Marrakech, The Red city!

The day has arrived!We are heading to the Red city, Marrakech!
Tickets, checked; luggage, checked; passports, checked!and the most important my camera!

With no sleep at all we went to the airport around 5.30 a.m., we had an early flight to Madrid and an afternoon one direct to Marrakech. With no knowledge of arabic or french we arrived to the Menara international airport (RAK). Trying to get used to this new environment, we went straight to the exchange house to get some Dirhams (you can check the rate in http://www.xe.com/). We had two options to get to the hostel, one was getting a taxi, which you could arrange a price for more or less 3 euros each passanger, or the second option was taking the bus N19 to the central square for only 30 Dirhams roundtrip or 20 DH for a single trip. We opted for the bus! After 30 mins we arrived to Djemaa El-Fna, the central square of the Red city, where you can see every night musicians, dancers and story tellers. But be carefull, you can be accosed by women wanting to give you a henna tattoo.



Also if you are hungry and want to eat as a local you can eat in these lovely stalls in the square for a very reasonable price. You have to try their famous Couscous and Tajine, among the most famous moroccan plates. If you dont't feel like eating moroccan food you can try a good italian restaurant in Djemaa El-Fna square, "Aqua". Don't forget to try their delicious orange juice, lots of vitamins and energy to start a good day.




While going to the hostel, by the way very difficult to find, you can see the Souks or markets where you can buy everything you can imagine. The most important, don't forget to bargain, you can get anything for half price! But for sure you will need a map or directions to get to Equity point hostel ( http://www.equity-point.com), is like being in a laberinth, but be careful with the locals that will be waiting for you to ask how to get there, they will defenitely ask for money! Arriving to the hostel is difficult, but worth it! Beautiful hostel, just a few meters from the central square, and you can have everything you need.



You can arrange even one day excursions or a 2 day excursion to the desert. Actually we did the one day excursion for 500 DH and was a very good experience. A small van picks you up around 9 O'clock in the morning and drives you around 30 kms to the Ourika valley. First stop, a lovely spices plantation, where you can see different kinds of spices and condiments, you can enjoy their tea, courtesy of the house! Next stop a typical Berber house, a traditional family sharing their lives with us and showing the way they live! And last but not least, the beautiful waterfalls, where you climb around 2 or 3 hours and then take a well deserved typical moroccan lunch. I almost forgot the most important and entertaining thing of the evening, a camel ride! Yeah you heard me the most funny and amazing thing ever, the sad thing is that the ride was only for about 15 minutes.

Going back to the city, some sightseeings you must see are the Koutoubia Mosque, El Badi palace (you have to go to the terrace, the view is magical), take a stroll along the new city and don't forget to get lost in the Souks and in general get lost in the city, you can discover the most beautiful places around.