December 12, 2023
Wow, Marrakech has been incredible! It’s been overwhelming and intense, but amazing and wonderful. I’ve been exhausted and excited the entire time we’ve been here. It’s truly been a really great experience. It’s been too short of a visit and I can’t wait to come back.
December 9, 2023 – Marrakech, Morocco
We started off our morning by heading to the Medersa Ben Youssef, a historic religious school, madrasa. The building was absolutely gorgeous. The carved plaster and wood, along with the tiling were wonderful. We spent a while just sitting and appreciating the space, looking at the details, and people watching the other tourists as well.
The building was constructed during the mid-1500s as a place for Islamic study. It was renovated in the 1960s to become a historical site and ceased being a place of active study. The building was able to house up to 800 students at a time spread among 130 rooms.
After spending many hours just wandering around and feeling awed, we left the madrasa and started a formal wander of some of the surrounding souks, small, narrow streets or courtyards lined with shops. On the first day, I found it very overwhelming to be constantly dodging tourists and vendors, while being passed by bicycles, carts, donkeys, and tons of motorbikes. The narrow streets are crowded and so full of people and action, it’s completely wild. Being constantly spoken to in about 5-10 different languages by the shop keepers who try to guess which language you speak and then try to get you to come into their stall, was intense at first.
At some point we found ourselves wandering away from the super touristy part and as we stood looking at our maps trying to figure out where to go next, a man invited us to check out the leather tannery “just down the street”. We quickly realized we were being led to a money spending opportunity and decided to just go with it. So, after following a boy on a motorbike who was “just showing us the way on his way home” we ended up seeing two separate leather tannery facilities. We were handed fresh mint sprigs for the smell and learned about the different methods of leather tanning: one Berber, the other Arabic. It was interesting, albeit a bit uncomfortable because we knew what was coming later. So, when we were led into the associates leather and wool rug shop, we started to feel really uncomfortable. The items they had were beautiful, but neither of us was prepared to spend the kind of money they were asking for, and we knew we had already lost the negotiation edge as well. So, I bought a small thing without being able to talk the price down, and we paid our our tour guide half of what he’d asked because that’s all we had and made our way back towards our riad.
Unfortunately, I left that interaction feeling a bit uncomfortable and taken advantage of. Even knowing at least to some extent what we were getting ourselves into, it all happened to quickly that it was hard to feel like we had any control or agency in the situation. We went back to where we were staying and I kind of crashed for a while. In hindsight it was a good lesson, but it definitely felt uncomfortable in the moment. Eventually I wandered up to the roof where Fiona was chatting with the people we had met the previous night. We went out with two of them into the streets to find food and had tagine before wandering around the Jemaa el-Fnaa market again. The tagine was incredible and it was really nice to have the company of the others.
December 10, 2023 – Marrakech, Morocco
The next day, we had a yummy brunch and watched the craziness of the traffic from a roadside cafe. The chaos of the cars, carts, horse carriages, bicycles, motorbikes, and pedestrians meshing and merging in tight spaces at high speeds and with lots of honking is anxiety-provoking and awe-inspiring at the same time. I got the feeling that if tourists were removed from the equation, as pedestrians, rental car drivers, and horse carriage riders, the whole thing would look like flawless, controlled chaos. During our whole time in the Madina, I think we saw a total of maybe 3 traffic lights and no stop signs or other traffic control methods. It all just sort of works in a confusing and impressive way.
After our brunch, we went to Bahia Palace, a 19th century grand vizier palace. Once again, the tile and plaster carving were breathtaking. The interior courtyards full of palm trees and other plants were also beautiful and I could imagine that on a really hot day, there served as wonderful oases of shade and freshness.
We saw the Grand Courtyard and learned more about the hammam bathing practices that would have taken place in the space. Once again, the tile was magnificent, and in such a large space, it took on a whole different feel of just a sea of color.
We had gotten a tip from one of the people in our riad that if one went down a side corridor, there was a portion of the palace that was not visited as frequently and would have fewer people there. We were able to find it and got to spend some time exploring portions of the palace without the crowds. It was really cool to see parts of the space that felt secret and hidden.
Unfortunately, because of damage caused by the recent earthquake, a few sections of the palace were closed, but still, we spent many hours there and only realized that they were closing when we looked around and noticed the guards beginning to wander purposefully towards the few remaining clumps of people.
