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Published: February 7th 2008
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Everyone in our room seemed to be checking out today, so were all up fairly early. Breakfast was a bit lame and made us glad it was our last one. We then dumped our bags in the luggage room and checked out.
From the hostel we went into a department store looking for a few things; toilet roll, socks and lense cleaner. All the things Morroco might not have. Although we didn't find anything of what we wanted we did manage to go to the top of the building looking for toilets; all eight floors!
After not finding what we wanted we moved on to a second supermarket on La Ramblas. Here we got a little tipple before moving to a new veggie restaurant for lunch. We opted for a vegetarian restaurant from our guidebook which sounded lovely but was a little bit of a walk away. Rob actually mocked me for walking hurridly saying that we had plenty of time. Surprisingly enough, the restaurant did exist but it wasn't open for business for another half an hour. It was already half twelve so we couldn't wait that long.
Back on the Ramblas we nipped into a vegetarian
takeout place called Maoz which was great. You got a huge pitta with falafal and salad, and then you could fill it with as much from the salad bar as you liked. We sat in to eat that but because it was fast food we had time to spare which we spent mooching down the Ramblas and looking at the animals.
We got to the bus station pretty much on time and endured the bus journey to the airport with a howling baby behind us. Check in was no problem as we were both 14kg exactly,however Rob had forgotten to remove his penknife so it was confiscated. We then sat and waited forever for boarding, but after that the flight was easy.
Marrakesh by night and with an aerial view is mighty impressive. The airport however is not. We had to fill in visa forms with details of accommodation and destinations etc. The airport had no help desk or information point so we just grabbed our bags and headed outside to the car parks. We knew we could catch a taxi, but we wanted to get the bus which would have been cheaper and less hassle. That didn't
quite go to plan. Taxi drivers kept on harrassing us and giving us prices three times the correct price. We decided to move away from the mob and sit down and wait for a while. Eventually a guy came over and offered us a price that was half the original asking price which even though it was still too high we took. Just as we were getting in the taxi, the shuttle bus arrived.
Hotel Toulousain was friendly and we got a beautiful bedroom with a window overlooking a courtyard and a more private one outside our room. The whole room is decorated with tiles and is so perfect for us. We pretty much just dumped our stuff and went out for a walk around and our first taste of Morocco.
We walked around the area looking at cafes and restaraunts which lined the road; wardering here and there. Eventually we set off towards the medina. Two mistakes were made; one we didn't know where we were, the other was not big careful with the compass direction. After walking too far we stopped to consult the map. Rob figured out that we had walked west instead of east
and so we went back the direction we had come from but via another route. We walked this route for a while completely expecting to stumble across the walls of the medina any second. When we had been walking a while we tried to find a road name to figure out where we were. They don't really do road names here. We did figure it out eventually and with a little help from a restaurant owner we were on our way. We turned into a square and had to laugh at our own stupidity. We had just turned back into the main square that we had initially set off from. To make matters worse was that Rob had taken a picture of the sign that pointed to the medina.
Our feet were aching too much so we decided to just grab food anywhere we could however this was beginning to become a problem as most places were closing. Eventually we found a pizza hut and decided to just go in there. It was pleasant enough but many other westerners had the same idea.
Once we had finished eating we headed straight back to the hotel because we were
both shattered. I am barely keeping my eyes open as I am writing this. Night night. Stob
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Brian
non-member comment
Lets go to marrakesh and go to PIZZA HUT?!! now I know you are fussy with your food but???