7 Things No One Told Me About Marrakesh Morocco

in this video I'm gonna give you guys seven things no one told me about Morocco before visiting hopefully this video helped some of you guys who are thinking about traveling soon and want to learn a little bit more about the culture so when you get here you're not caught off guard I'll say definitely culturally when it comes to this country it's very unique and we're going to touch on a few things so without further Ado let's get into the first one before visiting Morocco I thought everyone here was considered basically an Arab but come to find out that's not necessarily the case they have an ethnic group here called Berber which I believe in the local language if you want to get super technical is Emma Z I'm a z and this group is native to North Africa so you'll find them here in Algeria I think parts of Tunisia Libya et cetera et cetera and so the point I'm getting is that many people here identify as arabized berbers meaning berbers with Arabic influence which I thought was pretty interesting and definitely I'm sure if you want to see the traditional amazing culture you have to leave the major cities head out to the smaller towns and some of the desert areas from what I was told to really see that local amazing culture but if you thought that everyone in Morocco was in Arab again not necessarily the case and another head turner is when you get here you're thinking okay everyone's here is not an Arab they're a Berber then they're like oh we're Arab buys burpers and you're like okay Arabia's Burgers I get it and then when you're walking around you hear French so it's like all right you guys so so confusing berbers with Arabic influence and they speak French okay I'm done forget about it but once you learn some of the history you'll understand why all this is the case next up on the list is the fact that Morocco has many cities to visit before coming the only place I really heard of was the city of Marrakesh and I heard so much of this place that I actually thought it was the capital I didn't find out till right before visiting that all this isn't the capital Norris Casablanca it's a city called uh ray bats but anyways there are way more places to visit so again you have Mata Kesh you have Casablanca Ray way back you have Tangier a city called Fess I got deer that's down in the South and many more which is one thing I love about this place they have a little bit of everything if you want the beach towns Imperial old-fashioned cities if you want something a little bit more modern they have that they have a great mixture and this also leads me into my next point which is the fact that all of these places are easily connected because they have a great train system here there are times when I arrive in the country and I want to visit multiple places but their public transportation system isn't the greatest and although I'm a little bit adventurous I have my limits I don't want to have to catch a bus for four hours and ride on a donkey for another two hours then climb up a mountain to speak to Oracle just to get to another city and again this brings me back to Morocco the train system they have here makes it great if you want to plan a trip where you visit different parts of the country because you can go from maditech to Casablanca Casablanca to rayback right about to Tangier you can hit up Fest agadir and the train prices are very affordable the trains are nice they have a high speed one that was smooth quiet relaxing so all in all I didn't know that the public transportation infrastructure was that good here moving along we have the food now disclaimer the first time I ever tried Moroccan food was back in the U.S it wasn't the greatest experience I'm not saying the food was nasty it's just the flavors I wasn't used to them so because of that I had a bad outlook on the local Cuisine but let me say that after my trip here to Morocco I find the food very delicious let's start off with the national dish which is the couscous it's very light and when I say light I mean it's not super sugary salty nor fatty so I consider this sort of like a post-workout meal if you want something healthy because you have the the couscous grain the vegetables and then I usually get mines with chicken and chicken is very light so just all in all it's a healthy dish but I will say my absolute favorite was these uh it's like a sardine ball Meal which was phenomenal I have bell peppers like a tomato based sauce some other vegetables thrown in there and then you can take the bread and dip it oh but let me say this many people commented saying that you're not supposed to take the bread and dip it you're supposed to eat it by itself so if you're in Morocco and you see anyone taking their bread and dipping it into their bowl you can thank me for that I'm the one who started that because what I was told that is not the Moroccan way that's the the sly way but anyways another dish they have there is called a tanjin which the name of the pot that's used to cook the food is called tangent so but basically anything that's made in the Tangerine pot is also called a tan Gene so whether you put chicken in there couscous you can put a rock it doesn't matter if it's cooked in the tangine pot the meals also called