Tangerine Dream – Adventures in Marrakech.

I was in the midst of planning a trip to Florence, Italy when a friend mentioned she might be going to Morocco and that was all it took for the idea of eating pasta and drinking wine to be put aside in favour of tagine and mint tea (please note – Italy is still very much on the cards at some point!). The last of the summer days in London flew by and while most other Londoners were preparing their coats for the oncoming autumn chill, I was preparing for the warm desert days I had ahead of me in Morocco.

Departure day finally arrived, upon landing we were greeted by a familiar scene that reminded me all too well of my time in India – airport chaos! Oh how I missed the wild days of trying to get through endless lines of pushing and shoving, people yelling for seemingly random reasons and the amazing but slightly terrifying feeling you get when entering a strange new country for the very first time. Two hours later with fresh passport stamps in hand we were finally stepping out of the airport, sadly it was 2am and Marrakech was in complete darkness but I didn’t care I knew an adventure was on the horizon! Luckily our pre-arranged ride was still waiting for us and it was only a short wild ride to reach Ryad Laarouss which was within the old city walls, otherwise known as the Medina. The Riad was definitely budget friendly, but for the price I was impressed! The rooms were clean, the location was pretty decent and there was a free breakfast included each day and wifi.

Waking bright and early the next morning I had one thing on my mind, climbing to the rooftop to catch my first glimpse of Marrakech in daylight. As I came up the final steps and caught sight of the beautiful tangerine colour that filled every space the eye could see I knew that Marrakech and I were going to get along just fine. There is just something so wonderful about the colouring of Morocco as a whole, the orange toned walls, the green cacti and plants that line the streets, the bright hand woven rugs, ceramics and spices that spill out of every stall. I’m a visual person and Morocco gets it so right.

When you first step out into the winding alleyways that make up the old city it can be slightly terrifying, the idea of getting lost certainly scared me but all I can say is forget your fears and get out there! The Medina isn’t nearly as big as you think so finding your way out if you do happen to end up lost is fairly easy. The only way to fully appreciate this city is by wandering and soaking up every aspect of life within Marrakech. The locals are friendly people and will only be too happy to tell you about their city and lives, keep you travellers intuition in check though as there are some that will take advantage of a trusting tourist (mostly in terms of ‘kindly’ showing you the way and then asking for money at the end! Resulting in some anger if you don’t pay up).

We spent about a two days of our total Moroccan trip in Marrakech (stay tuned for what we got up to the rest of the time!) and I feel like we managed to see a good chunk of the city in this time. There were a couple of things we didn’t get time for, three days would definitely be ample time here. Marrakech is beautiful and absolutely worth the visit, I am sure I will be seeing it again at some point as I am certainly not done with Morocco yet!

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