Blogging
From Abroad

Today was overwhelming. Go figure- yesterday was perfect.

For starters, I woke up in the Sahara desert with a layer of sand caked all over me, even in weird places too, like behind my ears and ingrained in my eyebrows. Maybe sleeping outside wasn’t such a great idea. We arrive at our bus station around 10am after our two hour camel ride back to civilization and a 1 hour taxi ride. At the station we learn that our bus that was supposed to “run every two hours” actually only runs once at 8pm and is 10 hours long, not an estimated 5 like our receptionist told us.

Leaving at 8 wasn’t an option because we scheduled to meet Sarah’s friend at 7 so we opt for a shared taxi ride. After an hour of waiting we finally get our bargained price of choice (only about 7 USD more than the bus ticket would have cost- go us) but then learn that before our taxi arrives we first must visit a shop for tea (translation: go into this shop and if you’re dumb buy overpriced items especially for tourists)

Why we voluntarily get in an illegal taxi with complete strangers AND visit their shop still floors me. Why do we not listen to fundamental rules our parents gave us as children?

Oh well, we lived.
The drive across Morocco was stunning. Really- you need to see this. We started in a desert then ended up in a forest like area of Ifrane. Amazing.

Everything was going well till our taxi driver decided to play some CDs. Goodness it was horrible.
I’m all about playing Moroccan music while roadtriping it through the countryside but really, do we need it on maximum volume for over 5 hours? I think not. The worst was that his cds would skip. You couldn’t help but laugh when they would skip when a woman was screaming I I I I I I I….skip….I I I I. I have never in my life wanted a cd player to erupt into flames so badly.

Ugh. Plus our driver who continually promised us to arrive at 7, dropped us off at 8:30. We’re still unsure why he purposefully took the road to Ifrane and not directly to Fez, even after we pointed it out to him that he was going in the wrong direction. “No problem- be there by 7”

We finally made it to Fez, ears buzzing, and were greeting by the drivers who wanted to take us to Sarah’s friends apartment for 40 DH, “good price” The rate her friend quoted to ask for was 5DH. After 4 drivers refused to go for 5 DH we gave up and walked, maybe 70 yards after asking for directions. It would have been a 2 minute drive and they wanted to charge us 40 DH (about 7 USD). wow. I’m so tired of being labeled a tourist and getting ripped off. I’m fed up with strangers approaching us, pretending to be friends and helpful, only to be asked to purchase something from them.

When I saw Sarah’s friend I wanted to bow down and kiss her feet.

PRAISE THE LORD WE’RE FINALLY WITH LOCALS! No more being ripped off and treated like a tourist.