The trek to the hostel was difficult. Not because it was uphill or anything like, but more because there are no street names. The medina is the area of Marrakesh that is walled off and has narrow streets. There are so many unmarked streets that twist and turn all over the medina that navigation by map is near impossible. There were reviews on hostelworld that said I would eventually end up paying a kid 10 dirhams to show me where the hostel is located. Instead I ended up just asking shop owners that pointed me all the way there.
The first day I met a group of three (James Cheri and Ellie) from UK, they arrived at the hostel shortly after I did. We all ended up grabbing lunch together. We ate at a small restaurant near the Medina Backpackers hostel. I ordered a Tagine, which is meat and vegetables cooked in a clay plate with a top so the food is steamed. I tried the rabbit with onions and raisins. This was a surprisingly good combination. The entire mean was around 5USD with drinks. The exchange rate here is about 1 USD to 8 dirham. Four dirham buys you a 2L bottle of water. Another food I tried are prickly pears. These are flowering bulbs that grow on cactus and are sweet. The redder the sweeter the bulb. Basically the cut the skin off and eat the seeds inside. It is suppose to help with stomach problems.
The next day was spent lounging around and getting adjusted to the area and the heat. There is only one room with air conditioning in it and the rest of the rooms just have fans. Luckily the desert weather here is cool at night, but took me considerably more time to fall asleep. In the morning I walk to the market to start my day with 3 dirham (less than 50 cents) fresh squeezed orange juice and explore more of the Medina. My excursion is cut short with the mid-day sun and retreat back to the hostel.
Most of exploration was done at night. The medina is much livelier as the sun sets and people come out. There are Arabic story tellers with groups of people gathered around. There are also games setup for people to play. The central area of the medina has small restaurants that all serve different foods. They merely tents that are setup and have a number on them so you can remember which one to return to and which ones to avoid. The same applies to the copious amounts of orange juice stands.
Cheri is half Brit and half Thai and when we travel together I guess we look like a couple. Tonight a local restaurant owner came up to me after our meal and pointed to Cheri asking “how much for this one?” I am quite proud to report that I was able to haggle all the way up to 100 camels and our entire dinner bill. Sadly James was later able to get 10,000 camels just for Ellie’s eyes.
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