Smell and Taste:
The first thing I noticed when I arrived in Casablanca (other than what a crazy busy city it is) was the smell. It smelled like industry - a tepid and smokey smell, with diesel fumes mixed in. I was glad to walk down to the ocean to clear my nasal passages.
Above: an egret enjoying its dinner down by the surf in Casablanca.
Walking around the souks (marketplaces) in the various cities/towns I visited - Casablanca, Moulay-Idriss, Meknes, Fes, Marrakesh, and Essouira - presented a literal smorgasbord of scents to intrigue the nose and tastebuds. My favourite scent in the food markets was walking by men selling mint from carts. The mint was piled up in huge bunches. The heavenly smell was such a juxtaposition to the smell of garbage on the streets.
Mint is an integral part of Moroccan culture as hospitality always means Moroccan mint/green tea. This tea is offered in hotels, restaurants, friends' homes, even in shops where you are buying goods (which happened to me in Essouira in a jewellers shop while I waitied for a ring to be resized).
Above: tea service in cafe in Marrakesh.
Below: Tea is somewhat ceremonially poured from a great height to allow bubbles to make a kind of weak froth on top of the tea in the glass. If mint tea is not poured this way, it can be seen as a bit of an affront to the guest. "What, I'm not good enough for bubbles!?"
Walking in the souks can be overwhelming for the nose as there is such a profusion of spices, foods, sweets, and freshly slaughtered meat (and associated bloody smells) in the narrow market lanes inside the medinas. The choices and amounts of foodstuffs are astounding to behold. Every kind of spice imaginable piled neatly in tall heaps, the huge buckets of olives of every colour, the sweet pastries that attract hives of bees to their sticky honey goodness, ropes of dried figs strung together, and meat preserved in fat.
Food in Morocco agreed with me as they use more fruits and vegetables compared to Portugal and Spain. The two main types of dishes are couscous and tagines. Couscous is a product based from wheat and it can be used as a rice substitute. Traditionally, couscous is cooked with a sauce, veggies, and meat. Tagines are a type of Moroccan stew that can be either vegetarian or with meat and a blend of spices (I think seven spices are used the most, but I did meet a gentleman in Meknes who was selling a 21 spice blend for tagine cooking). Tagine is cooked slowly in pottery pots also called tagines on a stovetop or above a grill. While in Morocco, I tried both lemon-chicken with olives and prune/apricot lamb tagines (yum!) and vegetarian couscous.
Moroccan salads are often cooked for foreigners as the local water supplies are not safe to drink from for visitors. Bottled water for drinking and brushing teeth is a must (I recommend the water brand called Sidi Ali). I only ate fruits and vegetables that were either peeled or cooked to avoid getting a stomach bug, and also took a natural supplement that provides some immunity against bacteria and parasites as well. I really didn't want to get sick while in Morocco. I was happy that my regime worked.
I must give a special mention to the orange juice of Marrakesh. It is the best and cheapest orange juice I've ever had in my entire life. There are at least 20 orange juice stalls in the main square of Marrakesh's medina (there are likely more, I didn't count to be honest). The orange juice costs 4 dirhams, which is approximately €0.40. The orange juice sellers squeeze the chilled fruits in front you and pour it into either a glass or a take-away cup. I drank so much juice, not only because it was tasty and cheap, but because Marrakesh is really hot. It was around 32 degrees Celcius each day, and is the hottest city in Morocco.
Below: an orange juice seller gives me a thumbs-up in Marrakesh.
Next two photos: The other interesting smells I got to experience were in a traditional pharmacist's shop in Marrakesh. Most remedies were natural and herbal. I saw (and smelled) argon seeds being roasted lightly, and then ground into a viscous paste that was then refined into argon oil for cosmetic purposes.
The pharmacist also had many other remedies and creams to smell - orange essence for headaches, rose cream for facial moisturizers, black cumin seeds and menthol for snoring, and solid amber for mosquito repellent. Of course we were all served the mint/green tea we had grown accustomed to. It was a fun experience to go to the pharmacist in Marrakesh, he was very enthusiastic about his nature remedies.
