Marrakech -- Day One

Last Saturday morning (the 25th) we headed out on a bus to Marrakech. It's 4 hours through the Anti-Atlas mountains, so I was dreadin' car sickness. But it turned out to be okay. We didn't get any photos of the mountains this time, which is a shame because as you get closer to Marrakech the mountains are higher and snow-capped, reminding me of the Rockies. It's pretty beautiful.

We arrived in at around 5:30 and got a cab to the hotel, which was a four-star aparthotel dealie. Our boss has a timeshare on the apartment and let us have two of his nights free. The place was awesome -- upstairs and down, a private veranda, tile floors, two bathrooms, kitchen, sitting room. Just generally HUGE and ALL FOR US. Shan went around taking photos immediately upon our arrival before we had a chance to screw up the beautiful thing that was this apartment. We were really really tired and decided we could happily die here. Or, at the very least, happily stay here watching TV for the entirety of our three days in Marrakech. Which was very nearly what we did.

We took a much needed nap before forcing ourselves into much needed showers and then heading off to Place Jemaa El Fna, the famous square where all the fortune tellers, musicians, monkeys and snake charmers lure the tourists into paying two euro for the privilege of taking a photo. At night the square is packed from top to bottom with throngs of sweaty people. The local boys take sport in brushing against the milky white tourist women in the crowd. One doesn't often hear Shan raise her voice, but on this night she bellowed at one particular fellow, "BACK OFF!!!", as he had circled back through the crowd for his third chance to press against us. Pervert.

But still we had a good night. We sat at one of the dozens of barbeque stands to eat our dinner of meat kebabs, and for some reason didn't argue when they charged us for everything ala carte -- bread, sauce, fries, kebab, salad, drink. Outrageous! Only because I know they wouldn't DARE do that shit to Moroccan customers. Still, we were the saps who paid the bill. If we had argued we could easily have gotten it for half the price. But I was too distracted by all the lights and sounds and people to notice much. And, the fine men. Did I mention the fine men??

This must come in another post, but Morocco has got some FINE men. Like, seriously. Morocco has got the market cornered on fine men. Big time. Nearing monopoly proportions. But I digress.

So that was our first night in Marrakech. Pretty cool. And more later. Blogging time for today now over, unfortunately.