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Published: February 7th 2008
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Sun Set
(with storks) Breakfast was good again but slightly later than yesterday. We discussed our good intentions for the day and got as far as mapping our route. We needed a new penknife due to ours being confiscated at customs so we asked and a very nice lady translated for us and found a shop for us.
We semi-successfully bought one (it is a very cheap version) and when we returned to the hotel, the lady (Vicki) was still there. We started chatting to her and we discovered that she knew Morocco very well. We sat down with our map and she filled us in on what's hot and what's not. We got to ask all the little questions that we wanted answering and she had interesting stories to go with each location. We spent so long chatting to her that we decided to go to lunch at one of the places she had previously recommended to us.
Lunch lasted a couple of hours but we were entertained by phenomonal stories about absolutely everything. At one point Vicki even told a guy off for eyeing me up and claimed she was my mother. The look on his face was hilarious.
By
the time we had left Vicki it was too late to do our planned day, so instead we decided to walk into the medina for another walk around. As we were walking down Mohammad 5th avenue, we heard a crash and turned around to see a van smash into the side of a scooter. Nobody was hurt but the bike was damaged. Everyone stopped to look which surprised me because I would imagine accidents happen frequently due to the utter chaos on the roads. The next roundabout down we saw a horse from a horse drawn carriage rolling around on the floor. Its owner had caged its mouth shut, put blinkers on it and tied two of its legs together. No wonder it was pissed off but he kept on whipping it to get it up. It was absolutely horrible to watch.
We navigated our way to the Bahia Palace through the streets behind the souqs. We never really found the entrance for it, but right next to it is the royal palace which is off limits to the public. All along the walls were storks in their nests which looked pretty unusual. We followed the walls around for
a bit but we were stopped by a guy who said something about a Jewish section that was only open that day. He took Rob through a passage and tried to lead him to something. I followed and began to feel uncomfortable due in part to the characters around and in part to my intuition. I dragged Rob away and we left. We may have missed out on a great opportunity or avoided a scam or something worse, but we will never know.
During our walk to the palace we had spotted a lovely looking bar which we decided to go in. We climbed up on to the terrace which looked onto the palace walls and storks and a little square. We could also look out over the rooftops of most of the medina. We ordered a bottle of Moroccan rose and drank it whilst watching the sun set over Marrakech.
Once the sun had disappeared we headed for Djemaa el-fna. The square was full of stalls cooking different foods at very cheap prices. We were caught by one guy and the menu was extremely cheap so we sat down. The food was only ok, but there was
plenty to watch whilst eating. Once we finished I thanked the guy in Arabic and he thought I was fluent which pleased me immensely.
We weren't ready to go home straight away so we headed into the area where the crowds were. A guy smiled at us and when I smiled back he started a conversation with us. It turned out he is just a really nice guy and wanted to chat rather than try to sell us something. We stood and chatted for a while and met a few of his friends and drank tea.
He showed us around Djemaa el-fna And we stopped to watch all the performers rather than rush past for fear of being hassled. He also warned us to be careful with our bags in the square. One group of people were 'fishing' for coke bottles using a ring attached to some string on a stick, he told us he was good at it then proceeded to show us. Strangely you didn't actually win anything.
Afterwards he took us into the souqs and meandered round them for while. We went up to see the famous mosque lit up at night and then
Ahh! a stork
on the walls to the Badi Palace. when his friends left we went to get some tea. We sat and drank in the smallest cafe in the world and above our heads was a trapdoor that looked out onto the stars. Once we had said goodnight to him we headed back to the hotel and collapsed into bed.
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Brian
non-member comment
More fun and warner watching the storks in morrocco that in the netherland I bet