The Moroccan experience

Where can you hear Arabic, Berber, French, Spanish and English from the same mouth? In Morocco, of course. Walking down the street hearing all of these languages is overwhelming, just as all of my experiences in Morocco were.\nAfter crossing the Strait of Gibraltar by ferry, my first impression of the country was driving over from coastal Spanish territory into actual Moroccan turf. In that moment, I understood why the now-inappropriate term "third-world country" was coined.\nThe division between the borders was stark. The pavement instantly ended, and on the other side of the gates there were children begging, men smoking everywhere, abandoned cars parked all over and stretches of beautiful beaches not being used by the strict Muslim inhabitants. Farther up in the mountains there were gorgeous views juxtaposed against enormous piles of trash. This was Chefchaouen, where I was bound to enjoy more overwhelming experiences during the first leg of this five-day vacation in northern Morocco.\nMy tour group checked into our hotel, which was four stars by Moroccan standards. It was very comfortable, but I think some stars would be lost in the western conversion.\nWe were then able to walk around the village and shop. It was incredible to see quality rugs being made right in front of us and then not so incredible and a little funny to turn around and see yard-sale-like products and fake Diesel jeans for sale. But in Morocco, there are no price tags, and let me tell you, you've never bartered if you haven't bartered in Morocco. \nTo make a sale, the men that keep the shops (and they're all men) will go so far as to say where their merchandise will go in your house, who you could give it to and anything else they can think of. When that doesn't work, they begin to make chit-chat. For me, their chit-chat consisted mostly of how many camels it would take to buy my female friends. We never figured out if these comments were jokes or not.\nFrom Chefchaouen we went by bus to the modern city of Fez. Our guides said there was nothing to do in this part of the city, so we went directly to the Medina, which is the historic part of the city that is still very much lived in.\nI really enjoyed it, but their markets, which make up a large part of the area, leave plenty to be desired. The streets were incredibly narrow, so we had to walk right up against the stores, which is fine for the fruit stores but not when we started walking by the fish markets, which were a little stinky but not too bad. \nThen we started moving to the poultry stores with complete chickens hanging-and next came the cows/ and finally the camel heads.\nAt this point I was seriously considering vomiting. It was then that I was offered marijuana from someone I assumed was a drug dealer. Like I said, it was all overwhelming.