Going Oriental in Marrakech

I´m sure you all have certain pictures in your head about Marokko.

1001 night, desert, camels, white houses with flat roofs, little fountains in couryards, sugared mint tea, hamam, people in dresses and headscarves, snakes winding up and moving around to flute music …Yes?

Marrakech is exactly all that. AND we were there when Ramadan began, which made it only more interesting. I felt constantly like I was in my own stereotype of how it should be. The streets reminded me so much of the Barbie secret service agent computer game I played hundred times when I was a kid. It was crazy! But let me start – as always – from the beginning.

Me and my friend Laura decided to go on a weekend trip. Well, she did – by sending me pictures of ridiculously cheap flights from Düsseldorf Weeze to Marrakech, for 80€ return. Even if I always had reservations about going without a male counterpart, my always-wanted-to-go-nerve kicked it and the very same day we had the flight tickets plus night busses to Düsseldorf and Sparpreistickets with Deutsche Bahn back to Berlin. Four days and three nights in Marrakech! We booked a room in a beautiful old Riad in the Medina, with pool and everything, for about 15€ p.P. per night, and were ready to go.

The flight is quite long (I mean, it´s all the way to Africa! What did I expect!?) and it is a crazy loud assemblage of passengers.

The airport in Marrakech is quite close to the center and – thanks Heaven – everybody speaks French. With no further ado we find the main squareJeema el Fna, follow the instructions on how to find our Riad, and … get hopelessly lost in the Souks for an hour before we somehow nestle our way out of there again. The map of Marrakech looks like kind of normal, except for lots and lots of thin brown lines in the center of the Medina – that´s the souks. Try finding your way through that, foreigner! Everybody is super helpful though even though I feel uncomfortable with all my belongings on me half-expecting a pocket-thieving or a robbery every second.

When we finally find it, we are AMAZED. Check this out:

The room is all old-fashioned stone and wood, we have four beds to ourselves, a cool pool-courtyard with fig and orange trees downstairs and a roof terrace with large sitting areas and a few sunbeds upstairs.

After our – unplanned – souk adventure, we are starving, so we set out again to the main square and went on Taj´n Darna, the terraced restaurant that the guy from our Riad recommended to us. We order a 3 course meal and while the sun sets over the big square, we finally relax and let the fact sink in that we´re actually in Marrakech, Marokko, Africa.

Underneath us, there are drums sounding, flutes playing, acrobats doing their stunts and people bustling to set up their evening businesses in their stalls on the square, because only after the sun sets the life really starts in Marrakech. That´s when the sweltering 35°C go down to a soft 28°C and the night air feels like a light and comforting blanket that wraps around you loosely, that´s when people come out. We just sit up there, sipping our sugar-sweet mint tea, eating couscous and vegetables and celebrating the fact that we were alive and there.

Afterwards, we stroll back to our little street, the  Derb Moulai Abdelkadardown the Derb Debachi (this time it is easy peasy, hah, we rule the place already! Hehe) and into our Riad, were we soak our feet for a little while in the pool until we fall into bed.

The next day we take a bus through the modern part of Marrakech (it has Starbucks and Stradivari shops and everything, things that seem incroyablein the old-fashioned Medina) to the Jardin Mayorelle, funded by Yves Saint Lorent when he was still alive and now still cared for and attracting tourists from everywhere.

In no other country I have been were the tourists so easy to spot. Before coming, I was worried if I could dress appropriately. Upon seeing the other tourist (!) women walking around belly-showing and in short skirts I wasn´t worried so much anymore.

After that we go dromedary riding in La Palmeraie, a few kilometres outside town, where allegedly a few scenes of “Prince of Persia” and “The Mummy” were  shot.

The dromedaries we ride are really cool creatures. And their babies are so cute!

Little shy thing.

So, how do I feel like about this city after a day and a half?

I don´t like bargaining. I just don´t. I want my price tags on stuff and then I see them, decide if that´s worth it for me, and if not I can just walk away. Here, you have to argue five minutes and imply complete idiocy in your opponent while doing so. Instead of paying 10€ for the taxi fare (100 Dirham), we pay 5€ – while he waits for us there and then drives us back to the old city. I feel sqeamish doing it, but Laura feels okay with it, for which I love her.

