About 4 years ago, I just returned from my first semester in China, and all I needed was to recharge my batteries and spent time with my family. By chance, my mom, my brother, my two little sisters, and I went to Morocco 🇲🇦 for the summer holidays. We spent our time between Casablanca and Marrakech. And even if we hadn't an established plan, we had fun tho. Our stay lasted 10 days, and we returned to Burkina Faso on the 12th of August, a few days before I depart for the second semester. My dear reader, are you ready for another adventure? Thank you for joining me. Here we go!
Short anecdote before starting: We arrived at the Mohammed V airport in the early afternoon. My father had found someone who will take us to the hotel. We never met the person before. We just knew that she was a female, and my mother had her picture. By the time we were waiting, a guy came to us and asked if we were the relatives of Mr. D. We said yes! But it was kind of weirdo 'cos we were supposed to wait for a woman... Shortly after he approached us, a woman came across, and she was the one who was supposed to pick us up. Then the guy disappeared in a drop of a hat lol. It didn't take me long to realize what we just escaped from and who knows where he would have taken us if we had jumped in his car. I think he knew we were tourists, so he just followed us when we came out of the airport, listened to what we were talking about, then he came as if there is nothing and told us what we needed to hear for us to trust him. But thank God, we didn't fall into his trap. Phew!
Moral: Always be careful when you land in an unknown country. Not all the people who come to you are honest and want to do you good.
So, after this brief episode, we were supposed to stay at Hotel Suisse, but our reservations had already expired. Therefore, the woman (Maguette) who will become our guide and friend took us to the Ibis hotel, where we would stay for two days. After registering and taking a quick nap, we went to Morocco Mall, one of the biggest malls in North Africa, also known for the huge aquarium at its center with colorful fish of all sizes. We had lunch there, after what we went to play games. Don't get fooled by my sister 'apparent' high level of concentration. She missed them all lol!
Two days later, we moved to the Hotel Suisse. They've finally got free rooms for us. And the cherry on the cake, there was a 50% discount. Plus, this hotel was bigger than the first one and was located less than a 10-minute walk from the beach. How nice! On this day, we went to Sindibad Park®, an amusement park on the Boulevard de la Corniche (Ain Diab). We have been there two times during our stay, enough to get shots of adrenaline and live trilling experiences! Talking about trilling experience, there was also the Tamaris AquaPark where we went on Day 7.
On another day, we went to the Mohammed V square which is considered the administrative center of the city, as it brings together plenty of buildings erected after the First World War including the Consulate of France, the courthouse, the prefecture, the central post office, and the bank of Morocco. You can imagine that even if we like history, it is not the reason we went there haha. Instead, it was for the huge number of pigeons we found there. It was fun to feed them and see them come and land on our hands.
After that, we went to La Sqala Restaurant, in Old Medina. The restaurant names come from history. Indeed, at the time, wishing to make the city a point of resistance to European incursions, the Alawite sultan, Sidi Mohammed ben Abdallah, armed the city with a battery or 'sqala' that still has its cannons aimed at the sea. So, besides enjoying good food in a nice place, you can also take beautiful pictures on the top floor of the restaurant.
We were supposed to take the train to spend Day 9 in Marrakech, but what we were not ready for was to leave the hotel at 4~5 am, in order to catch the train at 6. We were all tired because we had dinner late the night before. On top of that, my stomach was hurting badly.
The first moment of the journey didn't go that well, because people who entered the train before us occupied all the seats. Some were sitting at 2 in a compartment of 4 people. Tchip. There were a bunch of people standing in the train corridors. Fortunately, we had the opportunity to pay for an extra and get seats in another wagon. From there, the travel went almost well. On our arrival at Marrakech, we went to Majorelle Garden, which contains a psychedelic desert mirage of 300 plant species from five continents. After that, dad joined us and we ate together before going for a carriage ride. He, my mom, and my two little sisters were in the first one. Maguette, my brother, and I were in the next. A few minutes later my brother and I fell asleep lol. We were still tired and honestly, the horses' gallops made me want to sleep so much. Back from the ride of which I don't really have any memories lol, we hung out at Medina square, before taking the train back to Casablanca.
Of course, we couldn't leave Casablanca without visiting the Mosque of Hassan II.
We didn't really experience too much racism during our stay. I just remember one day on our way to the market, a guy came across us, and shouted at us: “All African women are b*tch*s” We were like, uh, isn't Morocco in Africa too? Lol. So, maybe you will encounter a similar situation, maybe not. But the most important is to not limit your life because of ignorant people, do what makes you happy. You don't live for them, anyway. So, here are all the places we went to. For those who are interested in making a trip there, consider putting them on your list. I'm sure you will not regret it:
Casablanca:
Ibis Hotel,
Morocco Mall,
Beach,
Hotel Suisse,
Sindibad Park®
Anfa Place Mall
Markets,
Mosque of Hassan II,
Mohammed V square,
La Sqala Restaurant,
Tamaris AquaPark.
Marrakech:
Marrakech trail station,
Majorelle Garden,
Medina of Marrakech.
Externals sources:
Even if this trip was not my favorite one, it was also a great experience. I will recommend you to make a plan before any trip, to avoid wasting your days doing the same things, especially since on holidays time flies damn quickly. I hope I made you travel for a few minutes. Thank you for reading. May God bless you, take care.
Thank you for sharing !!