Bowdy’s study abroad trip

Our plane landed around 11 pm Sunday night in Marrakech. Our drivers picked us up from the airport and took us to get something to eat. We stopped at a little hole in the wall restaurant that our driver said he liked, and it might have been one of the best philly cheesesteak sandwiches I’ve ever had. It definitely hit the spot after a long day of traveling. Our air bnb was around 30 minutes from the center of Marrakech. Once we arrived to our place we were stunned at how nice it was for the price we paid.

One of the best parts of our place was free traditional Moroccan breakfast included every morning. It mainly consists of a variety of different breads with fruit, honey, cheese, or Nutella spreads. Our cook also made us eggs most mornings. They also served the famous Moroccan mint tea every morning which was absolutely amazing.

After breakfast our drivers picked us up and took us to town to see the Marrakech’s famous Souks (world famous market). Id say it was an absolute culture shock for all of us. Every single person tries to sell you something. Negotiating was fun and also a learning experience. A general rule I used was make an offer at around 10% of what they originally offer. There are tons of scammers in the Souks. The Moroccan currency is MAD. 1 USD is 9.12 MAD. For example, I negotiated for a pair of sunglasses and bought them for 200 mad so that equals about $22 usd.

We walked straight to the main square after getting money out of the ATM. Immediately we saw Cobras and Monkeys. The venders try to tell you to get pictures of them, then try to guilt you into paying them for a tip. I managed to sneak a picture in of the cobras.

We walked around the Souks for a couple hours. We managed to get lost multiple times which is very easy to do. Towards the end of the day we bought head scarves and wore them to dinner. We also bought linen outfits to go with the headscarves.

A very common meal is Tangine. I had chicken tangine for dinner and it was great. We ended up having it several times throughout the week and I got super tired of it. It’s also not easy on the stomach at all. One of the guys with us got food poisoning later in the week and was sick for a couple days.