S4 E22 Let's Talk Morocco

[00:00:00] Speaker A: Foreign. [00:00:19] Speaker B: Guess who's here, everybody. Guess who's back. The best is. [00:00:23] Speaker A: Oh, sure, here we go. [00:00:26] Speaker B: Mom doesn't know who that is. Mondino. Eminem. [00:00:29] Speaker C: Yes, I'm sure. [00:00:31] Speaker B: Okay. Yeah. Anyway, I spoiled it. Hi, Mom. Welcome to. [00:00:37] Speaker C: Welcome. Welcome. Executive producer in the house. [00:00:39] Speaker B: Yeah. Wait. Oh, shoot. [00:00:43] Speaker C: Oh, no. I got a notification that her connection was unstable. [00:00:49] Speaker B: Oh, crap. [00:00:50] Speaker C: I know. Oh, it looks like we're still recording. She'll pop back on. Yeah. There she is. [00:00:56] Speaker B: What happened? [00:00:58] Speaker A: That I'm unstable. [00:00:59] Speaker B: Yeah. Okay, well, welcome unstable lady. She is in the middle of nowhere. [00:01:06] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:01:07] Speaker B: So her Internet is not the best. The cat is, like, freaking out. There's a cat on mom's lap, and he is, like, not stoked about us recording. He's like, what is going on? [00:01:17] Speaker C: He's looking around like, who's in the house? What's happening? [00:01:20] Speaker B: Yeah, totally. [00:01:22] Speaker A: Let me know if I'm like, I die. [00:01:26] Speaker B: Okay. [00:01:26] Speaker A: You're okay for now. It keeps saying I'm unstable, so. Yeah, we have Starlink, too. I don't know. [00:01:32] Speaker B: Oh, my gosh. [00:01:34] Speaker C: Starlink. [00:01:35] Speaker A: Well, yeah, it's Elon. He's doing it. [00:01:38] Speaker C: I know. I just saw all your. [00:01:41] Speaker B: Hear our podcast. That's probably why he knows. [00:01:46] Speaker C: He knows too much. I was just looking at all the TikTok videos that you sent me the other day, Renee, and I was crying, racking up. [00:01:52] Speaker A: Oh, my God. I tried to send you happy ones. [00:01:55] Speaker C: I know. How about you try? [00:02:00] Speaker A: I tried. [00:02:02] Speaker C: Anyway, welcome. [00:02:04] Speaker B: We were just so bad. I know. We were just going to have mom on the pod because she went on a very exciting trip to Morocco. Mom, do you want to give a little, like, backstory of how you got invited on this trip or, like, how it came to fruition? [00:02:25] Speaker A: Yeah, I can give you, like, an overview of what we did too. Yeah. One of my friends was going to Morocco. This was some. A thing on her bucket list. She's quite the world traveler, so Morocco's been on her list for a while. She really wanted to go to the Sahara and wake up to know sunrise on the Sahara. So that was. That was one of her items that we had to check off. But she organized it all and got everybody hotel in the car and all that stuff. And basically we flew into Morocco, got in a rental, and then traveled all around the country to the places we wanted to go. We couldn't hit everything. We were there for 14 days. So we. There were things that we missed. But, yeah, I think we. I feel like we got to a lot of. Especially the rural areas. We basically tried to avoid the. The cities. Some cities were like Casablanca and all that stuff is definitely. You fly into Casablanca, so you gotta deal with that. But I. There were three. Three out of the four of us [00:03:47] Speaker B: that [00:03:50] Speaker A: had driver's license. You have to have an international driver's license. And so there was one of us who didn't want to deal with it, so she bowed out. But eventually it got to the point in the first two days, I became the designated driver. So I drove almost the whole time. I was very good. I wasn't. I was a. Trying not to say anything too much, but I. Casablanca is insane. [00:04:20] Speaker B: Where. [00:04:21] Speaker A: It's one of those countries that people. They don't really see the lines, the road lines, you know, so there could be like three lanes, but there's five cars across. [00:04:32] Speaker B: Wow. [00:04:32] Speaker A: And so you're like. Yeah. And so there was a lot of that and freaking out in the back seat and a little bit of screaming. Oh, no. Well, I thought. [00:04:44] Speaker B: For some reason I knew you guys got a car, but for some reason I thought that you had to have a driver. Did you not? Could you have hired one? [00:04:53] Speaker A: I think so. I'm sure you could. Yeah. [00:04:56] Speaker B: Okay. Crazy. [00:04:58] Speaker A: Wow. [00:04:58] Speaker B: That's very brave. I don't know if I would have done that. Okay. [00:05:03] Speaker A: It wasn't bad in the rural areas. We spent a lot of time hitting national parks. You know, there we went to three different national parks and in rural areas and tried to stay out of the city. So once you're out, I. It was fine. You know, driving wasn't bad at all. Except they have state police and they have stops. Traffic stops in all these different places. And you kind of have to know. You have to really look at these tiny signs to see if you're supposed to stop or are you supposed to. It's being. There's one. It's control. One's regulatory, I think is regula mente, and then one's halt. And if you don't halt and wait for them to wave you on, they will pull you over and ticket you. [00:06:00] Speaker C: Okay. [00:06:00] Speaker A: So we got ticketed a couple times. Oh, no, no. Yeah. I mean, the guy was pretty funny. He was like. This young guy comes over to us and he spoke really good English. He had braces on his teeth, which Moroccans don't usually have the best teeth. But I was like, wow, he's. He's a cutie. So he starts chatting us up and he. He charges me 400 Durham, which is like 40 bucks. Whoa. That's a lot. He said he was going to ticket Me. And then he says, is this your first trip to Morocco? And I. And I said yes. And he hands me back 200. [00:06:37] Speaker B: Oh. [00:06:38] Speaker A: So he only charged me 20 bucks. And he didn't look at me either. So he was pretty funny. But we were like. We didn't know we were supposed to stop. Like we weren't quite clued into the signs at that point, you know. So yeah, we. We definitely got to hit some. We hired tour guides in the national parks. That took us on. Don't you have to around and stuff like that? A lot of national parks you don't have to. [00:07:07] Speaker B: Oh, okay, that's nice. Like in Ethiopia you had to. To hire someone to like take you into the national park and stuff and. Yeah. Or like have a driver or go through like a tour company or whatever the case may be. It feels like it's kind of just like a thing just so for like regulation or they. Just. Because they know only tourists would do national parks and so they would just want your money. I don't know. [00:07:30] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. No, they don't. It didn't seem super regulated like that, you