The Souk Maze

This morning we woke up to the rather soothing, but barely audible sound of the morning prayer. We made our way to the roof to be greeted with a feast for breakfast: traditional pancakes, omelette, fresh bread, fresh orange juice and Moroccan pastries. Yum! The sun was shining and the air warm, like a perfect warm spring day (in December!). What better way to start our holiday?

After breakfast we entered the souks. They are a jumble of crowded, narrow,  cobbled streets with mopeds flying past, donkeys with their carts plodding and cats nonchalantly meandering between the crowds. The hustle and bustle of stalls and people coming and going in all directions makes the souks very disorientating.

With the steets covered over and because no map manages to name all the streets they are an impenetrable maze.

We soon learned that it was okay that we had no idea where we were or what direction we were going. We just decided to walk and take in the surroundings, stopping for strong coffee and the gorgeous fresh orange juice whenever our feet felt tired. With intuition (or sheer luck) we managed to find the main square with the tallest mosque in Marrakech. On the top stood, what looked like a gallows. In Morocco it is forbidden for a non-Muslim to enter a mosque so we were unable to look inside these magnificent buildings.

The garden surrounding the mosque was not much of a garden. It consisted of paved paths with a few bushes that looked desperate for water scattered around.

As we approached the main square we could see the same chaos as in the souks but with the addition of cars driving and horses trotting around.

In the square there were line upon line of stalls selling fresh orange juice and dried fruits such as dates, figs and apricots. I couldn't resist and bought a bag of dates and they are absolutely delicious!

Having walked around for several hours we decided to find somewhere to eat for lunch. We found a Riad in the heart of the souk. Up on the roof there was a wonderful view of the Atlas mountains and a sweet little fluffy ginger cat that just wanted a fuss. I named him "Fluffy"! :)

On the roof you'd never have known you were in the centre of the souk as the noise and the hustle and bustle of the streets was barely audible.

After lunch we decided to put our bartering skills to the test. Having spotted some things in the morning we sought them out in the souks. I decided to start ridicously low offering no more than 10% of the asking price. To my surprise they weren't offended and dropped their prices significantly. In general we found we paid no more than 20% of the original asking price.

Our feet were now tired so we tried to make our way back to our Riad. Unfortunately being okay about not knowing where you are is more of a problem when you are trying to specifically get somewhere.

At first we started confidently back into the souks but soon we became hopelessly lost. As we walked past youngsters they kept shouting "the square is the other way, there's nothing of interest that way" (in French). Given that we wanted to head in the opposite direction of the square this made us stride on more confidently in the direction we had chosen. Eventually we came to a road which was definitely not designed for tourists to go wandering down. There were metal workshops, wood workshops and other heavy noisy, industrial establishments lining the road. In amongst all this noise was an old man having a nap in the cart attached to his donkey! 

After walking along this for 5 mins or so we decided to turn back and head back towards the square to reorient ourselves. 

Our second attempt was more successful, working our way halfway back through the souks. We stopped for a drink in a little cafe on the edge of a square selling spices , herbs and baby reptiles. 

The cages were so tiny that the lizards had to lie on top of each other to fit and baby tortoises the size of golf balls clambered over each other with the hot afternoon sun blazing down on them.

Now knowing exactly where we were, the route back looked simple. We headed back into the souk but were immediately confronted with dividing paths. We took the first one with confidence but after a few more we grew more and more lost ending up in the north west corner of the souk, having started in the central south, and heading for the north east exit. 

Having now had enough of wandering for the day we found a guide who limped quickly in the direction of our Riad. Finally we were back to somewhere we recognised and made the remainder of the trip back to our Riad.

Finally back at the Riad we could put our feet up for an hour or so before entering the souks again, this time for dinner. When we got back in our room, all our tastefully scattered Christmas presents on the shelf had been neatly tidied and sorted according to wrapping paper colour and then size!

The route to our chosen restaurant looked simple: straight on from the main road. However as we had previously found nothing is simple in the souks, especially when the map is wrong. An hour later we gave up and using another guide we finally found the restaurant and sat on the rooftop overlooking the souks and mosques.

At 6.55 exactly the visible mosques started their evening call to prayer. They sounded amazing bombarding our ears with the chanting from all directions. 

Getting back to the Riad was much simpler, taking us less than 10 minutes! 

Tomorrow we've decided to go to the new town; less chance of getting lost!