Every family has that one person who is skeptical about any trip right from the start. This person in our family is my uncle, who is critical of anything new, is afraid of crowds, and needs an itinerary of all stops that we visit. During our booking of a trip to Morocco through the Best Morocco Tour packages, he raised all his concerns right from day one. The last thing we would have expected was a country that met all his expectations without even raising them.
A Family That Expected the Worst
There were always the same set of cautions we heard before leaving for Morocco. The markets would be noisy. The climate would be difficult to cope with. The food would be weird for an entire group of picky eaters. Even friends who had never been to Morocco at all had some opinions on what our journey would be like. Nothing could have been further from reality when we arrived.
It was as if Morocco did not make us adapt to its ways immediately. It came halfway to meet us at every possible point. Guides told us about local customs before we could ever think to ask. Our hosts gave us new dishes little by little in order to avoid putting pressure on us to try something new. This small act made a huge difference to our trip right from the start.
The Welcome That Changed Everything
The offering of mint tea, which is called “atay” in Arabic, marks the first step of hospitality in Morocco, and it is served right away. It is poured from above to produce foaming on its surface, an easy but somehow important little trick which hosts seem to be proud of doing at the arrival of a guest at their table.
At my uncle’s first arrival there, he simply refused to have it because of the habit. But at the third place he had asked for it even before his host did. Later he told me how the custom seemed to him not drinking but inviting the guest to sit and talk. Three times of pouring are usually done, and each time it tastes a bit different – this is what made my uncle laugh about it. And again, family matters here a lot because of the fact that relatives live nearby.
Food That Won Every Heart
No other dish managed to make my uncle reconsider his opinions about Moroccan cuisine as quickly as tagine. This dish is prepared by layering vegetables, spices, and meat inside a clay pot that creates steam and makes all the ingredients tender and rich but never overwhelming because of the slow cooking process. Tagine refers to a cone-shaped pot where all the ingredients cook together and become very soft without additional fat or sauce. After tagine, my family decided that their second favorite dish was couscous served on Friday by many families as part of the tradition.
In Morocco, eating meals is a social activity that is not limited to simply putting some food into the stomach. There are no forks and knives, people use bread to eat and use their right hands while doing that. Also, no one eats fast, they talk a lot during their meals and even after finishing them. It was very important for my family who were picky eaters that no one forced us to try any unfamiliar food.
The Souks and Their Secrets
Both Marrakech and Fes boast medinas, which can be likened to miniature cities hidden away inside a larger city. The winding alleyways are lined with leather vendors, spices, and metalsmiths who continue to bend brass using the same techniques as their forebears many decades ago. The medina of Fes is one of the oldest in the world, and boasts thousands of winding alleys that work just fine without any cars at all. You see the colors and smell the aromas before hearing the sounds, although the sounds come right behind you in short order after entering through any main gate of the market.
Our guide showed us around a tannery in Fes, where leather is processed using stone pits using techniques that have not changed much in hundreds of years. While my uncle dislikes crowds anywhere he goes at home, he stood in one place for twenty minutes and asked questions non-stop without ever complaining once. Craftsmanship draws attention far more effectively than the mere act of buying an item from a store back home.
Moroccan carpets are also loaded with stories. This art has been handed down through generations by Berber women and is frequently designed with an emotional meaning attached to the designs themselves rather than being purely decorative. The carpet in a Moroccan house is never just a carpet. Certain designs signify a marriage, a birth, or a difficult time, and the end result acts like a journal woven in wool.
A Night the Desert Gave Us
But nothing was as able to change my uncle’s spirit as quickly as the Sahara did. We mounted the camels to head towards the desert camp as the sun sank below the dunes and everyone in our group fell silent after days of noise. That evening, we enjoyed a dinner in the form of food passed around the bonfire and music filled with Berber beats none of us ever heard.
We did not sleep until very late into the night because everybody wanted to admire the stars up above. Out here, without any lights from any nearby cities, the night seemed more accessible than it would have back at home. For people planning their own vacations, a Top Morocco Tours including an entire night spent in the desert would surely make the greatest impact on their families.
Why Culture Made the Difference
Morocco is a nation which cannot divide its past from its present. The Amazigh, Arab, and French cultures which have formed this nation in the past continue to influence this land today through its language, food, and even the way people greet strangers. The visitors are not just spectators here; they become participants of this culture within an hour of their arrival.
This is how my uncle was won over in the end. It was not one sight or one meal alone that he fell for but the slow pace of a nation where all guests are treated like family members and curiosity has the liberty to flourish by itself, free from any kind of compulsion whatsoever. Families which set out to visit Morocco with doubts in mind return with feelings which could never be orchestrated for the benefit of tourists.
