My First Moroccan Wedding!

YUS, I was invited to a Moroccan wedding! I loveee weddings, especially a Moroccan one that is filled with so much excitement, love, and anticipation! Of course there is no alcohol served at a Moroccan wedding, but people dance and yell as if they are drunk... and they last for HOURS. This wedding was from 11pm to 6am. It was on a sunday night, so I ended up getting one or two hours of sleep before getting up for my Arabic class at 8am the next morning... but it was completely worth it.

The weddings are mostly attended by women, with a few close male relatives. Almost everyone is dragged to the dance floor multiple times throughout the night, but thankfully my host sisters LOVE to dance, so it didn't take much effort to get them going... Douina, my host sister, let me borrow her keftan (the traditional Moroccan long sleeved dress) and we all prepared to go.

Weddings are intimate, traditional, and religious... a perfect way to experience the Moroccan culture. When I first arrived at the wedding, I was struck by the gorgeous clothing, and the amount of effort the women put into their outfits. Their gowns were gorgeous, and after living here for awhile now, it is obvious these Keftans can not just be bought in a store. Each piece is put together and designed by the woman... and some were very creative!

Getting ready!

Traditional musicians

An example of the colorful keftans

The bride was another matter all together, she had 6 different outfits that she would change into throughout the wedding. Pretty much the wedding consisted of the guests sitting/dancing and eating and just waiting for the bride to change into another outfit, then parade around the room (either walking, or being carried like you see below), and then returning to a back room where she would change again. The picture below was taken after the bride had changed once or twice, but it was the first time she was carried around above the crowd. Just note the position that the groom is in... it was hard not to imagine that the bride is being shown off as a kind of prize, or trophy, while the groom, with hands outstretched walks in front, touting his winnings throughout the party. All I can say is that at my wedding, if I were to do it the Moroccan way, I would make sure each different outfit would have its own song to dance too so that I could enjoy my own party!

Me and my host sister, Sanae!

FOOD!

It was a beautiful keftan!

The ceremonial first public kiss!

Henna!

Had to get a little Henna while here in Morocco! :D

Essouria!

This past weekend was my roommate's last weekend here in Morocco. So we decided to do a trip together down to Essouria... girls weekend!

Essouria is a hippy, port town on the southern, Atlantic coast of Morocco. It hosts the Gnawa festival every year, but we happened to come the weekend after this large festival... Although I was sad we missed the festival, it was nice to see the small town in its natural setting. It definitely had a young, hipster vibe to it, and everyone seemed much more laid back. It was a lot of fun to explore, and there were great places to buy rugs. I ended up finding a small one made in the Sahara that I really liked, and decided to wrap it up and bring it back to the US with me. 

Thuya wood... Essouria is renowned for this special wood
and the delicate craftsmanship that goes into these beautiful boxes and trays.

Emma walking down the narrow alleys to our hostel.
At night it was quite creepy to walk back to our hostel,
but we met other travelers from the hostel that we ended up going
out with at night.

A shop with traditional Gnawa instruments.

 baby camels!!!

Really pretty ramparts up to the North Bastion. 

Famous for its fresh fish... where you chose what you want and how much,
they make you a deal, and then cook it for you right there in front of you. 

Emma and the remains of our fishy meal!

The second day, we met a group of girls from Whales and rented some bikes to explore the surrounding beaches. It was incredibly windy, and we took a wrong turn, only to end up where we began. It was nice to get a little exercise, but we decided to abandon the bikes for horses and camels. The girls from Whales decided to ride camels, and I jumped on a horse for the fastest ride I have ever had in my life.

Stopping along the rode to fix the chain and take a quick pic.

Stop at the Hendricks cafe for some shelter from the wind.
When I took a quick look at my face in the mirror,
it shimmered with a thin layer of fine sand that had been
whipped up by the wind. 

This horse looks small, but it was strong, and at the
slightest touch it lept into a full gallop.

Our panini chef! 

Some cool Moroccans that we met and invited us back to their
house to cook some traditional tagine.