know, like they want your tourist business. I think they. When the guy's like, is this your first time? They don't want it to. They don't want to have a bad impression, you know. [00:07:46] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:07:47] Speaker A: So that's definitely in tourism favor. But do you think 14 days was [00:07:55] Speaker B: too long just for like being international and like a third world country? Or do you think it was like the perfect amount of time? [00:08:04] Speaker A: I feel like we could have done better on our time, but you don't know. There's a lot of unknowns when you're planning a trip. You don't quite know are we going to be in this town for two nights or one night? What's enough, you know, is it enough to sit, see all this, all the sites and then move on or that kind of thing? So we didn't. We didn't hit fez. We didn't go to Marrakesh, which I would have wanted to. Those are two places. Like I think we could have tried to get those into the schedule and we didn't. You just, you just don't know. Like we only spent one night on at the Sahara and that was enough. Like we did a camel ride. We went out and watched the sunset out in the dunes and stuff like that. But we only had like a three hour camel ride. We didn't. They have like day long ones where you go farther and that kind of stuff. But we were envisioning it to be super hot and didn't want to be out in the heat. And then when we got there, the weather was beautiful. It's like we could have easily been out there all day, but you. Those are things you just don't know, you know? [00:09:20] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:09:22] Speaker A: Did you have to drive, like, give us to get to the sand? Sorry, go ahead. [00:09:27] Speaker C: Did you have to drive all the way to the south to get to the dune area? Because you guys flew into Casablanca and then just, like, drove south on the continent. [00:09:36] Speaker A: Yeah, we went south, southeast. [00:09:38] Speaker C: Okay. [00:09:39] Speaker A: Yeah. I feel like we went more east. Yeah. And it was like. It was six and a half hours to get to the Sahara, so it was a ways. [00:09:49] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:09:51] Speaker A: But they. They do give you. They gather up water bottles, and they give you a water bottle full of sand. Oh, that's. Which I. I find fascinating because, you know, I spent a lot of time in Yosemite national park, and you were not supposed to take anything. [00:10:09] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:10:09] Speaker A: So they always said if you. If everybody took what you want to take, then there would be nothing left. And I'm sure the Sahara wouldn't go away quickly. But eventually, every single tourist gets a water bottle. I mean, I don't know, but we had taken some already. That's the thing. It was like we had already had a bottle that we were all. We had filled for all of us. And then the. All our way out, the guy, they. They drive you out to these camps, and that was probably the best place to stay was these tents. We had these, like, concrete slab, nice tents with shower, your own bathroom and everything. It was amazing. It was clean. It was great. So they drive you out there, and on the way back, he stopped and got us all sand, and we were all like, oh, my God, we already have sand. So we had to figure out where to get rid of it along the way. I know. I was like, oh, now we. Because, you know, I was nervous about having too much in my luggage, because then you get charged, you know, sand is heavy. [00:11:10] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:11:10] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:11:12] Speaker B: Wait, mom, can you go close your door? Because Dad's zuring is. [00:11:16] Speaker A: Can you hear? [00:11:17] Speaker B: Yeah. It's so loud. [00:11:18] Speaker A: Yeah, he's. He's mixing. Oh, he's making sausage. [00:11:24] Speaker B: I can tell. He turned it up. Way up in the middle of that story. [00:11:32] Speaker A: Sorry about that. [00:11:33] Speaker B: No, it's fine. [00:11:34] Speaker A: There'll be lots of editing on this one. [00:11:36] Speaker C: No worries. I, like, I pulled up a map of the Sahara Desert, and I guess I just didn't realize that it spans the entire continent from coast to coast of, like, northern Africa. Yeah, yeah. [00:11:52] Speaker A: It's huge. [00:11:52] Speaker C: Huge. [00:11:53] Speaker A: I guess that's why they give you sand. [00:11:55] Speaker C: Yeah. Because they can afford it. [00:11:59] Speaker A: Oh, man. The other thing was in the morning I got up and I went walking out because you're right on the edge. The camps. All the camps are like right on the edge. And you and I walked out and you're basically looking at Albania. You're looking. We were right on the edge of Albania, so It was like 50 miles away. You could. That's where the sun came up. So that was really cool. [00:12:26] Speaker B: That is cool. [00:12:27] Speaker C: That is amazing. [00:12:28] Speaker B: Wait, so you didn't answer. Do you think 14 days was enough? I know you said that it was hard to time. So you just wish you saw a few more things in your 14 days. [00:12:39] Speaker A: Yeah, I think. I think in hindsight if you. If I did it again, I probably would go to those places that we didn't get a chance to go to. [00:12:50] Speaker C: Marrakesh is like on my list, if anything, for like the architecture. Did you find a lot of like cool tile work and stuff in where you guys were staying? [00:12:59] Speaker A: Yeah, a lot of the mosques have beautiful tile work. Yeah, we didn't. There is a. Oh, there's not an old mosque. It was built in 82. But there. It's an old mosque site and it is absolutely gorgeous. It's right on the water and it's. It just. You walk into the down. You like walk down into it and there's just these hallways and they're all tiled and there's so cool. They have the fountain areas that are just all just tile work and beautiful structure. Structural, like, you know, the typical arched walkways, you know, that kind of thing. As opposed to just your standard like stick built church. You know, everything's very ornate. It was gorgeous. Yeah, that was really cool. [00:14:02] Speaker B: Okay, so after the Sahara, where did you guys head? [00:14:06] Speaker A: We went to Ifrane national park and went hiking. And that there's. There's good and bad for all of this. I think, you know, traveling is always a positive experience and understanding people's culture and all that stuff. But, you know, their national parks look like county parks to me. You know, it's great that they're definitely reserving these areas for future generations and no development and stuff, but you know, it just looked like a. One of our local parks. But, you know, what