After my first trip to Morocco earlier this year, I went back to this country again for 2 weeks this month. Last time I visited the rural area in the South but this time I went to Casablanca and Rabat. Rabat is the capital of Morocco.

Why Morocco again?

There are 3 reasons for this: 1. I fell in love with this country the last time. 2. I wanted to go surfing again which is possible there. 3. One of the surf instructors I knew from the last time asked me if I wanted to visit again and to take surf lessons with him.

Where did I stay?

You know that I’m a fan of Airbnb, so in Casablanca I stayed in an amazing Airbnb place which I can highly recommend to you if you think about visiting this city, it’s this one. I only stayed there for 2 nights and then headed to Rabat by train which only took about 1h and was really cheap. In Rabat I stayed at the Medina Surfing Association in a shared room. I loved that place. It’s in the middle of the Medina and super cozy with a roof terrace – of course. All the houses in Morocco seem to have one and I love it! It was a great experience to stay in the Medina „labyrinth“. In the beginning I got lost there quite a few times but later it got easier to find my way around.

What did I do?

On the plane to Casablanca, I got to know a German girl (the only other German on the plane) who was sitting next to me. As I always say: When you are travelling alone, you won’t stay alone if you don’t want to. So this was either a huge coincidence or the law of attraction taking place.. 😉 We went to discover the city the next day together with another girl from Canada which was pretty helpful as she spoke French and my own French is not that good anymore. In Casablanca there actually is not much too see besides the huge Hassan II Mosque but this is already reason enough to visit Casablance. It’s so beautiful, I almost had to cry when standing in front of it. It’s one of the biggest mosques in the world and one of the only 4 mosques in Morocco which is open for visitors. So of course, we had to go in there. If you ever get the chance, I can only recommend you to go and see a moque from the inside. I liked it a lot, so much warmer and cozier than churches.

In Rabat I visited 3 sightseeing places with some other people from the surfcamp: The Kasbah des Oudaïa, the Hassan Tower and the Chellah. All of the 3 places are beautiful and impressive, the last one was my favourite though. The Chellah is an old Roman settlement and I loved the atmosphere there, the old constructions, the nature and all the storks who have their bird-nests there. For the rest of the time I was mainly surfing, recovering from surfing, chilling with other people on the roof terrace or surfclub and watching the sunset from the beach or the board. I also loved strolling through the Medina a lot, just enjoying the old buildings, watching people living their lives and looking at the little shops that are everywhere. I’m not used to places crowded and busy like that, even during the night – especially during the night. This was a nice change for me.

What about the vegan food?

I was actually really lucky. At the surfhostel, the breakfast was vegan with bread, jam and fruits. For lunch and dinner, my surfteacher always cooked some vegan food because food was included for me when I booked my surf lessons. Sometimes we went out for eating as well and in this case it was really practical to have my Moroccan friend by my side as it is so much easier then to ask for vegan options like pizza without cheese. 🙂 But even if you are there alone or if you do not get homemade food all day, there is always a way. Especially if you speak French, it should not be a problem at all in restaurants to get vegan food. Otherwise it is always possible to make clear what you want with some English or sign langauge. There is also the option to ask someone else to ask for you, just don’t be shy. When you want to prepare your own meals, you can just buy vegan food like bread, potatoes, vegetables, fruits,.. which you can find everywhere.

Morocco as a woman?

My experience on this trip was completely different from the one I made when I went to this country in March. Back then, I got some looks, of course, as I’m a blonde European woman but that’s it. Staying at the beach in a bikini also was no problem at all. This time, people were staring at me and guys were talking to me and making comments all the time as soon as I left the hosue without a man by my side. One even wanted to take a photo with me. You learn to ignore it though, it didn’t really bother me much. I even made fun of it by saying that back in Germany I will be sad when noone makes me feel this special anymore and calls me a beautiful woman all the time. 😀 At the beach it was not really possible to go into the water in a bikini, most women went swimming with clothes on. I did it anyway, early in the morning, late in the evening or right after surfing when there were still surfers with me in the water. It was explained to me that the original people from Rabat don’t care about women in bikinis but that during the summer holidays all the people from the inland come to the beaches. They are not used to women wearing revealing clothes and bikinis which is why they have a different mentality. But please, don’t let this be a reason to not visit this fascinating country.