“My Morocco”

TUESDAY

Arrival day. Started at a reasonable time in the morning, and arrived to the airport so early that I was the first one to cross the Schengen border in the airport. Anyway, I had time to enjoy the sun and start a new book.

The first leg took me to London Luton airport. Wizzair was a really nice experience; three hours later I was already there. The layover was just a little shy of two hours. Enough to get the luggage, drop it off at the Easyjet counter and go through the security check again. The only thing was that my bag was 2 kg too heavy for the Easyjet automated drop-off scale. So I had to take a bag out of it and put it in my backpack instead. First things first – Burger King – because I was starving already. After the meal, the boarding had already started, and I found my way to the next plane to take me to Marrakech in Morocco.

The plane was full and the only thing to note was a group of guys that went to have a birthday party in Morocco. The cabin crew should have known better that after selling them 2 litres of vodka, would come back and bite them in the ass. The guys got drunk and the cabin crew had a hard time keeping them seated when needed etc. But everything ended well (maybe not for these guys) and we arrived in Morocco in time. Going through the passport control went quickly. The first order of business was getting myself a local SIM card from Inwi. The second was to get money from my card to pay for it in cash.

In half an hour I had managed to do all that and went to look for my private driver, who had come to pick me up. Really nice guy and a pleasant service (welcomepickups.com). The only thing was that the hotel I had picked, was in the middle of Medina where the cars can’t enter. Only pedestrians and motorcycles. So I had to walk the last bit to my accommodation. I managed to get lost twice but finally found the right door and arrived safe and sound. Luckily, I already knew that I couldn’t rely on the locals to help me so I had to do it all by myself. The locals didn’t know that however and tried to make me lose my way on two occasions during this 200 metres of walking.

I stayed at Riad Alqimam. The room was quite nice as expected. On the top floor with a terrace and view over the city. But before I had a chance to enjoy it, I had to find some food. So, I went back to the winding alleyways in the Medina and looked for a place to get something quick. I wasn’t interested in spending time in some restaurants and opted to find something from the street vendors. I chose a place where some locals were queuing as well. I have to find out what the name of this food was but basically, it included bread filled with boiled potato, boiled egg, rice, ginger, pepper sauces and some other stuff. It was delicious and cost only 10 MAD or 1 EUR. I took it back to my terrace with the view and enjoyed it under the moonlight. Finished the book too.

DAY 1 – WEDNESDAY – MARRAKECH

Woke up before dawn and alarm clock to the sound of the morning prayer from a nearby mosque. Breakfast was at 8 AM and my tour of the day started at 9:30 from the Jamaa el Fna Square (or the big square as it is also known). It took me only like 10 minutes in the morning to walk there and twice as much in the evening when the streets were full of people and merchants.

It was a guided city walking tour (https://www.airbnb.com/experiences/909455). The guide’s name was Abdelilah (Abdo in short). Born and raised in Marrakech and a licensed tour guide by the Moroccan Ministry of Tourism. I was the only client so I got a private tour. The tour started in the famous Jemaa El Fna Square. This place is considered a UNESCO World Heritage site. After that, we went through Riad Zitoun Lakdim (16-century old neighbourhood) discussing local hammam culture and comparing these with saunas back home. The first site to visit was the Bahia Palace. This is a masterpiece of Moroccan architecture, it was built in the 19 century. The palace is lavishly decorated with Cedar wood ceilings, carved plaster, Moroccan traditional tilling and marble. All are in perfect symmetry and built according to Islam traditions. This place explained to me also very well what is the difference between different house types. In order to call it a riad a house needs a garden with trees/plants and a fountain in the middle of the courtyard. A dar is happy with just a fountain. There is a third type as well but I forgot the name. The entrance cost 70 MAD but it was well worth it. Then we went through some alleyways to visit Madrassa ben Yousef (a former Islamic university). It cost another 50 MAD to enter but the restoration work and architectural details there were incredible. Relating to that, my guide also explained to me that as Marrakech is under UNESCO heritage and is also called a red city, then even the shade of red colour on the houses is important when renovating them. Of course, not all houses follow that rule.