do I have to compare it to? Yeah, Yosemite is pretty stunning. So we did get a guide. We went to Ifrane and we got a guide that took us on a. A path. Not. It's. It wasn't like a trail. He knew where he was going. He was from that area and he. We kind of boony crashed our way through this forest and that was kind of cool. And then we ended up over in a picnic area. And in that area there was just so much trash that it kind of takes away from it a little bit. And so he went into this whole thing about how he's trying to improve the. The, like, conserve areas and try to get trash picked up by the local government and all this stuff. [00:15:37] Speaker B: I'm sure it's just cultural, you know, like, same with. [00:15:40] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:15:41] Speaker B: South of us, like Mexico is, you know, they just have different ways with trash and they don't see it like that. [00:15:48] Speaker A: But it's not like that everywhere. You would go to a city and it would be beautifully clean and, you know, trash cans on the side of the road and. And then you'd go to another city and there was just like this. The last place we stayed, we were on the beach for two nights and the beach was just totally covered. The whole town was covered in trash. And. And the. The hotel manager said that they. The local government just stopped picking it up like a year and a half ago. It's like. It was just bizarre, just weird stuff like that, you know. But on that. In that particular town we went over, we got a tour with a guy who was well versed in the local bird populations. And so we went birding, which was kind of cool. They had flamingos. The flamingos weren't quite really pink. They were kind of slightly pink because, you know, they're. Flamingos only get pink because they eat shrimp. And the shrimp hadn't. Their season hadn't come through or whatever. But they were really cool because they're very tall and statuesque. And he was pretty good at pointing out all the different birds and all that stuff. So that was really fun. We got out on the water. Nice. So there's lots of, you know, just little adventures. We went to see the Strait of Gibraltar. Oh, cool. [00:17:18] Speaker C: I was gonna ask that. [00:17:20] Speaker A: Yeah. So we went to the north. So you know that it's really interesting at the tip of Morocco, the east side is actually owned by Spain. There's like a little knob at the top of the continent, and that particular knob is owned by Spain. It's so odd because something like Spain is across the. Across the Strait of Gibraltar. Right. And so we. Because I was like, we should go over there. And everybody's like, no, we can't. [00:17:54] Speaker B: We're. [00:17:54] Speaker A: We're going to be stuck. You Know, trying to get through customs just to get. Go to another country and then come back and all that stuff. Because I thought that would be the closest place we could see Gibraltar Rock, because there actually is a Gibraltar Rock, you know. And coming to find out the Gibraltar Rock is owned by the. By England. [00:18:17] Speaker C: Oh, really? Because I didn't know that. [00:18:19] Speaker A: Yeah, just the rock. It's so bizarre. So you could see it across the way, but, you know, just because of that, I think it was such a good place, secure place to, you know, military strategy to. To protect that. That waterway going into the Mediterranean Sea. So that's why it's owned by different people. And I'm sure that's. Politically, that's why the lines are so odd. Crazy. So that was pretty fun. We went to Chefchaewon, the town of Chefchaouen, and in that town everything is blue. [00:19:02] Speaker B: So there's. Yeah, I've heard about that. I didn't know the name of it, though. [00:19:06] Speaker A: Yeah. So they paint all the buildings instead of having, like, white stucco everywhere, it's. They painted them all blue. And nobody could definitively say why they did that. They said, oh, it's a mosquito thing. It keeps the mosquitoes down. Which didn't make much sense. And then they said the Jewish population came, I think, in the 20s or 30s, and they painted everything blue because, you know, like the Jewish. The Israeli flag is David. Yeah. Blue. But it was beautiful. Like, you walk down these tiny little streets and everything's. All the walls are blue, the ground is like blue. It's just so bizarre. Yeah. [00:19:52] Speaker C: Instagram worthy. [00:19:53] Speaker A: And we. Yeah, it was really cool. And there was a lot of tourists there. I would say that was a really cool, clean town. And they also. Somebody had enough money where they gathered up all the cats and dogs and they vaccinated and. And fixed them all. And so they all had tags in their ears. And that was only two places that we saw throughout the whole place throughout the whole country that. That did that. [00:20:25] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:20:26] Speaker A: Which is kind of awesome because there was a lot. There was a lot of dogs. They didn't. They weren't like, starving. They didn't look like they were, you know, in bad straits or anything. They were just not with anybody. You know, they're just in packs and they're not with people. We saw. I saw one guy that had two dogs leashed, and that was the whole. The only time I ever saw a dog with a leash on in the whole country. [00:20:58] Speaker C: They only have one leash for one guy. [00:21:04] Speaker A: Yeah, exactly. [00:21:05] Speaker B: I mean, that's Pretty normal. We don't. We even have bad rules about, like, spay neutering in the United States. So I feel like when people judge other countries, obviously we care a lot more about, like, I don't know, like, owning dogs and everything than other countries. But, yeah, we still have, like, I see stuff on Tick Tock all the time. Like, obviously it's my algorithm, but, like, I get targeted for, like, videos of people just, like, seeing, like, dumped dogs on the side of the road, like, all the time. It's such a bummer. But anyway, it also. [00:21:35] Speaker A: And I think the other side of it, I think they're like, when we were in that beach town, there were packs of dogs run along the beach, because I would walk on the beach in the morning by myself, and. And there would just be packs of dogs and their independence. You know, there's something to be said for. They have nothing that's holding them in the yard or they're just cruising around, you know, they're just having them living their best life. And obviously they're eating because they're not, you know, skin and bones. They're. They're getting food somewhere. But, yeah, it's just. It's just hard to see sometimes, you know? [00:22:14] Speaker B: Yeah. You know those. My friend kept pictures or memes of those dogs where they're like, whatever. Like, a hundred