Pronounced: Mrrkesh.
Last weekend in Marrakech was an enjoyable one. We were there during the International Film Festival, so even more than regularly, it was swarming with tourists. This meant that 1) I realized I'm as annoyed by most tourists even when I'm a tourist as I am when I'm at home in Boston 2) harassment is worse where everyone is trying to make money off a tourist buck and 3) actually speaking a fair (conversational) amount of and being able to haggle in Darija meant we got better prices than tourists who spoke none.
While I did enjoy Marrakech, I can honestly say I wasn't that impressed. Don't get me wrong, there were some great things- the rose gardens were beautiful, as was Koutuobia mosque. The fresh orange juice everywhere was inexpensive and delicious (and safe, thanks to the hordes of tourists). But it was clean--too clean. The vender harassment was seriously terrible, and was one of the few things that got worse when we responded in Darija (still not sure why about that one). The medina was cool, but not remarkable by any means. It all felt a little too much like someone decided to make a marketable Morocco and fit it into a city, not like the real country I've come to know a little bit and love a lot.
I have pictures, but as I'm at home right now and they'll take approximately 47.378 hours to load, they will wait.
Hope everyone had a good week. I have 7 of 30 pages in term papers done. Whoo! (Bleh.)
Last weekend in Marrakech was an enjoyable one. We were there during the International Film Festival, so even more than regularly, it was swarming with tourists. This meant that 1) I realized I'm as annoyed by most tourists even when I'm a tourist as I am when I'm at home in Boston 2) harassment is worse where everyone is trying to make money off a tourist buck and 3) actually speaking a fair (conversational) amount of and being able to haggle in Darija meant we got better prices than tourists who spoke none.
While I did enjoy Marrakech, I can honestly say I wasn't that impressed. Don't get me wrong, there were some great things- the rose gardens were beautiful, as was Koutuobia mosque. The fresh orange juice everywhere was inexpensive and delicious (and safe, thanks to the hordes of tourists). But it was clean--too clean. The vender harassment was seriously terrible, and was one of the few things that got worse when we responded in Darija (still not sure why about that one). The medina was cool, but not remarkable by any means. It all felt a little too much like someone decided to make a marketable Morocco and fit it into a city, not like the real country I've come to know a little bit and love a lot.
I have pictures, but as I'm at home right now and they'll take approximately 47.378 hours to load, they will wait.
Hope everyone had a good week. I have 7 of 30 pages in term papers done. Whoo! (Bleh.)
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