Written 14th April 2012.
This kind of driving that goes down in Marrakech will blow your mind. We arrived in the evening just as the sun was sinking away. After our visit to Paradise Valley Jeff took the wheel and drove us the 3 hours to Marrakech.
When we arrived we had no idea where we were going. A.J. had saved a map to his laptop but it was too zoomed in for us to figure out where it was. We drove into the melee. People, cars, bikes, motorbikes and horse/donkey drawn carts were all vying for their place in the fray. It was so mad! You just had to get on the horn and force your way through. We saw one sight that was astounding, try and visualise this if you can... There was a guy on a small motorbike with his mate lying down facing backwards with his legs sticking out the back of the bike and his head by his mates crotch. (So he is basically facing his friend but laying down on the frame of the bike!) How terrifying to be in that position while wildly winding your way through crazy unpredictable traffic!!!
Anyway, eventually we see a Mc Donald's and we are like YAY! Food and WiFi! So in we go to try and figure out where we are... Not as easy as you would think. After enlisting the help of some girls using my very basic French we figured it out. We jumped back in the car and headed back into the disorder. We got to near where we were going but were lost in the narrow winding streets of the medina with every imaginable conveyance whizzing past us. Eventually we payed a guy to take us to our hostel. He got us close and then we had to pay another guy to take us the rest of the way. Fun times in tumult.
The hostel was pretty cool. It was called Auberge Raid Douzi. I think Auberge is French for hostel and Raid is the kind of building where it is all open in the middle with the rooms around the edges and you can look over the balcony down into the foyer.
We settled in and finally got the tea we had heard about on the roof top. It tastes kind of minty and a bit like aniseed. You have to pour it from high up so it gets foam on the top. Apparently the foam makes it sweet. It is quite nice. Then we headed to bed.
The next morning we ventured back into the markets. Wow, it is hard to explain the bustle of people, carts, donkeys, horses, bikes, motorbikes. You just are weaving your way through a sea of movement while trying to not get run over by anything.
The markets are amazing. There is all sorts of things to buy. There are rows a colourful, neatly heaped spices.
Leather shoes dangling from the roof like strings of bright fish.
All sorts of handmade trinkets.
Even live animals. There are lots of little turtles crammed in cages – I felt so sorry for them. The chameleons didn't fare much better. This one had a nice perch though.
We even saw a man snake charming. It was just like in the movies.
We had lunch overlooking the square.
It wasn't that busy in the square yet – it got more and more crowded as the day progressed until it was as packed as the alleys by the evening. Here is a video of the square. You can hear the snake charmers music.
After lunch we split up to explore the market a bit more. Steve and I got quite lost. It is like a rabbit warren in there! After a few purchases involving a bit of haggling we went for a mission walk to find some jandals. With no luck. When we returned we chilled in the hostel for a bit.
Then we went for a walk to find some tea.
We made our way to the big square and laid eyes on the night market – rows of steaming food stalls.
A.J. wanted to sample a bowl of snails first. We all tried one – I can't say I enjoyed the taste of them but A.J. nailed the whole bowl.
Everyone was vying for our custom. We settled on a place where we were guaranteed a good feed because the chef was the ladies mother. We were not disappointed and were treated to a yummy feast.
We had decided to do a tour to the desert to ride camels the following morning so it was back home to bed after tea and sampling a few of the local sweets.
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