Marrakesh, Morocco

For half term, Tara, Jin, and I headed off to North Africa! This was such a cool trip, so different from anywhere I've been before!

Marrakech

Where we stayed:

We stayed at The Central House Marrakech Medina. This hostel was absolutely stunning! It is one of the fancier/more expensive hostels in the Medina, that being said it was still only about €20/night. We booked a 6 bed dorm and ended up having the whole thing to ourselves for the most part. There was a beautiful terrace, pool, and bar/restaurant. The people that worked at the hostel were absolutely lovely, so friendly and helpful. The hostel did a lovely breakfast including eggs, cheeses, meats, fruits, olives, tomatoes, cucumbers, various Moroccan pastries and pancakes, tea, coffee, juice, etc. Greek yoghurt might have competition from Moroccan yoghurt. 

What we ate:

Atay Café quickly became one of our go to spots. It had the cutest, coziest, most authentic vibe. There was a nice rooftop with a great view and then some lovely lower levels. The people were super friendly, the prices were good, and the food was tasty. We had delicious Moroccan mint tea (also known as Moroccan whiskey), fantastic hummus, cheese briouats, amazing couscous salad and a unique bruschetta platter. We also came here for desert some nights after dinner and had tea and yoghurt with honey and almonds.

We had a lovely lunch at Café Chez Zaza. I had the most delicious fresh orange juice of my life and a traditional chicken tagine with lemon and olives. A tagine is a North African dish named after the earthenware pot it is cooked in and it's delicious, I ate it for nearly every meal! We also learned quickly that every restaurant brings complimentary bread and olives. The flavours were incredible and the prices were fantastic. 

We had a lovely dinner at Le Jardin, it's a stunning outdoor courtyard style candlelit restaurant that gives off jungle vibes. I tried traditional Kefta tagine with eggs, it was very tasty. The restaurant brought us some complimentary pastries after dinner which was so nice! We also had a nice dinner on the terrace at Soul. I had very yummy mixed briouates and goat cheese salad, bread and olives and mint tea. The service was great!

We tried going to a place recommended by our hostel called Kabana Rooftop Food/Cocktail Bar, but quickly learned it is just a tourist trap full of British people. The prices were outrageous, I'm talking minimum €16 for a cocktail and €5 for water. I'll admit the rooftop was cute and Tara and I ended up sharing a mouth wateringly delicious thyme and agave cheesecake because we felt bad leaving right away but I would not recommend. 

What we did:

We began our trip in Marrakech. After arriving at the airport, we bought a 20GB SIM card for €20 which I 10/10 recommend and pulled out some cash in the local currency (Moroccan dirhams) from the ATM - you need cash everywhere in Morocco. We got a taxi into the Medina (old town) which was an interesting experience. Driving to the Medina there was so much to see it was overwhelming! I saw camels, donkeys, chickens, dogs, and cats. Driving in the Medina in a car is a wild experience, the streets are tiny and packed with people, market stalls, animals, and motorbikes - I don't understand how the taxi driver didn't hit anything. As soon as we got out of the taxi, a guy tried to get us to follow him to our hostel, he wanted to give us directions. Thankfully, we knew not to take directions from people as they will try and charge you for money after. 

We spent lots of time getting lost in the souks of the Medina, you can just walk around the streets for hours having no idea where you came from or where you are going, the streets feel never ending! It was super interesting to see all the people doing their work and making the things they were selling in their shop. We found that the people were very friendly but you have to learn to be firm because they can get a bit pushy sometimes. You also have to be careful about what you touch or take pictures of. I enjoyed getting a chance to practice my French, Morocco is very much a place that appreciates you trying to speak the language, rather than makes fun of you for making the effort. 

I bought a scarf from a guy who taught us how to tie them for the desert and he encouraged us the be 'haggling queens' he taught us to try and get the price lowered. We walked through the main square Jemaa-el-Fnaa Square which is bustling day and night. We saw monkeys, snake charmers, henna artists (don't do it, don't let them grab your hand, you will get tricked and ripped off like Jin and I did), and people selling various things everywhere! At sundown, the square becomes even busier. Things are similar to the day time but with street performers and even more people. You can't really take pictures or videos because people will try and charge you or make you delete them. It was a bit overwhelming but cool to see! It would be fun to watch the chaos unfold from a rooftop café. We then wandered around the outside of Koutoubia Mosque, the largest mosque in Marrakech, and the surrounding gardens, it was beautiful! It was breathtaking to hear the Islamic Call to prayer that happens five times a day and plays through the mosque speakers. It echoes hauntingly throughout the city, very cool to experience. 

We explored the beautiful Bahia Palace which costs €7 to get in and is a 19th century palace consisting of rooms decorated with stunning stuccos, paintings, and mosaics and stunning gardens. In Arabic, the name means "brilliance" and the palace intended to be the greatest of its time and to capture the essence of the Islamic and Moroccan style. 

Marrakech was an amazing place to explore and experience and overall we felt pretty safe. I would say a day or two is more than enough time to spend in the Medina. By the time we left, we were very ready to go, we were tired of all the strange smells and motorbike exhaust fumes. We were also exhausted from the constant fear of getting scammed or run over by the many motorbikes. We received a lot of comments, none were really disrespectful, if anything they hyped us up, but after a while it becomes a bit tiresome. We kept getting call spice girls by men and having them comment on our looks. The only time I felt a little unsafe was walking home from the big square one evening. It was dark and the market stalls were all packed up so we were just walking through dark streets. We got a bit lost on our way back to the hostel and had a guy try and tell us we couldn't go a certain direction (the way we needed to go) but we ignored him and went that way anyways. Our hostel warned us about some of the scams we might face in Marrakech such as people saying certain streets are closed when they aren't and trying to get you to follow them for other directions. They basically told us to just ignore people if they try any of these things and don't engage.