a tangine and so I had a chicken one that had onions on top and I think it had some olives on the side and man it was great just just all in all I have a newfound respect for Moroccan food for me it gets a thumbs up I'll definitely say if you have Moroccan food outside of Morocco that doesn't count you have to try the cuisine inside the country moving along we have the safety now keep in mind that safety in my opinion could be subjective at times for example if you're someone who grew up in a lower class neighborhood and then you move to a middle class neighborhood you may say oh wow this this new place feels very safe whereas if you're someone who grew up in an upper class neighborhood and then you move to a middle class neighborhood you may be telling yourself wow this place seems kind of dangerous this area seems kind of dangerous so I think safety can be relative at times and I'm bringing that up because for me I understand that I may feel differently in a place compared to let's say like a five foot ninety pound Asian lady you see what I'm saying but overall I think Morocco was more safe than I expected Marrakesh for example which is very touristy I've been told you'll be just fine out there places like Tangier Ray bat for me they feel just fine I'm sure you have to be careful depending on the area you go to and last but not least Casablanca the largest city in Morocco I will say uh that was the only place that was and make sure you know what area you're in because when I caught the train to Casablanca I said you know what I'm going to catch the bus to my Airbnb and I left the train station I took a left and walked and yeah I got a they got a little sketchy I even had some locals tell me when I was asking them for directions because I couldn't find the bus stop they were telling me hey Tito be careful man make sure you have your eyes they're giving me the sign like hey have your eyes all around so Casablanca was the only place where just make sure you you know you know where you're at but overall Morocco didn't feel any more dangerous than any other other countries I've been to and actually it felt like one of these safer countries this next one I didn't know if I was going to add this to the list but I'm gonna go ahead and do it this might be due to religious reasons but because I experienced some of this when I was in Egypt and that is a sausage fest if you don't know what a sausage fest is it's basically an event or a group that mainly consists of men so I'm bringing that up because it seems like the nightlife from my time there was very male dominated Jordan people definitely that were out and about were men I just didn't get the vibe that you know Morocco's a place where you go out at night to like quote unquote pick up chicks and try to meet you know girls at the local girls at the clubs I'm sure foreigners tourists definitely but like the the local Moroccans I didn't I didn't get that Vibe keep in mind disclaimer I did not go inside any of the clubs I just walked around the areas but even from what I've heard in the clubs it's really no different there are predominantly males inside of the clubs most of the time so take that for what it's worth point I was making with this I didn't realize that again maybe due to religious reasons that certain places when it comes to The Nightlife it's there's gonna be a lot of dues the ratio is not going to be in the guy's favor and last but not least we have the dry lips I think this is the the seventh one I said six things no one told me but I might have to change the title to Seven Things no one told me I'll see I think this is number seven but the dry lips this is something I just wanted to point out because I experienced this also in Egypt and I was thinking to myself why are my lips so dry and crusty I thought maybe I was dehydrated but I was drinking water every day but once I looked online I realized that oh the climate here is very dry which will make your lips dry faster and easier so if you're coming to this region and you plan on spending a significant amount of time here make sure to bring some lip balms some Vaseline some chapstick something to rub on your lips every day because they're most likely going to get dry and crusty no one told me that no one gave me that advice sharing it with you all but with all that being said these are the six maybe seven I don't know after do they count afterwards but these are the six slash seven things no one told me about Morocco before visiting I'm hoping this video will help some of you all I'm hoping you learned a little bit some cultural things some some tips some recommendations so that when you guys get there if you plan on going Sue you're not really caught too much off guard and you kind of know what to expect but anyways I hope you guys enjoyed the video hope you found some value in it and I'll catch you guys the next one I should be in a new country uh working on those videos as we speak so anyways I'm Gonna Catch You guys at the next one deuces

Channel: Sly's Life

Views: 9,754

Keywords: blackinmorocco, tangiermorocco, thingstodotangiermorocco, expatmorocoo, touristthingstangier, walktangiermorocco, thingstoknowmorocco, tipsformorocco

Id: lOC9eaPatr4

Length: 9min 39sec (579 seconds)

Published: Wed Nov 30 2022