Summer style in Morocco

Helloooooooooo summer!

After a good six months of cold and grey overcast sky here in Scotland, I was ready for some nice warm sunny days - and that's why I booked myself plane tickets to Morocco.

Now, if you remember a while back I was talking about doing the Hitch to Morocco, a Link Community Development-organised event where people literally hitchhike across four countries - from the UK, to France, Spain and then Morocco - in order to raise funds for charity. The money raised from the hitch goes to the upgrading of schools in nine countries in Africa, putting quality teachers and providing proper sanitation for the schools, because building schools don't matter if they're empty.

I think it's a great cause (and also a great excuse to travel!) so if you're so inclined you can still donate to Link Community Development here.

Unfortunately, I didn't manage to do the Hitch in the end because my hitch partner backed out on me and I didn't have enough time to find myself a new one - the rules of the Hitch state that each team has to have at least one male, and I sure as hell wasn't going to hitchhike to Africa alone.

Africa. That sounds so much cooler than 'Morocco' because, y'know.

AFRICA.

It was my first time on the continent of Africa, and although I know that Morocco really is more like Europe than it is Africa just because of it being so geographically near, I don't think I was prepared for how... Like Europe it really is. It's a bustling, busy Arabian marketplace, full of shops and people and donkeys sharing the road with cars, but apart from that I didn't really have the feeling that I was in some place that completely removed from what I was used to.

That's not to say that I didn't feel overwhelmed by some of the things there. The bargaining in Marrakech and Fes souks, the dry desert heat (and you think that 20 years of growing up on the equator would have prepared me for this!) and the sheer number of people.

So. Many. People.

Jemaa-El-Fna, Marrakech

One other thing that I wasn't prepared for was that Marrakech smells like pee. And I mean, really, really smells like pee. By daytime, mostly, because the main square Jemaa-El-Fna really changes entirely from day to night. By day, there are donkeys and monkeys and all manner of birds and snakes casually hanging out, but I don't think I was really prepared for that ultimate stank that came from just walking through.

On the bright side, I did see a real snake-charmer. Lots of them, actually - there were a ton of snake-charmers just hanging around the square, pretty much everywhere.

Toss a coin into the hat and you get to take as many pictures as you want!

Damn, the Moroccans really know their way around drinks. By drinks, I mean mint tea and orange juice, which are absolutely delicious. Trust me, you ain't never tasted orange juice as good as the stuff you get in Morocco - and for only 4 dirhams, or €0.40, too. I liked the orange juice so much I drank more orange juice than water there. Gotta pack in those vitamins!

And the mint tea? I'm thirsty just thinking about it.

You don't really think that stuff as delicious as mint tea could possibly come from such a simple combination - sugar, mint leaves and water. But it is.

It's refreshing, and smells amazing, and sweet and really just all-around awesome.

(In case you can't tell just yet, I really really love mint tea.)

I also really love the Moroccan night, because night means light and light comes in lamps with intricate carvings and designs. It's probably one of my favourite things about Morocco - just how beautiful the night becomes.

The temperature changes so much between night and day - the days are hot and sticky, while the nights are cool and sometimes even cold. With the setting of the sun, everything changes - Morocco looks completely different, like a completely different place and a whole new world.

Really, though - the best part of it all was simply being able to walk around without having to wear layers of thick coats and jackets!