The Muezin began again quite early with his daily work. But I didn’t care about that around 0600. Around 0730 I got up, after I had noticed how the English girls had gone away. I visited the roof terrace with nearly the same result as the day before, only the Italians were missing. So I took some pita bread and jam, not without consuming plenty of tea and cigarettes. Somehow nobody was awake at this time, although the hostel was quite well occupied. From the alleys I heard again the typical noise of the people, dealers and moped drivers. I went into the bathroom for a shower. This should be one of the few warm showers of the tour. Or at least permanently warm showers.
I also took some clothes with me, because I didn’t know what was going to happen. I hung the clothes on the roof terrace in bright sunshine. Then I went to the Jemaa to drink an orange juice. The freshly squeezed orange juice is simply unique and refreshing. However, like these people, I don’t want to squeeze hundreds of oranges every day by hand. The acid will already do its work with the hands. At the edge of the Jemaa I looked for a resaurant to really have breakfast. For 25 Dh there was coffee, omelette and flat bread. Besides, I watched some locals at a business talk/meeting in the same restaurant. Outside in the sun it was quite comfortable, but flies and bees were extremely annoying and wanted to constantly make fun of my coffee and my sweet pastries. I still had the 24 h bus round trip map and decided to take the tour outside the city and complete it with it.
But I didn’t go directly to the bus stop at Jemaa but went north through the medina to the north gate, where the bus station should be. The northern medina again had all kinds of food to offer, some of it needed getting used to like cattle halves, heads, wings etc.. At the north exit there was a large square. The view to the right resulted in some wooden stalls and the bus station, recognizable by the crowds and the many buses. I wanted to find out how to get to Essaouira. The evening before I had chosen this as my destination for the next day. So I went to the bus station, not without being constantly addressed. Later this should not happen again. But I stayed hard and went in the direction of the appropriate switch after I had a few minutes to have a look around.
The corresponding destinations had their own counters, depending on the company. The bus station looked a bit neglected by the way, but there was everything what one wishes as a traveller. But here you could already see clearly that the financially not so well placed travelers also travel here. Then at the counter I got a hand scribbled note with the time and the bus path of the departure against approx. 85 ie. I had some reservations. The note was half as big as a tram ticket and a quarter as thin. I didn’t really know if it would work, but it will. So I went the same way in the direction of Neustadt to the stop the day before. But this time I had to wait really long until the right bus came with the outside tour.
This time everything was already full upstairs, so I sat down in the air-conditioned area. The sun was already 25 degrees in the shade again. The speech system had again the same problem as the day before. I could not follow the whole simply. Sometimes it worked, but most of the time it didn’t. I never really saw what was spoken. That could have been much more interesting. What I still remember were the palm groves outside, and the fact that Marrakech is an oasis city that is kept alive by 700 km² of ancient fountains.
The wells and canals are buried under inconspicuous hills. Especially in the palm groves you can see them at every place. There were also the camels waiting, as I had baptized them. We continued through even more noble areas, where Hollywood stars and other celebrities could be built behind meter-high walls, villas and half palaces. Then came the golf course of Marrakesh, on which water was constantly sprayed. Of course, several small ponds were not to be missed. The bus drove then again to the stop in the Neustadt, where I then also took the way direction Medina.
The numerous western shops made me uncomfortable. After an info from the English women from the day before I got myself Marquise cigarettes. Those should be for 18 Dh the cheapest smokable cigarettes. I strolled a little bit through the medina and then went back to the hostel. This time there was a lively exchange going on. On the roof terrace the two Americans reported from their last party night which they had finished only about 0600. Two more Englishmen had arrived. Both looked as if they had just come from a party. Were they also as I later found out in conversation with them. They were at a party near England when they realized that they had booked a flight to M. weeks ago. Now they were there and tormented themselves on the roof terrace and didn’t really know where they were.
I walked through the medina again, but in the end it was the same at all corners. If I had had a lot of space to take home, one or the other dust catcher would have come home with me. But I didn’t feel like buying anything at such a tourispot. So I went on a bench in front of the Djemaa and watched the people. A short time later a little brawl with kung fu influences developed, which was probably caused by a bump with a bicycle. A small hike through the more crowded looking border areas didn’t result in anything new, at least nothing I could still remember.
Back at the hostel the new guests made themselves known. Among them were an Australian and an Australian, an older globetrotter with his wife and a Latvian. There was a lot of discussion about everything. A bit confusing were the three different English variants at one table: UK, USA and Australia. The older globetrotter told how different it was in the 60s, when there was no direct telephone and everything happened by ship. When you got into problems, it took a few weeks. We smoked another exclusive Shisha and I talked to the Latvian woman in detail, just about the country itself, because it was a bit unusual to meet someone from there in M.. She somehow didn’t feel safe on the streets and alleys outside.
I could well understand that, as I felt a bit queasy at first. But the whole thing is actually completely unfounded. The real danger is the same as at any tourispot. To be ripped off or maybe theft. You just have to pay a little attention. It is also not recommended to take your IPhone with you. She wanted the day after next to Essaouira, I the next. After that I should certainly continue, so we would not see each other again. After endless conversations we went to bed sometime around 0200.
