After ripping the pages for Morocco out of my lonely planet, I mailed the remnants back home so I could later revisit all the insanity I had scribbled on it’s pages over the past few months.
I stuffed the pages in my backpack and immediately ran off into a rain storm and soaked them. They survived, sort of, and that is how I made my way around Marrakesh for the day.
The call to prayer is a unique, weird, and sometimes beautiful thing, even for me, a Non-Believer. Does that make me an infidel? I dunno. Every mosque has a specific guy who chants the call to prayer over a loudspeaker for the neighborhood so everyone knows what time to pray and/or come to the mosque. I am still not accustomed to it, so I stop and listen each time the call is made.
The first night in Marrakesh, I hung out around Djemaa el fna square. This place is a total freakshow and should not be missed. Monkeys, drum circles, toons of food, people from everywhere. It is really cool.
The following day, I swung back through and it had toned down quite a bit, so I consulted my pages and took off south to rock the kasbah. The Kasbah is the old royal section of town.
I rolled through the tombs and a couple palaces, I was nearly run over a dozen times and was followed by a cartwheeling child speaking French to me for about half an hour. I recommend all of this to a friend.
The sun was out all day, and more than once I just sat down in the plaza of one of these centuries old palaces, soaking up the sun, and watched the world pass by. I missed the sunshine!
The buildings here are more intricate than I had imagined they would be. They are diverse, colorful, and totally foreign. I love the city, and I think I will be just as excited when I get to the coast and out to the desert over the next couple weeks. Take a peek at my day!
Looks amazing.