Marrakech

Another amazing weekend trip with Andrea (whatever am I going to do when she's moved back to the States permanently!). This time we headed to Morocco with her friend Mehdi (now my friend as well) to spend the weekend relaxing and soaking up the sun. Since it was 45 C almost the entire weekend I can't say we did too much sightseeing, but what I did see was pretty incredible.

Before I get to Marrakech though, I have to make a comment about the airport at Madrid. It may be one of the most beautiful, welcoming airport spaces I've ever been in. I actually didn't mind the fact that I had to spend almost three hours laying over. Apparently the airport terminal was designed by a guy named Richard Rogers who also designed London's Millennium Dome and the Centre Pompidou in Paris. He received a pretty major prize for the design and it's obvious why. I hardly felt like I was in an airport while I was there.

After that I flew to Marrakech from Madrid surrounded by a group of slightly intoxicated, definitely amiably rowdy Spaniards. And I have to say, having grown up listening to Spanish spoken by Latin Americans and Mexicans, you can definitely, absolutely tell the difference between Latinos speaking Spanish and Spaniards speaking Spanish. There is definitely a bit of a lisp with the Spaniards. But I do really like the language, I think once I master German (ha!), then Spanish will be next on the list.

My first thought when I saw Marrakech as the plane came in for the landing was how the desert must have pushed up from sand dunes into sandy buildings. The entire city is the same color as the desert around it except for a few patches of green where agriculture is being forced. It was beautiful with the sun setting over it. And hot. As soon as I walked off the plane onto the tarmac it was like walking into an oven. The passport control was semi-organized chaos with no pens for the declaration cards and no direction as to what line anyone was supposed to get into. But it ended quickly and I found myself walking out to Andrea and Mehdi's very warm welcome.

Thursday night was a pretty traditional Moroccan meal complete with soaring carved wooden ceilings and belly dancers! It brought into even sharper focus how ridiculous I must have looked when I attempted a belly dancing class almost 6 years ago. Somehow an American girl trying those moves looks crazy, but a Moroccan woman. . . .that's a totally different story. The food was unreal, tagine with slow roasted beef and an apricot chutney over couscous, a delicious pastry filled with seafood, and of course excellent company.

Friday and Saturday days we spent at a place called Nikki Beach, a very cool club/pool/bar place where they have DJs playing all day long, good drinks and food, and tennis courts. It was honestly so hot you couldn't really do much besides lounge by the pool, swim and have a drink but it was fantastic. Medhi, Andrea, Mehdi's friend Yasmina and I played tennis in the early evening (it was still scorchingly hot) which was fun. I think I've forgotten all those things I was supposed to have learned in tennis class, but no worries just because I can't serve anymore doesn't mean we couldn't get some decent volleys going.

Friday night we went to the Jemaa market which is a UNESCO World Heritage site. I had the most unbelievably sweet, refreshing and crisp orange juice I've ever tasted in my life. You drink a sip of this juice and I promise you it brings oranges to life on your tongue. Little bits of pulp pop open in your mouth and you just want to keep drinking it forever. I could have stood there all night and had orange juice but we moved on to have dinner too. I do think street food is my favorite type of dining. And here, Mehdi was telling me that they now have inspectors to make sure that things are sanitary. Delicious kebabs, fried aubergines and this amazing spicy red sauce that I don't know the name of. It was funny, Mehdi was instructing me on the proper way to eat the kebabs (with bread, some tomato sauce and this red pepper sauce). I love that aspect of traveling with locals from other countries. You learn so much more about the culture and the food and the people.

The market square itself is incredible. It must have been close to 11pm when we were there and the square was pulsing with groups of people. There were circles of locals standing around musicians singing, women offering henna applications, carnival type games where you had to get a ring around the top of a bottle of soda, snake charmers with wooden snakes, children selling flowers. . . . . it could have been the middle of the day if it hadn't been dark out. The smoke from the cooking stalls billowed out from the lights and there were rows of stands selling dried apricots, salted nuts, sugared nuts, chains of dried figs, dates. . . amazing and delicious. I could have spent days wandering around sampling foods, drinking orange juice and taking pictures, but we only had that night. Which means of course that I am going to go back just as soon as I can. And now I have several new friends that I can visit in Casablanca so that makes it even more fun for me.

At one point, Mehdi commented on the fact that Andrea, he and I were all sitting together, having a fantastic weekend and there we were a Catholic, a Muslim and a Jew. No worries, no conflicts, no stress. This is probably one of my favorite parts about traveling and living abroad.

So the last night in Marrakech was a night for the clubs. We went to this really fantastic club (actually a Marlboro sponsored club which was kind of cool because I got to see some of the work we'd done actually in a space). It was called Pacha. the DJ was pretty good, mostly electronic type music but some really nice stuff. I could have danced there till I had to get on the plane the next day, but somehow we made it home by 6am. Enough time for me to sleep a few hours, stumble out of bed, get Mehdi to stumble off the couch and head to the airport.

All in all a pretty spectacular weekend yet again.