Right now I'm on the train heading south to Marrakech from the capital city of Rabat. We left Rabat at about 7:45 this morning and should arrive in Marrakech around 1. Sadly, we are not riding the Marrakech express.
Our last day and night in Rabat were jam packed but a lot of fun. In the afternoon, Kelsey went to the hammam (traditional communal bath house) with one of her friends from the city and I spent the afternoon relaxing and reorganizing my bag. Sitting around topless with a bunch of strangers just isn't my idea of a good time!
When Kelsey got back, we grabbed a cab and headed to Chellah, the site of Roman era and later ruins. When I say we grabbed a cab, I'm not talking we hailed one like we were in NYC and were on our way. No no, we found a cab (a tiny electric blue death trap of a vehicle), got the driver to agree to use the meter to price our trip (instead of, say, meter and a half or an entirely negotiated price), and wound our way through the equivalent of Indy 500 traffic to Chellah. Did I mention that lanes and traffic signals are more suggestions than rules here?!
When, after making what I thought was just polite small talk with the driver, he asked if he could "get to know me better," I was quite ready to arrive at our destination.
Chellah was cool, but there wasn't much in the way of signage so it was hard to know what we were looking at. The place was over run with chickens and cats, and Kelsey and I made friends with a couple of pretty adorable kittens. One cat followed us around for a while, yowling for food. I finally relented with a piece of my pain au chocolat accompanied by a scolding to the cat for eating during the day when it was Ramadan!
For dinner we went to a restaurant housed IN the wall of the old city and had a truly delicious meal of harira ( a kind of yummy "everything but the kitchen sink" of a soup), hard boiled eggs, orange juice, dates, mouth wateringly good small pastries covered in honey and sesame seeds, and washed down with a cup of sweet mint tea. And the bill was just $10 for the both of us!
Later that night, we met Kelsey's friend Fairouz and another girl for a late night snack. We walked down to a new cafe by the river and I was surprised to see a ton of people out and about even though it was past 10. Fairouz was delightful and a lot of fun to talk to while in her friend (age 19) there was a palpable longing to get out of Morocco as soon as she could. We learned some useful things from Fairouz, like that it is ok at night to wear a sleveless top (during the day our shoulders should be covered-not that doing so doesn't prevent a fairly constant level of light harassment). Tips for minimizing it include dressing conservatively, not looking any man in the eye, wearing a faux wedding ring, and betraying no reaction when approached. Even though I take all of those precautions, I have accepted that as a fair skinned, blue-eyed, Western woman I am going to attract attention.
This was patently obvious when Kelsey and I came upon a small carnival on our walk back home and decided to go on some of the rides. They were so much fun but I am not exaggerating when I say that every single man there was staring at us!
Finally, we wound our way back through he extremely crowded (even though at this point it was nearly midnight) medina and back to the hotel room where we collapsed only to wake up at 6:45 this morning to catch the train!
I can't wait to arrive in Marrakech though it will be quite hot there at over 100 degrees! Luckily, there are places that will allow you to use the pool if you buy lunch there, and I fully plan on taking advantage of that!
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
No comments:
Post a Comment