words can't describe.

(i wrote this blog and accidentally deleted it. here's some of what i remember)

there is no way to encapsulate the past six days into words. seriously. so much of this has been beyond anything i could explain. so i'll give some main points. just know that it goes deeper than you can imagine. i could (and do) easily say it was the best trip of my life. here's a glimpse.

the first three days we spent in taghazout...

the riad: we stayed in a surf riad. which for the record is the chillest place i've ever encountered. everyone is friendly and talks to everyone else. no one wears shoes. i can't explain it. but i know it's my kind of place. very open. like you can see in everyone's windows. and there's no door on the bathroom just a toilet and shower. do the math. our riad was run by abdul, a funny moroccan man who was everywhere. seriously every time you turn around abdul is there asking if everything is ok. i think he knows that phrase in 14 languages. such a character. the riad had a very family setting feel, everyone ate meals together and just hung out. sunsets from the roof were insane. there were also always a random array of animals around. turtles, birds, and scruffy the dog. you just feel home instantly. it's the kind of place i want to live. chillin sooo harrrd.

surf riad

sunset from the roof

surfing: oh surfing. turns out we were the only ones with the snow or sand program. but about 20 of us went out surfing every day. we were the noobs. but we learn quick. and if nothing else we're determined. far more than anyone else learning. we surfed 5 or 6 hours every day. no one else did. there were several times when we were the only ones out and everyone was just watching us from the beach. they said they didn't believe we'd never surfed before! which is probably more ego boosting than true but i'll take it. we really did work hard. got to a point day 2 where we were standing up on every wave. never mastered turning. next time. don't think we were really good or anything, we weren't. our friends called lo "surfs on sand" because she stands up really late and me "surfs on knees" because sometimes i don't stand up at all. so we're not pros yet. but to my surfing friends: i get it. i get surfing. and i love it too. the second and third day we got up at 6am for a sunrise surf sesh. and oh my lanta there is nothing like it. we went out and the waves weren't good but we just laid on our boards and didn't talk and watched the sunrise. nothing like it, nothing at all. i plan on continuing. and getting better. i'll do it. watch me.

our little surf camp

surfing

not surfing

surf instructors: funnyyy guys. zu, moglie, and bagira. zu is the number one surfer in morocco. legit. moglie's name is munyi but we think he looks like moglie from the jungle book. bagira's name we don't know so we dubbed him jungle book also. funny guys. they took us camel riding. which was a funny experience. short and really unstable feeling but funny as crap. then they took us on a private tour around taghazout. so cool. we didn't feel like tourists. we felt like locals. so we just hung out and talked and stuff one afternoon. we found over and over that moroccans don't leave morocco. didn't meet one who'd left the country. which is interesting. they're fine with that. they're just people who don't have much yet are far happier than many who have much more. interesting concept. inspiring. kind of the way i plan to live my life. anyway all the surf instructors would come to the riad at night after dinner and just hang out and watch surf movies. sweet stuff.

taghazout with moglie and bagira

on a frickin camel

hammam spa: oh my hammam. not the spa you'd picture. which we knew going into it. but didn't know what it actually meant. boy were we not ready. two spanish girls, lauren and i were dropped off and told to take off our clothes. we walked in and there were just naked moroccan women. everywhere. big ones. it took a while and some guts but we finally got down to our underwear. the second we got our bras off there were women pulling us into these steam rooms. and we were gone. there's three rooms and each one is hotter than the last. so naturally they brought us straight to the hottest one. i mean hot. like reallllly hot. there were 40 or so women in each room just sitting on the floor washing themselves. so the ladies plopped us down on the ground and started rubbing this green goop all over our bodies. all over. no. alllll over. the moroccan ladies were laughing at us, i'm pretty sure it was clear we were americans. we just sat there and laughed til we cried, non stop the entire time. the ladies laid us down and washed all the green stuff off of us with these exfoliating gloves. much like steel wool you would clean dishes with. painful. then they flipped us over and washed the back. removed the small amount of dignity we had in our underwear. so we're laying with our faces in 2 inches of gross water, crying laughing, being vigorously scrubbed by naked moroccan women. it could not have been funnier. then they stood us up and dumped two buckets of water on our heads and pushed us out the door. one of the funniest experiences of my life but i wouldn't do it again. one of the girls we were with described it as "mom cleaning a fish". pretty accurate. i am, however, very clean.

people: we met tons of people. ismael, a young moroccan, wanted to teach us how to surf so bad. really friendly, no ulterior motives. just a funny little nice guy. the frenchmen: nicholas and pierre. probably our best friends in taghazout. hilarious beyond belief. we had dinner with them every night and surfed a bunch. so much laughter. one night we were sitting at dinner with the two french guys, three spanish friends, and a norweigan couple. it was so cool just looking around the table and seeing so many people from around the world. we just talked and laughed all night. and we met plenty of random friendly moroccans. it's possible that half of the appeal of morocco is the people we met. unreal.

our surf weekend only lasted three days but we couldn't get a flight until tuesday. so we headed back to marrakech for two days where we planned to lay low and chill.

marrakech: big city. real big. the first day we just chilled in the hostel. met some sweet americans and dinner and hung out with them all night. smoked hookah. stargazed on the roof. tuesday we went out and explored with our new friends. literally walked around all of marrakech which was lovely. so cool. like a movie. there's this call to prayer five times a day that comes from loudspeakers all around the city. everyone stops and faces east. kinda creepy the first couple times but it was cool. walked through several sweet gardens. saw so many possible pictures. culturally mind blowing. marrakech is cool. nothing on taghazout. but man i love morocco.

garden in marrakech

so now we're home. in florence. where we have to wear shoes and it's raining and we can't walk to the beach. i love florence, i do. but i will go back to morocco. mark my words i will. maybe i'll live there one day. because why the heck not? doors are opening and believe you me i'll take it.