Marrakech

In the middle of January, we took our first trip of the new year to Morocco. We had bought the tickets in November when Ryanair was having a sale on their already ridiculous prices, and we got roundtrip tickets for the 2.5 hour flight for 48€ per person! There were four of us - AJ, Melanie, Jenny and me, the same group that had gone to La Rioja together in October - and we were all really excited about going to Africa and seeing a country that is so different from anything we'd seen before. Plus, we liked the 60°-weather we were seeing on the forecast - a welcome change from the frigid European winter! If you don't want to (or have time to) read everything I've written, you can skip to the end of this post and watch the video montage I made of our trip!

Introduction

Morocco is truly a different world for someone accustomed to Europe or the US - or at least we found it to be! Although it is in Africa, there is a big divide between "North Africa" (Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria, Libya, Egypt) and the rest of the continent. Morocco is a Muslim nation with Arabic (albeit a Berber dialect that is quite different from the "classical" Arabic of countries like Saudi Arabia) and French as its main languages.

Arabic stop sign and the minaret of the main mosque

And yet, it isn't all crazy and new. Much of the architecture in the south of Spain is actually quite similar to the architecture in countries like Morocco. As you probably already know, this is because Spain used to be ruled by the Berber tribes of North Africa, who sailed across the strait of Gibraltar in 711 CE and controlled most of the Iberian Peninsula for several centuries.

Seville cathedral and Marrakech mosque

As Morocco is a relatively poor country, we noticed wear and tear throughout the city much more than in most western European countries: the streets were often muddy, unpaved and dirty, the buildings old and dilapidated, the mosques and museums in a mild state of disrepair. However, this did give the city a certain charm and personality.

A timeworn street in Marrakech

In spite of its "rough around the edges" character, I found Marrakech to be a very lovely place. In my opinion, it is a city whose beauty lies in its details, in its special touches. The best example I have photos of are the gorgeously ornate doors that we would come across every now and then while walking through the streets, but I also found so much artistry and grace in the tiniest of details, from a carefully carved molding on an archway to a brightly-colored tile design on a light switch.

Beautiful doors in Marrakech

Part of this, I think, goes along with the general trend to concentrate decoration on the interiors of houses and public buildings rather than on the exteriors. Most Moroccan houses are built around a central courtyard, and provide a sort of haven from the hectic, dirty city outside the front door. Partially for this reason, I also found Marrakech to be a city of contrasts - part of the experience is getting out in the fray and pushing your way through the crowded streets, trying not to get run down by motorcycles - but equally important are the quiet, peaceful moments spent sipping tea and relaxing in the interior oases of restaurants and riads.

Djemaa el-Fna, the main square of Marrakech

And, indeed, as soon as you step outside you get swept up into the whirlwind. We found Marrakech to be an incredibly vibrant and lively place, if not also a bit chaotic and stressful: every time we walked through the streets, we were jostling with men and women in traditional clothing, other tourists like ourselves, cars, motorcycles and even donkeys! Whenever we went through Djemaa el-Fna, the main square - especially at night - it was completely packed with people, lots of them shouting at you and hassling you, trying desperately (and annoyingly) to sell you food, others telling stories or doing all sorts of creative street performing, and others just out to take a turn and soak up some of the energy of the city.

So, without further ado I'll begin my account of all the awesome things we managed to squeeze in to our extremely short stay in Marrakech.

The Riad

When doing some research to find out things we should do, I stumbled upon a blog about "The Best Riads in Marrakech." Without having any clue what a riad was, I opened the page. I quickly found out that riad comes from the Arabic word for garden and is used in Morocco to refer to any traditional Moroccan house or palace having a patio and/or garden in the center. I realized that, nowadays, they were basically like bed-and-breakfasts, traditional old houses that had been converted into hotels. I also discovered that they were quite cheap, so I messaged my friends to see if they'd be down and we decided to stay in one!

Our beautiful riad

Without a doubt, it was one of the best parts of our trip! The riad was owned by an Italian lady who bought and renovated the building as an investment, and it was managed by several locals. They arranged an airport pickup and met us with delicious tea when we arrived, even though our flight was quite late. As you can see, the decorations inside were beautiful and it was extremely cozy and comfortable. It even included a yummy, plentiful breakfast each morning on the rooftop terrace. The staff were so nice and friendly that we wound up befriending them and still keep in touch on Facebook! Given what I already mentioned about the frenetic nature of the city, the riad provided the perfect place to come back and recoup after a long day out and about.

Our new friends at the riad

The Jardin Majorelle

The first stop on our itinerary and one of the top tourist attractions in Marrakech was the elegant Jardin Majorelle, a botanical garden designed by the French artist Jacques Majorelle in the 1920s and 30s when Morocco was under French rule. It was later bought by the famous French designer Yves Saint-Laurent and finally opened to the public. Its striking blue walls and quirky cacti made it a whimsical and wondrous place to explore, and an inspiring place to take lots of silly photos!

The beautiful Jardin Majorelle

Amal Center

After exploring the Jardin, we headed to a very special place for lunch - the Amal Women's Training Center and Moroccan Restaurant (or, more casually, Amal Center). This incredible place trains disenfranchised women to develop skills to help them obtain jobs; in turn, the food they make is sold at the restaurant as their "payment" for this training. As soon as I read about this place while doing research, I knew we had to go! As we are all feminists and lovers of local cuisine, we couldn't have possibly imagined a more perfect place to feed ourselves cheap, delicious food while also helping a cause that we strongly support!

