Morocco

So today we got into Marrakesh Morocco. We took a night train from Tangier which was interesting. We met a lady with her family in the train station and her two girls were adorable. Her name was Malika and we talked about everything from our travels to religion. She didn't speak a lot of English so it was all fairly fragmented conversations. Her daughter :Haula looked very similar to Alicia when she was little. Malika kept insisting we come and stay with her but we politely declined since we are not planning on spending time in Tangier.

We lost track of time talking with her and my phone never accounted for the time change so we barely made our train. When we got to the room we booked we found that in one of the two remaining beds was an old creepy guy. Alicia dubbed that my bed and I had to go get new linens. They only gave me new sheets but o well we were already late so I didn't care. I took a sleeping pill and was instantly asleep.

We got into Marrakesh around 9 ish and went and changed and freshened up in the station bathroom. While it is ok that we dress how we do with a bit more modesty. most of the women are covered. Not in burkhas but everything but their faces. I feel very strong here and I know that sound terrible but I have so much opportunity and free will it is crazy. Definitely a learning experience being here.

So we took a taxi from the train station to where Anis lives. He is the person we are couch surfing with. We got a bit lost but finally found his place. He was worried because he slept through his alarm and thought he missed us but we were late any way.

We met his roomate who claimed he couldn't funtion till he had a cigarette. then Anis went to get stuff for breakfast as we unpacked a bit. He came back with eggs and bread. I told him I didn't eat eggs so he got out some salami stuff as well. He fried the eggs with cumin and salt and pepper. We ate the eggs, well they did, with our hand and the bred was just on the table. They put the eggs on separate plates though I'm sure if we hadn't been there they would have eaten them out of the pan.

Anis made us traditional Moroccan mint tea. You boil green tea leave and add fresh mint leaves directly then you add a ton of sugar. When you pour the tea it has to be from high levels because it helps mix the sugar and was so delicious. It is served out of little tiny glasses.

After breakfast Anis gave us some maps and Alicia and I headed off to explore town. We went to the Jardin Marjorelle first. It was really pretty and I have tons of pictures to show you all. We had lunch there in the most perfect little cafe the was misting us which was necessary because I forgot to mention Morocco is extremely warm. We had a salad and chicken tagine a typical Moroccan dish of chicken lemon confit and green olives. It was amazing.

Then we decided to keep trekking in the heat to find the souks. We got extremely lost in the Medina, the middle of the city where the souk is and found out most of it was closed today for prayer. We were lost in the back slums of this city and heckling has a whole new name here. Its no wonder the women wear coverings and Alicia and I were very covered, which sucked because it was so warm.

We finally gave in and just took a taxi to the main square where we were meeting Anis and his roommate later on. This was a lot better and there actually shops to look at. We bought some moroccan spices and I got a set of six little tea glasses which also function as shot glasses and candle holders haha.

We tried a fresh squeeze orange juice at one of the 30 stalls ha and it was good especially for 3 dirham which is like 50 cents. We got out time mixed up with when to meet Anis and ended up standing by the bank for a long time which was not ideal due to hecklers. Finally we found them and it was amazing how once we were with the boys all heckling stopped. It made me feel very safe.

I would like to take this time to mention that both boys have girlfriends and are very respectful. By this time the center was getting very packed with snake charmers, people with monkey, food stalls, tumblers, and other odd things. We actually found a man with a table of teeth making dentures.

The four of us went upstairs to a terrance and had a soda and watched it all. I felt very 1950's sipping my glass bottle soda from a straw. After ward Alicia and I offered to take the guys out for dinner as a thank you for letting us stay but they insisted on cooking. We went to the grocery store and got the makings for proper chicken tagine because I was told mine earlier was crap. I watched how this was done and think I can re create it especially since I have the spices. Matt would love this dish because it is full of whole green olives. We drank tinto de viranos which is a drink I discovered in spain. It is red wine, soda water, and limes. They are tasty.

We ate dinner from the pot with bread using out hands and a special method. I kept burning myself which they found funny. After dinner we drank and played cards they taught us a Moroccan game where if you lost you had to perform a task that was typically funny. Alicia had to try and flip a card over by blowing it off the floor, and had to put a key into a sprite bottle while it was tied to the back of her pants. Soo great.then we taught them spoons which they loved

Then they convinced Alicia to dance and then we compared music and I taught everyone to salsa which was great. They had some really funny stories and are really fun to be around. I am so glad we couch surfed here or else I would have hated it. Anis says he has people stay almost every week and has hosted 40 people since december. We finally got to sleep around 3 in the morning.

We slept in and just woke up around 10. We are going to have breakfast, go into town, and then watch Germany play Argentina. The boys just made breakfast, so nice and then we will head out.
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