Students go beyond the facade in Morocco

St. Augustine was recorded as saying, "The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page." In that spirit, we launch a new periodic column dedicated to travel that has illuminated Hopkins students, faculty, and staff.

Our first edition covers an Intersession trip taken by several undergrad students to Morocco. If you have your own trip that changed the way you think about the world, email us at features@jhunewsletter.com.

On transportation:

"Leaving the airport in Casablanca, we were impressed by the old 1980's taxis. The driver of our cab drove straight down the center of the road. Even in the center of the city, he refused to move out of the middle of the road. People on motorbikes zoomed by us, with their handlebars touching the windows of our cab. We changed some money in the center of the city after our ride, then caught a train out of town. The train system was ideal- cheap, always on time. Passengers did have a European sense of space, though- men tended to perch on your legs waiting for their stops."

On Rabat:

"We left behind Casablanca, which was refined and European, the real commercial center of Morocco, for Rabat, the government center and the capitol city. We were staying with a family friend of Zach [Cafritz, former Hopkins `07] who is the U.S. Chief of Mission to Morocco. Their house in Rabat wasn't huge but was beautiful, with intricate, carved wood ceilings and a pool in their backyard. They had a staff of five servants. They had one fella who spent the day waiting in a small shack and hurried out to open the gate, door, or garage whenever anyone entered."

On Tangier:

"Tangier sits only 12 miles from Spain and is the most Spanish influenced city in Morocco- you can see Gibraltar in the distance. It's also by far the seediest place we visited, with the most Europeans hanging around. Everywhere we went we were offered hashish or chocolat, the French slang for weed. Even so, the hostel we stayed in was clean and comfortable, and only 5 bucks a night."

On life outside of the city:

"There is a small village high up in the Rif Mountains called Chefchaouen. It sat literally in between two huge ominous fog-covered mountains, which is what its name translates to in Arabic. The entire village is medina, which means the old part of town, untouched by modern buildings."

On Fez:

"Fez sits inland, not far from Rabat. It's an old-fashioned, relatively large city that sits in a valley between rolling hills. We climbed several of them to see an impressive collection of old ruins. But what was particularly remarkable about Fez were the people. We were staying in a hotel on the outskirts of the medina, which is usually the poorer section of town. We never once felt afraid. At one point, about midnight, we were walking to grab some water and passed through a group of kids who were playing soccer. They stopped and warned us not to go farther up the road, as we wouldn't be safe out there at night."

On languages:

"Everywhere we went, people spoke French. A lot of people knew phrases in English, especially little kids. `Cool' and `hey, welcome' were their favorites. In Marrakesh, we were walking by and a kid ran out and asked for money. We responded in bad German, and he started talking fluently in German, continuing the conversation."

On Roman ruins and Muslim cities:

"We visited Volubilis, which looked like Tuscany, with green sprawling hills, except for the massive old Roman ruins. For a long time, the city was the center of Roman North Africa, which you can definitely see with the remaining columns and arches. Nearby was Moulay Idris. We were definitely the only non-Moroccans visiting, so we walked around, bought about 2 kilos of clementines for about 70 cents, and sat in the city center eating them and watching the cats. Moulay Idris has a huge population of wild cats, which we found out when one of them pissed on our bags."

On Marrakesh:

"By the time we reached Marrakesh, we were used to everyone being very friendly and accommodating. People might have resented tourists, like they do everywhere, but they were polite to them. In Marrakesh, it was very different. Taxi drivers overcharged us, claiming the meters were broken. In particular, we had to watch for the snake charmers, who would put the snake around your shoulders than demand money to remove it. We planned, if that happened to us, to walk away with the snake."

On the desert:

"We felt like we could have taken over Spain in the Land Rover we rented to explore the desert. Our driver followed a bus into the deep desert, straight into the dunes. He would taunt the bus, which had to stay on the road. His best maneuver was when he put the jeep in neutral, so it was still cruising forward, and climbed out of the driver's seat and scrambled onto the hood, where he sat as we zoomed along."

On camels and Berbers:

"Once you've seen a camel up close, you understand where all the characters in Star Wars come from. They are weird, ungainly creatures. We rode a camel train with Berber guides out into the desert. Our guide, Hassan, was from Mali, but had been stuck in Morocco since Algeria closed the border. When we stopped for the night, Hassan played the drums for us. When we woke up, it was raining in the desert. It never rains in the desert."