Morocco

Morocco, where do I start?

This place is amazing, I've never been anywhere like this place, it's completely unlike anywhere else we've been so far in Europe. We got in late Tuesday, got a taxi into the medina to get to our Riad (Like a B&B), I knew cars couldn't drive into the Medina (It's the city centre that was built before roads, so the streets are tiny), so I knew we'd have to walk some, the driver told us it would be 100m, so we thought that was fine. We get there and straight away this guy comes up to us asking if we want somewhere to stay, we told him we already have somewhere, and he asks us where so we told him and he tells us he'll take us there. I was skeptical but before I knew it we were following him, I knew nothing would be for free. At one stage we were walking down this dark thin alleyway (it had been way further than 100m) and I'd never been more weary of being mugged but it turned out fine, he got us to this place and asked for a tip, he said something like "come on man, just 100 dirham" and I didn't really know how much that was worth to him so I gave it to him, not really the situation for thinking straight, anyway we got inside to our GLORIOUS Riad, and told the owner about it, and he chased the guy and got us our money back, I actually think he didn't catch the guy and took it out of his own pocket. We got our bags inside (completely stunned at the place, so beautiful, but so completely unlike any fancy place we'd stayed before, nicer imo) and went to go out for an explore, and lucky us, saw a couple we recogised from the (better than you'd expect) easyjet flight, found out they were aussies (they are EVERYWHERE in europe) and decided to play it safe and venture out with them.

We are staying in a real mint location, only 5 minutes from the big square, and what a unique place that was. In our visits there we've seen a snake charmer, with the cobra and the flute/trumpet thing, random music gatherings, which is so people can collect money from you (nothing is for free here), we saw one woman (often they're all covered up because this is a muslim country, it's not all that extreme though, just everywhere) with a duck and two hedgehogs... I don't know what she was trying to do with them or how she was trying to get money from people by displaying these two rather ordinary species, but lots of people were gathered around, probably wondering the same things. There are stalls that come out at night for food too, lots of spicy smells. We saw this big ring of people surrounding two people, so we had a look, and it was a spontaneous boxing match! When we got there we saw the people all gloved up (no face pads no mouthguards) and wondered if they really would box. The guy "running" it spent ages saying stuff in arabic and I think he was asking people to give money (I think the winner got the money) and after a while it started, and it was hardcore, instantly the fight would end up on the edges of the crowd and it was full on street fighting with gloves. Interesting..

We've spent time, and gotten lost, in the souks, which is the street markets. They're all in tiny streets, unlike other markets, and they hound you all the time to come into their store. It's not as cheap here as I would have hoped, €1 gets you about 11 dirham, but a can of diet coke can cost 10-15 dirham, so for some stuff it's about the same price as europe, which makes it more expensive than home!! Amazing when you consider the relative poorness (is that a word) of this place. The food is a bit cheaper, I'm partially addicted to tangines, which is a sort of stew thing in a special cooker, with (obviously) morrocan spices.

An odd thing here is that most people are bilingual Arabic and French of all languages. So we just try to use french to communicate, it works, but it's odd. We're gutted we couldn't visit the desert, but the only trips out there were overnight. And it's unusual, and creepy, to hear the muslim call to prayer, four times a day, it's an unusual call really.

Wow, there has been so much other amazing stuff we have seen here, but I can't write it all, it's by far my favorite part of the trip so far, it'll stay in my memories forever I hope. Oh, and people, feel free to comment, I feel like I'm writing to no-one..

Addition: I forgot to mention we both got this traditional massage thing called Hammam, actually, the massage isn't part of the traditional thing. The got us into our underwear and covered us in this brown goo, then made us bake in a sauna for what seemed like way too long, then threw water over us and rubbed these abrasive gloves over us and stripped a whole lot of skin off, and more sauna time and more goo. I forgot how the order went, then they massaged us. Since the girls and the guys can't do it at the same time Alice actually had the massage first while the goo dispensing was laid onto me, and then we swapped. I also forgot to mention how insane these people are with their motorcycle riding. Everywhere you go people are buzzing past you on a little scooter or bike, at high speeds, dubbing people and generally risking their lives, because while it's just a bit insane them doing it in the big crowds of people (dodging the donkey drawn carts) it's completely mad when they do it down the thin alleys of the medina because they are going fast and they really are thin. Haven't seen an accident yet.. Amazing.

We're leaving tonight, I'm sad to go, but I'm also ready to go. While it's pretty awesome to be here, there's not a hell of a lot to do really other than just be here experiencing it.