years ago, your ancestors, like, had to scavenge for food, and it's like a lab, like, laying on the couch with, like, its belly, like, fully exposed or whatever. Have you seen those? Yeah. [00:22:36] Speaker A: No, that sounds terrible. [00:22:37] Speaker B: No, no, I mean, like, they're joke. Yeah, it's like people like, millennial moms with their dogs who, like, have, like, their dog's, like, dressed up in, like, a sweater, and it's, like, having treats and it's laying on the couch, and it's like, 100 years ago, your ancestors had to, like, look for food or whatever. Yeah, there's these dogs in Morocco just, like, living their best life anyway. Yeah. It's just funny. What would your friend do? [00:23:02] Speaker A: Mom. Oh, no, go ahead. Kate was gonna say something. [00:23:07] Speaker C: So I want to hear about the food. I want to tell. I want you to tell me, like, what your favorite dishes were. What, like, local cuisine was best, if it was in Chefchaon or if it was in Casablanca. And did you watch Casablanca before you went, like, on the plane or did you just go and drive? Because, like, I feel like that's a perfect opportunity to, like, run another viewing through. Although it's not really about Casablanca, but I'd Just be curious. [00:23:32] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:23:33] Speaker A: Yeah. I did watch Casablanca before you did, but there. Yeah, it's just. And there isn't very many. I'm sure it was done on a set, so there's not like. Oh, definitely wide shots of Casablanca or anything in that movie except for maybe the airport. [00:23:51] Speaker C: Yeah, exactly. [00:23:54] Speaker A: Yeah. I. As far as the food goes, I was a little. I hate to say this, but I was a little disappointed. I thought there would be more. More variety of. Of dishes. And they. They do a lot of tangine. Yeah, right. With the. The ceramic clay oven thing that sits. You can sit it on your stove or you can put it in, like, a. An oven. And they. And it. What they were. They're very proud of it. So every single meal, they'll offer you a tangent. And it can be lamb. It can be. And it can be that. And it's basically just meat in the middle and then vegetables that are piled above it, and then it's cooked. And usually the meat is tender, very tender and that stuff. But there were times when we had it and it was very overcooked, like dry, you know, which sometimes is a good thing. You don't want undercooked, but. [00:25:03] Speaker B: Right. [00:25:04] Speaker A: Um, my friends. My friend Elaine and my friend Amy had one pretty much every single place we went. And I was just. Not that I couldn't. I couldn't. It was just like roasted chicken all the time, you know, and it was. It just got old for me. And the other thing is, there was a couple places, like when we are on the Sahara, they did an eggplant one that was amazing. And their chicken one was great. But there were other times when. And it sometimes, like the bottom of the tangent, there would be sauce, and you could, like, dip. You know, you could put your vegetables in the sauce, and. And they always gave you lots of bread, and you could dip your bread in the sauce and stuff. And other times it would be very, very dry, and you're like, oh, I kind of missed some kind of saucy. Because the spices are pretty good. They're, you know, a lot of cumin, paprika, turmeric. I mean, that would be my expectation. [00:26:08] Speaker C: Right. Like, this is a big spice country, so, like, a variety of different types of options. But that's kind of a bummer, though, if it wasn't always hitting that level of. You flew across the world to. [00:26:22] Speaker A: And it could have been just the fact of where we were and, you know, where we chose to eat. I don't know that could. That. That's the other Thing, you know, I think wherever you go, whenever you travel, if you're in, you know, a three star hotel, of course you're going to have a great time. [00:26:40] Speaker C: Sure. [00:26:40] Speaker A: But we never did that. Yeah, that's fair. But the other thing they would always offer is skewers. You could have like chicken skewers and then vegetables on the side. There was a lot of salad, but the salad was like cucumber, tomato. There was of course, no lettuce. [00:26:57] Speaker C: Sure. [00:26:58] Speaker A: And that was good. The cucumber tomato salads were pretty good, actually. And then for breakfast it was the exact same thing every single day, which drove me crazy. Like, we got a lot of breakfasts in our hotels and they served like two or three types of breads. They would give you, maybe give you butter, but not always. There'd be honey and those laughing cow cheese wedges. Wedges, like cream cheese. Yeah. And then you would get one egg, just one egg. And so that got old. [00:27:41] Speaker C: Yeah, that's fair. Fourteen days of that. Yeah. [00:27:44] Speaker A: Yeah. And I was just like, I couldn't, I couldn't eat any more bread because I don't eat bread a lot in my normal life. And, and to have it because that, because that's the only thing there is, you kind of like, I gotta eat this bread. But they would sell these figs that. Dried figs on the side of the road and in a, like a long string, they would string them together and so there would be this long, like three foot long string of figs. We bought one of those and that helped a lot. Push all that bread through. Yeah, but [00:28:22] Speaker C: did anybody get like a lot of bread diarrhea or really sick, like food poisoning or anything like that? [00:28:28] Speaker A: Yeah, I only got that one day and then my friend got sick for two days. But nobody else got sick. [00:28:35] Speaker C: That's good. [00:28:35] Speaker A: So that was that. I thought we, we went, we got out of that pretty easy. [00:28:40] Speaker B: Good. [00:28:41] Speaker A: The other thing on the menus, they always offered like hamburgers, pizza and tacos. Funny, I never ordered. I only ordered a burger one time because I was so sick of the other. And I. And the. You know how you go to a different country and the burger just doesn't taste right? Yeah, it's like, it's. I don't know if it's gamey or it's. There's something about it. You're just like, this isn't quite, you know, it's just maybe it wasn't beef. [00:29:11] Speaker C: It was like Camel or something. Did you ever eat Camel? [00:29:17] Speaker A: No, there was never that on the menu. [00:29:19] Speaker C: Okay. [00:29:19] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:29:20] Speaker B: I wonder if they like, worship kind of, right, or. No. [00:29:25] Speaker A: Yeah, I don't. Yeah, maybe we didn't ever talk about that. [00:29:29] Speaker C: I know they do. [00:29:30] Speaker A: The guide never mentioned that. [00:29:32] Speaker C: No. If it's like readily accessible to tourists, you