Morocco, Days 1&2

Arriving in Marrakech was a new experience for me in many ways. It was my first time in Africa, my first time in a Muslim country, my first time in a country with a dominant language(s) that I didn't know (the main tongues of Morocco are Arabic, Berber, and French). I knew before I left it would be a completely different experience from anywhere I had traveled before, and it didn't disappoint me.

After being dropped off by the taxi, we were led to the hostel by a pre-teen boy looking to make a little money from lost tourists. We were walking down a street with all of our luggage, being stopped by street vendors at every shop and trying to avoid the speeding motorbikes coming from all directions. Down a couple of backalleys, we finally arrived to the best hostel I have ever stayed in. I don't want this to sound like a review for hostel world, but in short, there was free tea and shisha all day and night, an incredible breakfast prepared every morning, the most amiable employees you could imagine, and an overall amazing environment that really fostered friendships. Plus, the location was right in the middle of old-town Marrakech--called the Medina--and only a few minutes walk from the main square: Djemaa el-Fna.

Tagine with lamb

At dusk, no fewer than a hundred stands set-up in the square, each selling typical Moroccan dishes and all eager to get customers by any means they can. The servers follow you through the square, make-up special offers, and will even pull you with physical force into their little "restaurant." The two main dishes that seemed to be ubiquitous throughout the whole city were tagine and couscous. Both are delicious, but there was also seafood, skewers, lamb heads, and a sweet cinnamon dessert dish that was actually grilled chicken. But I think the best part of all was the orange juice; we literally went into one of the vendor's stands to verify he wasn't adding sugar to the drink because it tasted so sweet. We ate good every single night, because it was all so cheap too. You could easily fill yourself on 3-5 euros or dollars.

The next day we explored the souqs, a huge marketplace with hundreds of stands that winds like a labyrinth through the Medina. You can buy instruments, clothes, shoes, spices, jewelry, lanterns, and all kinds of other items. Haggling is necessary, and the difference between the starting and final prices was always pretty substantial.  I wanted to buy a leather book bag that the seller was asking about $40 for, and I ended up buying it for $16. Another part of Moroccan culture we wanted to experience was the hammam (which is originally a Turkish custom). We went to a spa that did hammam, and I went in completely clueless to what a hammam actually was. Basically I was just bathed by an attendant in a sauna with a massage afterwards, but they thought my friend and I were a couple and they did us together. It was definitely an intimate experience. And this was only the first hammam experience of the trip.

One of the souqs

I was already exhausted just from a day and a half in Marrakech, so after going to a local restaurant to watch the Madrid-Barça game (qué pena...), we went to sleep to prepare for our early morning the next day.