Flick of the Day

5 hours. That's how long we had been riding. And I knew i shouldn't complain since all I had to do was sit there and be a passenger but honestly, I was getting more carsick by the minute. Or should I say vansick. We were in a white 12 passenger van, and there was an eclectic mix of characters: the three Italians who kept up a steady stream of chatter; a couple whose origin I was unsure about but they seemed nice enough; a French-Asian couple who were sweet and helped with translating english to French; the lone German traveler who was down for anything; the driver who took the curves on the mountain path as if we were in a Mercedes AMG; and lastly, my two friends and I who were on the same study abroad program and had decided to travel together to Morocco.

We had collectively decided to take a trip to the Sahara desert to ride camels and sleep under the stars. But the drive from Marrakech to our middle-of-nowhere destination was estimated to take 8 hours. Which meant we were little more than halfway through. I was getting crankier as the day went by, with our trek having started at 7am. It had started out freezing cold in the morning but had progressively warmed up, which was making my stomach even more queasy. I'd had every intention of sleeping the entire ride, but quickly discovered that was going to be impossible since we stopped every hour, and my seat was by the van's only sliding door exit.

Needless to say, I wasn't the least bit surprised when we coasted to a stop. I slowly cracked open one eye, selfishly thinking that if I just pretended to be asleep the other passengers could figure out a way to go around me. But Peri, my English friend from University, reached over and tapped my shoulder saying, "I think you'll want to see this."

She was right.

When I stepped outside of the van, I saw this beautiful city on a hill. Our driver/tour guide called it a kasbah. It was an amazing sight, and seemed to rise out of nowhere. We were allowed to go into the kasbah to explore town. In order to access it, we had to cross a shallow stream on sandbags that had been turned into makeshift stepping stones. It was like a scene from a movie, in every way.

The photo above is of the kasbah, somewhere along the route from Marrakech to the Sahara. Just typing those words, I realize how fortunate I was to have such an experience. That stop gave me a better attitude to make it the rest of the journey in the van, and even though I still wished we had had air-conditioning, I looked forward to more stops and adventures.