Casablanca to Marrakech

We started the morning with a jaunt to the Pasteur Institute to get our yellow cards so we can go to Uganda. Success! It was crazy easy to get the vaccine and really cheap. Doc gave us malaria pill prescription as well. They have a very busy and active Covid swab center there as well.

Afterwards we loaded up our things and headed for the train station. It's about 3 hours to Marrekech. I was excited to see the landscape but the train was very lulling and I missed a bunch. It was also fragrant.... I will never complain about the surrey busses in the summer again.

We arrived and were picked up by Anwar who was lovely, thanks for sharing your friend, Sonya!

We got dropped near our place and had to slog through the old Medina to our riyad in the heart of it. It's a gorgeous tiny hotel in traditional style with 7 suites... to get there you weave through ancient mazes and passages full of hawkers and scooters and tourists and locals and food and cats and... there's just so much going on. And then you go through this huge front door and inside is a courtyard paradise.

We were greeted with cookies and juice ( all the fruits grow here

and the juice is really something else) and shown around. Our suite is insane... feels like a different world. 

A floor above is a cool pool and chill area looking down on the courtyard, and above that is a little gazebo with views of the whole Medina.

We napped through the midday swelter (it's high 30s here) then headed into the fray.. the characters are so outgoing. If you even think of food someone is pulling you toward a table. Kebabs and sweets and bread clothes and plants and knickknacks and electronics... It's what the richmond night market wishes it could be. 

a huge assortment of kebabs with the most delicious couscous and harrissa for dipping. 

The gentleman below taught me to barter.. he was hilarious. He got my money.The sweet man above decided to not pressure me and he also got money. He was so kind.

We ended high above a jazz bar sipping drinks from teapots and sneaking food to the adorable litter of kittens behind the hostess desk. I'll finish this one tomorrow as the internet is exactly what you'd expect for an area developed about 800 years ago.

If a kitty happens to come home with me it will be this guy. I've named him Felix.