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Published: August 25th 2007
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So...Where do I begin?!?! I looooooved Morocco (Brian's not so sure yet)! Morocco was how I thought India would be before I first went-it's exotic and a little crazy, but if you need to, you can find the comforts of home. In India, some comforts of home just could not be had.
Maybe it's all the tourism. While I didn't see any other Americans in Moroccco, there were tons of European tourists, including families with young children. I don't know why, but somehow Morocco has developed the perfect blend of the exotic and the familiar. All of the things that Brian and I craved in India we could find in Morocco. There was lots of meat, and I mean lots (see photos for further explanation). There was air conditioning. And hot water. And sit toilets (although the first toilet I encountered in Morocco outside the Casablanca train station was of the squat variety). And for me it was very easy to get around because almost everyone speaks French.
But Morocco is certainly not the West.
We arrived on our terrifying flight into the Mohammed V Airport in Casablanca, where we got to play a little of our old
game, tourist vs. rickshaw driver (except there are taxis here instead of rickshaws) before we decided to take the train into Casa to catch another train for Marrakech. Moroccan trains are somewhere between the TGV and IndianRail. Our train to Marrakech was an hour late, and it had (feeble) air conditioning and comfy, padded seats. We shared our compartment with two families (eleven people in a compartment made for six): one was a Berber grandmother, her daughter, and her three children; and an older husband and wife. We tried to communicate in broken French, while Brian and I tried to come up with an exhausted list of all the Hindi words that we knew were from Arabic roots (kitaab=book, kursi=chair).
We finally arrived in Marrakech at 9 p.m. to enter the fray that is the D'Jemaa al Fna at night. The D'Jemaa al Fna is the main square in Marrakech, and it bisects the northern and southern parts of the Medina. Needless to say, we got quite lost looking for our hotel, and had to pay someone a few dirhams to show us the way. The hotel, it turns out, had lost our reservation, but had room for one
night, so we stayed there for our first evening. It was absolutely lovely, with a nice mix of contemporary and Marrakechi style. We ventured into the D'Jemma for dinner that evening at one of the open air restaurants off to the side. We had tajine-meat cooked with veggies and sauce/broth in distinctive conical earthenware pots (of which I had to buy a couple).
The next day we wandered around the souks in the Northern Medina. These twisting alleyways used be divided by trade-cloth down one street, leather down another, woodcarvings down a third. Now it's much more mixed, but it's still very atmospheric. The souks are covered by slats of wood and corregated metal, and the light filters through in a very romantic sort of way. The things you could buy in Marrakech! I wanted a little of everything. Silver, ceramics, Berber rugs, Moroccan tables, leather, lots and lots of knockoffs, and Moroccan pastries were only the start.
We also wandered around the D'Jemaa al Fna, which is a little like a circus (particularly at night). There are snake charmers with hooded cobras, henna artists, orange juice sellers, and Sufi mystics performing chants.
Later that day we
More Food
This was the Fish Section moved into our new hotel, which was done in very classic Marrakechi style (see photos). We spent a good bit of the afternoon in a cyber park catching up on the outside world. The cyber park was so cool-it had a nice internet cafe, but there was also wireless within the park, and kiosks where you could access the internet.
That night we ate at one of the food stalls in the middle of the D'Jemaa al Fna, where you sort of point to what you want. When we got to the stalls, some guy started speaking to Brian in Hindi-it turns out many Indians and Pakistanis from Britian come to Marrakech, and as we walked down the street, we would hear people call out "IndiaPakistan? IndiaPakistan?" and then "Pakistan Zindabad!," which means "Long Live Pakistan." Anyway, turns out this guy at the food stall is Kashmiri, and speaks English, French, Spanish, Hindi, and Arabic. Anyway, all the meat is lying out on display and you point to what you want, and they cook it up and serve it to you at tables in front of their stall.
The next day we went to Ben Youssuf Madarsa (Moroccan
spelling of Madrassa), which may be one of the most beautiful buildings I have ever seen. We also did some more shopping, and stopped into an apothocary for some cheap saffron and famous Moroccan mint tea.
Our last day in Marrakech was spent mainly relaxing in the hotel, before we headed to the train station for our overnight train to Tangier. The D'Jemaa al Fna gets really croweded at night and it was a little hellish trying to get a taxi to the station, but we managed. The train was hot, and noisy, but we had full sized twin beds, and the ride was fairly smooth. We arrived in Tangier this morning at 7:30, caught a very choppy ferry for Spain (most people were ill), and half an hour later we had left Africa for Europe. I am now relaxing with Brian in an open air healthfood cafe with free wireless while we wait for our bus to Sevilla. Tarifa, where we are, has such a relaxed vibe, and we're feeling much better after our long day of travel. You can still see Morocco across the Straits of Gibralter here, and some of the signs are still in Arabic,
Koutoubia Minaret
At one end of the D'Jemaa al Fna but it is a world away from the hustle of Morocco.
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