MOROCCO

Yes, I have returned from Morocco intact, was not trampled by any camels :). What an experience; it really was like being in another world. Anyways, starting from the beginning, a bit of a Santiago update. The weather here has been absolutely amazing as of late, warm, sunny, and perfect. Because of the nice weather we have started haning out in this big park on the way to our afternoon class, which is really nice. We get some wine or beer and just chill for a while, talking and relaxing before heading over. The big news is that my roommate Samuel is back, as is my Brazilian roommate, so the apartment is full again. It's really nice having those guys around, they're both really nice guys, and it's much more fun having roommates again, if a bit distracting. So yes, on to Morocco. Florette, Laura, Sam and I set out Wednesday night, missing our Thursday classes, which was no big deal for me as my Lit class had an exam that we just took class early, and then I just had to miss my Grammar/conversation class, no big deal. Anways, we flew to Madrid at night, where we then had to spend the night in order to catch the Thursday morning flight to Marrakech (we did this so we could get a cheaper flight, etc.). So yeah...a night in the Madrid airport; not the most fun experience. I did, however, bring my sleeping bag, so after dinner and lounging about a bit we went over to the check in area and claimed a spot. We weren't alone in our overnight airport situation, and we noticed that people were sleeping on the little luggage builts next to the desks, so sam set up on one of those, while Florette lifted out the comfy chair and Laura and I spread out on the floor. We managed to get a bit of sleep before we were awakened at around 4am, when the airport started hopping with people needing to check in. We relocated against a wall for a bit, and then checked in as soon as we could, passing through security and finding some empty benches to crash in for a couple hours. The things we do to save some money...But yes, after a practically sleepless night we eventually boarded the plane to Marrakech that morning, which only a little under two hours long (although we were conked out for most of it anyway). We arrived in Morocco at around 1pm there time (they're an hour behind), tired but excited. My first impression was thus of the Marrakech airport, where following passport control I entered a big, bright area, and noticed a cat stretched out in the middle of the floor, catching some sun. It was the first of many cats I would see around the city; they are pretty much given free range to wander as they will. The airport itself is beautiful; pretty, well lit, and well decorated. So far so good. Our next step was to exchange money, as in Morocco they use the dirham (one euro=about 11 dirham). That was a bit tricky to get used to, as the instinct is to cringe when you here something is worth 100 dirham (even though it only amounts to only about 10 dirham). With our pretty new money, we headed out to find the bus that would take us into the heart of Marrakech. We were dropped off by the Koutoubia Mosque, which our guide book describes as the builing "most emblematic" of Marrakech, and then we made our way towards Jemma el Fna, the huge plaza in the middle of the city. The plaza itself is filled with booths, highlights being people selling fresh-squeezed juice and dried fruit. There are also lots of women sitting around doing Henna tattoos, as well as snake charmers (which i found teriffying...i really hate snakes). The square itself is pretty overwhelming. For one thing, there are people all over, and on the outskirts of the plaza there are random people driving cars/motorbikes/bikes, so you have to be careful not to get runover. Actually, I feel like I spent most of the trip trying not to get run over, as things aren't really well marked, and even down the little streets there are constantly people walking, riding bikes/motor bikes, or driving donkeys with carts. Very hectic; the Moroccan people didn't seem to have any trouble, although I must admit it was kind of terrifying trying to cross roads-no crosswalks or anything, you just have to walk/run into traffic and hope they stop, haha. The other thing about the market/Morocco in general is that people were CONSTANTLY trying to sell us stuff, or just beg. The store/stand owners just shout at you, saying "Hello" in like five different languages to all the tourists. They come up to you, do everything they can to get your attention, etc. It got old fast, but by the end we had mastered ignoring people; it's hard because I don't want to be rude or whatever, but if you acknowledge people you're done for. So yes, we made our way through the square; I had a list of directions to the hostel that my friend Olivia from Paris had sent me. She and Kristin stayed in our hostel when they came to Morocco after I had already gone home, and since it's so hard to find Olivia was nice enough to give me really detailed directions on how to get there. There are essentially no street signs in Morocco, so you just have to navigate the windy roads by sight, which definitely proved to be problematic (Laura, our designated map reader, was not happy). We refused the many people offering to lead us to Equity Point Hostel (for payment, of course), and actually managed to make it on our own, quite a feat considering how tucked away it is. The hostel itself was really great, beautifully decorated, and just really nice overall despite the low cost. We dropped off our stuff and sat for a bit, trying to figure out our game plan. It was soooo hot, definitely in the 90s, which was pretty intense, but also nice. Felt like summer! After asking at the front desk for a lunch reccomendation, we headed out to grab some food and do some exploring. Due to the aforementioned lack of street names and such, finding the reccommended place proved to be too difficult, so we picked one at random that had Moroccan food. One of the great things about Morocco is that the food is amazing, and relatively cheap! The restaurant was really gorgeous; we sat outside and admired the decorations, and enjoyed the food: couscous, lamb, tajin, bread, etc. Soooo good! After a long, amazing lunch, we decided that we would head over to check out the Badi palace, which is now in ruins, and inhabited by lots of stork and cats. After checking that out for a while, we decided to head out to find the Saadian tombs, which was very cool, with pretty architecture. It took us forever, however, to find them (we got lost a lot...not our fault), but on the way we did get to see one of the cool/really old doors to the city. After the tombas, we stopped at a little cafe to get a snack and rest a bit, before we headed back in the direction of the main square, stopping in at little shops along the way. We stopped in at the hostel for a bit, and then headed out again not that longafter to see the main square at night. Basically, it converts into a whole bunch of food stands, which have benches and stuff so people can come up, sit down, and eat. They had several different kinds of stands, one featuring lambs head, others selling snails, a spicy desert, tea, and then others with a variety of traditional Moroccan food. We opted for one of the latter, picking one at random as we were getting overwhelmed by the constant offers and such. We ordered a bunch of plates to share, inculding couscous, Moroccan salad (which consisted mainly of tomatoes, onions, and cucumber), some kebabs, bread, sausages, and some chicken. It was all really good, and afterword we went and walked around a bit more. There were a lot of groups of people watching street performances, with people doing acrobatics,storytelling, or just wearing costumes (for example, there were a bunch of men dressed as women that just kind of danced around and then pestered us for money). Unfortunately, we attracted a lot of attention, and were being constantly hassled for money, so we didn't watch much of this kind of stuff. Plus, we were constantly being hit on, Moroccan men are not shy, so we wandered around a bit, tried the spicy dessert and tea (which we weren't crazy about), and then started walking back to the hostel. The walk took us through a couple big streets lined with shops, so we stopped in and checked everything out. The shops were really great; lots of jewelry, colored shoes, rugs, leather goods, knives/swords, ceramics, pretty lamps, etc. In order to buy from these shops you have to barter, which was definitely an experience. I remembered a bit how we had to barter in Jamaica, and remembered some of Dad's pointers, so I was actually pretty good at it. The others, not so much, haha, but by the end we all had the hang of it. We wanted to get to bed early, though, so we mostly just looked around a bit and then headed back to the hostel. The hostel ran various excursions, and after thinking it all over we decided to do a two-day, one-night trip to the Sahara desert!!! We were all super excited, and headed to bed so we would be ready to leave at 7am the next morning.
It was still dark when we woke up, the first time I've woken up that early in a loooong time, but I was so excited that it wasn't actually that hard...
And now I'm off to celebrate St. Patty's day, so I'm going to leave you in suspense. I shall finish my tale soon, but figured i might as well post what i've got.
later,
Brit