Marrakech

With a good nights sleep, we got up early to enjoy our hostels' included breakfast. It was actually really good. It was an omelet with a crepe, some sort of bread that was a little spongy but really good, and for desert, a little cinemon bun with honey on the side. I had two because I was hungry and it was really good. After breakfast, the three of us started walking around in the scorching heat. We made sure to bring lots of water with us. We started by walking to Kotoubia, which is a mosque pretty much right outside our hostel. The inside was closed, so we took some pictures and continued walking with no real destination in mind. We ended up in a market with no tourists around. We were the only ones there. I think it was the weekly farmers' market Aziz was telling us about. Even though it was cool to see what it looked like, it smelled like shit. They had raw meat hanging and raw fish just sitting in the sun. There was a lot of mouth breathing going on. I don't know how the locals don't get suck from eating this kind of stuff. At one point, it had been over an hour since we had seen any tourists, and we came across a group of young kids who were actually excited to see us. They were all waving and saying "bonjour" to us. It was pretty cool, actually. It felt like something I've seen in a movie before. After having enough of the crowded narrow streets, we decided to go to a tomb built for a king and his wife. It was another 45 minutes away, so we stopped to get some water and made our way over. When we got there, my water was almost empty and hot. It was almost like tea. To actually see the tomb, we had to wait almost an hour in line in the dirrect sun. Just as we were getting to the tomb, we realized you couldn't even go inside. We had to take pictures from behind a rope. So we waited for an hour for two minutes of pictures. To be fair, though, it was beautiful inside. It was full of shiny tiles decorated with fancy patterns. Even though it was beautiful, I don't know if it was worth it. Once we left, I needed more water desperately, so we went to a restaurant and sat in the shade for a while. We chatted with Billy for a while. He's got some really cool stories from being part of the American Navy. After some water and a beer, we wanted to go back to the hostel and get away from the sun for a while. We ended up in Madina Square, which is just a huge tourist trap. There are snake charmers charming cobras and shops to buy little souvenirs. The only thing we stopped for were pictures with some monkeys. We gave them 20 durhims, which is about €2 for some pictures which they happily took in exchange for all three of us to get a turn holding the monkeys. It was cool, but at the same time, I kind of think monkeys are gross, so I was a little uncomfortable touching them. When we were done with our photo shoot, Pearse started to pull out some more money for them for a small tip because he said they were really nice, and all of a sudden, they were flies on shit. They asked for 200 durhims from all 3 of us. That's €20. Yeah, right, buddy. I said I had no more money. The guy grabbed my wrist until I went in my pocket and pulled out a couple of coins to give him. I was saving that for another bottle of water. They unwillingly let us go after we all chipped in a bit of money. Maybe a lesion learned not to pull money out in front of street hustling vultures. Something I've learned from being in Morocco is that a lot of people do not care about personal space and will touch you and grab you for no reason. It was really uncomfortable. After the monkeys, we were thankfully only a few minutes from the hostel, I noticed I had a slight headache, so I wanted to buy some more water and do nothing. I had actually made plans to go get a tattoo with Bill in the evening, but when I sat down, my headache got so bad. I chugged my fourth 1.5L water bottle, but it didn't do anything for me. I tried to tough it out, but my vision started getting blury, and I started to get really nausious. I canceled on my tattoo plans and decided to buy another water and go lay down in my bed. When I laid down, I got so much more nausious, and my head felt like it was being crushed. I definitely think I had some heatstroke or something because I felt so shitty. I ended up falling asleep for a few hours. When I woke up, I felt a little better but still had a headache. I took my water up to the rooftop balcony where Pearse and Billy were sitting with the ladies from our room. I just sat there quietly, listening for about half an hour until they had to close the rooftop down for the night. I didn't have the energy to do anything else, so I said goodbye to Billy because he had to leave early the next morning and then went straight back to sleep. We convinced Billy to come up to Canada next year and come to visit because it was so easy for both Pearse and I to get along with him. He even told his girlfriend it felt like the three of us had been friends for years, so that was really cool. I look forward to meeting back up with him.Read more