Day 19 - July 17th

  Marrakech, Morocco
Thursday, July 17, 2008

Yay for class again - my this is rough!  But, at least it's only about 5 more days of class before the end of the semester...my this has gone by fast!
 
After class, I had to forego my siesta (actually I can't tell you the last time I took one - I need to be taking advantage of these things, sheesh!) and pack my bag for Morocco, woooo hoooo!  Toby was kind enough to lend me her bag...somehow I thought a backpack was probably a little too small to travel with, but all I could take was a carry-on, so Toby to the rescue!  The ladies went out shopping but I had to forego that as well since I spent the night out partying!
 
Shajine made it back just on time and at about 4:15 PM we got on the Metro station on the way to Madrid-Barajas airport!

Getting Ready to Board

Chantel joined us to the airport to make sure we made it in safely - well, that was only part of it, she really needed to get to American Express - but we made it to the airport, walked down the longgggg terminals to Easy Jet and made it to our flight!  They're actually not very good at signage here, we didn't know what terminal Easy Jet was in...you would think they would have it labeled, but they don't....it's only once you get to the right terminal do you see the Easy Jet sign.  Once you get there, you have to check the monitors because you can only check in at certain windows depending on your flight destination.  It's actually pretty smart! 
 
The flight wasn't bad...Easy Jet is a high-tech aircraft....touch screens to turn on/off lighting and all that sorts of stuff...pretty neat for a cheap flight!

On the Flight

The only thing that was a little different than the American planes that I know is that you have to purchase all of your snacks, food, etc.  ß that's not the weird part, the weird part was the fact that they were selling all sorts of stuff and putting on commercials to sell it - stuffed animals, perfumes, manicure sets, etc.  But, I guess it's all duty-free....the commercials were just weird! 
 
It was during this flight that I realized for the first time how multi-lingual the whole world is - the Senior Flight Attendant was speaking 4 languages over the microphone and as she went through the aisles selling stuff she was able to communicate with just about everyone on the flight.  Little did I know....everyone was able to do this! ...just not me!

We're Here!!!

Welcome to Marrakech!

Once we arrived in Morocco, we cleared customs, changed over some money and got ourselves ready to go into the city!  (We were in Marrakech.)  We walked outside and noticed a very smoky sky...maybe the city was just like that at all times?!?!  We made our way to the taxi stand and attempted to communicate with the driver - here they go - they asked, are you Arab?  Nope....  Then they started with the languages - speak Arabic?  No.  speak French?  No.  Speak Spanish?  No.  Oh no...we couldn't communicate!  Hotel Golden Tulip - okay, they understood that - 150 Durhams - phew, we made it there!
 
While checking into the hotel and getting our keys, they asked us for some information that we had to fill out for the police station.  It's funny, Shajine and the only guy who  spoke English had a little tif about the reasons we were filling it out.  I guess I should be more careful and not offer my information, I could get myself into big trouble - I thought we had to!  Anyway, we checked into the hotel and went up to our room.  After that, we figured we needed to get down to the Concierge to start figuring out what we could do while in Morocco, what was safe, anything we needed to be aware of as two young ladies travelling on our own, etc.
 
Turns out the concierge didn't speak English, either  so he pointed us to someone who did - joy, the same man who got into the tif with Shajine....ahhhh!  He gave us all these ideas for things to do, we made some reservations and then we asked what was safe to do at this time of night.  He said, "well, if you all wait a little while, I get off in a few minutes and I'll drop you in the city."  At first we hesitated but then we thought we would trust a random taxi driver to take us into the city, so we might as well trust him, too! ...after all, we knew where he worked!
He took us out to his favorite spot - ah, I can't remember the name!  But it was really pretty!  We had some traditional Moroccan bread (that is served for every meal at every single restaurant in town), rosette Moroccan wine (it's really good), and our first plate of Chicken Tajine (a Moroccan specialty).

Chicken Tajine

We spent the meal talking with Mustafa, who is a very nice man, about Moroccan history (including the fact that Morocco was the first country to accept the US as a country), traditions and culture.  He even got personal - talking about his arranged marriage and his relationship.  He talked about the fact that he used to date and then decided to get married and got married within a week of that decision.  To this day, their conversations at home go no further than "what's for dinner?" - for which he yearns for more.  He told us that Morocco was the first country to outlaw polygamy - that is, unless the man can prove that they are financially capable and the first wife has to consent to it.  But there are still a lot of happy polygamist couples.  It's just different.  We learned about the Berber people and that they are still very prominent within the country and that they are not Muslim.  We learned that there is actually a Moroccan language - which is a combination of Spanish, French and Arabic - it's actually a separate language.  He told us that Morocco is a very safe country for the two of us to travel....I never understood that until later...

The Girls and Mustafa

 
After our history and culture lesson, he took us out to experience some actual Moroccan culture.  He took us to La Mamounia, the hotel that Hillary Clinton recently stayed at and the location that it is not uncommon to see recent guests such as Demi Moore.  I could tell it was high class - we had to walk through a metal detector to get in.  Hey, at least it was safe!  After that we headed to Jad Mahal, a local night club and enjoyed the music for a little bit.  It was more of a lounge setting - we actually walked in the bar with them singing Amy Whinehouse's "Rehab"...accompanied by traditional Moroccan dancers!
 

"Rehab" with Moroccan Dancers

Traditional Moroccan Dancer

 

Okay, fine, he posed for a pic

Finally, he took us home...it was a long day!