Morocco has been drawing travelers in search of wild adventure, exotic sights and strange smells for centuries.
Ferry in Spanish Tariffa was already two hours in delay, headed to leave European soil towards the Moroccan coast. Playful children, cloaked women, sleepy fathers and always curious old men made up the crowd, which was carrying a lot of baggage home, to Morocco. Planned one-hour journey in the port city of Tangier is usually delayed due to customs, probably because the city has always been known for drug trafficking and people smuggling. Tangier, a strategic point that separates the African and European continent, is inhabited for over 2500 years and every single race or power that ever had any interest in this corner of Mediterranean has left its mark. The port has all seen them come and go: ancient Romans, Arabs, Portuguese, British and Spaniards. That is why Tangier is a unique city that really does not reflect typical Moroccan culture and unlike the rest of Morocco offers a lively nightlife.
The first real taste of Africa and the Islamic culture the traveler gets when he leaves Tangier by bus. There is a choice of several carriers, which vary in price and quality of transport. Even if the fare for air-conditioned buses is cheaper, 'chicken bus' (as we named them and the name suggests that on these old, dirty buses have enter hens) is cheaper and offers a more genuine experience of local culture. After Tangier our first stop a delightful town situated in the Rif Mountains. Romantic Chefchaouen is very popular among travelers with its sky-blue houses. It is relatively hassle free, the air is cool and clear and there is more kif (marihuana) than you can poke a stick at. In the Rif Mountains its cultivation is widespread and some citizens grew nothing else but this profitable crop. The smoking of kif is an ancient tradition in northern Morocco, so the discreet use and possession of foreigners is also, in practice, tolerated. However, travelers should never be tempted to buy more than just small quantities for their own use, should not travel with drug and mistrust all dealers (many work with the police), since Morocco is certainly not a country where you would like to explore the local conditions in prisons. But it can happen that you simply cannot avoid the purchase of kifa. We arrived in town in the middle of the night and a nice man escorted us to the first hostel who said, that he will not accept money for his kindness. Of course that was not quite true, as he crept into the room like a ghost and out of his bag pull for a size of a house brick of hashish and said that now we have to buy at least some of his dope. After a long persuasion that he really does not cooperate with the police that just wants to earn something for his family and that the hash is really excellent and fresh, we relent. And his arguments have proved to be true.
If Chefchaouen enchants with delicate blue houses and pleasant sunbathing on the terraces of cafes than Fez awaken the senses with a variety of scents when strolling through the largest medieval medina. In the labyrinth of narrow streets vendors and artisans offer typical white-blue ceramics, leather goods, carpets and other quality products at relatively low prices and the mixed scents of spices, freshly prepared snacks and extremely unpleasant odor, which runs from leather tanneries is always present. For a couple of Moroccan dirhams local guides will take you to one of these workshops and explain all about the production of leather. Moroccan leather has for centuries been highly prized as among the finest in the world. As the tanneries of Fes and Marrakesh, little has changed in centuries. Skin from the markets are still carried by donkey, dyeing vats are still constructed from mud brick and tile, (strictly male) workers are still organized according to the medieval guild principles, and their health and safety practices are also scarily old-fashioned. That the entire old town is pervaded with impossible scents, the blame is on an exotic ingredient for leather. Pigeon poo, cow urine, fish oil, animal fats and brains and sulfuric acid create a stench so unbearable that you have to sympathize with the local workers. Fez, religious and cultural capital of Morocco offers much more. Really gorgeous Islamic gate, or bab as designated by the locals, have been designed to show strength, security and wealth. Many mosques inside old medina leave a lasting impression and medersas, religious schools, are designed to the last detail.
This kind of Moroccan architecture inspires at every step, but Marrakesh has a touch of Berber culture. Marrakech is a city whose charm is almost hard to describe. The famous square Djemaa fl-Fna comes alive at sunset, when tamer of snakes, storytellers, acrobats and dancers from all over Africa take over the square, which is also full of culinary delights, such as boiled snails, delicious fish, sheep brain, fresh squeezed juices and Moroccan dish Tajin (in ceramic dish cooked meat and vegetables, served with couscous). Marrakech boasts with greens and gardens, which serve as the perfect refuge from the summer heat that cannot be found in outlying provinces in the east Morocco, where the floor is covered with hot Sahara sand. The road from Marrakesh to Merzuga, where the most beautiful desert dunes hide, leads over the Atlas Mountains. Winding road turns the stomach of many local women and the driver certainly does not stop for every vomiting, so they fill plastic bags and throw it through the window of the bus. On the way a mandatory stop is in the exotic town of Ait Benhaddou, where one of the best preserved Kasbah lies. Among the high mountain ranges and desert there are thousands of attractive Kasbah, but this is especially famous. It appeared in the scenes of more than twenty films, including Gladiator (2000), Alexander (2004) and Kingdom of Heaven (2005). As it is difficult to get the transport out of town, it is necessary to raise the thumb and wait for a car, which almost certainly stops.
When the road ends, when the magical sandy landscape enchants and when time stops, then you know you are in Merzouga. The sun beats down mercilessly on the opaque sand dunes during the day and reflects all the colors from pink to gold. Kasbahs are located beside the road and are rearranged in nice hotels that also lend old skis for skiing on the yellow dunes. Most authentic experience in the desert is certainly spending a night or two in the middle of Sahara dunes. There will take you Bedouins on the backs of camels. After several hours of riding camels, we arrived in a small oasis, a dinner was waiting and after sunset we climbed the dunes barefoot in the glow of the moon. It was the silent night that echoed the sound of Bedouin drums, while in the sky thousands of stars were shining. We spend the night on warm Sahara sand, even at night the temperature has not dropped below 20 degrees. From the fairytale landscape, we headed to the windy Atlantic coast in Essaouira. In the early morning hours the harbor city fills with fishermen who sell fresh fish that later end up in hungry tourist stomach in the restaurants. Essaouira is well known among surfers on the waves, as well as with those that caught the strong Atlantic winds in their sails.
Most tourists that travel in Morocco certainly plan to stop in Casablanca to see the huge Hassan II mosque. The miracle of architecture, the third largest mosque in the world, boasts a removable roof and glass floor under which foams the Atlantic Ocean. Otherwise the port of Casablanca is a huge economic center with a small medina and the new part of town, where the French colonialists left their mark. As in Rabat, the capital of Morocco, in Casablanca you get the feeling that you are not in Africa. Modern shops, various cafes, luxury hotels and fashionably dressed people walk around wide avenues. Here is the place, where you can get a beer, as Moroccans because of religious reasons, do not drink alcohol. Thus, Morocco is a carousel of contrasts, where the tradition and modernity goes hand in hand, where modern metropolises inspire, where the royal cities move you to the past and where the magnificent Kasbahs impress in the middle of the high Atlas and the Sahara desert.
