Disneyland Morocco Style

---

4/7/07 Casablanca-->Marrakech

We arrived at the train station 5 minutes after the last train to Marrakech was scheduled to leave. Luckily, the train was delayed so we waited in the ticket line (which of course was not moving at all), finally bought our tickets, and then ran to the platform. In a couple of minutes, the train came but it was completely packed. People we pushing and yelling, I wasn’t sure we were even going to get on (you have to remember that all of had our backpacks as well). We kept moving further and further back and eventually found a door that was not overflowing with people. We placed our bags in the overhead space, and since there were no seats we all ended up standing back by the door. We were completely in the way, and it was a challenge each time another group attempted to pass us, in addition to that, we somehow managed to place ourselves near the toilet, which lets just say didn’t smell very pleasant (at one point, I think we held the train door open just to get some fresh air). Eventually people got off the train and eventually we each got a seat. By the time we made it to Marrakech, it was late and we were tired so we found a hotel in the Ville Nouvelle area which was the closest. After dropping off our bags, we set off in search of food, eventually ending up at some restaurant that had a little bit of everything. I had a vegetable tajine (which is a sort of stew that is cooked in an earthenware pot) that was amazing. We decided to save the medina for the next day, so we all just went to bed after dinner.

4/8/07 Marrakech

In the morning we headed to the Medina. I was a little disappointed, to say the least, at the sight of the hop on hop off tourist buses (you see them all over the major cities of Europe) that were constantly passing us on our way there. The actual medina was so busy. There were people everywhere (the vast majority were tourists). The Djemaa el-Fna which is the huge square right in the middle of it all, was filled with orange juice stands (each one yelling at you as you passed to try and get you to buy their orange juice), snake charmers (who would pretty much throw a snake around your shoulders if you got close enough and then ask some outrageous price for the picture that you just took of it---we tried to avoid them as much as possible), henna ladies (all sitting on their little stools holding their syringes full of henna and shoving their picture book portfolios into your face while asking if you wanted a tattoo, pretty much any chance they got), brightly adorned water guys (who if you made eye contact would come up asking “picture? picture?”, for a price of course), men with monkeys (which they pulled around by a leash), and of course women with pans full of golden brown round cookies. I eventually caved in and paid the 3dhms (about .30euros) for a glass of freshly squeezed juice (the glasses and straws provided are not the cleanest considering they are only rinsed after every use). It was delicious and made the heat slightly more tolerable (I was wearing jeans, tennis shoes, and a long sleeved shirt—trying not to call more attention to myself (I had read this somewhere) though I realized fairly quickly that compared to the other tourists in their tank tops and mini skirts, me in my t-shirt that I had wanted to wear would have been completely acceptable). The rest of the day was entirely devoted to weaving in and out of the many alley lined shops, using my bargaining techniques to lower the prices of the multiple souvenirs that I wanted (absolutely everyone spoke English so language was not a problem---they also automatically assumed we were English or Australian which was strange considering most of the time when traveling everyone’s first guess is usually always American---apparently American tourism in Morocco is still very low). In the end though, I only ended up with a pair of shoes (there is always tomorrow!). While Sudie and I were interested in the crafty type shops the boys were drawn to any shop that sold knock off whatever’s be it fake brand name shoes, sunglasses, or jerseys among other things (I didn’t really understand it). At around sundown, the Djemaa el-Fna became even fuller as all of the food stands popped up. The entire square became filled with smoke (it did smell really good though). We ended up eating dinner at one of the numerous stands, and I finally got one of my favorite dishes, bastilla, which is a multilayered pastry with almonds, chicken and powdered sugar (it sounds weird, but it is really good).
At night, the entire Djemaa el-Fna came to life, even more so then during the day. The entire thing was lit up by the lights of the food stands, and the lights of the performers. There were tons of people, but this time the majority of them were locals. We ended up joining the crowds around various musicians, and for a while two kids who were boxing (now, I hadn’t actually heard or read anything about this before I went so I wasn’t really prepared, but it turned into a rather uncomfortable situation fairly quickly as we were standing trying to watch some performer, guy after guy (mainly teenage boys) crowded around us (pretending to watch the same thing) and grabbed our butts. It actually got to the point where we (Sudie and I) couldn’t stand still and had to walk around the orange juice stands just to avoid them.). The whole thing was quite crazy. There was just so much to see and to smell, so much was going on. Unfortunately the constant ass grabbing got old fairly quickly so we ended up retreating back to our hotel.

4/9/07 Marrakech

Sudie and I set off for the medina without the boys, who were having some issues trying to book their flight to Madrid. Somehow, while making our way through the maze like alleys we managed to get fairly lost, ending up in the non touristy area of the medina. Eventually we found our way out (not a big deal), but we did manage to see quite a few more things than we had the day before. Mainly we just did more shopping. In one of the jewelry stores we went in to, we ended up talking to one of the employees for a good half hour. He wrote our names in Arabic and then made us try, and he even gave us tea. He was a really nice guy, and the jewelry was all very nice quality but a little too expensive for either of us, and in attempting to leave the store, Sudie accidentally bought a necklace for way more then she really wanted to spend (he asked something like 600dhm (60 Euro) for it and he really wasn’t going down in price and we wanted to keep walking around, so Sudie said all she had was 300dhm, thinking he would never go that low and we would be able to leave, but at the last minute he accepted the 300dhm and we both walked away a little bit in shock of what actually happened). I ended up buying a fair amount before we met the boys at the Koutoubia (which is a 70m tall minaret). From there, we headed in the direction that was directly behind the Koutoubia because the man in the jewelry shop had told us there were camels there and well we couldn’t leave without seeing camels now could we? (I had actually seen 2 of them already, in the countryside as we were in the train on our way to Marrakech). Sudie ended up riding one of them while the rest of us stayed behind (it was kind of sketchy, and the camels didn’t look that well taken care of---I decided to wait to ride a camel when I could do it in the desert somewhere). You could see the Atlas from where we were and it would have been so awesome to go there. Oh well, next time (there is only so much you can do and see in one trip). For dinner we ended up eating at one of the restaurants that lined the Djemaa el-Fna and I ate my amazing chicken couscous while watching the going ons of the square. For desert we all decided to try one of these cookies that they kept trying to sell to us (in fact the night before we had a girl of about 3 hold one of the cookie trays in front of us, walking backwards all the time asking us in French to buy the cookies---pretty sad sight). They were only 10dh and were absolutely amazing. Honestly, I couldn’t believe that we hadn’t tried them sooner. They were coconut and slightly soft. So good! I definitely recommend getting them as soon as you get to Marrakech and not waiting until you leave before you try them and then can no longer get anymore. On the whole, I really enjoyed Marrakech. The others were about done with it after the first day, I could have done more, I just really enjoyed the energy, the smells, and the sights. I was disappointed at just how touristy it was though. At times it didn’t feel real in the least bit, more Disneyland, all for show. Everything to cater to the tourist and their image of Morocco. None the less, I still loved it, and would go back in a heart beat.

---

Photos

Marrakech
Camels

Marrakech
the medina

Marrakech
I believe he was some sort of doctor

Marrakech
They had pretty much every spice or remedy you may need

Marrakech
Koutoubia

Marrakech
Eating dinner at one of the stands

Marrakech
craftsman

Marrakech
The snake charmers. I didn't want to pay them so I tried to sneek this photo

Marrakech
David and I getting our orange juice fix