know. [00:29:36] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:29:37] Speaker B: Crazy. [00:29:37] Speaker A: But like, for desserts, they would give us fruit. It'd be like melon. We had passion fruit a couple times. So that kind of thing for dessert. So there's never really chocolate there. You could buy chocolate in the store, but it was like kinder, you know, it was like. Came from Switzerland. [00:30:03] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:30:04] Speaker B: So good chocolate. [00:30:06] Speaker C: Imported chocolate. [00:30:09] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:30:09] Speaker A: Yeah. And then any teas that you drank [00:30:15] Speaker C: that you were like. [00:30:16] Speaker A: The other thing. Oh, yeah, we had tea every day. [00:30:19] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:30:19] Speaker A: For breakfast. [00:30:20] Speaker C: You had. [00:30:20] Speaker A: You. Oh. And it was always hot. You couldn't. There was no ice. Right. We never got. We never drank anything with ice. And I was just like, oh, my God. Because they'd give you. If you asked for a Coke, it would just come. You'll be like, can I have a cup of ice? Some of the, you know, again, if you're staying in really high end places, I'm sure you could get ice. But they probably have filters on their ice maker, you know, but in these places that we went to, we just didn't have that option. [00:30:49] Speaker C: Probably smart, though. [00:30:51] Speaker A: The other thing I was going to say is no alcohol. And my friend, who's a big wine person, she was like, I just want a glass of wine. She was just kept saying that. And by the time we hit that beach place, the guy was like, would you guys make a bottle of wine? And she was like, y. We got this bottle of wine and it was horrible. This is terrible. And it was. It came from France and I was like, wow, [00:31:21] Speaker B: how is spending your birthday there? I know, because you didn't get a drink on your birthday, but how was birthday celebrations? [00:31:30] Speaker A: Yeah, we. We didn't really celebrate. Oh, no. Yeah. It was kind of low key. [00:31:37] Speaker B: Okay. That was when you guys were at those blue pools. Right. That place was really cool. [00:31:45] Speaker A: You. The national park with the river. [00:31:48] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:31:48] Speaker A: Through it. Yeah. Yeah. That was really cool. That place. It was really fascinating. So they had all these, like, restaurants all along this beautiful river and just a tiny little canyon, a pretty tight canyon. And all their seating was in the water. It was really wild. Like you could sit with your feet in the water at a table next to the. Next to the river. Yeah. It was really interesting because I asked, [00:32:21] Speaker B: I said, how do you. [00:32:23] Speaker A: Who decides who gets a spot? You know, because they're all. They all, like, set up an oven and they'll make you tangine so you can get a tangent meal there. But, yeah, I was trying to get out of him. Like, I don't think he truly understood my question, you know, but, like, who gets to decide who goes where? And, you know, who gets to set up and stay there? But, yeah, it was kind of interesting. Cool. And that place there was also. On our hike, we started at the town level and hiked straight up this. This trail that went. Led to a road that came into this town that sat above the town, and they were all growing marijuana. So there was, like, marijuana everywhere. And we were like, wow, this is interesting. And. And so we got to a spot where we were at the time when they were starting to harvest, and so they were cutting, and there was. I was taking pictures of all these bundles of marijuana up against this house. And so I was taking pictures, and this lady came out and she started yelling at me, and she ran. She was, like, next to me. Like, before I even realized what was happening, she was, like, screaming at me. And she kept. And the guide was like, you need. She wants you to delete the photos. So I had to delete the photos. [00:33:59] Speaker C: Oh, geez. [00:34:00] Speaker A: So bad. [00:34:01] Speaker C: Doing something. [00:34:02] Speaker A: And I don't know. I think it's. I think it's medicinally legal, but not recreationally. So I think she was concerned that, you know, who knows where those photos were gonna go? I. I don't know. I don't know why she was so upset, but, yeah, I was afraid she was. She was gonna hit me or something because she ran at me really quick, and I was like, oh, no. But yeah, that was, like, right above the national park. Yikes. Yeah, it was pretty. Pretty interesting. [00:34:34] Speaker C: Did you find that, like, the locals there were a little less, like, not obviously, the people who work in the touristy things, but, like, the other locals were a little standoffish. What did you. [00:34:46] Speaker A: No, they were super friendly. [00:34:48] Speaker C: Oh, cool. [00:34:48] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:34:48] Speaker C: Okay. [00:34:48] Speaker A: They didn't. They don't. [00:34:50] Speaker C: One isolated incident that this crazy lady. [00:34:53] Speaker A: Yeah, and they're. They're really honest. They're incredibly. Like, I would hand. I put a bunch of coins in my hand, and they would pick out what they needed, you know? [00:35:05] Speaker B: Oh, my God. [00:35:08] Speaker A: No, it wasn't that. I couldn't. I didn't know what it was because it was really easy to convert. It was like, Durhams is. It's 11 Durhams to $1. And so it was easy to go, okay, 30 Durhams is $3, you know, but I couldn't See, like, the money is so worn down. Is that a five or is that a ten? Like, I couldn't. [00:35:34] Speaker C: I. [00:35:34] Speaker A: You know, I'd have to be carrying my glasses around the whole time, and I couldn't. I couldn't. Like, I couldn't literally. And the. The fives and tens are exactly the same size, and those are the ones that are. Have gold. Like, it was really hard to distinguish. I could do dollars, but. Or, you know, paper money, but the coins, I would just be like, oh, my God, just pick what you need, you know? And there. There's a couple times when my friend Elaine, who travels a lot, she would be like, you need to bar. You know, you need to argue with these people and start at this price. And my other friend Jan is like, the guy is selling rocks on the side of the road. She's like, if he needs a little extra money, I'm. I'm okay with giving him 10 extra dollars. [00:36:23] Speaker C: I know. [00:36:24] Speaker A: Get off my back, you know? Well, you know, I feel tension going on about that. [00:36:28] Speaker B: I feel very similarly. It's like, when I was a Peace Corps volunteer, I felt very strongly about that. That, like, I didn't