Day 41

Sonofabitch, it’s over!

But I’ll write about the last couple of days anyway. I wandered around the Medina (the old part of the city, generally enclosed by an ancient city wall) in Marrakech looking for a cheap place to stay. I found a hotel just off the Jama’lfna square for 60DH a night, so I stayed there. I spent the next few hours wandering around on my own, and I understand now what Alan from Lisbon said about staying too long in Morocco. He told me it’s exhausting, and that staying more than a couple days was too much. When I was with Jamal and Mohamed, it was tiring walking around, sure, but certainly not exhausting. When I was by myself, I understood. I was constantly harassed from street vendors, restaurant owners, beggars, kids, homeless, taxi drivers, shoe shiners and anyone else who thought they might be able to get money off me. “Amigo! Amigo!” they shouted, thinking always that I was Spanish. “My friend, good deal for you!” There’s nothing you can say to make them stop, you just have to ignore them. But they’re so persistent, and as soon as one gives up, the next will start up.

The worst was when I was looking for dinner in Jama’lfna. Every chef shouts at you, and every waiter at every stand grabs your arm and shoves a menu in your face. And you know you’re going to get ripped off. I payed more for my own meal than what I payed for Jamal, Mohamed and myself the day before. It’s aggravating, and I honestly thought about going to McDonald’s; at least their prices are marked on a menu and you don’t have to negotiate the price.

After I ate and had enough of Jama’lfna, I met up with Ana. I went with her to her hostel (which was oddly more expensive than my hotel) and we smoked hookah and met some other travelers. That night we decided to go out and have a couple drinks. Marrakech is not big on drinking; technically Muslims aren’t allowed to drink any substance that harms the body, and Muslims make up 98% of the population. Of course, like any religion, there are many non-practicing Muslims who will gladly have a beer with you.

Out to the bars we went. We was comprised of Ana, Alex from Canada, Elisa from Brazil, Farid from Marrakech, and Alexandra from Poland. With Farid as our guide, we first stopped off at a genuine Moroccan establishment named, ‘British Pub.’ After that, we were in and out of three very expensive clubs, then finally settled on a dingy place crowded with prostitutes. Fun! The highlight of this night was playing soccer on the way home with an orange that had fallen from a tree.

The next day I was wondering around Marrakech (whose population is over 3 million) and bumped into Jamal and Mohamed (I think I should go to Vegas when I get back to the states). They helped me find a good place to get lunch, and I let Jamal pay with my money; again this was cheaper for all three of us, opposed to me paying for myself without my Moroccan guides assisting me. That reminds me of another interesting fact: CouchSurfing is more or less illegal in Morocco. When I stayed with Jamal, he was technically my guide (even though I didn’t pay him, nor did I meet him through a guide agency, and he is only a friend). Because he is my guide, he needs a specific license to show me around. If we were walking down the street and were stopped by a police officer, Jamal would be in trouble; for this reason I was not supposed to walk behind him, always side-by-side. That’s what Farid tells me anyway.

I took my RyanAir flight back to Barcelona that night. I met a Puerto Rican guy named Marcos when we were checking in for the flight, he was a nice guy. When we finally arrived in Barcelona, it was so late that Marcos offered me a place to sleep for the night. I gratefully accepted.

This morning I woke up and checked into Kabul, a hostel just off Las Ramblas in Barcelona. I wandered around Sagrada Familia today; this is one of Gaudi’s buildings; it’s amazing. I could spend a paragraph describing it, but frankly I just don’t feel like typing much more. Also, Barcelona is having it’s Carnival right now, which is a festival similar to Halloween. I’ll go out tonight and see what it’s like, but I’ve got an early flight tomorrow, and I’ve learned there’s nothing worse than flying with a hangover.

Oh, what’s that? It’s happy hour, huh? Two for one beers? OK then, gotta go =P