Marrakech, and Thank God It's Over

Morocco had an adventure around every corner. It had a lot of cool things and awesome moments, but if we're being truthful I couldn't wait to get out of that damn country by the time we got back to Marrakech. It's just exhausting, constantly fending off touts, trying to not get horribly scammed, and always keeping an eye on everything around me to keep myself safe and my possessions secure. It's an experience and a half, I'm glad I went, and I might consider going back, but I'm happy to be out of there for now. 

Part of the issue with Morocco is just that as a tourist, there aren't a tonne of things to do. There are a few museums, and a medina tour, but once you're through those there aren't many traditional tourist attractions, and since sitting somewhere and relaxing with a book is considered an ideal time for people to approach and try to get you to give them money in some form, it's hard to find things to fill your day, unless you want to spend a large chunk of time chilling on the roof terrace of your hotel. Which we did do often, actually, but still - no one wants to sit around without leaving their hotel all day! Also most hotels don't have a lot of food options, so that isn't really possible anyway. 

Marrakech did have some cool things, not to mention an incredible number of opportunities to get lost. We went out on our first night to get to the main square, Djemma el Fnaa, and on the way encountered the main mosque of the area. 

We had dinner and fresh squeezed orange juice in the square, then settled in on a rooftop patio to watch the world go by. Djemma is famous for its entertainers - drummers, acrobats, snake charmers and trained monkeys are all around, performing for the crowd. On ground level, it was a bit overwhelming, but from above, it was gorgeous. 

Crowds start to form as dusk falls. 

The food stalls and entertainers. 

20 dirham worth of sweets - $2.50 Canadian!

The next morning, we finally got a chance to sleep in, then went to explore Marrakech. We took the tourist  bus, going to the biggest sites in the area, then got off at the Baha Palaces to hang out for a little while. 

The Saadian tombs. 

Turtle! At the tombs!

A mosque near the tombs. 

Part of the Palace. I tripped over the step around the fountain seconds after taking this picture. 

Tiled roof of the Palace. 

The inner courtyard. We hung out to read there for a few hours, and it was peaceful and cool! Until some German tourists sat on us, anyway. We spent the rest of the day wandering around, mostly keeping an eye out for good spots to sit and read for a while. It was a relaxing say, which was desperately needed before we departed on our Sahara trip. Also, that night we had the best sandwich I've ever eaten. It was amazing and too good to waste time with photos, and we ate there three more times before leaving. 

The next three days were spent on the Sahara trip, and when we got back we again spent a day sleeping in and taking it easy. Both of us weren't feeling great, but it seemed stupid to stay in all day on our last day in Morocco, so we dragged ourselves out of the room and went to the Musee de Marrakech, and the medersa next to it. 

It's a beautiful riad with a gorgeous courtyard that they inexplicably ruined with a gross plastic dome overhead. The lighting is terrible. 

The medersa is much nicer though. 

See? Bright, open courtyards work so much better. 

The medersa was cool, but we were both getting tired, so we decided to head back to the hotel for a bit to read and relax. It turned out to be a good choice, because that's when we found out that due to an air traffic controller strike in France, our scheduled 10 am flight had been cancelled, and we were booked onto a new flight to Casablanca, with standby status from Casablanca to Paris. Oh, and the new flight left at 6.35. In the morning. 

Our relaxing afternoon soon became a nightmare of calling around and rescheduling taxis, confirming seats on the second flight, and realizing we had to leave the hotel at 4.20 the next morning, which pretty effectively killed what little enthusiasm we had for going out again that evening. Still, we grudgingly went to the Djemma for one last lemonade before leaving Morocco. 

The morning was also pretty stressful; though we got to the airport on time and with little hassle, upon arriving at the check-in desk we were told our flight had been cancelled. It took forty minutes and three different people to finally communicate that yes, we knew the 10 am direct flight was cancelled, but we had ticket to Casablanca. We had emailed confirmation of those tickets too. Still, we were shuttled back and forth for a while before finally getting checked in and making our way to the gate. 

Casablanca was a short hop, less than half an hour, and when we landed we had a good window to get to our gate for the flight to Paris - now confirmed as well, by the way. We got to the gate with about twenty minutes to kill, and all was well. For about, well, twenty minutes, when they got on the PA to announce that our flight was delayed. Or something. We tracked down a guy to see what was going on, and were eventually told that our flight had been pushed back from 8.20 to 13.00. Or 13.30. Or 14.00. But maybe 11.00. Or some time like that. No one had any clue when we were going to leave, so we wound up sitting in the Casablanca airport, staring at the sign that still read "8.20 to Paris - boarding" and hoping we wouldn't miss the announcement when it eventually did come. For bonus points, we were nearly out of dirham, and the credit card system in the airport was broken, so between us we could buy about half a cup of tea. 

Finally, at about 11 am, there was an announcement and a flurry of activity at our gate, so we rushed down to check and found our plane was boarding. It was slow going, but eventually our flight did leave at around 11.40, and we made it to Paris without much further excitement. The only good thing about the whole experience was that there was an EasyJet flight for Paris at the next gate. It was supposed to leave at nearly the same time, and we were jealous when they boarded and we couldn't. The jealousy evaporated when we saw that they were still sitting there, fully loaded, when we finally left three hours late. At least we weren't on that flight!