Marrakech

There are many faces of Marrakech.  The morning shows no traces of the frenzy 8 hours earlier.  The transformation is complete.  There's space to walk.  The square is empty without any structures and a lone man washes traces of the night away.   We walked out of the old medina to an upscale French part of town.  The French area, Gueliz, had fancy restaurants and artisan shops and those western companies that have deemed Marrakech a worthy investment, most notably KFC, Pizza Hut, and McDonald's.  

We hesitated but stopped for coffee at a street cafe.  The cafes are full of only men customers, which is confusing and feels awkward if you're a woman.  This particular cafe had one woman, which is why we felt comfortable to stop.  We chose the table next to hers.

Midday is hot.  We found a cold supermarket with air conditioner and cold drinks.  Then as an anthropological exercise we rested the afternoon away.  Ours included a retreat to one of the many gardens, Jardin Majorelle.  It is an enclosed green space with varieties of cactii and trees, a pond with lily pads, palm trees, hibiscus and bourganvillea.  It was quiet and smelled of jasmine.  Birds chirped in the background.  There was a small collection of the works of Yves Saint Loren.  It was all in all a perfect remedy for tired feet, heat, and chaos.

Then we headed to the souks (artisan markets) in the medina.  It was as expected, a maze of layers, and levels of stalls.  We wandered through to see what they had, but had no desire to haggle or buy, which meant we weren't there long.

Andrew fought off an aggressive snake charmer who tried to put a snake around his neck.  Then as we were standing at a stall drinking orange juice (the juice comes in a glass), Kristin got free henna from a woman because of her "beautiful eyes".  The free henna became you-give-me-present henna so we ran away.

We watched the Spain v Germany game with an enthusiastic Spanish crowd.  It was fun.  In Essaouria now.