Marrakesh

Teresa, Nate and I arrived in Marrakesh exhausted and ready to get to our hostel. Unfortunately, we still had a few hours to kill before getting picked up. We walked around the 'new town' where most people in Marrakesh live. It's a very modern, European-feeling area, and less old and noisy then the historic part of the city inside the walls. We ate at a tiny, unmarked cafe which ended up being a popping spot for locals. While we were hanging out at the cafe the Madrid-Barcelona game came on. The cafe immediately began to fill up, and we got a good taste of Morrocan football culture. The people at the cafe really loved the three of us, and tried to explain the game to us all the while loading our plates with delicious free food. Luckily Madrid won, and everyone was happy. One thing I noticed about the cafe was that Teresa and I were the only women in the whole place!

Patient Donkeys who pull carts through the Medina because cars don't fit.

We arrived at our hostel later that evening, unpacked, and grabbed dinner with Simo who we had met earlier on the train. He told us more about Marrakesh and bought us some delicious kababs. We were so exhausted after out 48 hour day that we all fell asleep by 10:30 that night.

unlimited mint tea and hookah :)

Overall I really enjoyed Marrakesh. It was the most touristy of all the cities, but also the most alive, and energetic. The highlights (in no paticular order):

1. The Shopping Bazaar

• Here is where you learn to haggle for EVERYTHING. From touristy trinkets to lamb chops to oranges, never pay the first price you're offered. It took a lot of getting used to, but by the end of my stay in Morocco I got pretty good at getting deals. I liked haggling so much that I was eventually in charge buying everything for our group.

How do they do this!?!?

 2. The Evening Food Bazaar

• As dinner time approaches the square begins to fill with food booths, smoke, hanging lanterns, and tempting smells. Each booth has a hype man who desperately vies for your business with lines like “winner, winner, chicken dinner,” "finger lickin' good," and other tacky pickup lines and phrases. I wish I had a dollar for every “hey Lady Gaga” yelled at me.

My favorite dish: Pastilla (traditionally made with pigeon meat)

Source: http://www.travelsnitch.org/categories/features/the-magic-of-marrakech/

 3. Fresh Orange Juice

• This is pretty self explanatory... but seriously... nothing beats watching a guy squeeze fresh, sweet orange juice into a 1.5 liter bottle for the equivalent of 3 US dollars... except drinking it of course
  
  

  

  everyday I'm O-J-ing

  

4. Butter

• Despite the super tourist-y atmosphere of Marrakesh I did manage to bound with a 'local.' He was 20 (the same age as all of us) and worked at a stand in one of the smaller squares. His name was Arabic, and hard to pronounce. After about 5 minutes of trying to pronounce his name properly we gave up and settled on 'Butter' (the closest thing we could pronounce). We talked to him everyday for at least an hour. We shared stories about our families, school, future dreams, etc. One of the most interesting things I learned from Butter was just how similar our lives were. Our weekends consisted of doing mostly the same thing, his description of his parents and siblings could have been used to describe mine word for word, we both liked animals and nature, Nate and Butter bonded over a love of scary movies, and I think we were all really surprised by just how similar we were.

I forgot to mention Butter has a large collection of turtles and lizards....

 5. Hammam

• Most of my spring break (and most of my time in Italy) has consisted of late nights, early mornings, and a LOT of walking. Feeling exhausted at the end of another long day, Teresa and I decided to do something relaxing. We went for a Hammam. The Hammam is kind of like a spa, but more often and with more people. Traditionally there is several hammams in a riad shared by the members of the community. The hammam looked like a typical spa- women getting their nails done, massage rooms, etc. Once we had musteded up enough courage to do the hammam we entered what looked like a what looked like a waiting room full of naked women, just kind of hanging out. Without words, the lady in charged motioned for Teresa and I to take off our clothes. We looked around awkwardly at eachother and then decided to go all in. After about 20 minutes of soaking in the steam of the sauna a young, scantily-cloth attendant came in to get us. Teresa, the attendant, and I entered room number two, which looked like a shower with a low tiled bench along the walls for sitting or lying down. Just as it starts to sink in that I'm sitting in a public shower room while a naked woman bathes me, she pulls out a glove and tells me to lie down. 
•  As I lay naked, face down, on a tile bench, she scrubbed me in ways I’ve never been scrubbed. After some exaggerated motioning (since neither of us spoke a word of the other's language) I flipped over for a front-side scrub down. It’s not pleasant. It’s awkward. It hurts. This is not a modest moment of spa treatment. Once she finishes scrubbing, she flashes a grin and shows me the disgusting dirt, grime, and dead skin on her glove and the floor around me. The remnants of showerless nights after long mountain treks and sweaty dessert camel riding washed down the drain with a community of other strangers’ muck and mire. I was gross…but now I am smooth…incredibly smooth…as the day I was born smooth!
• The rest of the experience was a much more relaxing. For the final part of the hammam the attendant washed my hair with delicious Moroccan oil shampoo. But, the fun didn't end there. After the Hammam Teresa and I decided to splurge (a total of $30 USD!) for a massage and facial. The masseuse was just as shameless as the hammam attendant, but at this point I was so relaxed and entranced by the Moroccan oil that it didn't even matter.
• Putting it all in perspective: So was this the comfortable spa experience I had expected? No, but as a traveler I realize how important it is to step out of my own cultural comfort zone to get the most out of an experience. And as far as experiences go, this one is gold. What else I got (besides skin a baby would be jealous of): My friendship with Teresa no longer has any boundaries, and after having a naked conversation with a local (naked!) woman who had absolutely no concept of personal space I am confident I can now take on any Italian grandmother or crowded, Roman public transportation situation. On a more serious note, realized an important fact about Americans: we are uncomfortable with 'natural' nudity. When it comes to cute baby butts, or raunchy TV shows (anything on payperview really) bring it on, but if a boob pops out due to a 'wardrobe malfunction' or to feed a hungry baby, GOD FORBID! For the Moroccan women and children, going to the hammam is an opportunity to get out of the house and visit with friends and gossip about the latest. People aren't trying to be offensive, or sexual, just practical. Women of all ages visit the Hammam. From teens, to grandmothers to Mom's scrubbing their small children. Having grown up in Western culture all of my life the only time I ever saw other naked women was on TV, in movies, or scantily clothed in magazines. As creepy as it may sounds it was actually nice to see natural nudity and not just edited, made-up, only-representative-of <1% of-the-population naked bodies. I know that there is a lot of blame placed on the media's portrayal of women (as there should be), but I have a feeling that there's not a lot of eating disorders, or super-poor body image problems because at the hammam women are not only owning their bodies, but by participating you are forced to cast off your doubts along with your clothes and own your body as well. The hammam is not for everyone, but if you are willing to step out of your comfort zone I promise you won't regret it.

6. Meshwi Alley (Lamb Alley)

• It would take some artist to capture this place in a picture.There were lambs everywhere. Live lambs walking down the alley. Freshly killed lambs hanging from the stalls. The smell of blood and animals permeated the air. I immediately felt guilty at the thought that I would be eating one of them, but then I thought back to the bite of liver sandwich I tried from a random guy at the hostel and forgot all about my last few years as a vegetarian. Morocco is the first place I really enjoyed meat after my 3 years of vegetarianism in the states. Eventually I plan to go back to a meat-free life, but I will never forget the delicious kebabs or lamb liver sandwiches from lamb alley.

This type of bread is really common and known as 'khobz'

7. Parks and Greenery

• For being next to a desert Marrakesh has an incredible amount of public gardens and greenery. We enjoyed the palace gardens so much we even went to the Moroccan botanical garden.