Among Tourists in Marrakech

I woke up this morning in my comfortable bed in my comfortable hotel. It was nice to sleep in a luxurious 40 euro hotel for the night. When I mentioned on my facebook wall that I was staying in a nice hotel with a view of trash, Shawn reminded me that it’s better than the usual: “staying in trash with a view of a nice hotel.” I’m not complaining. I went downstairs to get the complimentary breakfast and was greeted by waiters at a restaurant with white cloths draped over round tables that surrounded a pool under a glass roof. That sentence had enough prepositions to get me lost, what about you? This was not your standard continental breakfast of bread and cereal. It actually wasn’t anything fancy, but the atmosphere certainly was. Again, the waiters were so friendly. “Goodmorning, sir. How are you? That’s good. Did you sleep well? Good, good. Have a seat by the pool and help yourself to whatever you want.” I had breakfast for the first time in months and headed out to find a crap hole where I’d sleep the next night. And I did.

I took a taxi to a cheap area where there are a lot of hotels for tourists like myself. The driver showed me different hotspots along the way. “You should go to this nightclub,” said the yellow-toothed man in tattered clothing. “Oh yeah? Is it nice?” “I don’t know,” he admitted, “I don’t go there.” As we approached the tourist hotspot that I was looking for, I noticed that the horses in the traffic were becoming cleaner. Their blinders were not made out of cardboard, and they often had showy decorations. Not only that, but they had carriages with blonde people in them. We were getting close. The driver dropped me off and assured me that I’d have no trouble finding a cheap place to stay.  He was right. I’m on the first floor of a hotel, adjacent to the high-traffic lobby, where I pay 5 euros for a room. The room is huge, compared to a coffin. The amenities consist of a bed, though I’m not sure what kind of rock this mattress is made out of, and a rusty sink. This is more than I need, so I’m not complaining – just describing. People yell in the lobby because they don’t consider the fact that a poor little boy is on the other side of the broken door in the corner and is trying to sleep. There are two community bathrooms which are about 3 square feet each and consist of a hole in the ground and two buckets. This is supposedly a shower too, but I’m not sure how. Is that what bucket #2 is for? I may have to find out, because I just peed all over myself trying to squat in this thing.

After forking over my passport and 50 dirham for the night, I went out to Djema el-Fna, the main square of the city. I’m actually staying about 2 minutes from it. This place is world renowned and, I think, a UNESCO world heritage site. Walk around here to see acrobats flying around, people walking on each others heads, snake charmers blowing wildly on their flutes and, of course, lots of tourists. This is the most tourists I’ve seen so far during my short stay in Morocco, but it is a site to behold. I just plopped down and ate, but didn’t stick around for the nightlife when things get really lively. I’ll be back tomorrow, I suspect.

I went back to the hotel and studied for a bit before heading out to meet some couchsurfers who were traveling in the area. While I was waiting for them outside of a pharmacy, a Moroccan about my age came up to me and tried to hand me a flyer. I rejected it, as I’ve done since life on West Mall at UT. Most people at UT take the flyers as they pass by and throw them in the trash 5 feet away, but I don’t even bother. People are so damn friendly here, though, that it’s hard to get used to. Some of them eventually want to sell you something or take you to their cousin’s shop, but so many are just the nicest people in the world. Even the ones who want to sell you things are incredibly nice, I just generally don’t want to buy anything. So after I rejected the flyer, he just stood there and talked with me for about 10 minutes until the couchsurfers arrived. We talked about the same kind of stuff as I would when meeting anyone while traveling, but he had no reason to talk to me other than pure interest. I feel like the talk isn’t cheap.

The couchsurfers, Zak from NYC and Veronica from Spain, showed up as planned and we went off to a cafe named Mama Africa (seriously) where there was supposed to be a CS meeting shortly. I’d never been to a CS meeting, but staying with Frank in Dublin really made me want to start. I regret never going to any in Austin, and should really start in Nantes.  On the way there, we got lost and asked a couple girls to point us in the right direction.  Not only did they do that, but they turned in the opposite direction they were initially walking and led us to the cafe for 10 minutes. It was a fun time. We had couchsurfers from the US, Canada, Spain, Portugal, England, and above all Morocco. We all sat around a few tables over nonalcoholic beverages and talked about everything from hitchhiking in Morocco to the Santiago de Postella pilgrimage (which I want to do and am looking for a partner, people). OK, so our conversation was the same kind of stuff that people always talk about while traveling, but it was fun. I met a lot of interesting people and will be meeting up with some of them tomorrow to see some more of the city. I even made friends with a couple of other people traveling alone, though our schedules unfortunately can’t match up. Shootananny.

Related posts:

1. Training it to Marrakech
2. Tangier Bound
3. Saying Goodbye
4. I’m in Africa!