Souly Positive

Marrakech, a city I had high expectations for. The first day in Marrakech was awful though. I flew through the night to get there and had to switch planes. By the time I arrived in Marrakech I was exhausted. The customs line takes forever and they ask me for my plane ticket….I can’t find it:( They finally let me through after I show them the electronic version of my ticket. But it’s obvious they are not happy with me. I soon find out that my backpack did not make it to Marrakesh. Again they ask for my luggage ticket and I can’t find it:( The funny thing is that I have kept all my little stubs and for some reason after all my flights, these are the two I lose…Aiyaiyaiyaiyai! So I’m tired and getting irritated…”I tell him yes, I lost my ticket just like you lost my luggage.” After that I sign some papers and hope I will see my gigantic, heavy, purple friend in the future.

Outside there is no one to pick me up. I ask a man to call my hotel and 30 minutes later they arrive. I am not having a good day:( Of course tomorrow is another day. And day 2, happily, I fall in love with Marrakech. I am staying in the old part of the city. There is a large wall that surrounds the old city and then outside of it there is a new more modern section of Marrakesh. In Old Marrakech there are little markets everywhere, spice shops, food, clothing, phones etc. The streets are narrow and many of them don’t accommodate cars so you can only walk in certain areas. It is like a maze but this time I actually use a mosque as my point of reference and for once it works! Yea, Leigh Ann is not lost:) I meet a guy, named Adnan that offers me a ride on his motorcycle because I’ve asked where the market is. I trustingly get on and take him up on his offer. I’m glad I did because the market turns out to be far. Not only that, Adnan ends up helping me out several times in Morocco. Later I see him again and he shows me modern Marrakech. I like the old part of the city better. So charming!

Day 3, not so good, once again, I fall out of love with Marrakech. This seems to be a pattern. I feel like I’m on a roller coaster ride. I am walking through the city and meet my first pervert while traveling. He’s on a scooter and will not leave me alone. I cross streets to avoid him and 1 minute later he is by my side again. This happens several times and then he shows me something on his phone. I think he’s trying to tell me something but it turns out to be a pornographic video. Again I cross the street and again he follows me. This has now been going on for about 20 minutes:( I see that I am close to the alley of my Riad/hotel and try to head back there but he begins to follow me in the alley. I quickly turn around, realizing I don’t want to get trapped in an alley with this little pervert. Luckily I see a man in the parking lot and go straight to him. I ask him if he speaks English (most people don’t here) He says a little. So, I start to point at the pervert and explain that he won’t leave me alone. As soon as the little weasel realized I was ratting him out he fled on his scooter. I must say this episode unnerved me a little. I have not had any issues the whole time traveling but this was kind of scary:( I think I handled it well though…so no lecturing everyone:) Again on my way to the hotel I run into Adnan, and after the pervert, he feels like one of the safest people I have ever met. He suggest I take a short day trip to Essuara and offers to take me to the train station so I can buy my ticket to Fes and shows me where the bus station is so that I can buy a ticket to Essuara for the next day. This turned out to be a wonderful idea. If not for Adnan I would never even have heard of this city. More on beach cities later:)

I returned from Essuara at 7:00PM giving me just enough time to eat and pack for the morning…This is the first time I had booked two rooms but I really liked this town. The next day I mostly sat on the beach and relaxed…then back to Marrakech. Now on to Fes. Luckily I booked only two days in Fes. It was just a big old city. I went out once to walk around and all eyes were upon me….not the friendliest eyes either. I could not get out of Fes fast enough. I next took the train to Assila, a recommendation again from my friend in Marrakech…once again, he was right. This little city is beautiful, old and new mixed and best of all right on the ocean. People are friendly here and finally I find a few that speak Spanish. Most of the people in Morocco speak either Arabic or French…I speak neither so getting around has been more difficult here. Now that I’m closer to Spain I can find some people that speak Spanish. My Spanish is not great but I can at least get by. This helps immensely. The other problem is that I have had barely any internet in Morocco:(

Overall I loved Marrakech….I would go back in a heart beat….not to Fes though…of course I am learning that big cities don’t really appeal to me much unless they have a certain charm. Marrakech definitely has that charm….besides the pervert!

Morocco…An interesting mix of life…who wouldn’t love/hate it?