| > | > | > | Colin, part III | . | |
OKay, this is it. Once in Marrakech, with my two new japanese tourist
We made it to the auberge and found the australian couple, michelle and daniel, i met and the two had been travelling with earlier. we all rested for a while, i took a shower for the first time in two days. I would have the night before, but I dont relish the idea of cockroaches crawling up my leg while in the shower or in the toilet stall, either. that was indeed a painful night that included much resourcefulness when i had to make way to a toilet. i hope that i didnt kill that bush, of which i made use of to conceal my act. where was I? ooooh, shower. cold shower. now everyone thinks this is a bad thing, but believe me, its not. when its over 100 degrees Fahrenheit out there, you crave cold in a way you've never craved cool before. It was magnificent, most of all since there was no cockroach nation living inside waiting to eat me alive. We all went to dinner and had a great time and fed some feral cats and upset
a waiter for the lone fact we couldnt speak french. i think we 'forgot' to
leave a tip. Ooops. the next day I spent with Michelle, Daniel and Lako
and our moroccan friend, Mustafa. We pretended that he was our guide in the
medina so that everyone else wouldnt speak to us. We went to the medina and
then off to the Saadien Tombs in the south of the medina. Nice place, quiet
and was relatively cool. Lots of cool architecture there. One of the
ancient sultans had the graves capped since he was superstitious about
diggin' up the dead. Before we made it to the tombs, we went to eat. I had
some soup and tea. I ate the soup with a wooden spoon. While doing this, i
remembered stories from the middle ages about how peasants and serfs used
the same wooden spoon over and over all of their lives and would often
contract trench mouth due to bacteria built up in the wood. I didnt finish
the soup. FREE KISSES!!! After the tombs we went to the 'floating' palace on a man made lake. Really the lake is in front of the palace but still it is beautiful and an architectural masterpiece. Once done, we all got a picture together. And I looked for water. Again, I went about asking people if inflation was a crippling problem for their nation. That night, Michelle and Daniel left and so did Mustafa, who lives in Casablanca and was just visiting Marrakech. The next day, a Hungarian couple joined us, Gyorgy and Marta (sorry if i mispelled your name, and that goes for anyone above!). Ryohei found us a place where we could eat breakfast for 10Dh. We ate like a bunch of ranch hands, so much that they took the food away about 30 mins before the sign claimed that breakfast was over. Louis Anderson's famous mockery of a buffet restaraunt owners screaming at him, 'You been here four hour, you go now!' reverberated through my cranium as I stuffed my face with crepes, coffee, eggs, and bread, over and over and over again. we left full and the restaraunt clamoring to restock. we all walked around the medina and since we didnt have a moroccan friend with us today, many people offered quite persistently to be the replacement. We ensured our friends to be that we already had too many friends and that we didnt need them anyways. Okay, i'm cruel. forgive me. Gyorgy and I played dress up as we tried on turbans. I broke down and bought one, along with all the other crap i bought. At the end of the day, everyone in the group was impressed with my bargaining skills and all the vendors i came into contact with gave me a mean look when i left their store, especially if i had bought something. 'no profit for me!' they would shout. I said, 'that's okay' as I would seal the deal. If you ever go to morocco, you know that the price was good if the vendor stops calling you, 'friend' and doesn't pat you on the back as you leave the store. Later, Ryohei and Lako left to go and try out some bargaining of their own. Later when I saw them at the hostel, I was quite proud when Ryohei showed me his drum that he bought for quite a cheap price. His vendor didnt like him either. Way to go! We spent half the night playing drums and keeping everyone awake while Lako sang along. That night I made a new friend, Linda from Australia. The next day we hung out with an herbalist for a few mins and spent the rest of the evening watching various circus acts and acrobats about the medina square. The next day, like we promised, we went to eat lunch with the herbalist. A fine tagine with beef. Again, we fed feral cats wondering in on the scent of the food begging for a free lunch. Get a job :) The next day i decided to leave in the afternoon so Linda and I went for breakfast at the same place for 10Dh. This time, the owner charged me for the extra coffee I was swilling. He came up to me while