Morocco Moments #8: Morocco Momentarily & now I am home
Subject: #8: Morocco Momentarily and now I am home
Date: Sunday, 27 July 2025 11:35 PM
Hi.
I feel like I need to end things properly now that I am back home, but I also haven't had the motivation to write yet, until now. To finish this is closing the final chapter on Morocco and what has become my public digital diary. Now it’s Melbourne time, family time, friend time, snow time — so many exciting things and things that are familiar and comfortable that I have missed. I probably won’t write about those. Probably won’t write for a while, but perhaps when I’m back in the US if life is not too busy.
For now, let's dive into the final week of Morocco and my day in Istanbul!
I bought a phone
I once again have a phone.
Buying the new phone was a fun venture. It was my birthday and I was swimming with this guy from the surf club I joined. We were tired. The swim was almost over. And I was like “I’ve got to go buy a phone now” and he was like, I’ll help you, I have friend. PERFECTION. So we went to a phone shop at like 10pm because everything happens late in this country and I bought another phone yayayayaya, fireworks and explosions!
Maybe the story isn’t as interesting to tell as it was to live. It was so full of emotions, highs from having a friend to help me, lows to losing my phone and handing over the largest wad of cash I’d ever held in my life.
Birthday
No longer a teen I lack the excuse of I’m just a kid for when I mess up, but think I’ve gained the age and maturity of being considered a real adult now. I’m 20!
I didn’t do much on my birthday to celebrate but it was a nice solid busy day full of running, work, the beach and phone purchasing. The next day I celebrated by inviting all the people I’d befriended to a sunset picnic by the coast and we ate yummy food that I hadn’t had for ages, like cheese!!!!! It was really fun wandering around the souks buying food. I felt like a local and ended up with such a feast: bread, olives, peaches, figs, dates, hummus, veggies, cheeses, all foods that I would have loved even at home too then it was just vibes, because that sunset has vibes ultimatum — impossible to be sad while walking or sitting along the coast by Rabat.
So, it was hard to say goodbye to the friends I made over the 2 months but I hope to come back to Morocco someday.
But I am always leaving. So, I left. On the way, I had a long stopover in Istanbul so left the airport and entered the world. And this could have been a major mistake… but it all turned out alright as usual ;)
Türkiye Troubles
I did a Turkish airlines Istanbul tour from the airport starting at 8 from the airport. It drove us into the city and give you food and a guide to take you around some of the main sites in the city and gets you back to the airport in time for your flight.
However
I lost my tour group at the first stop. This was the blue mosque.
Could have been stranded in Istanbul, but low and behold I wasn’t, because some guy helped me out and told me where to go. Then another one wouldn’t leave me alone and ended up walking for more than an hour with me to the Bosphorus, just yapping my ear off about Kurdish this and that, but he was quite kind and ultimately, I came to enjoy his company.
I met the Tour Istanbul group at the lunch stop at a hotel, capitalising on the yummy free food and bus into and out of the city. Truly it was great — despite getting lost, I think I had more fun than the tour people. Türkiye was cool from what I saw. I would love to revisit it someday.
There’s not much more to say on the whole Morocco experience. Here is about 10 000 words already. So much happened. I meet so many people, did so many things and learnt, learnt, learnt and now I am still tired. Now, I am writing this from my own bed, in my own home, and I am so comfortable and happy to be right here now.
So bye for now, until I have to leave it.
Emma
