Rock The Kasbah

My first impression of Marrakech was actually quite surprising. I had expected a lot more chaos, but I left the airport without much hassle at all from taxi drivers, the traffic was calm, the streets were clean, I was almost disappointed. Once my shared taxi dropped me off in the city center, the weather was quite nice and the hostel I had booked should only be a 10-15 minute walk away, so I started walking. It quickly became obvious that the ancient walled Medina of Marrakech is quite literally a labyrinth, this combined with the fact that I am too stubborn to accept help (figuring that help here is never free) and not having access to the internet, meant that my leisurely stroll turned into a one hour ordeal carrying all my luggage, but in the end I found my hostel and I felt accomplished and that my trip had finally begun.

I spent a few days in the city admiring the ornate architecture of mosques, palaces and mansions with their delicately carved wooden doors and beautiful gardens and courtyards, but most of the time I was just wandering around aimlessly, eating street food and getting lost in the narrow alleyway systems of the enormous souk. The market may cater heavily to tourists with it’s carpets, trinkets and ornaments but it is still a very lively and functioning bazaar which seems to attract very many locals for their everyday shopping as well.

The enormous main square, Djemaa el Fna, is more like the chaos I was expecting on arrival, here snake charmers and acrobats fight over the same space as fortunetellers, storytellers and musicians, everyone is trying to get your attention, trying to drag you towards their act and before you know it a friendly handshake has turned into you having a monkey sat on your head. After three days, I felt I had had enough and together with Daniel, a Brazilian guy I met at the hostel, I decided to head towards the desert.