Solo Travel to Marrakech for Eid

For the Eid holiday weekend I travelled alone from Ifrane to Marrakech via a one-hour car ride followed by a seven-hour train ride. The train taught me about the limits of my patience and the tolerance of my stomach against motion sickness, as I persisted in reading my book despite my better judgement (For future-me, when you're re-reading blog posts instead of writing new ones, it's about an hour). It also taught me more about the friendliness of Moroccans stuck with me in the same train compartment. I made a number of new friends who live both in Morocco and France.

The roof of my hosts' home

Upon arriving in Marrakech I promptly went to the home of the Moroccan family with which I would spend the next three days. Their home, built in the style of a Moroccan riad, circled a common interior courtyard. Beautiful stained glass windows crowned the interior courtyard. Detailed plaster carvings, one of my favorite features of Moroccan architecture, graced the high ceilings. After a whirlwind tour, my host, Amal, took me to the local hammam for a truly Moroccan experience. I highly recommend the experience - which involves copious amounts of hot steam, black Moroccan soap, and painful exfoliating scrubs.

One of the detailed mosaic floors of the Bahia Palace

The next day, Eid, found me to the home of a neighboring family that had bought a sheep for the occasion. We spent the morning drinking tea and waiting for the neighborhood butcher to arrive. When he did, he made slow work of the poor sheep and, while I felt guilty, I emerged from the morning still an omnivore.

The sheep didn't make it.

The day after Eid, when the shops had reopened, I wandered the old medina, starting from the luscious gardens and the breathtaking mosaics of the Bahia Palace, to a delicious lunch at La Famille, to the stunning panorama of the Maison de la Photographie.

The view from La Maison de la Photographie

 I did all of my long-distance travel and old medina explorations alone. *Gasp* Women can travel alone? You ask. Why yes, we do. If you, like me, are a woman who loves to travel, I have an (in-progress list of travel tips):

1. Make use of that network! Let people know where you're traveling, both inside and outside the country in which you are traveling. The more the merrier! 
2. Have a functional phone. In addition throw in the number of at least one person you know and trust in that city. This could be the manager of your hotel or your friend's cousin's mom. But if you get lost and need a friend to bail you out, that number will come in handy.
3. Perfect your RBF. Your Resting Bitch Face, that is. While traveling (alone or with others), shopkeepers will bother you. If you don't want to add a myriad of other local men to that list of persistent shopkeepers, you will perfect the stony stare of indifference. As an American, not smiling sometime seems sacrilegious. However, in a different cultural context (i.e. Morocco) a smiling woman sends a different (often not desired) message. (Note for the wise: Only a woman can christen her own visage with the RBF moniker. I will personally disown the person who tells me that I have one who is neither a woman nor my best friend.)

The view during lunch at La Famille

Where to next? While it may seem ridiculous to plan future travels abroad while having just arrived (3 weeks) in Morocco, I cannot help it. I am a compulsive list maker (pro-cons, to-do's, travel bucket list, etc.). You name it, and I probably have a list of it somewhere. Where do I want to go? Well (in vague regional groups)...

Where to next?

• Middle East/North Africa:
• Tunisia
• Lebanon
• Jordan
• Syria (one day, insha'Allah)
• Africa
• South Africa
• Tanzania
• Madagascar
• South America
• Peru
• Chile
• Argentina
• Oceania
• New Zealand
• Australia
• Southeast and East Asia
• Thailand
• Cambodia
• Laos
• Japan
• Non-continental Europe
• Ireland
• Scotland
• Iceland
• Continental Europe
• Belgium
• Switzerland
• Croatia
• Greece
• Finland
• Norway
• Sweden
• The Netherlands
• Luxembourg (which comes highly recommended by Margot)
• Central Asia
• Turkey
• Afghanistan (one day)
• Tajikistan