Marrakech

main mosque in marrakech, from the back

We were pretty sad to leave our beach side vacation spot in Essaouira and make our way to Marrakech since it meant that our Moroccan adventure was ending.  We were really lucky, and the American couple from the riad in Essaouira, Linda & Kate offered to give us all a ride in their rental car back to Marrakech, and also called the Riad they had stayed in before and asked if there was an empty room that the 3 of us could use for the night.  We were so thankful to not have to deal with the terrible bus, or have to pay a driver to get back; and the Riad we stayed in was wonderful.  This one was owned by a quintessentially Parisian man named Stefan and his family.  It was located in the middle of the medina, but on a quiet dead-end of a really small street.  It was so tucked away, you really didn’t hear any of the hustle & bustle from the hectic surroundings, aside from the prayer calls throughout the day from the nearby mosque.  By this time though, we were fairly used to being awoken by the 5am prayer, and flocks of insanely large and loud birds.  Stefan gave Jess & I a whirlwind tour of how to get to and from the riad from the main square, along with a restaurant recommendation.  We asked to be taken to a Hammam that evening, and were awaiting the arrival of our Hammam woman.  She arrived on time, told us to gather our towels, leave any other belongings at the riad, and lead us down the main streets of Marrakech to get bathed.  A hammam is a bathhouse, traditionally used weekly by both the men and women (separately).  There are many hammams around the Moroccan cities, and they have multi-purpose uses.  Usually there are 3 main sections to a hammam:  the women’s bathhouse, the men’s bathhouse, and the furnace area.  The bath water and houses are heated in this one central oven location, one that is separate from the bathhouses themselves.  This furnace room is doubly used by the townspeople to bring their meats and veggies inside of ceramic pots to cook for the day.  In fact, the traditional Marrakechi food we had that night was a tangina of veal meat that was cooked at the nearby hammam.  The hammam experience was hilarious and wonderful.  There are hammams that are built by westerners for westerners, and resemble more of spa.  We didn’t want this.  We wanted the real deal.  We got there, were lead behind a makeshift door into a not-so-enclosed hallway, and were told to strip down.  Or lady took our clothes and put them in bags and lead us into the huge bathing rooms.  Inside it was almost completely dark aside from some small lights and slits in the wall.  The ceilings were incredibly high; the place seemed more like a bomb shelter than any other structure I’d been in before.  Inside there were pairs and groups of women, mostly locals, who were helping each other bathe.  Basically, there are steps to the bathing process:  3 different types of soaps/scrubs followed by 3 rinse cycles.  Most westerners need a local bath woman to do the steps for them the first time around so as to know what to do when, how, etc.  There are no sitting pools of water; instead, you sit on the floor and she pours a huge bucket of water over you.  I have never been scrubbed so hard in my life.  The girls and I were trying not to laugh when, after she had scrubbed for a while on one of our bodies, she took another one of our hands and made us feel all the dead skin that had came off.  Kinda gross.  I’m ok with naked, less ok with having to feel tons of dead skin on my friend’s naked body.  By the time we left, we were all glowing in our nearly-revealed 3rd-layer of skin, and extremely exhausted.  All of us could have probably curled up in our bed and fell asleep, but we had plans to go eat at the tangina marrakechia place.  I’m really glad we did.   The traditional dish is this vase-like ceramic covered pot, inside stuffed with veal and veggies.  The pots are put in the hammam furnaces for the entire day before they are served, so the mean is marinated and absolutely amazing.  We had some tea to finish, paid our 6 euro equivalent, and headed back to the riad for an early night. 

            The last day in Morocco was bittersweet.  I think we were all ready to wash our back-packs full of dirty clothes, but no one wanted to return to Lyon where it was snowing and in the 20s.  We had lucked out in Morocco, and it was in the low 70s and partly-cloudy or sunny each day.  We walked around the Marrakech market (suk) and medina and had lunch and tea for a last time before we headed to the airport.  Marrakech was nice.  It was less intimidating than Fes; the people there seemed to much more comfortable or used to Western visitors, and I felt generally less stared-at and heckled than in the other cities.  I definitely want to go back to Morocco again sometime, even though the list of places I want to go is very long.  We all bought little Moroccan tea pots (usable ones, of course) as souvenirs.  I’ve already made a point of having tea-time each day that I’ve been back in Lyon.   It’s not Moroccan tea, and it’s not the same without Jess & Heather to laugh about the days adventures, but its something. 

main square in Marrakech