Marrakech Hustle

Our group left the peaceful sea-side town of Essaouira for noisy, smog-filled Marrakech on New Year's Eve day. We arrived in the evening and decided to go somewhere close by for dinner that was cheap as most restaurants had New Year's Eve menus starting at 600 MAD. We went to a place called Winoo and it was full of locals. Most of the girls ordered pizzas and I ordered a salad and the Winoo Plus drink, which was yogurt, a mixture of fruit and kiwis and topped with almonds. It was smooth and so full of flavour. Yummy! While we were waiting for our food, Alanna and Vicki took off to a nearby patisserie shop and bought a box full of goodies.

We returned to our hotel after supper and went to the hotel bar and drank beer/wine and tasted the patisseries. We also watched French programs and Arabic music videos, which was fun because we made up stories to the videos. I went to bed around 10:30.

I didn't sleep well that night as my roommate returned to the room just as I was falling asleep and I had to get up to let her in as we were only given one key for the room. She went back out and I heard her return around 1:00am when she was trying to get the lights to come on. We finally got te lights on and I went back to bed to be woken up at 3:30 because the couple next door was having a lovers quarrel or something. The woman was balling her eyes out and yelling at the guy and he was yelling at her. Doors were opening and slamming shut. My roommate was concerned for the woman and I told her to call the front desk and she did call and said the neighbours were making a lot of noise and woke us up. We discovered yesterday morning that she gave the wrong room number to the front desk. We fell back asleep to be awoken at 5:30 in the morning to the guy banging on his room door and yelling at his girlfriend to let him in. My roommate and I both looked at our clocks and I looked at her and said "welcome to Marrakech".

Yesterday, we walked to the Majorelle Gardens and visited Yves Saint Laurent's memorial. It is nice and peaceful there compared to the noise and honking of the city.

After the gardens we visited the medina and we played Frogger with our lives to get to the medina. If there are street lights or walking lights, they are only one the one side of the street so you never know if you can go. Even if you the walk light, motor bikes and cars still go through so you walk/run across the streets. It's insane and nobody drives in one lane only, some cars are in two lanes or two cars are in one lane at a time.

We did a little more shopping in the medina and high-tailed out of there around lunchtime to go eat and just to get away from the haggling and crowded lanes in the medinas where bicycles and motor bikes are whizzing by on all sides on the laneway.

Last night, our group met up in the Place Djemaa el-Fna for our last meal together. There are so many food stalls and each have their own number and serve different types of meals. Our last meal included chicken, beef, and vegetable brochettes, fries, salad, cous cous with vegetables, eggplant and green peppers (?), tomato dish to dip your bread in and calamari. I'm probably missing some dishes, but that's all I can think of at the moment. Some of the group appeared to be weary, and tired. The medina, square, traffic and noise of Marrakech would do that to anyone. We said good-bye to the rest of the people in our group and wished them safe travels.

After supper I went to a nearby ice cream place and had 2 scoops, one of fig and the other of avocado. The avocado was interesting because it tasted like a ripe avocado that you scoop out of the shell but it was creamier and smooth. Its not a flavour you ever consider. I tried Nina's cinnamon flavoured ice cream and that had to be the best cinnamon ice cream I have ever tasted.

Once we finished our ice cream, we head across the lane two light stores. I helped Nina negotiate with a light fixture that is white/clear and pale blue glass to go above her dining room table. It's very pretty. I helped Alanna negotiate for a two-tiered upside down wedding cake (at least that's what it looks like) light fixture to go above her dining room table.

One of the men there told me I bargain like a Berber, which isn't really a compliment and it wasn't the first time I heard that comment. Berbers want the item for practically nothing. The man told man told me he was a Berber and joked with me. He even held out a bag and told me to get in it. I really enjoyed bargaining the last couple of days and some of the men seemed or act insulted with my prices but they still end up selling the item to me, so I guess they can't be too insulted. Vicki and Pam also bought light fixtures for their new places. I can't wait to see everyone's lights in their homes.
Once the lamps were bought, we returned to the hotel, packed and said good-bye to our tour guide. I said good-bye to Alanna, Pam and Vicki as they left very early this morning.
Once again, my roommate and I were awoken at 3:00 in the morning from the crazy couple next door. There had to be at least 4 people in the room talking very loud and opening and slamming doors. I'm so happy to be away from them.
Nina and I took a taxi to the airport, flew to Madrid, took 3 metros (very fast and easy), walked as per the instructions of our hostal, realized the instructions were wrong and we were in the wrong direction, finally, hailed a taxi and we arrived safely to our hostal.
We ate a place called Lizzaron and ate a couple of tapas/appetizers and had a ham and rice soup. The soup smelled good but was very salty. We walked around the neighbourhood after supper and returned to our room. Our room is quaint and clean. Nina's happy that it has a hair dryer.
Tomorrow we plan to visit the Palacio Real and the Plaza Mayor. We also want to try Madrid's 'Churro' - a donut like strip that is dunked in hot chocolate. We read that it's the 'must' thing to try here. Stay tuned.
Vicki and Pam have our bags in Casablanca and are taking them back to Ottawa. At least we know where they are and they are going home.