Here’s what Marrakesh, Morocco is really like | street food tour, local fashion, travel vlog

Auto-captioned from the film, lightly cleaned. Elena's words, not edited prose.

so it has been five weeks in five countries since sage and I left the US to attempt to circle the Mediterranean and we finally made it to our last stop maresh Morocco we started with quaint Spanish towns and then visited the stunning Coastline of Greece and the beaches of Lebanon and experience those bustling soups of turkey and Tunisia in each destination also we've met up with local women to share their take on their home country which has really opened both of our eyes to the complexity and of course the beauty to be found in each and every one of these communities and cultures the interconnection of this region has been striking to say the least and I'm Amazed by how many commonalities can exist in such seemingly different Lifestyles and we're very excited to close out the loop of our journey in this North African country so here in marash we meeting zenab who's a native Moroccan dancer and model and actress and she actually even started a recent movie about hip-hop called Casablanca beats which screed the Ken Film Festival which is very badass and I'm really excited cuz she's going to show us a glimpse of the very modern and creative and artistic scene found amongst the locals here in marash is thisan traditional tea sugar nice wow okay I know girl we're only staying here for one night uh very short term but it's so cute it's very affordable this is the coolest bathroom oh my goodness we are loving Morocco so we've been in North Africa for a little bit now but Morocco already feels very different and very distinctive we go get dinner get some of our first impression so yeah so when we arrived I shared on my Instagram story that I was in Morocco as you do and an old friend from my college days in California DM me and he said he was also here in mares so say hello to Sean we're hanging with him for the evening and I just love when crazy overlaps like this happen Sage do you know where we are y we on another plan oh no no my we are in square Ela I'm definitely saying that wrong it is insane's a lot of energy and food and commotion you're going to see a little bit of everything if you come and probably be a little we get hit by a little tuck tuck I was hit today Sage was hit by a motorbike not too bad what do you think Sean we found Sean all the way from California there's a lot going on it's a lot anything that you want is probably here yes our little what is I have no idea what it is now we're going on a little our first day was very impressive to say the least there's so many sounds and color and smells and just so much energy here it's honestly a little bit over stimulating at times but already mares feels different than any City I've ever been to before it's exhilarating a little bit exhausting but we're loving it and I can't wait for a proper tour tomorrow with ZB so excited we just made it to the most stunning Riad it's called Riad naor I'm going to link it down below if you come to mares come here it's gorgeous they just gave us a little intro tea and some sweets and I'm so excited thank you riads are truly a gem of mares they're typically a few stories tall with this kind of lush open courtyard in the middle and historically this Courtyard allow for women to stay safely hidden in the family's properties almost like a Haram so that's why they're Built This Way the beautiful beautiful R we're staying at oh my God say something really quick if don't of the tab family we traveled cheap we did road trips I've never been in like a we only ever stayed in one motel room all squished this is like amazing little patio so falcony so it's time for a history lesson let's talk about Morocco so more of what we learned in Tunisia Morocco was originally inhabited by a diverse indigenous group called The berbers around the 5ifth century BC the Empire that began in Carthage Tunisia made its way over to Morocco which linked Morocco's trade with its North African Neighbors in a way that only got stronger with the time after that native Berber tribes rose up with their own kingdom morania which then dissolved in the Roman Empire around 40 BC here Morocco really grew intertwined economically and culturally with the Mediterranean region as a whole during the Muslim conquest of the 700s Morocco was no exception to the shift in the region towards Islam and the Arabic language although most Berber tribes managed to hold on to a lot of their cultural customs and traditions around this time Muslim forces from Morocco made their way up into Spain and they kept a presence there for centuries so throwback when we were in Spain just a few weeks ago and saw tons of Moroccan architecture and cultural influences jumping ahead to the 1600s the alawite dynasty emerged and unified the country yet again and they've been the ruling family ever since in 1912 a French Proctor began just like what we saw in Tunisia and Lebanon which led to a wave of French sellers taking land in the region in Casablanca for example Europeans ended it being half the City's population so after years of resistance Moroccans finally gained independence in 19 56 the decade since then have been known for an ongoing conflict on the border with Western Sahara but also fair and free elections human rights improvements and overall stability now back to maresh specifically mares was found in the 11th century as the capital of the elar rivid dynasty back in those days sus like this were crucial pit stops for Traders and Merchants making their way through the desert in the mountains of North Africa and today you can still find about everything you could possibly need so we met a CB deep here in the sus to grab a coffee and I will say it was a little bit of a surprise to show up to a very trendy rooftop cafe after we had just been trekking through the chaos of the soups for an hour so ZB and I have actually been talking on Instagram for months so it was so exciting to finally meet her in person while morocca was often known for its ancient cultures in Old cities we connected with Z because she want wants to show us the modern side of maresh starting with this cool cafe as as well as a fashion studio she works at downstairs Welcome To The Kingdom the in few sentences I describe myself between an alen said you're also an actress model so performer dancer actress today I'm in Mar next week I might be in I don't know friends in Paris and where are we right now so this is like the concept store of a designer like Moran designer let so is there a certain style of design well most of his inspiration like our verber and he's a verber guy so thank so much he woo