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Published: August 23rd 2007
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"The capital of the great South and, although it is now only Morocco's third city after Casablanca and Rabat, its fabulous palaces and luxuriant palm grove continue to hold a powerful fascination for visitors..."
As we landed the heat got us first. It was HOT! But not just hot it was BOILING hot, 45 degrees! There was no air - there is no way a pale European can survive there without a bottle of water ! 😊
We left the airport, exchanged some money into
Dirhams (1 Pound = 16 Dirhams and we're not joking) decided to take a bus to the City Centre (New City actually, built outside Medina). However, a very energetic taxi driver caught us and some young British couple standing next to us and said he would take us anywhere we wanted for 100 Dirhams... after a few minutes of consideration we agreed! And there we were standing outside our hotel 'Al Kabir' yyaayy! That was easy 😊!
Right, having taken a short tour around the stunning hotel - amazing pictures all over the walls, beautiful sofas, monuments, pots, mirrors, plants - so diffeent to the European stuff... we went for a first
walk in Marrakech. And our first impression was definetely positive! Very friendly people, always smiling at you passing by! Streets incredibly busy! To be honest, it seemed like there were no traffic rules at all 😊 people were just driving which way they wanted and were using the horn with no reason - that was really funny! The majority of Moroccans there were traveling by bikes. Food - absolutely delicious! Marrakech - purely amazing, a great big market in the centre (will talk about it more in a few paragraphs), lots of supermarkets, everything considerably cheap, wonderful mint tea drunk in little colourful glasses, lots of fruit, no alcohol in shops (because of the religion) and a lot more...
We are going to write in more detail only about a few interesting spots and then will list what else is worth visiting:
We definetely should start with the best market I've ever been to 😊 -
Place Jemaa el-Fna ! (It's in
Medina , which is the old city) It is definetely the symbol of the city, extremely busy every day! Apparently it's been placed on the UNESCO list. It's a massive square with all sorts of
spices, nuts, clothes, shoes, pots, bags, jewellery as well as freshly squeezed orange juice and some medical plants. Beautiful and very colourful 😊!!! There are also snake-charmers, story-tellers, musicians or women that do hand tattooing (that's the name I came up with, no idea what they are called). The funniest thing is that there are no prices displayed on any products. You simply need to
bargain . Oh yes, Moroccans love this, more specifically - the sellers love this! Whatever you want to get, they will always tell you the most ridiculous price such as some 500 dirhams for a T-Shirt. What you then need to do is gradually lower the price down, but remember to smile while doing this as this is nothing but a game for the sellers. They will eventually sell your product for a good price. Like the example of a T-shirt: Peter paid only some 30 dirhams, but as I said was told some 500!!!
Another important place, quite near to the market actually, is the
"Booksellers" Mosque ("takes its name from the manuscripts souk that once took place around it."). The minaret (the sort of tower) looks really stunning and is visible from
all sides of the even from very far away. It is one of the largest mosques in the Western Muslim world. The mosque has been recently restored in order to reveal its original colour - pink. It's a very beautiful place. Some 20,000 people can be fit into the mosque's prayer hall!
Minaret - this splendid tower in pink Gueliz stone stands like a sentinel above the city. It is 70 m high and its proportions obey the canons of Almohad architecture: its height equals five times its width.
Third place, utterly loved by us, is
Menara . Near this place we went riding on camels! An axcellent experience 😊. Menara is an enormous garden that stretches for about 90 ha! It's actually filled with olive and fruit trees. It has not really got any interesting buildings inside, but it's simply a perfect place for a long walk, very peaceful. There is a big pool not too far away from the entrance with a little pavillon next to it.
Some other nice spots are:
• Zaouia of Sidi bel Abbes (north of the Medina), a sanctuary
• Palais Bahia (Medina), "Palace of the Favourite"
• Bab Agnaou (opposite the Kasbah Mosque), monumental gate - the royal entrance to the Almohad palace
• Musee de Marrakech, museum of Marrakech
• and lots of gardens (which Marrakech is famous of) such as Agudeal Gardens or Majorelle Garden
We think that the best way to appreciate the city in full is to walk on feet, there is no need to take a taxi (well maybe except when you need to get to the airport). For some Europeans, Marrakech might be a bit too hot especially in the summer, just like it was for us 😊. Therefore, what we did one day is got ourselves a 24hr ticket for a tourist bus (it was actually a double-decker) and just sat on the top of it and admired both the centre of Marrakech and the outside parts (as the bus does two routes). It was quite nice, also very easy to take pictures as the bus stops by the important places, you are also given headphones that plug in into little holes near seats and you are provided with information on Marrakech (if I remember well, there were about 10 languages to choose from!).
I also already mentioned the camels. It was such a funny experience! When I first got on the animal, I was told to hold on tight while the camel was standing up. And I was doing so... However I didn'
realise that when it started walking I should have loosen up and let it flow 😊... so yeah, you need to do this, just let the camel do the job, you just chill out... 😊
alla ysalmak!
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verajune
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is it safe?
You have beautiful pictures and it looks so pretty there. I read that I'll need French if I go to Morocco, it is true? I also read that bargain there is a must (here http://blog.lessno.com/archives/75 but it must be kidding me)... is it safe?