After that, we went to see other parts of the Souks, likewise, the blacksmiths, Souk of leather carpet makers and saw artisans make some beautiful things from wood, copper, leather etc. Carpets and stuff made of leather are something Morocco is famous for. As it was a private tour then I managed to take me also to a quality jewellery maker and bought a beautiful necklace with some earrings made of real stones and designed according to Tuareg traditions. All this needed some serious discussions over the price but we finally settled in the price range I was happy with. I really hope I didn’t get scammed too much. At the end of the tour, I invited the guide to have lunch with me at his favourite street food place. I had also a personal interest in that…to try a local place where tourists don’t go and eat something new and well made. He took me somewhere I would have never dared to go alone even though it was just next door to the Minaret de la Koutoubia in the city centre. The cost for chicken stew with bread and tea for two cost me only 32 MAD.

While eating I got a message from the next tour organizer, I was supposed to meet at 5 PM for a food tour. Apparently, they didn’t have enough people booked. It was just me. So they suggested I change the date to Friday. So I did. And had the rest of the day off.

In the evening I grabbed another potato-egg-burger-thingy from “my guy” around the corner and went to explore the big square again. When it was empty in the morning, during the day it hosts snake charmers and dancing monkeys. In the evening though it changes into an open-air food court. Row after a row of different food vendors. It was good to walk through it with a full stomach. I’m back up on my Riads rooftop terrace writing this chapter here and the lights went out. Just here and nowhere else. After a while, the lights came back but I didn’t mind the darkness one bit. Just me, a sky full of stars and a bunch of horny cats on neighbouring rooftops.

DAY 2 – THURSDAY – MARRAKECH

The first tour of the day was a cycling tour (pikalabikes.com). Luckily the starting point was really close and I had no trouble finding it. Arrived a little early but there were many people already waiting. As I understood, we were divided into groups based on the preferred language. Our English-speaking group of 8 ended up having at least fluent French speakers. So go figure. The bikes used were quite comfortable city bikes with three gears. After learning three hand signals for turning and stopping, we hit the road. Without any helmets or colourful vests. Now it’s probably a good time to explain the traffic laws of Morocco. Basically, there are driving lanes, traffic signs, crosswalks and roundabouts like everywhere in the world. They just are not operational. Meaning that people are driving like animals. There are animals on the road as well. Mostly chickens, cats and donkeys. The donkeys even have their own traffic sign so that they would know where they are not allowed to go with their carts in tow. And pedestrians are on the lowest level of the importance chain. Next are probably donkeys, then all sorts of bicycles, motorcycles etc, then the one Ferrari and then all the Dacias ever made. Dacia is probably the most popular car brand in Marrakech. The roads are narrow and go through the souks (or market areas) and are sometimes even somewhat paved. Going cycling through all of that was magic bordering madness. But somehow all of this works. Another wonder is that you almost don’t hear any car horns like in some countries across the Mediterranean. People are used to all the bicycles passing them while the motorcycles are passing the bicycles until there is a donkey on the way arguing with some cat about a chicken. Anyway, in two hours we drove along every imaginable type of road, made some stops, passed through the royal palace grounds without stopping (because this is not allowed), drove inside the Old Medina and also through the New Medina (where I saw the only Ferrari in Morocco) and arrived back safe and sound. Oh, I also saw where the storks go for a winter holiday. After returning the bikes, we were taken to the nearby cafeteria for refreshing cold drinks and sweets. I had already before decided to have lunch there as well, so I ordered my first Tajin of the Day, which happened to be a vegetarian one. It was delicious and so far the most expensive meal I had had here (60 MAD).

After returning to my Riad I realised that I had been on the wrong tour. It had been the right place, right time and right activity but another tour. Somehow nobody bothered to explain that there were probably two tours starting at the same time. The one I had booked was supposed to take me more outside of the city to see some palm groves and oases and be more off-road. Well, let’s say that everything happens for a reason and somehow, I needed what I got.