Delicious food at Amal Center

Museum of Marrakech

Our next stop was the Museum of Marrakech. The museum itself, which recounted the history of the city with rather lackluster plaques and displays, was not very interesting, but the building it was housed in was superb! It was built as a palace at the end of the 19th century and then restored and converted into a museum later in the 20th century. This was the first of many examples we saw of the ornate North African architectural and decorative style, an aesthetic that I personally am crazy about. Every room featured intricate tile work and rich woodcarving, with so much attention to minute details that it was impossible to fully take in, and much less to capture on camera. This style of architecture actually has quite a lot in common with the south of Spain, which as I mentioned used to be under the same empire as Morocco and the rest of North Africa.

Museum of Marrakech

Medersa Ben Youssef

Just around the corner from the museum was the Medersa Ben Youssef, one of the oldest educational institutions in the city. Originally attached to the Ben Youssef Mosque, it was founded in the 14th century and rebuilt in the 1550's. It had been non-operational for many years when it was converted into a museum in the 20th century. The inside was eerily empty, with no pictures, furniture or even people (granted, we were there in the off-season), and there were also no signs forbidding touching or walking on certain parts of the building. It made us wonder a bit about Morocco's approach to preservation and museumification, but the wood- and tile-work were truly exquisite!

Medersa Ben Youssef

Marrakech Henna Art Café

Our friend Melanie had been really set on getting a henna tattoo while in Morocco, so in the evening when it was too dark and cold to continue sightseeing, but too early to eat dinner, we happened upon the Marrakech Henna Art café and decided it was the perfect way to kill some time. In the end, two more friends also decided to get tattoos after seeing how beautiful Melanie's turned out.

Teresa, the Henna artist

The Henna artist was a Berber woman from a desert tribe who had moved to Marrakech to work, and she was extremely skilled. However, the owner of the café was actually American! Like the Italian owner of our riad, she is part of a wave of immigrants - mostly from America and Europe - who have been coming to Morocco to start up businesses. The insanely cheap rent and high demand created by tourism provide a perfect storm for investors and entrepreneurs. It was fun talking to her, and after all the henna was done she dressed me and my roommate up in "traditional" Moroccan outfits so we could take some funny pictures in front of their lovely murals.

Henna Café

After the henna café, we ended the first day with yet another delicious meal in the Earth Café, a vegetarian place that had an eclectic menu full of healthy and fantastic dishes! As most things in Morocco were quite cheap, we also treated ourselves to fresh juice. Yum! It was a perfect ending to a great first day exploring Marrakech.

Delicious dinner at Earth Café

Maison de la Photographie

Our second day began with a visit to the Marrakech Photography Museum, officially called the Maison de la Photographie. Their collection mostly documented traditional Moroccan clothing, customs and culture, as well as including  many pictures of Marrakech and other Moroccan cities from the early 1900's. These were fascinating because many parts of the city did not seem to have changed at all, in spite of one hundred years having passed!

Contemplating the photos

The markets still looked exactly like this!

While the collection was interesting, the real highlight of the museum was its rooftop café with incredible views of the city and the Atlas Mountains in the background.

Panoramic view from the Photography Museum rooftop

The Souks

Perhaps one of the most famous tourist attractions in Marrakech are the endless narrow, winding streets of the labyrinth-like markets, known as "souks" in Arabic. These markets sell everything from spices to handbags to tea pots to clothes to lamps and home decor, and much, much more! Walking through them is also quite an experience, as they are seemingly infinite, with countless tiny alleys twisting and winding off the already narrow "main" lanes. Like the main square, all of the shop owners shout at and heckle you in a variety of languages, trying to convince you to come and haggle for their wares. We didn't get many great pictures because we felt uncomfortable photographing, but you can see a sneaky video we caught in the montage at the end of this post!

A beautiful souk stall selling sandals

Palais el Badi

After exploring the souks, we headed to the Badi Palace, whose name means "The Incomparable." It was built by a Saadian sultan in the late 1500's, funded by the spoils of a war against Portugal, and was a place of royal splendor until it was in turn ransacked by a different dynasty and its riches taken to a new Moroccan city. It is now little more than a ruined shell of its original glory, and once again made us skeptical of Morocco's approach to museumification, as there were no ropes or signs forbidding you from walking on old tiles or touching the crumbling walls of the building. There was also no attempt to provide interpretation or to repopulate the spaces. 

Badi Palace

Café Clock

Our trip ended with a bang - or more specifically, a lot of aggressive clapping - at a traditional music concert in Café Clock. This trendy new café offers food, art and entertainment, and while it's geared mainly towards tourists and foreigners it still somehow maintains a feeling of authenticity. We found out that every Saturday and Sunday they have free concerts, so we decided to have dinner there and check out the show. It was an incredibly cozy place and we enjoyed having some tea and playing some card games while we waited for the show to start.

Enjoying tea and scrumptious Moroccan sweets

We weren't really able to get any pictures of the concert, but we have some videos which you can see below. It was so much fun and so much more than just a concert: the men performing took turns singing, playing a bass-like instrument, clapping and using various other percussion instruments. Some of them also got up and danced from time to time. But the coolest part was that everyone was joining in: the waiters would sing along with a phrase as they carried trays of food past, or clap and dance along on their way back to the kitchen; some of the audience members who were apparently locals also joined in whenever they felt like it, and by the end they tried to get everyone to get up and dance and clap along! It was so much more interesting and engaging than a typical "traditional concert," where you simply sit passively; anyone and everyone was welcome and encouraged to participate whenever they wanted. It was an awesome way to end our trip, and probably one of my favorite things we did the whole time!

The Video

Inspired by a friend who had done something similar, we decided to take lots of silly videos and create a montage once we got back. Here's the final product, hope you enjoy!