Marrakech: Day 1
by Céleste | March 10, 2015
The long-awaited Marrakech posts begin NOW! Yes, Céleste, Vincent, and cousin Émilie all traveled to Morocco, and more specifically, Marrakech, for a trip out of Europe and into North Africa. Morocco has always been one of my bucket-list destinations, and Vincent and I had even briefly considered it for our honeymoon (too expensive from the States). So when we knew we were going to live in France short-term, I began setting the stones in place to convince Vincent that it would be a good idea to visit. He was reluctant at first (“Isn’t it dangerous? What about ebola?”) but with some convincing, from both my cousin and me, he relented.
The Voyage
We bought our tickets through Ryan Air, a cheap airline running in Europe and North Africa. It’s a great way to fly cheap, though you feel like cattle throughout. You have to pay extra for any conveniences (assigned seats, checked bags, etc). And when you get on the plane, you go out onto the tarmac and board, so it’s like a race against your fellow passangers for cabin baggage space. But we survived and got on without incident, despite several inappropriate jokes about bombs in the airport (sorry, it was all me, Vincent gave me dirty looks). During the flight, the flight attendants tried to sell us food, cosmetics, and perfumes. Everything is bright yellow, like an IKEA. And there is no complementary beverage or nuts. But we just wanted to get to Marrakech, without crashing, and Ryan Air pulled through.
When we got off the plane, all we could say was, we’re in Africa. It was a surreal feeling to be on an entirely different continent, in a country very different from any in Europe. Even though the South of France has plenty of Moroccan, Tunisian, and Algerian immigrants, it’s not the same as actually being in Morocco. The weather was perfect, around 70 or 80 Fahrenheit. We got in line and went through a surprisingly quick customs check. We had one hiccup when the guard wanted to know about Vincent’s family heritage, but we got out peacefully and made our way to the bus stop in front of the airport.
Moroccan Life
We had considered taking a petit taxi, which is a within-the-city taxi which typically costs between 40 to 60 MAD (Moroccan dirhams, which I’ll discuss below), but we had heard that the taxi drivers all work together like a cartel, and try to drive up prices and lie to tourists about how expensive the ride will be. This will be a theme throughout our tour of Marrakech, which makes sense because many people live in poverty. It’s funny because mostly they will overcharge by a couple of dollars, so it’s really not a huge deal. But occasionally they will quote unbelievable prices or try to trip you up by quoting euros instead of dirhams and then demanding payment. If you travel to Morocco, it is really useful to look up how much things will cost, because Moroccans will vastly overstate how expensive things are so that you will pay them more. They will also demand money for almost anything, including taking photos or giving directions. Sometimes the henna women will even grab your hand and just start henna-ing you without permission, then demand payment. We had no trouble though, really; we kept our hands close to our bodies and walked away when we felt someone was being ridiculous about prices. Most of the time, they will lower the price if you start to walk away.
Money
The Moroccan currency is the dirham. 1 dirham is equivalent to 10 cents American, exactly. This was really useful to us, because it was a lot easier for us to calculate the real prices of things, since it was a base-10 calculation (like the Metric system!) So for example, I could buy shoes for 40 dirhams, or $4. Or I could get a good lunch for 70 dirhams, or $7. Just divide by 10. The most we spent on anything was a Moroccan rug, which was 1700 dirham, or $170 (it’s so pretty). So, easy calculations.
However, not everything with money is easy in Morocco. You must have cash on you, because most places do not accept credit cards. We even did an excursion into the countryside and they didn’t take credit cards. Our spa day didn’t even take credit cards. It is really important to have cash on you, because even Westernized restaurants couldn’t always be trusted to take cards. However, many of the restaurants and shops in the new town (Hivernage and Guéliz) take cards, because they cater to tourists and expats. We were lucky we looked this up before we went, so we were prepared.
Last thing about money: our card did not work at all the ATMs. We tried the Banque Populaire and some other small ATMs for cash, and they didn’t work. We had to use the Crédit Agricole de Marrakech for all of our transactions, and there were only a few of those around. We mostly used the one on Avenue Mohammad VI, as we walked from our apartment to the marketplace. We typically took out about 1000 dirhams at a time (don’t worry, it’s only $100), and it usually lasted us 2 days. We kept all of our money in a little pouch that Vincent wore under his shirt, for safety. This turned out to be unnecessary, however, as we were never robbed and never even felt unsafe. I’ve actually felt more unsafe in Marseille than I ever felt in Morocco.
Food
Anyway, we got into the main square and walked to our apartment, which we were renting from an American who has a residence in Marrakech as well. We were situated in the l’Hivernage district, which is part of the new town and is quite nice.
Our host, Jamal, helped us settle in, gave us some tips, and took us to a little shop for tagines, for lunch. The place was called Lunch d’Or, and the tagines were only 25 dirhams each ($2.50, if you can believe it)! The tagines contained beef, egg, and various vegetables. They were delicious! A tagine, for those who don’t know, is a special type of dish with a conical cover, used to simmer over several hours until the contents are nice and tender. We had many tagines over the course of the trip, and almost every single one was heavenly. Vincent and I already found a tagine to buy on Amazon, so that we can make them at home.
Exploring
After the yummy meal, we headed into the neighborhood to look around. It was a nice day, and everything was so new and strange to us. We listened to the call to prayer, saw several mosques, and watched people go about their business.
We made our way to a park called the Palmerie Garden. There are many parks and gardens in Marrakech, and let me tell you, the Moroccans know how to do gardens. There were beautiful and exotic plants of all types, with fountains and tiled sidewalks. The decor of the whole city is amazing, and it really comes together in the parks. We saw cacti, hanging vines, palm trees, and fragrant citrus trees. It was peaceful and beautiful. We sat by the fountain below for about 30 minutes, just talking about how excited we were about the trip. We were ready for the coming days and experiences.
