Up at 8am and did some exercises – check us out! We went out for breakfast in the Medina and found it in a VERY authentic little crepe/bread/tea joint. Two ladies made the bread,and cooked it fresh on a hot plate flipping it by hand, we had one each with plenty of honey poured on and a pot of mint tea to wash it all down. Three men sat down at a table near us and ordered the same, they were pouring their mint tea from the pot into a glass and then back into the pot (to cool it down) getting more and more theatrical when they realised they had us as an audience. It was a great breakfast and half of what we paid for only D's the previous day.
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| From 1 Essaouira |
We went back to pack and then left our backpacks at the hostel. Walking round the town again we bumped into the little guy who first showed us to our hotel and was then stood up by us twice, once for tea and the other for beer and music, er oops. Anyway after a small admonishment we followed him to his friends shop where we had real Berber tea, which was surprisingly delicious. The guy who owned the shop and made us the tea spoke English and gave us an education into natural remedies for different problems. Into the tea went, dried mint (good for the nose), small rose heads (good for the skin), star anise (good for something), some other kind of anise, some small balls which smelt a bit like lemon, something else which smelt like lemon grass and other very fresh and therefore very pungent ingredients, all pushed down into hot water with an enormous block of sugar. The tea was surprisingly good and so was the education, it was of course an opportunity to buy the things he was telling us about but it was done in a very nice way. He also brought out some argan oil some for cosmetic use and other for cooking, we couldn't get him down from his 'very good price' to a very good price we could afford, so we left it behind, thanked him for the tea and when went on our way.
We spent the afternoon wandering about taking more pictures, having lunch and buying some snacks for the bus trip back to Marrakesh. Our daily spend is going down (thank goodness) the decline is mostly due to the fact that we haven't been gorging ourselves silly on restaurant food. Instead we had a really good shwarma plate for 2 from a little shop in the Medina and sat on the top floor which was open but covered and watched the people go by while we ate our lunch. Buying food from the market is so much cheaper, which shouldn't be such a revelation, but it's so cheap and good! We got olives, fresh bread, juicy apricots (from a man with a cartful of them all fresh, ripe and juicy), 3 bananas, some almonds and a big bottle of water all for less than $5 bargain!
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| From 1 Essaouira |
Essaouira was a great introduction to Morocco, I really can't imagine jumping straight in without a little warm up before going somewhere like Marrakesh, which is where we headed for as I type! It's quite difficult adjusting to another culture where people are so open to conversation and to helping strangers, it's difficult to place the people who want to be paid for their help and those who are genuinely friendly and have no ulterior motive, that said nearly everyone who stopped us to talk or ask a question wanted to know if we were interested in something to buy – even if the things weren't theirs but a friend of a friend of a friend. Coming from a place like Moscow; where people would actively ignore you as soon as talk to you, to England; where everyone minds their own business but will help you if you ask, to Morocco; where you have the pleasure of someone else's company whether you want it or not, is so socially confusing it's hard to know how to be without being taking advantage of or missing out on opportunities.
Marrakesh, WOW! The heat is intense, 38 degrees in the evening! We arrived at the bus centre, just outside of town, around 6.30 and got a petit taxi to the centre, we shared the road with bikes, scooters, the skinny motorbikes (this time with wives and children hanging on), horses (apparently a viable means of alternative transport there were so many) and plenty of other mad ass drivers in little cars. Getting a place to stay was easy...ish. Obviously new in town we were approached by two men who tried to steer us down an alley (not as dubious as it sounds, all the cheap hotels are down little alleys) which smelt of cooking tajine (delicious!) and ended up following one of them to a cute little riad, very nice but just out of our price range, and then onto one which is, which is where we are are staying for the next couple of nights. Unfortunately we forgot to ask about sleeping on the terrace and were very disappointed with ourselves (it's much cheaper and cooler and just plain cool).
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| From Marrakesh, Morocco |
We went for a walk around the huge square, Djemma al Fna, which is like the central hub of the Medina and was absolutely packed with Moroccans, tourists, street entertainers, henna ladies and shops. It was all quite a bit to take in, the air got much cooler after the sun went down but the energy from all the people was immense. Through all the noise of people talking, selling, chatting and begging was the sound of music, loud and constant. I can't even begin to describe the atmosphere it was just crazy - we had no idea where to start. The Medina is huge and easy to get lost in (unbelievable amounts of streets, alleys, houses, riads, carts and hole in the wall shops) so we played it safe and stayed in or near the Djemma al Fna. We had some delicious, refreshing and freshly squeezed orange juice from one of the many orange juice stands all lined up in a row (cheeky buggers fixed the price I'm sure no-one was prepared to haggle over the price) and were accosted by a henna artist who grabbed my hand and started doodling with her henna gun despite me trying to pull my hand away constantly. When she finished her little flower scribble she held out her hand for payment and when we didn't give her any money she indicated that she was deaf, smudged the henna all over my hand and disappeared back into the swarm of humanity. Not the nicest introduction to Marrakesh but a very common approach, do first and then insistently request (or angrily demand) payment later, very uncool and very unsettling.
We wandered round a bit more dodging all the people on mopeds and scooters and then decided to get some motions shots of them (we amused ourselves for a good hour doing this). It was too hot to eat and we weren't hungry so after D dragged me away from the scooters we got an ice-cream and headed back to our nice but small and stuffy hotel room for some z's.
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| From Marrakesh, Morocco |
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