To be fair to Ryanair, we didn't leave on time but we arrived on time. Our flight wasn't seriously delayed or cancelled, they didn't lose our luggage and we arrived in one piece. But I would seriously reconsider traveling with them again. I'm pretty sure that the armrest of my seat has some fairly deep fingernail marks in it from what seemed like an entire flight of turbulence. I now have a lot more appreciation for how smooth my flights with Qantas are. You don't think about it but that's partly where the extra money is going- to extra training and experience of their pilots. Anyway, after arriving-slightly shaky- in Marrakech, we had to wait a long time in passport control. But after picking up our bags we walked in to the arrival hall to be welcomed by a man with my name on a sign- something I never ever get tired of. Note to friends- if you ever pick me up from the airport bring a sign for me. I will freaking love you.
Our driver spoke French- albeit with a thick Moroccan accent- and kept trying to talk to me. Ray seemed impressed with my language skills but really I was pretty terrible. When he drove us to our hotel and we stopped on this very dodgy street, with nothing looking like the hotel we booked in sight, I got a bit wary. Ray got out of the car and the driver started to unload our luggage, but I was worried the guy was trying to dump us just inside the city walls and leave us to find our own way to the hotel. I reluctantly hopped out of the car- ready to jump in again if he made a move back to the drivers seat. But against expectation he picked up my bag and lead us through an alley down a small path under this sort of tunnel and to our hotel door. He did ask for a tip on top of his fare for having to carry my bag, which I thought was rich because I have to carry it all the time by myself and no one pays me, but I gave him a generous tip anyway. OUR HOTEL WAS GORGEOUS!! I had high expectations from the website but they were exceeded. From the beautiful entrance into the courtyard of the riad (traditional Moroccan house with a courtyard through the center of all the stories), the mint tea, our lavish room covered in rose petals, to the wonderful staff and host. The best thing about the hotel was the cat Max who looked very similar to my cat Ginger and was almost as friendly, which for anyone who knows my cat is a huge complement because Ginger is so friendly you would think he was a dog.
The plan was to get lost in the maze of the souks, which we accomplished pretty easily. A bit too easily actually, and when it was time to go we had a lot of trouble navigating our way back. This was not helped by a little boy saying he would help us find our way back. Rays reaction was "oh great, thanks" but I pulled her aside and told her I thought he was going to try and get us to give him money at the end. I said no thanks and tried to get Ray to follow me another way but the boy followed us the whole time telling us "no you can't go down there it's closed" and "no money, no money, I show you" and Ray started to just give up and follow him so I kept up after them. Of course he leads us to this street and tried to force us into this shop which belonged to his dad- huge surprise I know. He kept following us when we wouldn't go in trying to direct us back to the shop but I just ignored him and kept walking until I could find where we were on the map. Then we kept seeing mosques in the distance that we thought were the one in the main square and we would work towards them. By the third time this happened and it turned out not to be the right mosque, I found a 5 star hotel down a little road and I went in and asked the concierge. Of course the boy had completely lead us astray but the concierge spoke perfect English and gave us really good quick directions back to the square.
We returned hot and exhausted from our escapades and decided to just eat in our hotel, which turned out to be delicious anyway (also a good safe option for our first night as we had heard many horror stories about food poisoning from the market stalls). We were joined by a French couple and Max who the French woman decided to generously share her meal with...
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| /Moroccan diner complete with Arabic coca-cola |
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