my cheeks were full of warm coffee with fresh hot milk and demanded that I pay extra. I looked at him with my cheeks full and shaked my head no. I knew it was BS since I saw many people go up for seconds. I should have just told him that he could have the coffee back after I had spit it out on the table. I didnt though, maintaing from army indoctrination that we are ambassadors of our country. I threw the money down on the table and once Linda came back, we left. How he remembered it was me among the four of us that emptied his store's stock is beyond me. Don't we all look alike?! Whoops, that was the day before. The last day we ate at another place, since we weren't allowed back there. In the end, Linda left to catch the bus to Ourzazate and I went to the train station to catch the train to Casablanca for a very uneventful trip. I spent the next 12 hours in the airport. Uuugh. There was no where to sleep. I spent the night drinking espresso, reading and writing. Thats it for Morocco. I hope you enjoyed it. Seriously, all things aside; you should consider going. Its a small compact country that offers nearly everything at a cheap price for a far higher value. The people are genuinely nice (even though I was overzealous about the shady ones here) while on the other hand they aren't as engaging as the hustlers. But dont let them spoil your image of moroccan people and culture. its beautiful but far removed from western ways; i.e., the streets are not as clean as europe's or america's but beyond that you'll find there is much richness in the culture and history and that each town offers many unique stories that are far different from the experience of the european traveller or american road trip enthusiast. give it a try sometime. the greatest adventure for me always lied within the confusion and mayhem. And now, for the not so end: once back in Munich, i found that my bag, along with half of the bags marked for the passengers on the plane, were not in munich afterall. after about an hour and a half of sorting this all out, i had no choice but to sleep yet another night in the airport!!! Airport benches arent all that bad if you can score a nice, comfortable one. plus its free! anyways, take care all! colin return to part II | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
companions, we made our way to the taxis stands from the bus station without
getting heckled by a hustler, save once. One guy saw me get off the bus and
asked me if I wanted to go to Ourzazate. I told him no and asked if him if
he thought about what he asked me since I just got off the bus from
Ourzazate. He gave me a blank stare. I then asked him if he knew that I
was on the bus which came from Ourzazate. He said yes and asked me if I
wanted to go back. I walked away. Anyhow, we found the taxi stand and
asked a driver if he knew where the auberge de jeunesse was (youth hostel).
He said, 'Oui!' and we jumped into the cab. After about five mins of
pretending to act as if he knew where the hell he was headed, he pulled up
to another taxi queue and said he'd be back in a minute. We all looked at
each other and said, 'um, okay' expecting the guy to come running back. we
didnt care, for the first few minutes, that he had left or that he had left
the meter running since we were all worn out from the bus ride. Remember no
air conditioning nor circulation to vanquish the puke stench. After two
minutes we all looked at each other again. My two japanese companions in
the back started talking to one another. Being in Japanese and not knowing
any of the language, all I could do was guess they were getting pretty
pizzed off. At that point, I got out and took a quick look for our driver
who went MIA, so I came back, we grabbed our bags, went to the next taxi
driver who lied to us, saying he knew where the auberge was located and we
believed him. Okay, now you're laughing at our own ineptitude. Me, too.
About after five mins in this taxi, who was equally good at pretending (do
they go to a school for this?) pulled over and asked a passing truck driver
if he knew where the auberge was. At this point the two in the back turned
and yelled the same thing at each other. Like I said, I dont know Japanese,
but no doubt this translated as, 'What the !*!*' After about ten mins of
the meter running and four different groups of people telling this guy where
the auberge was, we got out. Hot, tired, and getting sick; we decided to
hoove it. no more of this. as we got out, the driver got out of his car
demanding all the money that was displayed on his meter. One of the guys
explained that we were obligated to pay whatever was on the meter, even if
that meant money recorded on the meter while he was asking for directions.
So we sighed, told him to please go to hell and walked away. later