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Days 328-331, 6-9 May '15, Marrakech, She Continues. Having said that, whilst ships and cities are often "she", I suspect here they would be "he" on general principle. But that's probably a hobby horse for another day. We have been exploring the souks on a daily basis - not so much for shopping purposes, but to be in the blessed shade. Amazingly cool undercover and yet absolutely scorching in direct sun - 43 plus degrees (116 F). The challenge with the souks in particular and the medina in general is the "whack-a-mole" guys. As we are meandering along, 100% sure where we are going, periodically people leap out of doorways and say "Wrong Way", "Go Back", "The Big Square is That Way!" We are pretty impressed with the mentalism powers of these locals - however we're not sure if we should be peeved they constantly think they know where tourists want to go (they don't). Or to be more peeved that they assume we don't know where we are going (we do). But c'est la vie. We ventured beyond the ramparts the other day via a lovely cool and quiet street and found the local Carrefour supermarket - full of illicit treats like Snickers bars, peanut butter, cheese and roasted chickens. We've heard of all the various "dry" months sprinkled throughout the year (Ocsober for instance) and after having enjoyed inexpensive Spanish wine for months, are actually having an alcohol free month ourselves. It's easier than lugging bottles back through the highways and byways of the Medina and certainly won't do us any harm. Nine days so far. Even walked through the basement booze section at Carrefour and emerged unscathed. Though nice to look. We also sought out the Artisan Complex during one of our jaunts. We visited it a couple of years ago and honestly weren't that impressed. The concept is a single centre with lots of independent shops that sell all things Moroccan (leather, polished wood, carpets, jewellery, art etc). The main attraction is that theoretically it's all at a fixed and reasonable price. Happy to say after our recent visit that this place is going really well. For instance, we saw a snazzy hand-made leather and silver bangle en route to the complex - starting price (heave, sigh, splutter...) 650 dirhams (about 65 euros or A$100). Nice and all but an utterly foolish price that no-one would ever pay, even in Sydney. We just weren't in the mood to open negotiations and made our way to the Artisan Complex - found the exact same thing, more colour variety and a fixed price of 250 dirhams. So still, not cheap - but not crazy, foolish, rat-bag price either. All in all, we enjoyed the artisan complex and the wood shop in particular brought back lovely memories of Essaouira on the coast. Other news? And it was huge news for us too... Off to Ireland again in June to housesit the massive menagerie we spent Christmas and NY with - we can't wait to see all the furballs again. It will definitely be a change of seasons too - from mid-forties here to day time highs of 19! We've not yet seen an Irish summer. Today's picture is the Spice Souk - an open air square running off the main undercover souks.
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