes around the area and really examining doors & hotel plaques to find any of them. Most barely advertise their hotel entrance – just a simple, uncolored plaque, often on the inside wall of the door entrance. Difficult!

It’s blatantly obvious why travelers are constantly getting lost! And why so many young local guys try to make a living guiding visitors around the maze-like towns.

Luckily for me, I’ve got my maps and compass. So I’ve avoided that potential aggravation.

Oasis Hostel – Marrakesh

As for the architecture – Wow! The interiors of these places are just phenomenal! The traditional architectural house style, called ‘riad’, features a large interior courtyard surrounded by arched doorways and rooms. They’re usually 2-3 stories high, with the courtyard open to the sky.

Elaborate colored tiles line floors and walls. Ceilings, cornices, upper walls, pillars and arches are covered in even more elaborate, intricate white carvings. Pretty metal / colored-glass lanterns hang from ceilings and hallways.

Even the hostel I’m staying at is situated in a historic riad. It’s just gorgeous! Which is one of the reasons I selected it. I’m happy as a clam sitting in this beautiful airy house every day.

Oasis Hostel wall detailing

Bigger homes (well mansions and palaces really) also have large interior gardens and even fancier carvings, tile work and other interior features. I’ve seen a couple museums set in such luxurious palatial former homes. They are incredible.

So, to sum things up again, I am a huge fan of all Marrakesh is offering. The clean streets, beautiful gardens and parks, horse-n-carriages, amazing architecture, delicious cheap food and polite, friendly people.

So far, I think Morocco is just fabulous!

I’ll be writing a lot more about Morocco over the next two months, so stay tuned! Coming up next is an article about my visit to the local public bath house.

Meanwhile, you might also enjoy

10 Things I Most Want to Experience in Morocco

My 2019 Travel Plans

Changes to my Travel Style for 2019

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