marrakech escape

with the adventures of the summer of 2006 and 2007 a long equidistant memory and hope respectively, nays and i decided to escape these murky shores and abscond to the sunshine of southern morrocco for a last minute bit of winter sun. in a fortunate/unfortunate (depending how you look at it) twist of fate we flew out from gatwick on the morning of the first proper snowfall in years, so nothing short of 5 days of heat would suffice for someone who was thinking of sledging and snowballs (but not snobboarding - never). so we arrived in marrakech and were not dissapointed, stepping off the plane and feeling the heat immediatly. things were seeming intimidating for a while, with taxi drivers jostling for our business and people after money, camels lying on streetcorners and the strange free for all that was marrakech's excuse for a highway code. however, that was soon put to bed and replaced by a much greater and more important issue - how the hell do you get a beer in morrocco? the hotel had no license, the cafe's served coffee and soft drinks and the so called pubs were pretty much no go areas. we settled upon a little store that sold us some dusty beers and odd looking white wine and retired to the hotel room to re-group. the next few days were spent exploring the delights of the medina. within the city walls things changed, feeling like we had stepped back 100 years we explored markets, winding roads and tiny alleyways, pushed to one side to let donkeys and scooters pass, haggled and hustled ending up with perhaps a few too many morroccan lanterns, and retired to observe this madness over a jus d'orange overlooking the most enthralling show on earth, the daily drumbeat of the jeema el fna - snake charmers, dancing monkeys and all. we bought spices, a smelly leather bag and just generally indulged in the whole thing. by night this turned into a strange food market where we (probably wisely) avoided dining on anything from a snail to a sheeps head. the week went by and we stumbled upon a couple of amazing restaurants serving great food, and most importantly wine...and also manged to find a little hotel bar to drink in. marrakech is the kind of place that grows on you the longer you stay, to fly 3 hours and get 25 degree heat in february, yet snow capped mountains lurking ominously as a backdrop is amazing in itself, but the buzz, the sounds the smells all make for an unforgettable experience. back next year then.





catchphrases: "fish and chips", "lovely jubbly", "i give you asda price!"