Marrakech, Morocco, April 13-16

Wow!
What a culture shock!
I arrived in Marrakech in late Sunday afternoon, and was automatically faced with the opportunity to practice my Arabic. After dusting off some cobwebs, I passed through the arduous security line and met up with Ilanit and her friend Pat from USC.
We bargained with the cab driver for a cheaper price to take us to our Riad. After walking through a maze of dark alleyways, almost hitting our heads on the low overpasses, we got to a dead end and they rang the doorbell to our hostal. From the outside, all you see is an iron door. Inside, the beauty of the hostal, and the warmth of the people is incredible. We were greeted by Kamaal, one of the workers that spoke Spanish pretty well. We put my bags in the room and then gathered up the rest of Ilanit's friends (Matt, Ryan, and Olen) and headed to the Jemaa El Fnaa (the open-air market in the middle of the medina) for dinner. Evidently the boys were having a craving for sheep head....naturally!

Walking into the market was incredible. The smell of food, the smoke, the shouts of the vendors, the snake charmers, the belly dancers (yeah so what if the belly dancers are males, right?), the mint tea, the couscous, the skewers of meat, it was all so overwhelming. I was hearing Moroccan Arabic, French, Spanish, and English all at once. Even the little kids trying to sell u kleenex could speak all four! So we walked around and the boys picked the spot where they had seen the sheep head the night before. We sat down at the table, and they waiter asked if they wanted a whole head or just half. Heck, why not eat the whole head!!!!

So he proceeded to chop up the head into various little bowls, teeth, tongue, cheek included! The only thing they remove is the brain. Evidently that is a delicacy, which I was not even close to trying. But I was so hungry, and the smell of the food was killing me. They boys dug in, ooooing and aaaaahhhing about how delicious it was. All I could see were things jiggling in the bowl, not looking very appetizing. But the hunger took over. I asked the boys to find me a piece that looked more like meat, preferably a facial muscle, cheek, etc, and i grabbed a huge piece of bread to distract myself from what I was about to do, and then I took a bite! Honestly, it tasted like any other kind of meat you would eat. That bite was plenty for me. After we saw the teeth and tongue in the bowl, everyone lost their appetite!
After that adventure we headed to a different stall so Ilanit and I could eat couscous and vegetables. Delicious food! We ended with some mint tea and a stroll through the market, avoiding all eye contact with the snake charmers and belly dancers for fear that they would make us pay for just looking at them.

That night we took the rum that I bought in Spain and "smuggled" into the medina and some cokes upstairs to the terrace to sit under the stars. We asked Kamaal if he could prepare us a hookah. He brought us apple flavor and we passed the hookah around, told funny stories, and then fell asleep on the terrace looking up at the stars......until......."ALLLLLLLAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH u AAAAAAAAKKKKKKBBBBAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRR!" Oh my goodness it's 3am! What on earth are they doing praying this early? It was so loud it sounded like a megaphone was blasting in our ears! This went on for about 5 minutes straight, to the point that we all woke up. Ilanit had the great idea of buying a megaphone the next day, and shouting back, "GO TO SLEEEEEPPPPPPP!!!!!"
After it ended, we were able to fall back alseep, but not for long because around sunrise it happened again. "ALLLLLLLAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH u AAAAAAAAAKKKKKBBBBBBAAAARRRRRRR!" oh well, we might as well just wake up now. It's pointless trying to sleep at this point.

We awoke and headed to meet our tour guide at 730am for our 4x4 tour of the Atlas Mountains. A 5-hour drive into the heart of the mountains was absolutely breathtaking, meaning both beautiful, and so scary that you couldn't breath because you were anticipating falling down the cliff because the rocky road was barely big enough to fit the car, and of course, there was no guard rail. During the 5-hour trip, we saw the most beautiful scenery....brown mountains, with bright green valleys, little villages where the kids ran out to greet us (to our surprise, if u try to take a picture of these cute kids, they start screaming "NONONONONONONONOOOOOOO!" because evidently taking their picture is like taking their soul), sheep, donkeys, gorgeous lookout points, and points where I was sure we were going to die. How could a car our size fit on these little roads? One miscalculation and were would tumble to our deaths. But our driver Yousef was a natural. He took the curves like we were on paved roads. After arriving to our lunch destination, we were all relieved and starving. A meal of kafta and eggs hit the spot!
And what better to help digest your food than a camel ride?! What a treat!

We got back into the car and headed to the spot where the movies "Gladiator" and "Passion of the Christ" were filmed. Beautiful city!

After a 4-hour ride back home, we had a good dinner and then went to sleep.

The next day we slept in a little bit, enjoyed the complementary breakfast in the Riad, and then headed out to do some sight-seeing. We went to the museum, an old dormitory/school, an old mosque, and then some colorful gardens. Tons of beautiful things to see!

Later we headed out to the souks to do a little bit of shopping and bartering. Talk about overwhelming! But honestly, if you stick to your price and as long as it's not completely unreasonable, you can get what you want.

We arrived back to the Riad for our henna tattoo appointment that we had made. One of the girls that worked at the Riad did them for free, and we just gave her a tip.

That night we had some wine and beer celebrating one of the girl's birthdays that was staying in the Riad, and then the belly dancing and salsa lessons began! We got everyone up to dance and it was like one huge happy family. The owner of the Riad (Hassan) was passing around the hookah and kept the wine and beer flowing. There were so many travellers there, all from different countries and backgrounds, all enjoying a fun evening together family-style in the Riad.

The 6 of us headed out to the market again for dinner and had the best night ever! We made friends with the waiters, sang with them, took pictures together, and laughed so hard! The pictures don't even do this night justice.
After dinner, we slept up on the terrace again, only to be awoken by the chanting once more. This time we were more used to it, but it still made us laugh.

On Wednesday it was time to pack up, do some last minute shopping, catch some sun on the terrace, and then head to the airport back to Madrid. Ilanit and I arrived home in Madrid at about 1:30am, exhausted, but satisfied.

Check out my pics!