want them to, like, Ferengi wag us or, like, give us a foreigner price for things because, you know, they could tell you whatever price they wanted, essentially, and no one would care about an eye. But like, that. So, yeah, when I was a Peace Corps volunteer, I was, like, very against white people just coming in and, like, handing people money. But then, like, as a foreigner now, who makes more money than, whatever, $10 a week or whatever? I feel like, yeah, you can just. If it makes it easier on you. Like, I'm all about, like, negotiating, but, like, a few dollars at the this point is like, whatever. I don't know. [00:37:08] Speaker A: Right. [00:37:09] Speaker B: It's hard. [00:37:10] Speaker A: That's how I think that was her philosophy. She was like, if this is going to help him, we should just give him a little extra cash. You know, it's not a big deal. But there was, like, this other lady in Chef Shawan. We got henna on our hand, you know, running up our arms and stuff. We had this lady, and she definitely was. She was a shyster. She was like. My one friend went to one lady, and she got. I think it cost her 10 Durham or. Yeah, I think it was 10 Durham. And we ended up paying, like, more than double what she paid. You know, just. You just have to. Because we didn't actually know. I. I probably would have argued with her had I known that the going rate because there was a bunch of ladies doing the same thing, you know, but also $2. [00:37:58] Speaker B: That's nothing. [00:37:59] Speaker A: I know. Yeah. So I don't know that it was that much, but. Or that little. But it was just. It was just the difference of amounts were kind of interesting. [00:38:10] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:38:11] Speaker A: But. Well, again, spices were pretty cool. The spice markets and stuff like that. We went to several places. We went to McNas and that had a really amazing local market. So you're kind of mixing with the locals. It wasn't. It wasn't touristy at all. And so they've got like, you know, lives chickens that they'll cut their heads off right in front of you and that kind of thing. But the spices, the barrels of spices were super cool. Cool. Yeah. That was really neat. And then we got pulled into a rug place. [00:38:51] Speaker C: Nice. [00:38:52] Speaker A: That I ended up getting a couple rugs, but they were. And they would ship for you, which was kind of. That was my big thing because I was like, I. I wouldn't mind some pottery. Like, their pottery was amazing. But how am I going to get this back? Like, I can't get these little side stands that would sell this beautiful pottery. There's just no way for me to. Unless we. We figured out a way to get to a post office and package it up and like, it's such a big deal. So if you found somebody that would actually ship it for. For you, that's like, you know, that's pretty cool. My friend did buy a big like a 500 rug and she was like, my rug came. She. And that was like a week later. It was already at her house. So, yeah, that was pretty cool. But I just bundled mine. I just got like, small ones that you could hang on the wall and I bundled them up. They actually wrapped them and then I put them in my luggage and so. [00:39:53] Speaker C: And it was. Okay. [00:39:55] Speaker A: Yeah, nice. [00:39:56] Speaker B: What was your biggest nerve wracking? [00:39:58] Speaker C: If you're checking it and it's like. [00:40:00] Speaker A: But yeah, exactly. [00:40:02] Speaker B: What was your biggest, like, takeaway from your whole trip or like, what are your thoughts on Morocco after? [00:40:11] Speaker A: It's a beautiful country. It's not like some of the town parts. The cities were amazing. Like, the capitol is very tech oriented. You saw all these high rises that had tech names on them and stuff like that, and very modern. And then there's the contrast to the. The rural areas that were, you know, a lot more people still running horses and, you know, using horses for their ag and that kind of stuff. I personally probably wouldn't go back because I have a lot to see. You know, there's. I've never been to England or Switzerland. There's so many. Germany. Like, there's all these places I really want to go, so I'm glad I went, but I probably wouldn't go back there. But I also think if. Like, if you wanted to go to Marrakesh and just spend the extra money to stay in a really nice place that has, you know, pretty good variety of food and ice and all that stuff, all the amenities, all the things. Because at this point in my life, like, if I was 20, I probably would have been fine with a lot of stuff. But, like, the last place we stayed, there wasn't even a door on the bathroom, you know, and I'm sharing it with another person. Just little things like that where I'm just at the age where I want a little more accommodations. But as far as the people go, they were really sweet, really nice. Traffic is crazy in the cities. You know, I think that you got to be prepared for that if you're. If you're gonna drive yourself, which is very doable, but it's just a lot of anxiety. Got to make sure you're doing all the right things and that kind of stuff. So my goal is to explore a little bit more of Europe, just because I haven't been to a lot of places. But I'm glad I went. I thought it was a good trip. [00:42:27] Speaker B: Was it a good girl? Girl group? Did you guys all get along really well? [00:42:35] Speaker A: That's a whole nother hour. I'll tell you later. Yeah, that'll be part two. We're going to Hawaii soon, and we'll sit on a beach somewhere, and I'll tell you. I'll. It'll be a long story. [00:42:52] Speaker C: Okay. [00:42:53] Speaker A: That's the other thing. You really should go with people that you know pretty well. Yeah. Yeah. And some people are super easy travelers, and some people are not, so. [00:43:03] Speaker C: And that's kind of hard to know [00:43:04] Speaker A: what you're getting yourself into. [00:43:05] Speaker C: Yeah. And then you're going to a country that, if you're dealing with, like, not that great of an international traveler, and then going to a country that, like, you know, in your mind are gonna have. It's just different experience than, you know, going to a more developed country. So that's got to be really challenging. But I want to hear more about it. Call me when you're on a beach in Hawaii. [00:43:27] Speaker A: You should come to Hawaii with us. [00:43:29] Speaker C: I know. [00:43:33] Speaker A: I'm glad you went, though. [00:43:34] Speaker C: I like to see all your photos and stuff, and. Yeah, the Strait of Gibraltar is definitely one of the, like, bucket list things that I'd love to go see eventually in my life just because it's so iconic. [00:43:46] Speaker A: But, yeah, I would do it from the Spain side because I think from the