The first time I went to the Medina (the giant shopping area of Marrakech) I went with these awesome girls, on my 2nd day:
They are all exchange students from UC schools that and are spending a year in France-jealous! All of them were super nice and I hung out with them till they left that night. It was SO NICE to hang out with girls from America again, especially Californians who talked just like me!!
SHOES! I did not buy any, I am happy to report. I am sure my Mom is thrilled -when I went to Korea in 2010 I came back with 10 pairs of shoes- and I thought she was going to have a heart attack! :)
The 2nd time I really went shopping in the Medina was my last day. I was supposed to go to a cooking class which I was super excited for... But it fell thru at the last minute Literally at 1130 pm I got an email canceling. So that sucked because it was too late to figure out another day trip and I was kinda stuck with an extra day that I did not know what to do with .
SHOES! I did not buy any, I am happy to report. I am sure my Mom is thrilled -when I went to Korea in 2010 I came back with 10 pairs of shoes- and I thought she was going to have a heart attack! :)The 2nd time I really went shopping in the Medina was my last day. I was supposed to go to a cooking class which I was super excited for... But it fell thru at the last minute Literally at 1130 pm I got an email canceling. So that sucked because it was too late to figure out another day trip and I was kinda stuck with an extra day that I did not know what to do with .
To console myself I decided to go shopping-I had only bought a teapot, glasses & pillow covers at this point- and I really wanted some of the awesome bracelets I had seen. Some girls had told me they got 9 bracelets for 350 dirham (around $40 total, or 40 dirham a bracelet-about $5USD). But I wanted to to better: my goal was 20 dirham a bracket (about $2.50). My first step was finding someone to go bracelet shopping with me, and I hit the jackpot with a guy I had met briefly before named Martin. Why so awesome? Because Martin was an English guy...who spoke Arabic. Perfect!
According to everyone, speaking English will get you the worst prices, speaking French is better and speaking Arabic is the best. After luring him out into the Medina with me with promises of going to the tannery (which we never found) I quickly charmed him into negotiating for brackets for me. I don't think he minded, it actually ended up being pretty good fun (and I bought him lunch as a thank you!). I ended up getting 17 bracelets for about 300 dirham, which all my beat my original goal! (and absolutely beat the girls I had met, not that it's a competition... except that sometimes it kind of is.) The shop keepers lovvveeeddd that Martin spoke Arabic, I would assume its odd for a white guy to speak it? Just a guess :) And I think I got much better prices as a result-actually I know I did. And I spent an average of 17 dirham ($2) a bracelet, beating my goal an giving me a life time supply of bracelets... Martin, thank you! :) I'm pretty sure he had a good time since he told all the shop keepers we were married and I was his stingy wife!
Here are some pictures of the main square in Marrakech. It can be hard to take pictures because a lot of people do not like their picture to be taken OR will demand money if you take a picture of them, so I tried to be quick and discreet :)
Here are some pictures of the main square in Marrakech. It can be hard to take pictures because a lot of people do not like their picture to be taken OR will demand money if you take a picture of them, so I tried to be quick and discreet :)
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| see the man with the monkey? |
Snake charmers... they are EVERYWHERE. A girl told me she was walking and a guy put a snake around her neck and would not take it off till she paid him. The same thing gets done with monkeys.... Whenever I walked thru the main square I was so paranoid about this being done to me, but it never did, thank God. Also right after I took this picture, a bunch of guys came up and tried to get me to pay them, but I pretended like I didn't speak english (or spanish or french).
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