After a lovely breakfast of breads and spreads, bowls of coffee (seriously) and fresh OJ on terrace upstairs we were ready to dive back into the fray that is Marrakech.
Drinking coffee the Berber way
Our guide, Amin, met us at the riad and took us on a long walking tour of the city medina, where we saw the amazing and intricate mosaic and plaster carving architecture and designs of the Ben Youssef Medersa (former Koranic school):
and the Marrakech Museum (a former giant riad).
He then walked us through the winding maze of streets where we visiting many “souks” which are marketplaces that focus on one specific type of good. We were introduced to local craftsmen to learn about leather shoes (including ‘Berber adidas’), woven carpets (we swore some of them could fly), filigree lamps, jewelry, and spice markets (most of which also serve as herbal pharmacies).
From this experience we learned a couple things:
- We needed to dust off our haggling skills…
- The sales strategy is a little sneaky, but also fairly formulaic: first, they “just want to talk”, then you get shown the guestbook logs of past customers from all over the world (which we came to refer to as the ‘Book of Suckers’), you’ll also be invited to share in the local hospitality of ‘Berber whiskey’ (mint green tea, poured from on high!), and of course, talk of their family and/or of the widows who work hard to hand-make their items.
After hours winding through the city we had a steaming lunch of tagines on a terrace, before a little solo exploring (sans-Amin).
Delicious harira soup and honey-encrusted-fried-things that you eat with the soup! (And dates too, of course)
This just shows how much fresh mint goes into every pot of “Berber Whiskey” 🙂
We strolled over to see main mosque (Koutoubai Mosque)
and the Jewish Quarter (“Mellah”) where we were treated to more lessons on spices, including our new favorite: a mixture of eucalyptus crystal and black cumin — you wrap it in a small swatch of fabric and then breath the vapors and it works just like an all natural vapo-rub! One vendor liked us so much after we bought some spices (“lazy woman’s spice” because it makes everything taste good, no matter what!) he gave us gifts: Berber toothpick and Berber lipstick!
Jess tries out one of the local remedies for softer skin – white clay
After that, we walked back through the main crazy square (Djemaâ el Fna) where we finally saw (and got roped into some touristy antics) with some snake charmers, as well as got accosted by man in costume with hand cymbals (Grant) and henna woman (Jess).
Then we jetted over to the train station for our overnight train Tangier (where the Tangerines live!), but not after first grabbing some train station McD’s to settle the culinary roller coaster we’ve been putting our stomachs through.
Bon voyage!
Boys get the bottom bunk.
The train was nothing special, and was super hot, so… see you in the morning!
-G & J