Morocco side at least that we had, like, clouds, it was cloudy, and. And right on the Moroccan side is a huge port, so there's all this. It's a shipping lane, so you're seeing a lot of huge boats, you know. Yeah, big boats. So if. If my recommendation was to be. To actually go see if you can climb up on the. The rock. I wonder if there's a hike up that way from the Spain side. I don't know. [00:44:21] Speaker C: There's got to be some kind of vista because it's so beautiful. I don't know. [00:44:25] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah. [00:44:27] Speaker B: Very cool. [00:44:28] Speaker A: It was cool. [00:44:29] Speaker B: Well, thank you for coming on, Mom. I mean, I don't know. Is there anything particular that you wanted to mention that we haven't already talked about? We didn't really have a plan or anything, but just wanted to hear overall how your trip was. [00:44:44] Speaker A: Yeah, I think everybody should experience Morocco on their own terms. [00:44:51] Speaker B: Sure. Yeah. Sam and Josh went a couple years ago and they had an incredible time. Like, they had a great guide. I think it was their seat, Sahara, part of their trip. But then they went to another part too, and like, they became like, these models for, like. Because they went with, like, an all women, like, tour company or something like that. And so they got to, like, end up being, like, these models for like, every, like, location they went. They, like, took pictures of them for, like, their thing. And so they had, like, a bunch of photos, like, on the women's website, which was really cool. [00:45:27] Speaker A: That's awesome. [00:45:28] Speaker B: Yeah. So they had a good time. They really liked it. [00:45:31] Speaker A: But that's funny. [00:45:32] Speaker B: I don't know anyone else who's gone, actually, so. I'm happy that you went. I was sad that you weren't at. [00:45:38] Speaker A: We ran into. [00:45:39] Speaker B: Come again. [00:45:42] Speaker A: I know, I know. I'm sad. I missed it too. We would run into different people, like British people and Australian. Australians. And so usually the first thing out of our mouths were we didn't vote for him. [00:45:59] Speaker C: Yeah, [00:46:01] Speaker B: that's pretty. [00:46:03] Speaker A: And most people would always say, if you're traveling, we know you didn't vote for. I thought was a very interesting comment. There you go. Observation. [00:46:12] Speaker B: Yeah. It's real, though, honestly. [00:46:15] Speaker C: Yeah, I was a little nervous with, like, how people treat touristy Americans and stuff like that, but I haven't heard any horror stories as of yet. Cuz you're right. If you're traveling, you're probably part of the population that didn't vote for him. Right. [00:46:31] Speaker A: Plus we're a bunch of old women, you know, like they looked at us like, oh, look at these old ladies. Maybe you get treated differently if you're young, you know. I'm not sure. [00:46:43] Speaker B: Interesting. Yeah, that's fair. I was just like a word that someone was like going to take advantage of you or like you guys are gonna get pickpocketed in one of the cities or something. But I guess it makes sense. See, they don't do that. Oh really? [00:46:55] Speaker A: I think, I don't think the. I think the risk is too high. I think they really come down on that kind of crime and I just don't think it. It's a thing. It's not like Paris or something, you know. [00:47:11] Speaker B: Yeah. Interesting. [00:47:12] Speaker A: I didn't. I never felt unsafe, so. [00:47:15] Speaker C: Well, that's gonna speak for something. You know, traveling with a group of women. That's great to hear. [00:47:20] Speaker B: Yeah. Really? [00:47:21] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:47:21] Speaker B: Honestly. Wait, that reminds me. Not related at all, but a little bit. You should listen to the new Malcolm Gladwell podcast on Armchair Experts. Fascinating. Just in light of the fact that Ben just had like a shooting and it's about like the gun epidemic in America. And the one like main takeaway that I that keeps like ringing in my brain is the fact that like we have like very low. What's the word? I guess the highest like gun violence but like lowest crime compared to like you know, any other big major cities. Like I don't know, they were talking about like pickpocketing and things like that. Like many like the United States doesn't have like barely any of that, but we are like the highest for all gun violence. So anyways, whole podcast is about gun violence. But it's a very interesting comparison of just like thinking about other countries and crime and things like that compared to the United States. So Yeah, I guess we just have different fears and yeah, we're just raised very differently and we're in this weird climate now, so. Anywho. But that's good to know. Yeah, there's a lot of. I think there should. It should be like noted what countries are like feel safe for women to travel to. Especially like young women and whatever. So it's good to know. [00:48:40] Speaker C: Good to know. [00:48:40] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:48:41] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:48:41] Speaker B: But thank you for coming on. I'm sorry I kind of gotta run but good to see your guys faces. [00:48:48] Speaker C: It's really awesome to hear about it. Now I'm just gonna like go Loop. Lose myself in tech talk in Morocco. And how do you say Chefchaewon? And all the blue tiles, look up Chefchaon. [00:48:57] Speaker A: Yeah. Beautiful. [00:48:59] Speaker C: All right, let's get out of here. Lovely. Wait, do we want to do gratitudes and grievances super fast or just, like, peace out. [00:49:05] Speaker B: Totally up to you, Mom. Are you ready? Do you have one off the top of your head? [00:49:08] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:49:09] Speaker B: Okay. [00:49:09] Speaker A: I have a gratitude. [00:49:10] Speaker C: Okay. [00:49:11] Speaker A: I am grateful to have the ability to travel. I'm very thankful that I have the resources that I can do that kind of thing. You know, it's awesome. [00:49:25] Speaker B: Cool. [00:49:25] Speaker A: I feel I have very lucky a [00:49:28] Speaker C: grievance, and then Kelly can wrap it up with her gratitude. Okay. [00:49:32] Speaker B: Yeah. What's your grievance? [00:49:34] Speaker C: So I got my ballot in for this vote right in November 3rd, and it's all about city of Tigard mayor, city of Tigard council members. And they record. Recorded this, like, hour long meeting that they had a couple weeks ago, and all the different individuals got to go up there, and they all had the same freaking speech. So, like, I don't really understand how you can differentiate between these different. These different people. And it