Well, our flight from Madrid to Marrakech was delayed by over 3 hours due to bad weather in another region. The airline gave us free dinner, which was super nice. By now I have flown both RyanAir and EasyJet, and I would say that EasyJet has better service, more lenient weight restrictions, and more comfortable planes. Don’t discount RyanAir though, I found better deals with them. You get what you pay for!
So the exchange rate here is pretty much 10 (Moroccan Dirhams) to 1 (Euro). We got into Marrakech at about 9 p.m. We took a taxi (he charged us double…yet another learning experience…settle on price before you get in…I knew this but wasn’t thinking). The taxi driver seemed shady so we got out as soon as we could and just walked. Our hotel is right off the D’jma al Fna, or main plaza. This place is bustling! There are street vendors everywhere and tons and tons of people. A lot of people on motorcycles. I learned quickly to be cognizant of my surroundings so as not to get ran over by motorcycle, mule, horse carriage, car, or other pedestrians.
A man offered to show us where our hotel was. When he started leading us in the opposite direction and towards a dark street, we turned around and bolted. We stopped many times to ask for directions, and although there was a language barrier (French and Arabic are the official languages here) we managed to find the hotel. Although I know very little French, I think it helped being in Paris just a few days before.
We settled into the hotel to find our room had no windows or AC! Yikes. We ate dinner at a nice terrace café that overlooked the edge of the plaza and the bazaar. After dinner we walked around and browsed the shops. They sell everything from fake designer handbags, to shoes, beautiful lamps, Moroccan knives, rugs, inlaid wood boxes, and whatever else you can think of. There are also many stands that sell fresh squeezed orange juice. I am definitely going to try this tonight.
On another note, I had my first European haircut yesterday. I was going to get one in Paris, but they were closed when I got there. I ended up getting it at the Corte de Ingles in Madrid. This department store is equivalent to Nordstrom. Did I mention the interesting hairstyles in Spain? The younger and even up to 40 years old are donning the faux hawk combined with mullet look! Oh my my. I’ve seen many different combinations of this. I hope it doesn’t spread to the states. Hehehe.
This is actually tame - most of the hair I've seen have longer, full on mullets and fauz hawks, or weird shaved patterns with long hair...like over six inches. I'll try to get more pics of the Spanish hair!
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