Essaouira to Marrakesh

Ok so this entry is a little late on being put on the journal, by about three months to be honest. I did mean to do it earlier but that whole falling back into life at home thing kicked in and before I knew it not only have months passed by but the year has ticked over. Since so much time has passed I really wasn’t going to put up this entry. Then today for some reason I changed my mind and decided to at least put something up here. At least to show that yes I did go to this town.

What can I say about Marrakesh that has not been said by others in many different form and forums? Probably not much, if anything.

Marrakesh seems to evoke extremes in people’s point of view. People love it or they seem to hate it advising people on how dangerous it is or touristy or any other number of complaints that could probably be said about many cities around the world.

My view? I loved it.

Djemma el-Fna

Djemma el-Fna is what I really came to Marrakesh to see. I’d read so much about it before I came here and I wasn’t disappointed. Yes it was touristy but honestly I can not see how people could be shocked at that one if they had even bothered to read up about the place before they arrived. So yes you will find lots of tourists, after all Marrakesh is one of the gateways for Morocco. Still you will see local tourists as well which in some ways is kind of refreshing. One of the giveaways that this place is not just totally set up for foreigner tourists is that everything is in Arabic including the street entertainment.

At night the square comes alive filled with smoke from the street stalls, calls from the from the food stalls trying to entice you to eat at their stall intermingling with local musicians playing and singing, story tellers deep into their tale to an enthralled ring of spectators. Medicine men sit quietly waiting for customers, fortune tellers, dancers, water sellers, snake charmers, the list goes on and through it all you wander part of a heaving crowd.

Eating at the food stalls was great. You could and should wander through the stalls. You can see just about anything that is on offer to eat at these stalls all being cooked fresh in front of you. You can snack, getting bits and pieces from a variety of stalls to make up your meal or park yourself at a stall that takes your fancy and people watch, that is entertainment all in itself.

Souqs

I was in Marrakesh, the end of my trip. It was time to shop. Do not get me wrong. I am not really a shopper at heart, that is probably why I leave the whole shopping thing until last. That and not really being interesting in hauling purchases all over the countryside. So you are not going to get an enthralling description of the Souqs and everything you can buy in fine detail or the details of a mad last minute dash in to buy up the markets before leaving. After all I had time. Lou was doing a three day cooking course, which she highly recommends if you have the inclination and the spare cash and the time when you hit Marrakesh.

I spent a bit of time during the day wandering the Souqs and the shops out on the streets getting a feel for the cost of things. I’d been told by many to avoid buying anything in the Souqs as it was inevitably more expensive. Personally I did not find that to be true. Ok so you have to bargain a little harder in the Souqs, but hey that is half the fun. That and there is just something about bargaining and buying in the Souqs, there is just more atmosphere or something.

One stand out moment was after a few days and I finally jumped in to make a purchase, I brought a leather bag for a friend. I was just walking away from that stall quite happy with my first purchase when the guy selling shoes just down from the bags caught my attention and asked if I needed some shoes to go with the bag. I laughed and pointed to my boots and said no I did not need any more shoes.

He didn’t even blink before replying “Yes madam you do. You need 365 pairs of shoes. One for every day of the year!”

Then the bag seller chimed in with “Yes and the bags to match!”

They laughed, I laughed. That was the Souqs for me. That banter with the sellers as you wander through. The little man who ran after me brandishing his bag the price getting lower and lower without me even trying. It is just not the same in the regular shops.

Other Stuff

Now we went to see a variety of things around Marrakesh, but you guessed that didn’t you? After all we were here for about a week. I’m not going to list them all. It was the usual stuff one does when you go to a place. You know old former palaces, gardens, museums, tombs etc etc.

Still there was one stand out we went to Chez Ali. Lets not leave any doubt about this yes, in no certain terms, it is very touristy. Still we had a great night. Amazing food, bottle of wine and a seemingly endless stream of locals singing, dancing and playing instruments parading past our table the night ending in a pretty expressive display of horsemanship.

All up as I said I loved Marrakesh and I thought it was a great way to end our five and a half weeks in Morocco.