just, like, irks me that the reporting, the journalistic pursuit and the information that's publicly available about all the various ballots and measures and development that they're doing in my tiny little town in the middle of all. All Portland shenanigans is very obfuscated. And so I'm just, like, irked that my local elections aren't forthcoming enough. And there's not a lot of, like, transparency. It just feels like a cookie cutter person that is. I don't know, these people, I don't know. Just really irked about the options. [00:50:32] Speaker A: And there's no independent media that you can look into that has any information on, like, their voting track record or what they've done in the past or anything. Really nothing. [00:50:42] Speaker C: I've been Googling them and I'm, like, trying to read who's done what. But there's been. So we had, like, a shift in the mayoral candidate or whatever. He was, like, dismissed a couple years ago, or just this last year, they replaced him with somebody. And then there's these other ballots, like big developmental projects, like $2.2 billion projects and fixing up the police station and all these public work buildings and facilities. So there's a lot going on. [00:51:10] Speaker A: Raise your taxes. [00:51:12] Speaker C: Exactly. And so there's only one candidate that I can kind of think or have a little bit of an inkling that he's going to require transparency with, like, all the reporting and the accounting that they're doing for these projects, and they want to, you know, fund them through a bond measure, which failed last time, and then they're going to put it forward again. So there's. But that's the only one. And he, like, mentioned it in his one speech. I had to watch it for 45 minutes just to watch him talk for 10 minutes about this one particular measure. And I'm like, this is too much work. If I'm annoyed by this. Like, I'm pretty sleuthy when it comes to this stuff. And I'm really motivated to figure out, like, what's going on. Like, the average person's not going to care. So, yeah, yeah, I'm just, like, annoyed by it. But that's what I've been chewing on. [00:51:57] Speaker A: This morning we went to the aauw, American association of University Women had. They did a presentation in the mix. McGeorge School of Law does a presentation because we have 14 ballot measures this year in California, or at least. Yeah, in California. And they. All the students, they'll get up and say, this is the pro, this is the con. And it was so helpful. [00:52:26] Speaker C: Yeah, we need that. [00:52:27] Speaker A: Great. Because they were. They're nonpartisan and they kind of give you, this is what it'll do. And these are the people for it. These are the people against it. This is why they're against it. You know, and it was. So it was really helpful in figuring out things that were very complicated because there were things on the ballot measure or there were measures on the ballot that was like, you can vote to tax billionaires or the next measure. The next. Yeah, the next measure would take that away. Or, you know, it was like they would conflict each other. Yeah. Well, if this is a yes, then this has to be a no, because this is. And so they make it so complicated. [00:53:09] Speaker C: They do. [00:53:10] Speaker A: People don't know what they're voting for. [00:53:11] Speaker C: Oh, that's my whole gripe. And it's very annoying. So, yeah, I wish we had something like that here or quite honestly, just available for general elections, too, because sometimes it can get really complex. But anyway, that's again, what I've been [00:53:25] Speaker A: chewing on this morning. [00:53:26] Speaker C: Go ahead, Kelly. Let's end on a high note. [00:53:28] Speaker B: My gratitude is just the fact that we get to vote, especially, like, in our local elections and have a say. Because, I mean, honestly, the measures for us, our whole book was full of, like, the pros and the cons and also people. It had, like, people's names who were, like, supporting the pro. And people's names were like, supporting the con and everything. So you could kind of like look up those people, I guess. But also, I've just been going off of the people that have been standing on the corners picketing and what their signs say, because I believe in them and I support them and they're good people most of the time anyways. But yeah, I got to vote. Or I voted the other day. So everybody just. Just my gratitude is the fact that we get to vote. We get to have a say. We get to say how our taxpayer dollars are going and please just get out there and vote. I've even gotten like 10 text messages like, please vote. Please return your ballot before. Yeah, really trying. Yeah, they're really trying to get us to do something about it. [00:54:31] Speaker A: So California actually had a ballot measure that was very similar to the SAVE Act. [00:54:38] Speaker C: Oh, really? [00:54:39] Speaker A: Just kind of. Yeah. [00:54:41] Speaker B: Ew. So gross. [00:54:42] Speaker C: Do you think? [00:54:43] Speaker A: Of course I would. [00:54:43] Speaker C: Well, we'll talk about it later. [00:54:44] Speaker A: But I'd be curious as women. [00:54:47] Speaker B: No, thank you. Yeah, yeah, that too, I guess. Anyhow. Okay. [00:54:54] Speaker C: Well, November 3rd's not that far off. [00:54:56] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:54:57] Speaker C: Together. And we can all talk about the election results and. Yeah. And commiserate or potentially celebrate. Hopefully the latter. [00:55:06] Speaker B: Yeah, absolutely. I mean, it's gonna get. It's gonna get whatever. What's the word? Oh, my God. Not rejected. But it's gonna get. What's the word? [00:55:16] Speaker A: Challenge Challenged. [00:55:17] Speaker B: Yeah, it's gonna get challenged no matter what. So no matter what happens. So it's gonna be rough out here for the next couple months. So here we come. [00:55:27] Speaker A: We're counting down. [00:55:28] Speaker C: I need a calendar countdown or something. [00:55:31] Speaker A: I know. [00:55:31] Speaker B: Honestly. Anyways, I'm gonna make one of those chain link paper. Chain link things. [00:55:36] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:55:36] Speaker B: We've been talking about it in our office for, like, months now. We're like, we just need to make one because this is gonna be like an office wide commitment that we're gonna make this paper chain and. [00:55:47] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:55:47] Speaker B: Count down the days. [00:55:48] Speaker C: But anyhow, can't wait. [00:55:50] Speaker B: Happy Sunday, guys. Good to see you both and thanks, mom, for coming on. Talk to you guys later. [00:55:57] Speaker A: Thanks for being candid. Chat too much. Bye. Bye. [00:56:04] Speaker B: Peace.