Advertisement
Published: August 8th 2007
Edit Blog Post
We decided we couldn’t make it to Chicago in one day and my Dad doesn’t have a Ferrari that she could convince me to “borrow,” but we still had a fun day in the big city. Maryam’s husband Hichem volunteered to spend the day with Salma (who got her first two teeth this week and is now walking!) and the two of us took off for the day.
I’ve wanted a day in the city with her for a long time and we decided to do all the tourist stuff she’s never done. She usually gets to go to Marrakech when they have something to do there, like a doctor visit. The only touristy thing she’s ever visited is Jma Lfna.
We started out at Madrasa Ben Youssef. She had seen other historic madrasas before, but not in Marrakech, and definitely not one so lavish as the Ben Youssef. It was fun for me to have somebody with me who could help me puzzle out the lavish calligraphy in the tile work. Maryam isn’t much better at me at deciphering calligraphy but when we figured out a bit she could identify where in the Koran it came from and
translate for me. We joked around about being students there and pretended we were skipping class and worrying about exams. I still think this madrasa is the best architecture in Marrakech. I wish I could get some sort of frequent visitor or guide discount on the entry fee.
We had lunch at my favorite juice bar, Dallas, which has the best fruit smoothies and pizzas in Marrakech - and also a giant wall-sized poster of Washington’s Mount Rainier.
After lunch, a couple errands and a nap we took a ride on the big red bus that’s the new tourist thing in town. It took us to a few places in the city we’d never and though it was a lot of fun I wouldn’t do it again.
Next stop was the Bahia Palace. We strolled the gardens and courtyards, wondering how long it would take to clean and how far the bathrooms were from the sleeping quarters. We chatted with a couple of women from Australia, Fran and Eileen, who are also English teachers and had a lot of questions for Maryam. I imagine it was quite interesting for them to be able to ask frank questions
to a Moroccan woman who speaks fluent English. We had an English speaking day, with the New Zealanders we met at Ben Youssef and the Londoners on the bus with us, followed by Fran and Eileen.
We were pretty tired by then and stopped by the riad I stayed at with my uncles in April. Maryam had never seen a riad, and since we were being tourists I didn’t think she could leave Marrakech without visiting a riad. We were offered tea and lay back in the couches to rest our weary feet.
The last stop was the souks to get a couple little souvenirs on our way back to the bus stop to get a grand taxi home to Kelaa. Salma was up and waiting for us with big kisses when we got home. Hichem had even made little crepes with honey for us and nobody's car got wrecked. It was the perfect end to our adventurous day.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.108s; Tpl: 0.01s; cc: 11; qc: 31; dbt: 0.0693s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Marie-Pierre Koban
non-member comment
Marrakech
Enfin Heather je peux lire ton dernier Blog tu as passe uune bonne journee avec tes amies.. Ou en es-tu de ton sejour ?est-ce que tu restes encore une ou deux annees au maroc Comment est ton Arabe ou berbere? a bientot MPK