My second tour of the day started at 5PM. It was called “Dinner In Agafay Desert With Camel Ride With Sunset” (https://www.airbnb.com/experiences/2937111). It started with a drive into the desert about 45 minutes from the city centre. There were some 15 of us in the group and only three (including yours truly) had booked the camel ride. So, we were taken around about 15 minutes while the rest of the group waited. Then we were taken another few kilometres to the Alkamar Camp on the top of a hill where a restaurant tent was waiting with sweet tea and sunset. The sunset was just after 7PM and was really beautiful on this clear day colouring the desert and the Atlas Mountains in its golden glow. After the sunset, dinner was served. Everyone had to choose from different options (at least 3 or four main dishes) with some appetizers and fruit as dessert. I chose chicken with lemon and this was probably the best chicken I had ever eaten. The lemon and olives and everything just added perfectly to the taste of the well-cooked bird. The appetizers or side dishes included six types of vegetables – like potatoes, red beet, carrot, avocado and some other spicier stuff I didn’t recognize. The tables were set for two, but as I was travelling solo then I got the same amount of food as others had to share among themselves. I wasn’t complaining. The only annoying thing was the local musicians with their drums and monotonous singing. They just didn’t know when to stop. They were so loud and were moving from one table to another without missing a beat. It was just me probably because some other people were clearly enjoying them and even dancing along to the rhythm. I just wanted to escape into the moonlit night. But it was chilling outside. The deserts always are after the sun sets. The difference in temperature was colossal. Luckily there was a small fire outside where all the people were gathering for some warmth until the “mariachi” band finished and we could drive back to town. The Big Square was still busy with all the people, food and music but the streets of the Medina were already emptying with the stores closing, and merchants on the way home leaving piles of rubbish behind on the streets. It was my third day and I haven’t spotted a garbage bin yet anywhere in the public space. I will keep my eye out and report back when I see one.

DAY 3 – FRIDAY – ESSAOUIRA

I found a garbage bin. It was in Essaouira. In a small seaside resort town on the Atlantic coast. It’s 3 hours drive from Marrakech, so we started already at 8 AM (https://www.airbnb.com/experiences/3729703). There were a few stops on the way to stretch your legs and use the toilet. One of them was the same that all the tour companies use. So it was packed with minibuses. The highlight of the stop was however the local public transport in a form of old battered Renaults, Peugeots and other ugly old cars. I can’t imagine these would pass any technical inspection. But these are in active use transporting locals from small villages around the plains into the town centre and back.

The next stop was along the roadside in an Argan Oil Cooperative. It was only around 2004 when the women in Morocco got equal rights with men. The more active women are now allowed to form cooperatives and earn their own living, selling products made there from argan tree nuts. Different oils, lotions, creams etc. Quite expensive as well.

Just a little while after that you could first spot some big trees along the roadside full of goats. Yes, there were goats sitting on trees. Apparently, the goat farmers have “trained” the goats to climb trees and eat the leaves there or just look around. I’m not sure this requires some animal protection agency involvement or not. This morning however there were also police officers under each tree and they didn’t allow the goats to climb. The goat herders apparently didn’t know why the police were there. Maybe they wanted to climb the trees themselves.

We finally reached Essaouira around noon. The old town is quite small… just some parallel streets full of merchants as anywhere else. Selling the same crap nobody needs. Next to the old town was a small fishing port full of blue fishing vessels, fresh fish salesmen and a flock of seagulls. We were given some directions on where to go and what to see and the deadline when to come back to the bus. We were on our own. Our guide didn’t have the right licence to offer guiding service there in the town…that right was only for the local cultural guides. So, our guide was just offering transport service and went to listen to the local imam, who talked about gossiping on that particular day in the local mosque. Apparently gossiping is a big problem for Moroccan men…they seem to leave their homes in the morning, socialize and drink “Moroccan whiskey” (green tea with mint) all day long and gossip. Women do all the housework as men do not do them and watch Turkish soap operas on TV. The only thing men do at home is tea. And they do not make tea in the kitchen but on the table where it’s served. That they do it at least 7 times a day and drink it with a lot of sugar. It’s probably in their genes already as diabetes is almost non-existent in Morocco.

After walking through all the back streets and visiting the fortress along the city wall (where they filmed some parts of the Game of Thrones…it seems that GoT was filmed all over Europe) it was time to find some lunch. I opted to do that on one of the popular squares where I ordered the Menu du Jour, which included Moroccan soup (mainly lentils), fried squid with fries and a dessert. Now the thing to understand about desserts in Morocco is that it is not what you would expect. The dessert includes usually just fruit. In my case some oranges with spiced sauce. At the same time, they sell everywhere a staggering number of sweet cookies, cakes and biscuits. But these don’t qualify as desserts as these sweets are eaten with sweet tea seven times a day. But we’ll come back to the food later again.

After lunch, I stopped in an organic cafeteria to have some of this tea and use the time to charge my phone. I had another hour to kill before the bus was leaving. So, I decided to walk to the seaside. It was a beautiful sandy beach (awarded with a Blue Flag for good measure). There were not too many people there although it was clear skies and 18 degrees Celsius. It’s still winter for the locals and too cold. Some people were still swimming there in the ocean and I decided to try the water as well. The water wasn’t cold at all, similar to the summer temperatures back home. I even managed to find some ice cream while I waited for my feet to dry in the warm sand. The drive back took another 3 hours with one stop in the middle and we reached Marrakesh just after 8PM.

