From my perspective in traveling to a new country, I tend to get very overwhelmed because I want to SEE and DO everything…which just isn’t possible in the time I have.
I overcome the overwhelming-ness of it all by just starting a list and putting down every thing that is of interest. Then, I break it down by location and finally, making a time based itinerary. At that point, it’s very easy to see what will work in the time frame allotted and what will not. I don’t just disregard my list after I’ve agonized over what to include and what to exclude – I make a part II visit list.
For Morocco, I really wanted to go to Marrakesh – that was the number 1 place for me. Then, I researched the most authentic ways we could really experience the culture – within the parameters that myself and J had decided were important. Like, we didn’t necessarily want to go camping for this particular adventure and with the unknown of the food and water quality and availability we both wanted actual bathrooms with toilets and showers.
My biggest thing was that I wanted to see the souks that had been there for hundreds of years. Unfortunately, due to the complete chaos from the mopeds, donkeys, children, people, bikes, etc we didn’t actually spend much time perusing the stalls. I’m just not comfortable haggling for pricing and you can’t just leisurely browse – most of the vendors know tourists and are pretty fucking relentless. I get it, that’s how they make money but it was just too much for me on my first visit there.
I was disappointed in myself but it would have been far less enjoyable for me and J if I had just “powered through”. Quite honestly, he was amazing and far more patient than I’ve ever been with myself. Truly the very best person for me – he always knew just by looking at me when it was time to pull over to the side out of the flow of traffic and people and just take a breather. <3
It’s always important to remember what YOUR style of travel is and adjust your “must-do” list with what will truly make you happy but always be willing to adjust as you go along – we ended up doing a hot air balloon at sunrise and THAT was the most epic reason to see and go there for ME.