Four days in Marrakech, Morocco
After not having been abroad in years, a friend of mine, Luke, suggested we go on holiday and found a good deal for Marrakech. He had gone to Morocco before but not to Marrakech but said he loved Morocco. A quick bit of research came up with a few things, pickpockets, pushy sales people and people trying to get money out of you whenever possible. Maybe I would experience these things or maybe not, some people said they had no issues whatsoever so I thought I’d see what my experience brings.
I took a 3 and a half journey to Marrakech, I haven’t been on a plane in years and feel a bit like a sardine in a tin. I forget how little leg room I have with my long legs and the seatbelt just about fits, need to do something about that…
As soon as I stepped on the plane, the heat hit me like an oven, it was very hot. The airport in Marrakech is nice, decorated differently to a regular boring generic airport. Marrakech is really hot, dusty and smelly. The smell of urine, horse poo, motorbike fumes, food and spices. The noise, the sounds of cars and motorbikes beeping constantly, thousands of people walking all around, people calling out for you to buy whatever they are selling. It’s quite different to what I have experienced before.
Me and a friend walked the medina at night, our first day in Marrakech and as we go past people say “Hey brother” “Hey friend” “Where you from?” “You want to buy?” We are walking ATM’s here it seems. When people do talk to you, unfortunately, it isn’t to make an innocent conversation, there is always a catch, they want you to buy something.
The first meal I had, lamb with figs, walnuts and herb semolina, amazing, one of the best meals I’ve had in Marrakech. The mint tea was refreshing…and the teapot was always as hot as hell. The Moroccan pastries we had for dessert weren’t too good though in my opinion. We walked across the medina and a guy with a cart full of pastries blocked out path and asked did we went some, he quoted 80 Moroccan Dirham’s for a box, my friend said sure and he gave us all kinds of pastries with none of them looking familiar. He then said he wanted a ridiculous 400 Moroccan Dirham’s instead as he filled the box and he meant 80 for only four small pastries. Me and my friend told him to forget it and started walking away only for him to shout, okay 80! We tried the pastries and they were awful, worse then the restaurant parties which while weren't my thing, didn’t taste too bad, these tasted cheap, all the same sort of date and syrup taste. My friend offered a local the rest and he declined, he already knew what they were like.
We had a good first day and were tired, we walked to our Riad and it was lovely, the aesthetic of a Riad beats a simple hotel any day. The guy at Riad was very polite, he gave us our keys that were unfortunately attached to a giant wooden leaf, you couldn’t lose these keys that’s for sure! I looked around my room, I really liked the bathroom design and the bed was actually comfortable with a nice firm pillow. You had a little safe and wardrobe to hang up your clothes. The only problem I had was the walls being thin, I could hear outside noise and inside noise and felt that I never really had 100% privacy.
The next day we saw the Palaces, Palacio da Bahia & Badi Palace, they have wonderful architecture and designs but but they do get a bit repetitive as you explore it more and realise it’s all very much the same throughout. The empty dark rooms they both had scattered around also didn’t help, some furnishings would have made Palacio da Bahi better though Badi Palace did have pictures with some history behind them which was interesting and gave context to the place. We also explored the Medina and got a little lost in the process which is part of the fun I feel. We stumbled across a constuction site after walking around aimlessly for a while and so did two more groups of tourists.
We then went to see the Saadian Tombs, this was the worst part of the trip for me. The tombs are small, you can see everything very quickly and the designs are nice but not as good as the Palaces. It just didn’t blow me away or impress me after exploring the large fancy palaces and probably wouldn’t even if this was the first place we went to. It also had a long queue to see a room which looked like any of the other rooms we had seen so we decided to just look around and go instead of waiting around.
My favourite place was the Discovery of Moroccan Culinary Heritage, History and Secrets, you saw pictures of the Moroccan food as well as videos playing showing chefs cooking them. It’s the reason I tried the Chicken Pastilla, I saw a picture and read the description and thought it sounded delicious, and it did, I had two of them on my trip.
Then Morocco won a World Cup match and we went out to the main square to see. It was pure chaos, motorbikes and cars beeping continuously, it felt like one long beep spanning hours. Thousands of people were walking, I have never seen so many people in one place. People were cheering and waving the Moroccan flag, crossing the road was an experience, I thought, thank god I decided to get travel insurance and prayed to whatever god or saint helps people survive car accidents.
