The title of this post is way off. I only have 1 photo from Marrakesh, and it's of a cat. This post is actually about the drive to Marrakesh. I'm trying to get pins in my Pinmapple map for everywhere that I stayed, and I'm pinning Marrakesh even though the photos aren't of that city.
We left our roadside hotel after breakfast and continued our drive through the Atlas Mountains. The previous day's drive had been fun. This day's drive would also be full of interesting sights.
The first stop was the rock formation above. It looks similar to the monkey fingers.
This father and son were having some tea before starting the day. I'm not sure, but my guess is that they were there to sell things to tourists who stopped for photos.
Since we didn't have quite so far to go, we were able to stop a little bit more. I was finally able to stop at a mosque with a nest on it.
I don't know why I'm so intrigued by these nests but I am. Up close, the nests look huge. Our guide probably thought it was silly that I was so fascinated by these nests. They're super common and probably very boring to him.
As we made our way down the road, we started to notice the clouds looking a little strange. Even our guide said that it didn't look normal.
We passed through some little towns with cool lamp posts.
There were a lot of cool places where we pulled over for nice views.
I spotted another mosque with a nest. They're all over the place in this region.
We stopped at a little shop for tea and snacks. The brightly colored cloth is a common item that is sold to tourists.
This building is part of "Moroccan Hollywood". It's not an old fortress. It's actually part of a movie studio where they film Moroccan productions.
Further down the road, the sky kept getting more and more strange.
We stopped at a cool look-out point that overlooked an old city.
It's common in a lot of countries for vendors to set up and sell items at places that tourists stop at. In Morocco the vendors sell a lot of metal teapots, pottery, and the colored cloth that is iconic for the region.
The sky seemed so strange, I couldn't stop taking photos of it.
And then the sky got really really strange. I have boosted the levels on some of these photos, but it was insane. I'll post a few untouched, non-filtered photos in the comments. It was insane. Even our guide said he'd never seen anything like it.
We kept driving and the cloud mostly stayed put. It changed shape, but it seemed to mostly stay in the same place in the sky. We kept pulling over to take photos. So did other cars.
The road that we were on was pretty cool. It was hard to pay attention to the ground when the sky was so freaky.
Eventually the sky returned to normal and we enjoyed a scenic drive through the mountains.
This place had a lot of pottery for sale.
And this is the last photo that I took while on the road. We arrived in Marrakesh and paid our guide. He had done a great job of showing us his country. In Marrakesh, he handed us off to the owner of a riad in the medina. She lead us to the riad though lots of narrow alleyways. I tried to pay attention so that we wouldn't get lost if we went out that evening. But after a short walk through the streets, I was completely lost.
After we dropped off our bags, my mom wanted to go out to see Marrakesh, but I was afraid we wouldn't be able to find our way back. Google maps was absolutely useless on those narrow streets. I was also tired. We ended up staying in and eating at the riad. Now whenever I see Marrakesh on The Amazing Race, I wish I had listened to her and gone out exploring that night.
This is my only photo of Marrakesh.
The next day we took a train to Casablanca. It was a pretty long train ride and I don't have many memories of it. I think I was feeling pretty tired from being on the move for so many days in a row. We found a hotel in Casablanca and went out for dinner.
Casablanca was very unremarkable. If you've ever been to a city, you probably already know everything you need to know about Casablanca. It was just a city like many other cities. We did see a site or two, but they were underwhelming.
Early the next morning, we took a taxi to the airport. My mom returned to the USA, and I returned to Germany.
Morocco had been a very interesting and different place to visit. I would never have chosen to go there. It just wasn't on my radar. So I'm glad my mom suggested it.
Back in Germany, I spent the next month catching up with my friends, relaxing, enjoying my own bed, and moving out of my apartment. When I started my trip, I kept my apartment in case I didn't like traveling. After traveling for 5-6 months, I decided that I wanted to keep going. I sold a bunch of my stuff and moved the rest of my belongings into storage. Then on a cold day in December, I boarded a flight from Frankfurt to Bangkok. I had never been to Asia before (except for Turkey) and had no idea what to expect. I had seen movies like The Beach and had read lots of posts on Reddit, but I really didn't know what was in store for me.
I hope you'll join me in the coming weeks as I travel City to City through South East Asia.