I wasn’t done yet. As a few days ago I had to postpone my food tour (https://www.airbnb.com/experiences/710571) to this evening, I had to meet the guide for that at 8:30 PM. Three other guys were participating and the host also brought another guide along. So, the six of us went to explore the food scene in the Medina. It was a nice concept to give an overview of the different meals of a local in 3 hours. If you have read (or seen the movies) Lord of the Rings or the Hobbit by Tolkien then you know the eating habits of these small creatures. The hobbits were always wondering why people didn’t understand their need for the second breakfast or luncheon for example. The Moroccans understand. Their first breakfast is a light soup with some bread with olive oil. Followed by the second breakfast a few hours later, which include usually pancakes with either cream cheese or jams or peanut butter or something similar. Around noon they have a snack. In our case in the form of blended fruits. Lunch is around 2PM and includes only meat. We had some skewers barbequed on hot coals and included chicken liver and some minced veal meat. Next, we had some chawarma, which is a popular Middle Eastern dish that originated in the Ottoman Empire, consisting of meat cut into thin slices, stacked in a cone-like shape, and roasted on a slowly-turning vertical rotisserie or spit. I believe this is what the locals consider dinner. In the next place, we shared some cakes among ourselves together with some delicious yoghurt with honey. Last but not least we went back to the big square to have some snails as dessert. This was definitely the most unique “dessert” I had ever had and not my first option for the last tasting of the night. This had probably something to do with the strong French influence Morocco had had in the past. Surprisingly all of this managed to stay down in my stomach and felt not so difficult at all. Maybe because we also had at least 3 cups of green tea during the tour to wash it all down. It was almost midnight when I finally took my ass back to my Riad. It had been a long day.

DAY 4 – SATURDAY – ATLAS MOUNTAINS

Time for another tour (https://www.airbnb.com/experiences/388245). This time to the Atlas mountains. The tour started at 8:30 so I managed to have my breakfast before that. Now I knew that I had had the “second breakfast of hobbits” every morning in the hotel including the different pancakes, cream cheese, jams etc. It was the same tour guide as the day before. This time he took us to his home village high up in the mountains. It was just an hour’s drive from Marrakesh with some stops on the way. We even followed the same beautiful mountain road that Tom Cruise used to ride his motorcycle in the Mission Impossible: Roque Nation movie. The first one was again in a local women’s cooperative. This was not as fancy as the one on the previous tour. But this time I was more ready to buy some stuff to help the local business as I knew the story already and I’m always for helping local entrepreneurs. The next stop was on a village market. This is the highlight of the local social scene. Nobody works on Saturday when there is a market happening. This is the place where the locals bring their chickens for sale and buy their weekly vegetables. And the gossip of course. Because all the buying and selling is done by men. No women participate in that.

After the market, we were taken to the village centre where all the Atlas Mountains hiking trips start. Some people take it really seriously and go for many days or even weeks. There is always someone who is also climbing the highest peak in North Africa, which is located nearby. Mount Toubkal is standing an impressive 4167 m tall. We didn’t have that ambition. Our goal was to climb up to the 2000-metre mark and have lunch there. The winding trail along the mountainside took us about 1,5 hours. At the beginning there I was surprised to hear some Estonian language and find a family with at least three small children walking there as well. The guide’s home was in the last village with a breathtaking view of the mountain range. It was a beautiful clear day but so high it was quite cold and still had some snow and ice along the route. There were many people around. Some going up and some down, looking at the cascades and waterfalls or just enjoying the scenery. The home-cooked meal included again Moroccan lentil soup (this time with some additional spices for good flavour), chicken tajin with a vegetarian option and a dessert in a form of some bananas and clementines bought from the village market before. After lunch, we had to walk back down the hill. Being a little slippery because of ice and mud made it a bit difficult, but everyone made it back safe and sound. The bus was waiting for us to take us back to Marrakesh by 5PM. This time I had the evening off. No more tours. Time well used for writing this here and watching the full moon rise over the city.

