The Lesson I Didn’t Expect to Learn in Morocco

I’m one of those people who wants to see and do it all. Sitting still isn’t an option. Because of this I’m constantly researching new and exciting places to visit and experience. I don’t have a bucket list, per se, because the list is endless and ever-growing. However, that doesn’t mean that certain destinations and/or experiences aren’t at the top of this hypothetical list. Morocco was one of them.

I had been dying to visit this country that seemed so unique, rich in culture and new to me. While I found all three of these things: uniqueness, culture and new experiences, they weren’t all things that jived with me.

I loved certain aspects of Morocco, but it’s a destination that I don’t see myself returning to anytime soon. Matt and I both like to have less structure in our travels. We love having a few things planned and then filling in the details as we go along. However, this didn’t work for us in Morocco and because of our lack of planning, we made a lot more work for ourselves and missed out on a couple of things that we were really looking forward to.

In addition to our lack of planning we had some misfortunes that were more out of our control. Upon arriving in Tangier – our first stop in Morocco – we were followed around by children and men trying to “give us direction” like they just magically knew what we were looking for. We were prepared for this, of course, but it made finding our accommodation very difficult because we didn’t feel comfortable asking anyone for help because they pointed us in the opposite direction every time. (We had Google Maps, but it’s very unreliable in a lot of medinas.) So we wandered for almost 2 hours with about 45lbs of luggage each strapped to our backs and fronts. It was exhausting. We were so relieved when we finally checked into our room and then were devastated when we found all kinds of evidence of bedbugs (thanks, Matt for double-checking when I just wanted to collapse into bed). We were off again and found a lovely place to stay with wonderful hosts and woke up ready to enjoy Morocco the next day.

Our days in Tangier were okay, but nothing that got me excited – except for the mint tea, of course. We moved on to the famous blue city, Chefchaouen, which was cozy and impossible not to love. It’s medina is a gorgeous maze of blue walls and laid back nature. I felt a redemption coming on. Then we went to Fez.

Fez had things I loved: the market was beautiful, the people we got to know were wonderful and things were really walkable. However, I also got a stomach bug, had my laundry done which resulted in them losing 80% of my underwear, the smell of the meats in the market made me nauseous, the image of a severed camel head is seared into my brain and our attempt at visiting the tanneries was ruined by a rowdy group of boys hustling us, which meant the owner of the tanneries literally turned us away at the door. It was terrible. I had very much been looking forward to visiting that totally unique spot and a group of young men hollering wrong directions at us, directions we never asked for, led to missing out on a great experience. I felt so defeated.

Marrakech was absolutely beautiful and we had some really great experiences, but we also had some negative ones here too. We had to cancel a booking and lose money because we didn’t realize what a crappy location a guest house we had booked was in. We walked to it and felt not only too far away from everything, but, honestly, unsafe. In the end we trusted our gut and skipped the stay for a small fee. Our trip to the desert didn’t happen because of our lack of research and planning, which was 100% our fault, but still a disappointment.

Now, I want to emphasize that we saw some beautiful things, had great experiences, staying in beautiful places and met some incredible people, but as a whole, I didn’t love Morocco. I was really discouraged by this because it was a place that had been at the top of my list for so very long. I felt like something was wrong with me for not feeling a connection to a destination I had dreamed about for a decade or so. I was exchanging messages with our friend Mira and she said something that instantly made me feel better: “I always try to remind myself that we don’t have to love everywhere we go, some places click and some totally don’t.” Having this validation from a fellow-traveler instantly made me feel better. Morocco just wasn’t clicking with me. And guess what? That’s okay.

While I didn’t leave Morocco with this newfound love for a destination, I left having learned a valuable lesson. It’s okay to not fall in love with every country you visit. I have some really beautiful memories of my time in Morocco. I loved the painted walls, the new cultural experiences, the geometric designs and the mint tea, among other things. However, this is the first time leaving a country that I haven’t felt sad to say goodbye. It was an experience I would never trade or take back, but I’m very excited for the next adventure.

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