A couple of weeks ago, I was looking at the world map and pondering where I want to go for my two weeks off. It was Africa calling me and I was also thinking about some dance festival in Barcelona at the end of the two weeks. So why not fly to Marrakesh and hitchhike your way up to Spain? I booked a very cheap one-way flight to Marrakesh and decided to do it the old way, Couchsurfing 🙂 at least start this way. I have been spoiling myself with hotels and resorts for sometime now that I don’t even know if can do hostels. I thought I go for it anyway. Two days after booking my flight, an earthquake happened in Marrakesh leaving a couple of thousand people dead 🙁
I felt like going anyway. Somehow, irresponsible decisions usually bring a lot of fun 😀 my mom was wondering, why I keep making such decisions. A certain fatalism, that we all have in a way or another? Maybe!
I landed in the nice Marrakesh airport which appealed to me with its beautiful design. My host, Adam, said I could take a taxi for 15-20$ or the local bus that costs less than 0.5$. I said let’s try the bus. But when the bus pulled off and I saw the people stacked inside like a sardine tin, I decided I am still a spoiled p**** and backed off. A random local with one tooth approached me and asked if I needed a ride. I told him my destination and he asked for a funny amount of 200$ 😀 despite mostly not understanding each other, we managed to agree on 10$
I reached Adam’s place and we immediately started a long conversation getting to know each other. This conversation stretched over a few hours and partly took place on his motorbike where only he wore a helmet (for the police) and I was constantly anticipating getting one of my knees (or both) smashed while he squeezed in between cars. We talked about everything. Adam is a very smart guy with excellent English and works as a freelancer graphics designer. We bought seeds (eating them is a usual activity in the Middle East, you usually spit the peel on the floor) and went to a small park to chill, watching local families chill and lots of children play on the street. This reminded me of my childhood with all the adventures of our children/teenage gang back then (it was named: “strip and run naked in the darkness”).
After making a mess with the seed peels on the ground, while Adam assured me that it will be cleaned in the early morning and me feeling guilty, we went for dinner in a local restaurant that offers “Tanjia”, a Marrakesh speciality of meat that is made in a clay pot. This was the beginning of my culinary adventure in Morocco. The meat was so soft, it breaks before you even touch it 😀 melts in your mouth like a Swiss chocolate, and its taste triggers senses you didn’t know you had.
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The next two days, Sunday and Monday, my schedule was the same, have breakfast in a local breakfast place near Adam’s place, trying different options. Impressive was the local avocado-and-nuts smoothie which seemed like an aphrodisiac bomb, inappropriate for my trip. After breakfast I would go to the “Medina”, the old town, where I get lost in its alleys full of exotic handcrafts, leather goods, copper lamps and souvenirs. A lot of beautiful things I would like to buy. Here and there I stop to bargain and mostly have a funny conversation when the local sellers discover my Egyptian dialect. Due to the decades of spread of Egyptian movies and music, the whole Arab world understands our dialect and mostly have some appreciation for Egyptians. The market is huge and I enjoyed it immensely. Outside there was a huge square named “Jema elfnaa” which might mean “The assembly of death”! Now for me, this square was THE MARRAKESH! Full of unbelievable chaos of people, juice sellers, cobra charmers, monkeys, singers, darwishs, musicians, more fresh juice sellers, food stalls and many other things. Many things to see, many sounds and noises that penetrate your ear drums, and many smells (mostly seductive smell of a tajine). An overload of sensory input that amazes you shortly but could also give you a nervous breakdown if the exposure time slips unattended. At night, a lot of locals come and gather around the local musicians that played mostly drums and oud. I confess I didn’t like this music at all. I observed the locals swaying with these awful tunes and wondered, what could have led to this affinity? But then, there is also “heavy metal” and other kinds of horrible music tastes out there in the world.
The evening was usually slow meeting with Klaudia from Poland and going to a Latin party where I met some locals and some Latinos.
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One of the things I like to do during travelling is to learn cooking. I only succeeded in doing this in Mexico a few years ago but I also don’t insist on this experience in all countries. But in Morocco it was a must. I booked one cooking class for Monday where I met a british gentleman, an australian couple, an american nurse with her holywood-director aunt as well as three gorgeous and obviously intelligent Austrian ladies with their not-so-gorgeous and not-so-bright fourth friend!
We were picked up by Kauter, our host, at the meeting point and took to the market where we bought the ingredients for the tajine. We then arrived to the house where “Khamisa” was waiting for us. We learned how to prepare Moroccan tea with mint, which I would describe even as a spiritual drink. We then started cooking all together. Cut this vegetable, put this Safran, smash those garlics, stir this mixture. We cooked and exchanged jokes and stories until the food was ready to enjoy. It was quite surreal to me that the process seamed easy but produced a delicious taste!
Happy with my Marrakesh experience, I went back to Adam’s please and where he give me tips and tricks for the rest of my trip. This conversation continued in the morning when I joined him for his daily morning routine, including rolling a joint, taking a coffee from the coffee stall and having a short walk to enjoy his coffee and joint in the nearby park. Adam advised me to go to the nearby city called Essaouira. So I packed my stuff, booked a bus ticket and went!
