In Marrakesh

Kim has come and met me in Casablanca. We spent the last couple days in Marrakesh which was very cool.

The centrepiece of Marrakesh is an open plaza called Djemma el-Fina which at night is packed with thousands of people. Stalls are selling freshly squeezed orange juice, other stalls have sit down barbeques, street entertainers include dancing displays, music displays, monkeys, colourful water vendors, snake charmers, children boxers. My main image of Marrakesh is that of the smoke, the thousands of people, the bicycles, and motorized scooters somehow pushing and prying themselves through this square.

Marrakesh was very busy. I called at least 20 hotels which were all booked up. So... guess what... we ended up using a tout to find us a hotel! So touts can be useful in certain situations. The first night we were able to find a room. The second night we could not find a room so slept on the terrace of the Hotel Ali.

Sleeping on the terrace was pretty cool, some other travellers offered us their little tent shelter that they had built the night before and did not need anymore. It was mostly a blanket, strung up between chairs. I don't know if it was actually useful, but it was nice to accept the gift anyway.

Marrakesh was very busy because it is a 4 day weekend in Morrocco. The birth of Mohammed was on Thursday (Awashar Mabrooka!) and there was a free rock concert in the square on Saturday night. We tried to push our way into the concert on Saturday, but it was just impossible. It was a big mosh pit and I caught a young boy grabbing the zipper of my backpack. Kim caught a young boy grabbing her.

We are now in Fes and have been wandering around lost today. I have found the answer to the question I had before coming here... Do people in Fes wear feses?

Tomorrow we will go have a look at the tanneries.