it's silk honey oh it feels so nice oh my wait I'm obsessed all his clothes is are unisex and the idea is like it can get on all kind of shapes they're inspired by like the gwa culture I think you saw like those dancers with the instrument called and culture okay okay here for example Burber sbl and like they have all meanings and it's Handmade by some women in maresh John we're getting comfy off we're getting here I want to hear a bit more about your dance story I've always love dancing like every time I'm going to hear music you will find me shaking my body or my hand or something like so I started like working professionally when I was 16 it was difficult because like here we have like this culture maybe it's something that in all countries but for example in Morocco if you're a woman you need to be protected and be artist is not being protected because like the society it's not something that we see every day like a girl when someone it's young he's doing a lot of work we get scared so you need to be a badass and say no I want to be that well I think most of the girl are just so scared sadly so they just like do what they don't want to do but at the same time like we have the other parts of girls who maybe like me in all cases people will talk so what's what's the most important is to do exactly what you want to do because in all cases they want to they going to talk mhm so true they're going to talk if you put hijab they're going to say things about you if you put like a dress like a small bikini or whatever like you you want to be sexy they're going to talk so I prefer to be happy and to choose my happiness than the the happiness of others beautiful you are inspiring I know I'm inspiring okay so we are now headed out to see a little bit of marash let's do a tour in the Medina we going go to some jewelry shops some carpet shops all right we have like uh Berber jewelies so each jewelry you find with some stories and some details and symbols for the tar jewelry it's geometric design and bber it's flower culture they like flowers like for example look I show you something CU we have here two culture we have culture of desert and culture of mountain the mountain it's with flowers in our spring for uh for Seasons that's why they like flowers they like herb and colorful this is the Burber style flowers or colors but T like your bracelet they use geometric design like this shape you see yeah F now you got it yeah now I know wow hello America are you from America my mom has one and my Auntie has one these match these right yeah they use this ones and one big one medium one small and normally it's a pair you know anything like this in my life okay So today we're going off the grid into the mountains surrounding marash with a small tour group to celebrate Sage's 21st birthday yes she chose us over crazy night out and I love her for that we're definitely excited to get a taste of Morocco's natural beauty and kind of slow down for the day morning good morning it's this one's 21st birthday and we are celebrating by uh visiting Mountain Morocco no 21-year-old Vegas birthday here so excited to be here yeah it's just amazing to be here it's cool to be outside of the city it's really cool there's parts of it that reminds me of the terrain of California which is interesting gosh so much and then there's other parts where I'm like I'm on another planet yeah hello it's me again where are we headed Sage the main like madasa here and we're going to street through tor very excited about we're having a local show surround we just booked it through air experiences we are hungry we have an appetite let's go explore a little bit it's not B she's too big everybody we are so excited we are about to do our food tour here in micash incoming donkey a little traffic jam let's go now we will go outside of the Town go to this neighborhood called cidos vanelli so let's talk with the pancakes first one it's Salina pancake the second is the most common one the most eaten one here in morocc college be with the sweet we will have one H the base of it is tomato paste so there's chickpea there's lentil some herbs spices all right we're at our first stop dangerously sweet stuff lot of them are like fully caked in honey just going need a minute here I love a lot of spices not spicy but like very rich in flavor go for it you got a little Savory sweet moment oh wow yeah lingering spice actually is really wor all right this is fed with oil giving me like grilled cheese grilled cheese and tomato soup isn't the grunch nice so cheese in there is it sa Chef right next up it's dut on the bottom a fried egg on top with I love that it's reminding me a lot of a breakfast sandwich actually got to wrap up here though so here we'll try probably the most famous street food sandwich that we have here in Morocco we atat it all over the kingdom it's a popular Street Sandwich there's spam rice ol I'm not as convinced the Oles and like on are L do you know what we will eat here girls is called the we'll try it with c's head is it is it the brain no the brain it's another dish okay the tongue the nose the mouth the eyeballs the ears the eyeball they having cow's head sorry to might be out there I'm not vegan but I got to try it I love to be a little adventurous when traveling food T the goods it's giving R there are a lot of textures going me but really well seasoned can't really look at it we did it we circled the entire Mediterranean from Spain to Greece to Turkey to Lebanon to tesia and finally Morocco when we started this journey our goal was to go beyond the popular romanticized eurocentric idea of the Mediterranean and we were curious about the other less talked about destinations especially when it comes to the realm of female Travelers going abroad the women we met in each country were the core experience of this journey many of them have had to overcome struggles and and obstacles that I'll never fully understand yet they're still chasing their dreams in such cool ways and they each taught me a valuable lesson and pushed me to ask myself tough questions about my own journey I hope this Series has encouraged you to ask yourself some of these questions too where do you want to break down buries your own life or what passion can you pursue even if it scares you and I've just been so struck with the beauty of this online community coming to life being so many of you on this trip really made it sink in that behind each username and number online there's a name and a faceb in a story and while we may be separated by Borders or languages there is still so much that connects us and it's honestly this Unity that really gives me hope for the future I really can't wait to see what's in store and I hope to see you on the road