Moreover, I have the impression that Marokko has two faces.

One is the street face, where I feel uncomfortable, especially in the beginning. Maybe I´ve been robbed once too often in my life. Maybe it´s because the older I get, the more careful I get. Maybe I was so naive in all my earlier travels that now it´s catching up and I´m being careful for all the times that I should have been.

But then there´s the other side: On terraced restaurants with a light breeze and mint tea. In a Hamam, or the seclusiveness of your Riad. The inside and the outside are two different worlds here.

I love the heat. It feels so much better walking barefoot everywhere in the Riad than walking in slippers and winter socks. I love sleeping in a light Pyjama with only a thin bedsheet as a cover. I love the relief that cold water brings, or a freshly pressed orange juice from a stall. The fruit are tastier from the abundance of sun, and life feels easier. Maybe I was a reptile in a former life, and I just really wake up when my skin gets caressed by the sun? Back in Berlin, when I have to study, I despise good weather. When you have to do stuff. But when you are able to enjoy the summer, to live la vida soleil, that´s the best thing in the whole world.

What else do we do?

We treat ourselves to a Hamam experience. We get steamed in, rubbed, watered, once again steamed until you are done like a crab in a cooking pot, put mud on, some oils, showered, robed in and put to relax on a couch with the complementary mint tea. I feel amazing afterwards and so relaxed when we emerge into the warm summer night and tumble back to our Riad that´s luckily only one minute away.

The next day, we make our way through little side alleys to the Palace Bahia with the help of the app “here” that I downloaded before and can now use without internet and only my GPS signal. It works fantastically and without it we wouldn´t have been able to weave our way through there.

The inhabitants are so confused about seeing tourists not heading to Jeema el Fna but the other direction that we get approached about three times and told that we are wrong here. We say “yes, yes” and keep walking. Once, we are told to pay attention to the road because it is Ramadan – and that´s when appearently people drive even more energetic (chrm chrm) than usual. We laugh and stick to the right side.

Ramadan – it starts one day after our arrival. That means, every day at 6:45 pm the streets are empty. That´s when the muslims break their fasting. Everybody is home until the big prayer sounds from all the mosques in the city for a long time in deep, vibrating sing-song voices around nine or ten, and after that, there´s a veritable stream of people making their way back to the happenings, the Jeema el Fna. It´s like mass exodus, and a crazy and strangely unsettling thing to witness.

This is parque Marina, from which you can see the Atlas mountains on clear days. Today wasn´t a clear day, so we just went back to the Café de France to sit on its terrace and drink some more tea.

After our three days are over, I pack my things and I am happy to have made all these experiences. I love the food, the way the people dress, the totally different lifestyle they lead. Their Medina world is so completely different from the Western Christian lifestyle we have. For now, I am happy to go, even though I miss the heat and the wonderful food.

We start in dusty Marokko, to land three and a half hours later in good old Germany. See the difference!

Now I am back here and I would maybe like to go back someday with my husband, to show him everything.

My head is totally in the upcoming exams though, and after that we will be travelling to Mallorca to visit my best friend Helen, whui! And after that, roadtrip through Umbria and Toskana with my sister. Summer is coming! Are you ready?

How to Budget Marrakech

Fly cheaply from Düsseldorf (Ryanair) or Berlin, but take care to weigh the transport fees up and the time also! If you don´t want to spend an extra 45€ one way to some faraway airport, the closer one might actually pay off. Or not. Compare!

Airbnb is definitely the best shot for accomodation: it´s cheap and there´s tons of traditional Riads to choose from.

Life there is comparably cheap also. You can have a full breakfast for 3€, souvenirs for 5€ (a shirt, a handmade bowl,…) and a full 3 course menue for 6 or 7€. On the Jeema el Fna, where the locals eat, food is even cheaper from the stalls: eat for 50 or 60 cents the Harira, the traditional lentil soup, or potato sandwiches with egg and cheese.

Taxis can be haggled with down to one or two Euros per ride, depending on where you go.

To keep track of the expenses in your own currency, use the App “Währungsrechner Finanzen 100″ – while on holiday and without wi-fi, it works a good jobs to give you the detailed prices without the unaccuracy of even sums done in your head.