Well hello! I'm back from Morocco with LOTS of stories to share :)
This was my first international solo trip and boy did I have a blast! Let's start with Marrakech. I spent the first few days there and the first thing I did was visit Madrasa Ben Youssef which is a historic Islamic college that's now a tourist attraction. It was once the largest madrasa in Morocco and a leading center for Islamic learning, housing up to 900 students in 130 dorm rooms! The rooms these guys stayed in were so tiny to help them stay focused in their studies.
I spent a ton of time wandering/getting lost in the souks, which is what they call the markets. This spice shop does a whole presentation of spices, teas, perfumes, herbs, and more and are pretty funny with it so I did end up getting sold on some things I would not have normally purchased lol.
Morocco does have hotels but the main places people star are in riads. A riad is a traditional Moroccan house with an interior courtyard garden, often featuring a fountain, around which the rooms are built. I stayed in 4 different riads throughout the trip but this one was probably my favorite for the vibe and I made friends with the manager who sat and had tea with me one afternoon on the rooftop! I made a Reel to show more of it you can check out here!
In the middle of the craziness of the markets is this "secret garden" that's not really a secret, haha.
I visited a ton of the historical sites including Bahia Palace and El Badi Palace. I've never visited a country that had sultans and palaces so this was super fun to see and learn about! This is at El Badi Palace.
I took a train up to Fes after a couple days in Marrakech and while at the train station I made a new friend :). There's cats all over Morocco and I of course pet a lot of them!
Fes is another imperial city in Morocco and had a lot of markets as well but was a little less touristy than Marrakech.
One of the more interesting things I did on this trip was visit the tanneries where they make leather. See more of what I all did in Fes here!
I declined having my riad set up a tour for me while in Fes because I like to explore on my own and the manager didn't trust that I'd figure it out so he ended up driving around the city looking for me and when he found me he said I was going the wrong way, haha. To be fair, I was going the way I wanted but had driving directions in instead of walking so it was taking me a route that was much more difficult to walk. I was only on his scooter for like 2 minutes before he dropped me off so please don't come at me for not having a helmet on. This was totally unplanned and he was just trying to help me out!
I also saw the first university in the world! It's called the University of Al Quaraouiyine, founded in 859 AD. It started as a madrasa (a religious school) and evolved into a modern university, it is credited with being the first to award degrees and is a leading educational center. You aren't allowed to go in unless you're Muslim because it is also a Mosque so I just got a quick glimpse through one of the doors.
Next up I went to Chefchaouen, also known as The Blue City! This city was just breathtaking. So much blue everywhere and nestled right in the mountains.
This was my second favorite riad I stayed at during this trip. More pics of it here!
The Blue City is what Instagram dreams are made of so of course I snapped quite a few pics in front of blue doors and streets!
I have SO much more I'll be sharing over on my travel blog with recommendations, places to stay, how to negotiate and not get scammed (at least not completely), and much more so be looking out for that if you're interested in the coming weeks! Meetmeoffgrid.com