Now for something completely different...the most awful smell I sniffed in Morocco. Without a doubt, it was the leather tannery in Fes. Tanning hides is considered the third most difficult job in the world - the backbreaking labour, wading through liquids with heavy hides, and horrid smell. The manager of the tannery handed out sprigs of mint to all visitors to help mask the smell of "Camel No. 5" (i.e. camel urine). Our tour intentionally went through the tannery before lunch so that people wouldn't get sick after eating. A wise decision, in my opinion. The smell is overpowering. As I have the tendency to be rather queasy from intense smells like camel pee, I quickly snapped my photos of the tannery workers and got myself inside the leather goods shop and kept my mint posy next to my nostrils.
Next two photos: looking down into the white vats that process the hides to remove hair (with camel pee), and then brown vats filled with natural dyes to colour the hides (like henna for the red colour).
Touch/textures:
Being a textile artist, I relished the fabrics, colours, and yes, carpets that were present in every souk. My favourite memory was actually on my first day in Morocco, in Casablanca, with Kerry (a fellow tour group) member. We were wandering around and ran into a broadly smiling man called Hussain from Chefchaouen who was a painter. He showed us his "paintings" (huge beautiful murals on the sides of buildings) and then took us to see a Berber "exhibition" which turned out to be a carpet shop. We were given a veritable show of the different styles and methods to make the carpets. And yes, we were offered tea. There was no pressure to buy anything, and I must admit that I was a bit tempted. But I was good and resisted. Some carpets were hand knotted (imagine 100,000 knots per square metre), handwoven, and embroidered. Some were wool, some silk, and some a blend of the two. Silk carpets don't burn, a fact that the seller demonstrated with a lighter. All the carpet colours are dyed with natural ingredients that were certified and wouldn't fade.
In Fes our tour guide Abdou took us to a weaving studio where we enjoyed seeing weavers at work and to try on some of the traditional Moroccan garb. One thing I was curious to learn about was vegetable silk, which is a yarn spun from the fibrous leaves of the agave plant. I spin my own yarn, and I am really interested to try spinning agave. All you do is strip fibres off the long edge to the leaves, and it comes off naturally in "stings." They are then spun together and dyed into gorgeous colours. The vegetable silk is stiffer than silk derived from silkworms. But no animals are killed in the process, and the vegetable silk is just as strong and long-lasting.
Above: weaving in progress to make fabric.
There is a prolific amount of yarns out on display throughout the towns/cities of Morocco. Spinners, dyers, and weavers pride themselves on keeping their traditional methods alive. I was tempted to buy some yarn, but given that I've already bought my self-allowed one skein of yarn, I had to stay my hand from reaching for my wallet. That didn't mean I didn't appreciate the colours though. Most yarns were a rough texture, best for carpets or outerwear. Most were also naturally died as well.
Below: yarns on display outside a weaver's shop in Essouira.
Below: me in the "magic dress" that is often worn by women in Morocco. The dress is actually one piece (except for the belt) made from the softest cotton. The seller wanted me to buy it, but I had to explain that a) I didn't have an appropriate occasion to wear it, and b) I had to explain to my local guide about cultural appropriation, and that it would be likely frowned upon if I worn this in Canada. But it was very comfortable and soft.
The last thing that I got to experience in Morocco was a hammam. In the Hammam, one's body is washed with soap, and then scrubbed with something resembling a Brill-o pad. The result is that all the dead skin (or top layer) gets buffed off of you. The skin is left a little raw, but shining and healthy. A massage with argon oil completes the treatment. After travelling for so long and swimming in the ocean several times, my skin badly needed a good scrubbing. It felt much better afterwards. And then to complete my Moroccan spa afternoon, I got a red henna tattoo on my hand. I really liked the design. I chose red henna because it doesn't contain any chemicals in it, but it also meant that it didn't last very long.
This trip to Morocco will definitely stay with me. I had a great time, and would go back, although next time with a friend or two rather than as apart of a tour. I feel as though I'm equipped to handle it without as much hand-holding as I'm able to communicate well-enough in French to get by. Definitely worth visiting if you want a truly unique experience that's off the well-worn path.
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