Plaza Jemaa el-Fna

Ecstasy for all the senses, until you don't know if you have any left

Over the course of my second semester in my Erasmus life I decided that I would travel without caring about anything else... and what was my destination this November you ask? Morocco. Funnily enough a friend of mine from Peru who I met in Toledo, and a compatriot from Monterrey I knew also wanted to do this trip as well. So, we joined together, put our rucksacks on our backs and went very far south, to unknown land.

Excited faces and Oscar with his bearded face, so he would be in tune with the Arab world.

The world is so big and full of surprises! When we arrived in Marrakech, it surprised me how similar this exotic country could be to my cute and chaotic Mexico (laughter). Friendly people, a lot of colour, a mixture of aromas that received us when we arrived in the city. We guided ourselves to our little hotel where we discovered how nice it is to be offered a warm and delicious tea wherever you go. I repeat: wherever you go.

Our hotel was very near the main plaza in Marrakech, and the truth that like all the other trips I had done, I knew very little and hadn't investigated much with respect to this place. I think that far from being something bad is ideal for me. This is because by not expecting something special, you can simply be surprised by the details and magnitudes that you come across on your travels.

On the little streets that you walk through before getting to the plaza, you'll find the famously replete amount of unimaginable, beautiful and cheap objects. As advice for the trip I recommend that you buy a lot of souvenirs for friends and family who insist that you bring something back from your trips. :)

Also, the whole Moroccan world will try and sell you everything, even their own mother! And they're not joking when they try to "barter" with women. Even though in my case they didn't offer camels, they did offer shops that I imagine would be very beneficial for my friend. However, he decided that he would keep me to prolong our friendship (haha).

There are many people that told me that they don't like Morocco for the very reason that the people are so insistent, but I can assure you that personally, I loved it. They all try and speak to you in about a thousand languages... well, in fact they have an ability, which I believe is magic, that means they can guess your nationality and try to adapt to it culturally to try and sell you something. The majority of times they hit the nail on the head, although once they called me "Japanese". ((:

When we arrived at the plaza, there is an explosion of smells that comes from the food stalls, the coloured are always vibrant, the sound of the Arabic songs, the heavy stream of people that come and go between flustered tourists and the traffic of hasty out-of-control motorbikes, it's simply marvellous! My heart could not have been happier...

We walked around the whole plaza, and bought souvenirs and food, of course! With a good Arabic Coca Cola and chatting with anyone who found themselves in front of us.

We saw a minor fire on one of the food stalls... we felt really bad about what happened, but due to the calmness of the people in charge it seemed like it happened a lot.

We felt like we had to tattoo ourselves with henna. They have always seemed beautiful to me and they told us that women usually do these tattoos for special occasions in their life. One of these things for example could be a marriage, or just as a beauty aesthetic in general. I decided to do it because I like it, and my special situation in life was simply being happy.

This trip was a while ago for me now and I smile every time I remember what we did. If you're a Spanish Erasmus student, don't think twice about diving into these experiences!