1 // There are hardly any women in public. 

Before going to Morocco, I knew that, traditionally, women are not part of the public society.  They usually stay home to care for the house and children.  If they are in public, it´s to sell goods or to buy foods.  With that being said, I was absolutely amazed at the true lack of women just relaxing in the street or in restaurants and cafes.  I did not see even one woman sitting in a café enjoying a tea (except in tourist places).  I traveled to Morocco with Luis and when we stopped for a tea, I was always the only female in the place.

2 // Public restrooms are an experience and not for the faint of heart. 

I saw one public toilet and the rest of the bathrooms offered a pee-drenched hole for you to hover over.  This is worse than any country I have ever experienced, including Cuba.  There are often people at the entrance who you will need to pay in order to use the bathroom, but that will not mean its clean.  As a matter of fact, you might think “wtf do you do?  Nothing?”.  I guess you get used to it, but I wasn’t mentally prepared for this!  I should have known something was fishy when, in the first cafe we stopped in, after asking to use the bathroom, the waiter ran in in front of me, checked everything, and said “ok!  it ready!”.

3 // The people were not as aggressive/pushy as I had expected. Before traveling, I heard (and read) a lot about how aggressive the people can be in terms of convincing you to buy something or offering to ‘help’ you.  The first day we arrived, a man asked where our hotel was and tried to accompany us there and I thought ‘wow, he is so friendly!’ and then realized he wanted money.  After that, things got better and I found that a firm NO and some steady ignoring sends the message loud and clear.  Also, I really found that people weren’t interested in harassing me as much as they were with Luis.  I guess I should also say that we didn’t do much “shopping” and, therefore, did not create any openings for being harassed.

4 // They will accept Euros.  The conversion rate right now is about 10 Dirham / 1 Euro, so it makes it easy to pay in Euros if that’s what you are more comfortable with.  For only a few days of travel, this can be easier.  I’m not sure, however, if you can pay for small things- like coffees and snacks on the street in Euros. 

5 // It was much, much poorer and chaotic than I expected. 

I have been to poor, second and third-world countries (Cuba, Peru, etc) before and it never becomes less shocking.  For whatever reason, I did not expect Morocco (especially Tangier) to be quite as poor (think people in ripped clothing, only socks or ripped shoes, etc. in the streets) as it was.  The plazas were full of people (men, mostly) just sitting or walking around.  People don’t appear to work and there was so much…disorder.  Despite the apparent poverty during the day, we didn’t see anyone sleeping on the streets at night (but we also were not out past 11 on any night, so I can’t be sure).