Marrakech! – part 2

The second day in Marrakech was sunny and warm(ish). It was what we’d *expected* for October in Morocco. The group had a “plan” for the day, which Jack and I promptly blew off! In reality, the tour organizers had stopped asking us if we were going to join in on the planned activities by this time in the trip, it made all our lives easier. 🙂 We got a taxi down to one of the “Palaces” in the medina to do some touristy stuff. We went to the ruined Badi (?) palace – not really for any particular reason (and we found out later, that the “modern” palace was far more interesting to visit), but the ruins seemed like a good thing at the time.

The walls of the palace had GIANORMOUS stork nests all over!

The footprint of the palace was huge, and the central courtyard was open to the sky. It was very serene, especially since it was in the middle of the old city. The quiet of the place was frequently shattered by the clacking of bills that the storks use for guarding territory and for displaying to their mates. It was a sound I’ll never forget. It was loud and simultaneously unEarthly and organic. Very odd.

From the palace, we walked thru the old city back towards the Djemma el Fna. Most of the rest of our day was spent in the market. We didn’t buy much, but we experienced it. The day was beautiful. The people were “colorful”. There were no plans to be kept. Jack took LOADS of pictures, we ate, we watched, we met a very nice English couple. The feel of the trip was right.

We didn’t stay in the market much past dark. We watched the food vendors stream in as dusk approached. The stalls got set up, the cooking smoke began wafting thru the air. We had dinner at one of the stalls before heading back to the hotel to pack. It was during dinner, at an aluminum picnic table covered with plastic, that IT happened for me.

Many people who emigrate, even temporarily, talk about THE MOMENT. This is the point in time when you realize you are not a tourist. You fully comprehend that you LIVE here. Granted, we weren’t LIVING in Marrakech. However, I went thru an emotional and visceral reaction at that table, as it sank in that “this”, the Middle East (and, YES, I know that Morocco is not the Middle East), northern Africa, NOT the United States, was now my home. I literally shook and convulsed and laughed and was afraid when this thought fully took hold in my brain. The relief that accompanies this realization is incredible. Afterwards, I felt comfortable. THIS IS HOME. It is good to have a home.

Our flight the next day was at 9am from Casablanca, so we had a long drive to get there on time. Not suprisingly, the wake-up call never came. When Jack and I got to the lobby, no-one was there, the lights were all off, the bus was nowhere to be found. We feared the worst, but *somehow* managed to make it to the airport without problems. Jack had to do all the wake-up calls at the hotel, but we made it to Casablanca airport in time for our flight. Of course, our flight didn’t leave on time. Or even close to on time. The one benefit of this delay was that we got a chance to discuss the trip and smarmy tour-guy with some of the students. We found out that we were not the only people with this impression of the trip. Sometimes outside confirmation of suspicions is a welcome thing.

The trip back (Casablanca to Madrid to Cairo) had its share of ups and downs, but we eventually made it back to Cairo safely. Jack and I had arranged for our own clearance and transportation back to the hostel. Even though the tour would have delivered us back, we wanted to make sure that WE were taken care of. This also allowed us to stop at the duty-free to “restock” our supplies.

All in all, after a rough start, it was a good trip. We learned quite a bit, the most important thing being, these school run tours are fine if you go into it with the attitude that – all it is is transportation and lodging, we’ll do what we want to do once we are there. When we realized that, the trip was excellent.