Bahia Palace was definitely a highlight of the trip because it was just so beautiful and interesting. I found it hard to follow the descriptions of the people who had built it and lived in the palace because many of them had long lists of titles and family connections and political positions, but the space spoke for itself. While I wish I had a better grasp on the history and cultural significance of Bahia Palace, I certainly enjoyed the visit immensely.
In the evening, we wandered through the souks again and continued our foray into bartering. Over the course of our 4 days in The Medina, we certainly learned a lot about the process and practice bargaining. The first few attempts we made were not very successful. We’d read that one should always start the bartering process at 1/4 of the given price and never pay more than 1/3. It took a lot for us to get over the feeling that this is extremely rude. But, we had a few small wins, paying around 1/2 of the given price for some items and we started to build confidence.
In the evening, we had a lovely conversation with a shop owner who told us about the written Berber language and the meanings of a few of the letters and symbols. He told us about the nomadic culture of the Berbers and the different sects and identities within Berber culture. It was fascinating and yet I had a really hard time retaining the information and will need to do more research to get it all straight in my mind. Still, it was really lovely to speak with someone so interested in sharing. He did not seem disappointed when we left without purchasing anything, which was a bit relieving because we had gotten used to every interaction becoming an opportunity to purchase something.
December 11, 2023 – Marrakech, Morocco
On our final full day in The Medina, we were a bit uncertain what to do. We had talked about doing an excursion outside of Marrakech, but we weren’t decisive enough to get it planned, so we found ourselves with another day of exploring souks, walking around mosques, and people watching.
We ended up looking helpless enough that a merchant was able to grab a hold of us and talked us into buying a bunch of things we probably didn’t need. Still, he gave us tea and was pleasant enough. We did learn our lesson about letting him bag the items before giving the price and asking for payment. At that point, there’s no chance of negotiation, which I think we both found disappointing. He had done the math on a calculator and kept showing us that he was giving us a deal, but the end result was staggeringly more expensive than I think either of us had expected. Still, it was both a learning and a cultural experience.
After that, we wandered to try to find a museum of tombs, but it turned out to be closed, so we went to look at the Koutoubia Mosque. We were hoping to hear the call to prayer from the huge minaret and see everyone streaming in for prayer, but we eventually found out that the mosque had been damaged in the earthquake and will be closed for a few years to undergo repairs.
We were able to explore the gardens and enjoyed a relaxed afternoon of just sitting and watching, chatting, and taking it all in.
In the evening, we did some shopping. By this point we had realized that most of the tourist shops had nearly identical items in them, which made shopping around much easier, because we could realistically walk away if the price didn’t feel right and find an identical item about 5 feet away.
Fiona got very good at chatting with the shop keepers, asking them how to say certain phrases in Arabic and establishing a rapport before the negotiations began. We also started the negotiations with a bit of a joke to establish a friendly precedent and help both of us feel we were being respectful as we quoted a price to them that was 1/4 of the given price. In the end, we were able to get some items for around 1/3 of the stated price and left feeling confident.
We ended our night by getting a fresh squeezed juice medley from one of the fruit vendors in Jemma el-Fnna for 15 dirham instead of 20. They invited us up into the cart for a photo.
December 12, 2023 – In transit then Barcelona, Spain
In the morning of our final day in Marrakech, we packed up and headed into Jemma el-Fnna to chatty a bus to the airport. The square, that at midnight is packed with vendors, street performers, tourists, and all sorts of sounds, smells, and activity was nearly empty at 10am.
Fiona did some last minute shopping and we grabbed some breakfast of fresh made flatbreads. One had honey and the other had chocolate spread. They were wonderfully greasy and sweet and incredibly cheap. We grabbed another one with cheese to bring on the plane with us.
Then we headed to the bus stop and waiting around for slightly longer than was comfortable for the airport shuttle bus to show up. We had left enough time, but it was certainly a bit concerning when twice there were expected buses that never showed up.
We did eventually get a bus and headed to the airport. We managed to check in on time and got through security and border check with time to spare, but less than I like to have. All in all, it was as uneventful, short flight.
We arrived in Barcelona and made our way to the apartment where my parents were already relaxing. It was wonderful to see them after over 3 months away and it was exciting to be in Barcelona with them.
We headed out to get dinner and had a pleasant first evening in Barcelona all together.