...need some meat?

Lots of fruit stands in the old Medina where
no cars are allowed to drive. 

The lounge area of our hostel, "Riad El Pacha"

Met some Moroccans building a new boat... although it
might look like it, he is not trying to cut off my head.

The beautiful port!

Asilah!

Time to explore the Atlantic coast of Morocco! This weekend we went to Asilah, a small beach town south of Tangier. It is known for art, and beautiful beaches. Every year this is a mural competition, where artists from around the world come to paint beautiful murals on the white washed walls of the old Medina. We were a little early for the competition, but there were still murals up on the walls from the previous years, and we ran into some artists who were preparing their mural for the coming competition. 

But first, we made our way to Paradise beach on the back of a mule cart. It took about 30 minutes on the back of the cart where the seven of us girls held onto each other for dear life trying not to fall off as the mule roughly pulled us over rocks and gravel. As we got closer to the beach, the rocky ground turned to sand, and we began to enjoy the cool salty air brush softly against our faces. 

 When we arrived, we were struck by the empty beach. It was so large, and only began filling up towards the afternoon when Moroccans from Tangier came down on the train to enjoy the beach for a half day and then made their way back in the evening.

Us girls before we jumped into the water...
living young, and wild, and free!

Emma and her nutella... the perfect beach snack.
(We easily finished that entire baguette,
can never get enough "hubs", bread,  here!)

The really cute beach shack where we hid from the intense sun.

Got to have the camels on the beach!

We went for a walk to explore the stone caverns on the far edge of the beach and ran into greenish/bluish Moroccans. At first I thought it was a form of natural sunscreen, but as the number of blue people increased we realized the greenish mud was coming from the rock crevasses. When we went to investigate, some of the Moroccans eagerly summoned us to the top and began covering us with the mud. I started with a face mask, and then proceeded to prove my Michigan pride... Moroccan style.

My face felt so good after I washed the dry mud off my face!
Very refreshing!

GO BLUE!

I wasn't quite as hard core as some of the Moroccans...

Addie, Emma and I stopped for some tea that evening...
quite sun kissed!

Out to dinner! Trying the read the Arabic menus!

Party in the hostel on the roof top terrace! 

 The Second day, Sunday, before we got on the train back to Fez, we went and explored the murals, and I bartered for hours for a piece of art that I hope to decorate my dorm room wall with in the fall.

Addie, posing with one of the murals.

Another mural... loving the blue theme!

Old, Portuguese ramparts, protecting the city from invaders.

One of the artists being interviewed.

At an art gallery...

Posing with the Danish curator and artist who has made
Asilah her home. 

Posing with Muhammad (the shop keeper) who I shared a cup of tea with,
while trying to negotiate a good price for the painting I eventually bought. 

It was a wonderful weekend, and it was difficult to leave such a calm and peaceful place. However, things quickly became hectic on our way back to Fez... but that should be expected, traveling anywhere in Morocco is always an adventure. 

We had a large group of friends from our school who went on this trip with us to Asilah, and it was sometimes hard to coordinate things. To get back we pretty much all decided to meet at the train station and hope we all make it on time. I was busy bargaining for my painting and left it up to the last minute to ask for my final price. So my friends went ahead and brought my stuff with them to the train station so I could meet them directly there. When Muhammad finally secured my painting with a last piece of tape, I thanked my new friend, and ran to find a taxi. I made it in time and went to the counter to buy my train ticket only to find that the computer had broken, and they were hand writing all the tickets. I got my ticket and ran to the other side of track just as we heard the toot from the incoming train. We prepared to face the crazy crowd as we all rushed the doors of the train to try and find a place to sit. We were not well equipped to face the natives, and misjudged which direction to turn once on the train. We got stuck in the narrow passage way where we had to wait until the next stop when people would get off. It was very hot, and after about two stops (about an hour and half of standing) we had to change to another even hotter train where at least we were able to find some seats.  This is us waiting in the narrow passage way of the first train... deceivingly happy.