"No Reservations" try Marrakesh

Anthony Bordane would most certainly tip his hat to us. Shortly after 6, just as the sun was setting, but before the Moroccan people could break fast (Ramadan)  it seemed as if hell was breaking loose in the Marrakesh Medina.  The beginning of the day was by no means was quiet, however we could not believe what was happening before our eyes, more importantly in a span of about 15 minutes.  Marrakesh’s Djemaa el-Fna (roughly the size of five football fields) which mainly housed Moroccan snake charmers, tourists, and a few local groups of Moroccan kids playing foot ball by day, was being infiltrated. We had heard that there were no rules in the medina but never expected what was going on in front of us. Carts driven by donkeys, 1987 Mercedes, motor bikes with far to many people on them, and rusty Isuzu trucks, came from all angles. This was followed by a lot of smoke, yelling, car horns, and banging, but when the smog cleared, tent after tent , row upon rows remained, and as our Lonely Planet explains it, this is “one of the world greatest spectacles.”  Surrounding this labyrinth of tents offering food from traditional lamb skewers to goat tagine, were sideshows, storytellers and guys dressed ridiculously who asked you to take a picture of them for some money.

            As we approached this manifestation of craziness, men in white coats, which was a step up from white boxer briefs, began approaching us and trying to convince us to eat at their stand.  Eventually after we shopped around and sat at who we though was the best salesman, (mainly because of his Obama pin, “random”) we began our first real Moroccan feast. In actuality there was no reason for them to even bring us menus because no matter what you order they bring you what they want. For example Derek doesn’t eat salad nor did I want salad that evening, so when we did not order it, we were surprised to receive not only salad but olives and some strange dipping sauce. We thought, this must be a language mistake, but when the same thing continued with the rest of our meal, repeating itself the next night, we learned, this was the way it was. Your crazy waiter sizes you up and picks what you will eat. This would have been a big deal, but since it only cost about 5 to 7 dollars each, it was all good. From salad, to soup, to fish, to meat, to chicken to mint tea we feasted trying some and not touching others. No body left hungry.

             After two days in Marrakesh and zero surfing thus far, we decided to head back down the coast and hope for some better waves. The German’s obviously came with.