Marrakesh Souk
We had a very interesting afternoon rambling around the market area of Marrakech today. It’s right in the centre of the city, which incidentally is the largest city in Morocco. The market is in two main sections. There is an outdoor section in a huge square, an absolutely enormous square, with restaurants all around and hawkers trying to sell odds and sods and bits and bobs and little ornaments and things.
Then there’s a whole network of little interconnecting lanes and they’re full of tiny shops selling almost everything you could think of. The majority are aimed at tourists but I guess there are some as well for the local people who need to purchase stuff. I didn’t buy anything except a fridge magnet. Don’t shame me or judge me.
We went in a taxi of about 10 or 12 of us at 12pm and 8 of us came back at 4pm so we had the whole afternoon there. I did a fair bit of rambling around but spent an hour or so sitting in pavement cafes and drinking mint tea. It comes in a small ornate silver teapot and is served in a little glass cup with an etched copper base to it. It’s really nice to sit in the heat and shade and sip hot mint tea. It’s very cooling.
The temperature was scorching. I didn’t check but it felt in the high twenties or early thirties. Way too hot to be outdoors really for a beige pinkish Irishman. Not that that stopped me. I had my hat and my technical shirt which protects me from the heat of the sun. It also keeps me cool in the hot weather.
Although I must have been in a hundred little markets like this all around the world, I still find it exciting as hell to be in one of these places and to see the locals interacting with each other and of course with us fatted calves; to be plucked and milked.
We got a taxi back to the campsite at 4:30 and arrived back around 5:00. We’ll be having dinner in in an hours time. There is an option to go back again to the night market which is apparently a very different experience. That will be at 7:00 p.m. . I haven’t made up my mind yet whether I want to go or not as I’m completely knackered now. I expect it’s because I’m dehydrated. So I’ll drink a litre or two of water and see how I feel after the main meal.
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