Morocco

My latest adventure was to Marrakesh, Morocco. Katherine and I left after school on Wednesday and traveled to the misleadingly named Frankfurt-Hahn (it is actually two hours away from Frankfurt) Airport where we spent the night before catching our flight to Morocco the next morning.

Morocco was quite an experience. I can't even begin to imagine the culture shock that would accompany a semester abroad there. I had enough

and I was only there for 45 hours. While in Morocco we did a bit of shopping at the very large market. It was quite a lot of fun because you got to haggle over the prices.

While in Marrakesh we also went around to see some of the sights. In Morocco, non-muslims are not allowed into the mosques, but we did get to walk around the outside and admire the

architecture. We also visited the Saadin tombs. Here there are lots of kings and princes buried. All of the graves point east-west because when Muslims are buried they have to lie with their head toward Mecca. There was one grave that was perpendicular to all the rest though. I guess someone made someone who lived longer really mad. We also saw some ruins of a palace built by one of the kings of Morocco. Storks have found that the crumbling walls of the palace make an excellent place to nest.

At night we would venture out to the night market. It is a big open area where people gather around fortune tellers, voodoo doctors, story tellers, and musicians. One of the most unusual attractions at the night market were the transvestite dancers.

The trip was quite an experience, and I am very glad taht I got to go. However, I don't need to go back any time in the near future.