Hanging off the cliff of the African continent, Morocco has been the touchstone for Europeans wishing to travel to the continent for centuries. Only about an hour away from Spain by boat and a few hours from the UK by plane, touch down onto the sun-kissed soil and you’ll be presented with a veritable feast for the senses. So geographically close to Europe, yet so very far from anything you had envisaged, this is the Middle East at its reputably very best. The people are warm and friendly, chatter abounds along the streets of Marrakesh, Essaouira, Rabat and Casablanca; trek into the Sahara desert and you will seldom find established communities, rubbing shoulders with Berber nomads and looking to the sand dunes for peace of mind. Developed in some parts and very much left to its archaic devices in others, Morocco ticks visitors’ wishlists for the right reasons: the food, the banter, the bartering and the beauty of the place are only a few of its attributes. Arabic and French remain the main languages spoken here, yet you will undoubtedly come across near-native English speakers (e.g. voracious orations of ‘lovely jubbly’ and ‘fish and chips’), making the place slightly more cosmopolitan (and humourous) a country to spend a year abroad in...