We then went for dinner, I had my first Chicken Pastilla and absolutely loved it, it was sweet and savoury and just something really special. I then had my first Chicken Tagine and loved the flavour but felt the Chicken was a bit chewy. I had Atlas Tea with dried cherries and spices, really light and subtle. We had walked nearly 12 miles that day and felt that was enough and called it a day and went back to the Riad to sleep.
Day 3 we went to Essaouira for half the day and came back in the evening and explored the new city Gueliz, it is very modern compared to the Medina and that area of Marrakech. We went to an Italian place and I had a Piccante Pizza which had Morrocan sausage and a Moroccan Beer called Casablana of course. Great meal and for a while, I felt I was in Italy with the décor and pictures on the wall. I would say that Gueliz offers a lot of choice if you are looking to eat but I’m not sure why else you’d come here, it doesn't have the charm or aesthetic of the Medina and is just like any modern city you can come across.
Our last day, we had breakfast then walked quite a long while to the Medersa Ben Youssef, at this point while I did find the design and architecture interesting, I felt we had seen enough pretty buildings. I think I’m more of a museum guy to be honest but impressive nether the less. We grabbed some lunch, Orange and Carrot juice and my second Chicken Pastilla, this one was slightly better then my last.
We then explored a part of the Souks we hadn’t seen yet. My friend got himself a little Tagine souvenir which did look good and he tried to bargain but the guy flat out refused, so much for bargaining in Marrakech. He then he looked for a wallet and we came across a man selling them. The wallet guy put his arm around me and said are you Moroccan? I said no from England, he said you got a Moroccan face but your friend look German.
My friend had been looking at this leather or at least leather looking wallet, the seller put his lighter on and put it against the wallet, “Real leather, you see?” “How much?” My friend asked. “450” My friend frowned, “Too much, anything cheaper? The man showed us a few and my friend didn’t like any of them. “Okay, never mind” We walked away and moments later the guy caught up with us, “How much is your price?” My friend said don’t worry about it, “300?” “200?” ”Okay, 100!?” My friend didn’t budge, I honestly considered buying it for 100, it looked nice and worth that possibly, though I wasn’t sure about it’s build quality and decided not to.
At some point, a note I hadn’t put in my wallet was visible, a guy said “Sir?!”, “Monsieur?!” I thought it was yet another seller but my friend informed me and I made sure to put the money in my wallet this time. I didn’t get sick or pick pocked during my days in Marrakech even when I made a dumb mistake, I got help and not robbed. We ended up walking around and came across a street which had no English at all on signs and nobody around, we had accidently walked into an actual street off the beaten course, people actually live here, It’s not a tourist street. A man on a bike said “Welcome to Marrakech!” The first and only man who didn’t actually want to sell us something or take us somewhere. We came into a market selling fruit, vegetables and fish. We were the only two white faces, the only two tourists here. A man was in a garage doing some metal work, another was working on his bike in another garage. At some point we did come across 3 tourists but this place was interesting, it was real people just living their lives and not trying to scam you or trick you.
We had dinner at one off the restaurants off the main square and I wasn’t sure what to expect. It had a Mediterranean feel to it and the food sounded good so I told my friend lets try this place. I had the Harira soup to start with dates and a Chebakia pastry on the side, I was told to take a bit of them and then eat the soup. I didn’t feel it added much that way to be honest but it was a good hearty soup. I then had Lamb Tagine for main and that was absolutely amazing, much better then the Chicken Tagine, tender with dates and roasted nuts. Lastly I had the Speculoos Tiramsu for dessert, I’ve never had or heard of that before but my god, what a dessert! This last dinner we had was the best meal I had during the whole trip funnily enough. The food in Morocco has gotten my attention after this trip and I aim to go back to Morocco again for the history, culture and for the food.
The only issue I had was the fakeness of Marrakech, only one person on my trip didn’t have an agenda when speaking to me and my friend and that was because we walked down a regular non tourist area by accident, I feel Marrakech isn’t a good place for genuine interactions so I’d love to go elsewhere and have real conversations with the Moroccan people next time I visit.
