Markets and Mazes in Marrakech’s Medina
We have looked forward to Marrakech with excitement, but also a little trepidation. We were excited to see something completely different from what we had experienced in the past including landscape, architecture, lifestyle, culture, food, religion, etc. I kept hearing in our Worldschoolers group on Facebook how amazing Morocco was and how much people loved the country. Also, how completely safe the country is. Our neighbour back home is from Marrakech and told us great things about it, as well.
As we got closer to coming, we weren’t sure what to expect. Hence where the trepidation came into play. At least half the people who we told we were coming here had already been told us to be prepared for a big culture shock, with one person telling me that he regularly saw goats’ heads on pikes around butcher shops. I’m not sure where that man was, but we have yet to see dead animal heads of any type on pikes. I was also told to be prepared to get lost in the streets. A lot. And after a week here in Marrakech, we haven’t gotten lost once yet. I will definitely agree that the streets are a bit of a maze, running in all kinds of random directions and oftentimes dead ends, but the city has been remarkably easy to navigate around so far.
We are so grateful we ignored those feelings of trepidation and went ahead and came here to experience Morocco for ourselves. We have been here a week now, and it has been an amazing experience so far! We are staying in a traditional private riad in the medina (medina basically just means city centre, it’s the area within the original walls around the city). The medina seems like a giant, never-ending market and, amazingly, so many shops selling the same items can thrive here, but it seems that they do!
Marrakech seems like such a happy and friendly place. It’s definitely bustling here, and that can be overwhelming to us at times since we are low-key, low-crowd people. But we have found that if we avoid the main square of Jemma El Fna at night, most of the bustle is reasonable. We have, of course, been there and done that to experience it, but we are happy to steer clear of that square at night going forward. We also learned from one of our local tour hosts that while this is typically high season, the city has been extremely quiet and tourism has dropped off almost completely in the past few months. So we may be fortunate in our timing to come when the city is quieter than normal. She was attributing it to the September earthquake and possibly the Gaza conflict as a contributing cause.
Our riad is tucked into a quiet, dead-end street and has the most amazing rooftop patio to relax and unwind away from the crowds when we need a break from the busy streets. I think it’s our favourite part of our riad, and riads in general. There are so many amazing restaurants with rooftop terraces, as well. Perfect to stop for a drink and relax when you’re tired from all the walking! While I’m not normally a fan of flat roofs back in Canada, our time in Spain and now Morocco makes me want a house with a rooftop patio back home!
Reading this to my children, I have been seriously reprimanded for not considering Blossom the most amazing part of our riad. Blossom is a cute, sweet, loving grey street kitty who has become seriously attached to our girls since we got here. They are utterly devoted to that cat and try to spend every second we are at the riad with her!
While we love walking through the markets and looking around, we ultimately have no intentions of buying much. Other than replacing clothing items and buying our asiatico cups in Cartagena, we are not buying much this year as we are trying to keep our luggage light. But we have indulged in buying a few spices and incense from the local spice merchants.
One of my favourite parts of walking around the medina is how incredible it smells here. You can’t walk more than 30-60 seconds without passing a spice merchant. And many of them are burning incense in front of the shop. It smells heavenly!
Anyone who knows us will know that one of our biggest passions in life is FOOD! We love good food, and Morocco has the most amazing cuisine. We cannot get enough of it. Wow. The foods have amazing spices and flavours, but there is no such thing as spicy (hot) food here that we have seen. Almost everywhere, we have focused a lot of our time on cooking and baking at home, minimizing our time in restaurants. In part because Jon loves to cook, but also to keep within our budget so we don’t go broke while we are away for 14 months.
Morocco has been an exception for a few reasons. Our kitchen isn’t very well supplied here for cooking much, eating out here is extremely affordable if you look in the right places, and the foods are so varied and elaborate and we want to try all the amazing cuisine options. We make the odd meal here but generally are eating out for most meals. However, we don’t feel too guilty about it. Yesterday we ate out for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and stopped at a café for an afternoon coffee and fresh juices for the girls. And even while stuffing ourselves with all our meals, we still didn’t manage to hit our daily budget of $75 for food and entertainment! As per our travel motto, we always trust the locals! We find the restaurants just off the beaten track full of locals but with few (if any) tourists inside.
For breakfast, we have been eating tons of amazing bread, eggs with khili (beef confit), fresh fruits, freshly squeezed juices, Moroccan teas, delicious coffees, and my personal favourite msemen (reminds me of a cross between naan bread and crepe). There have been other things we have tried, including a Moroccan soup, various condiments like the traditional amlou, these cookie-type biscuits (harcha), and other more traditional North American foods.
For lunches and dinners, we have been eating quite a variety, but most often go for the tajines (such a wide variety! Chicken, veg, meat and egg, meatball, etc), beef tanjia (slow cooked and falling apart, it’s to die for! Probably our favourite food we have tried here), skewers/kabobs (chicken, sausage, beef, veg), shawarma, Moroccan salad (kind of reminds me of Greek salad minus the feta), pita sandwiches, and burgers. We also occasionally get couscous dishes, though they are not the girls’ fave so we don’t get them as often, quinoa salads, and tried a pizza once (apparently Berber pizzas are a big thing here!). There have been a few other one-offs, as well. So ya, in the past week we have been here, we have definitely tried a lot already, but there’s still so much more to try! Jon’s been eyeing up a traditional pastilla dish for a while but hasn’t gotten around to trying it yet!
We took a local cooking class and learned how to make seven dishes. But that day will get its own dedicated blog post. It was a very full and fulfilling day for all of us! In general, we rarely do tours or touristy things, but again have made some exceptions here. Some of those have happened, others are yet to come, but all deserve their own blog post. So stay tuned! We want to be able to experience and understand as much of the culture as possible here in only three weeks, which means that we will do more experiences to better learn, understand, and experience Moroccan culture.
I’m sure that most people have heard both Jon and I refer to him as the reluctant traveller. I adore all things travel and are always excited to research new adventures, places to explore, and experiences to have. I can be pretty random and jump at the chance to try new places and experiences on a whim. Jon, in contrast, is a cautious planner type (not just in travel, but in general) who likes to know more about what he’s getting into. He also loves to travel and always reluctantly indulges my travel whims, and in the end, we both have the most amazing time together. Hence why we both refer to him as the reluctant traveller. And he was most definitely reluctant about Morocco after we started having people tell us, “Do you know what you’re getting into?” But, he knew how much I wanted to come here, indulged my random whim, and here we are, having the time of our lives with no regrets at all!