DAY 5 – SUNDAY – MARRAKECH

My last day in Marrakesh. The plan was to do the garden tour. Meaning visiting the few green oases in the city. The first in line was the Jardin Majorelle ca half an hour’s walk away. On the way there I passed another recommended Instagrammable site called the 7 Saints. It turned out to be a parking lot for taxis. So, if you are allergic to yellow Dacias then don’t go there. The garden turned out to be difficult to find. I managed to walk around it before I found the right entrance. With a lot of people queuing outside. Including some Estonians. This was apparently a really popular spot to visit. So, I bought a ticket online. The first available timeslot was 1,5 hours later. In the meantime, I decided to walk to the train station and see how it will look like the next morning. While I was there, I bought my ticket already beforehand so I wouldn’t have to wait in line with my luggage. The recommendation is to buy the ticket from the counter instead of online where they charge you twice the same amount. I had my first taxi experience on the way back to the Majorelle Gardens. No taxi meter so we agreed on 30 MAD (3 EUR) for the trip. The gardens are connected with the Yves Saint Laurent museum and look especially colourful and well-kept. I thought it would be bigger for the 150 MAD price tag but in the end, I believe it was a fair price for the beautiful photos and peace you can find there from the bustling city outside the garden walls.

I had some other sites marked in Google Maps, which I hadn’t had time to visit yet. Unfortunately, they were on the other side of Medina like 3+ km away. I opted to walk there anyway. While walking I passed through another park which seemed to be sponsored and connected with the Telecom Museum. On the way back to Riad I finally stepped into the Secret Garden, which I have passed every day at least twice. It’s basically two connected luxurious riads with a nice garden (not as nice as the Majorelle) and a correct Islamic layout. I had heard many people praising this garden, but really, I didn’t understand what the fuss was about. After lunch at my favourite potato-egg-rice place, I had a few hours of rest before my last tour in Marrakesh was to start (https://www.airbnb.com/experiences/3075544). It was a 2 hours long evening walking tour through the Medina. There was another Scottish-Irish couple on the tour. I somehow managed to start on the wrong foot with the guide. Something did bother me about him. It turned out that the problem was probably me. The guide managed to remain professional throughout the whole trip and managed to show me some places I hadn’t been to yet and details I didn’t know before. The tour ended with us being on the rooftop terrace with a view over Koutoubia Mosque and having tea. So in the end it was worth it.

DAY 6 – MONDAY – CASABLANCA

Time to check out from Marrakesh and move on to Casablanca. From Red City to White City. From inland to the Atlantic coast. From a city of 1,5 million to the biggest city in Morocco with 5 million inhabitants. But first I had to get a taxi to the train station. After negotiating the price – 70-50-60-40-50 – I reached the train station an hour before my scheduled departure. I had already bought my ticket so there was only to wait. The train’s 1^st class was quite full and I was apparently lucky to buy it a day before. The train ride to Casa Voyages took 2 hours and 40 minutes. So, enough time to start and finish a short story in my Kindle. The thing to note is that today’s password in the CodyCross game was Oasis. It was Casa Oasis station that I needed to avoid just before my real stop at Casa Voyages. The long line of red taxis (Dacias of course) waited for me already and one annoying taxi driver tried to lure me into his car. Before you let anyone take your suitcase or get into the taxi you need to negotiate the price. His offer was 120 MAD. My answer was to approach the other drivers and ask them who would take me. A nice older man agreed to take me to the hotel for 50 MAD, which I was happy with. The check-in to Hotel de Paris went quickly and by 1 PM I was already unpacking my suitcase. I had also booked an introductory tour (https://www.airbnb.com/experiences/1420846) in Casablanca by 3 PM. The guide however changed the time twice during the last 24 hours so it finally started at 2 PM from outside of McDonald’s restaurant. I was only happy to combine my lunch there with the tour. A man can eat only so much lentil soup and tajin for one trip. And I could ask the Big Mac in French, which is Le Big Mac (according to Pulp Fiction). It was a private tour just for me. As the Casablanca centre is quite small and the Medina is a fraction of what it was in Marrakesh then the tour didn’t take that long at all. We managed to cover a lot of ground in an hour. Through the Medina, the fort, by Rick’s Café (the fakest famous thing in all of Morocco), along the seaside to the Hassan II Mosque. We arrived there just after 3PM. As this is the only mosque in Morocco that let non-muslims in for a visit on certain timeslots, then I was really lucky to get there at that time. The time slot was from 3-4PM. So, the guide took me quickly to the entrance and left me there to buy the ticket and have a look at that amazing building. Built only recently compared to the Koutoubia Mosque (from 1147 AD), in 1993, it is the biggest active Mosque in Africa and the 7th biggest in the world with a capacity of 25 000 people indoors. Built on the water on the Atlantic coast is a feat of its own. There were a lot of people there already and it seemed that it was good that I arrived a little later. So, I didn’t have to wait in line or anything. The place is huge. It took me some time to locate the English-speaking guide. Even though it was a big group, it took me a while to get there. After putting our shoes back on, the guide took us also to downstairs to the Hammam area, where the ritual cleaning takes place. By 4 PM we were all standing outside in the sun again in awe of the magnificence of the building.

It was only like 2,5 km back to the hotel so I walked through neighbourhoods of all sorts. The contrast was huge as I was close to the city centre where my hotel was. But everything was much larger and airier and whiter than Marrakesh had been. I would even stretch the truth a little and say it was a bit cleaner…

DAY 7 – TUESDAY – RABAT

Didn’t sleep well at all. Was a little worried about how I would get to Rabat in time for the tour there (https://www.airbnb.com/experiences/4557538). The train network information is a bit confusing here and isn’t clear from which station which train to which direction and what time will go. So, I had an early breakfast and walked to the nearest train station – Casa Port. Another beautiful modern building. Seems that infrastructure investments here have included also train lines. The ticket machine didn’t cooperate with me, so I bought a ticket from the counter again. To my surprise, I was in the right station and there was a direct line to Rabat Ville station where I wanted to go anyway. The only thing to note was that the doors of the train closed just before I reached them and the electrical connection with the power line was turned off. Apparently, there was a crew shift on the train. When the new crew embarked and turned the engine on again, the train started to move. It stopped a moment later and opened its doors again but for a second there I was thinking “what a hell”. An hour’s train ride later I was in the administrative capital of Morocco called Rabat. It’s where the king lives (when he is not in his Marrakech palace) and where all the ministries and other administrative buildings are located. I was supposed to arrive by 10:15 and my tour was supposed to start at 11 AM. During the train ride, I got a message from the host that he had some urgent business to attend to and would be there by 11:30. It was fine by me. I had one thing I wanted to take care of here anyway and visit one site by myself. While doing that I actually saw a policeman trying to control the traffic by standing in the middle of the road and signalling with his hands. Brave guy.

By 11:15 I got back to the meeting point and texted my host that I had arrived and will have a snack in the café across the street. By 12 o’clock the host replied that he had now finished with his urgent business and will start to drive to the meeting place promptly. By 12:40 I let him know that this was getting ridiculous already. At 1PM I decided that enough is enough and went to explore the city by myself. I believe that waiting for two hours out of a four-hour-long trip for the host to arrive is more than accommodating. I understand that hosting only one person is not feasible enough but pulling a stunt like that is not nice. First, I walked through some souks in the old town out to the riverside. Then along the river to the nearby museum Kasbah of the Udayas. Walked through that and ended up on the Atlantic coast again next to the beach. On the left side was a huge cemetery and, in the distance, Phare de Rabat or the lighthouse. On my way back towards the city centre I decided to get some local food and opted for some fried sardines inside a large bread with different salads, spices and stuff I better not know. The “burger” was delicious as they always are. I ended up at the Gare de Rabat Ville again just before 3PM. As the train back to Casablanca was due at 3.05 and I felt like I had seen all that there was to see by myself, I bought the ticket and just made it for the train. By the way, the taxis in Rabat were blue.

Back in Casablanca, I went back to the souk in Medina to buy some gifts for my family back home. Ignoring the annoying ones and visiting some nicer stores I got an idea of what I was looking for. The prices are different everywhere so you really have to be ready to bargain and leave the stuff behind if you don’t like something. In the end, I believe I found a combination of clothes that I liked and the price was OK as well. Unfortunately, the guy didn’t have a card machine and I didn’t have enough dirhams or euros with me anymore. So, he took the garments bag and me in tow and we went through the winding streets of the souk to meet his friend with a card machine. The machine was out of paper of course but in the end, everything was done and I was on my way back to the hotel. Back in the hotel, I discovered that the cleaning staff had been cleaning my room while I was away and had “cleaned” away also half of the large pizza I had bought the day before and left for this evening to eat when I came back from the trip. The pizza was gone. You don’t mess with a man’s food. So I went to the reception and told them just that. They sent a man up to my room to see it themselves. I was wondering what there is to see when it’s not there but I played along. I took him to my room, pointed at the table and showed him clearly the place where the pizza wasn’t anymore. He understood, went back to the reception, took 50 MAD from the register and asked me which pizza I would like. In 15 minutes it was delivered to my room. Just in time it took me to take the shower and calm down again. I hope they didn’t spit into that because it was warm and delicious.