10 August 2006: I opened my eyes and I check the watch. The time is 09:15am. I went out to the balcony. I noticed that everything was quite. I was thinking what time people here go their jobs. After 1-1.5 hours Ploumisti woke up and while we were discussing about yesterday the subject changed to what time it is. Ploumisti told me that it is 09:30am while me I was thinking that it is 10:30am. I realized that I hadn’t changed my clock from Greece. I changed the time in my laptop by changing the time zone and I realized that Ploumisti was right. I had woken up since 07:00am.
At 10:00o’ clock – Morocco time- we started our walk to find a cafe at the Djemaa-el-Fna square that the tourist guide was mentioned it as cheap and good. The cafe is called "cafe Glacier". We found a table and after a while we were enjoying the food, coffee, mint tea, orange juice and croissant. After we finished our food we started our walk towards Marrakech museum. I feel that things here are better. The alleys are bigger and the store managers just said “Good morning come inside to take a look”. We did not find any suspicious tourist guide.
We passed through the stores which were selling different kind of things such as babouche (slippers made by skin), jewellery and food. In the market you can find anything you want and in big quantities. This medina is different than the one in Fes. I believe that Marrakech is the trade centre while Fes tries to keep its traditional character without following the development. Although Marrakech attracts many people it is been kept clean and tide.
Even the transportation at streets is better than Fes. However, there are some scooter drivers which although they were their helmet they do not have plates. These drivers are also driving inside the alleys which it is very danger. I do not thing that they care about the pedestrians.
By continuing our wandering we finally arrived at the museum. At the entrance we paid for 3 sights (Mosque Ali ben Youssef, Medersa Ali ben Youssef, Koubba Ba’adyin). The first one is the biggest temple which was reconstructed at 1997 after it was damaged by local wars between the tribes and now operates as a museum. The main hall is magnificent and you can sit there many hours. The place is quiet, with relaxing music and sofas that you can sit and relax. There are many photos taken some years before showing Medina, Marrakech and other cities. The second sight has to do with the theologian school (medersa). At the interior there is a big yard and around it the students cells. At this school used to study 900 people. We saw some rooms and I believe that the term cell describes them accurately. This building is much bigger than the other ones and many cells are based around 7 small yards. Finally, the third sight is the Koubba Ba’adyin. This building was first created to be used as public baths but it never did. At this place there are photos from the excavations.
After a few sights we decided to go back to the main square. We are moving south in one of the main streets which leads to the square. We wanted to drink our coffee in a cafe which has a balcony. The view from there doesn’t say much but the environment is good. Ploumisti decided to try a Morocco bath (hamam). From the hardcopy guide we found the Dar-el-Bacha baths located near the Koutoubia Square. At this specific time of day it is used only by women. I left Ploumisti t enjoy it and I returned to the Hotel.
After one and a half hour she returned also to the hotel, fully refreshed. The first thing that she told me is that she wanted to go for more. At 10:00o clock we went for dinner. We were informed by a friend-Christos- for a store called Fast Food al-Ahbab. They create very good kebob but you might have to wait. Luckily for us we found table without waiting. The food was good but not excellent for me.
After we finished our food we were trying to find a cafe that we saw in the guide. Unfortunately for us it had changed its name and no one was sitting to it. So we returned to the main square Djemaa-el-Fna to seat to one of the cafe that had rooftop.
At 12:00pm we returned to the hotel. The tomorrow’s day schedule includes a visit to the coastal town Essaouira which is located 175km away and it will be the lower-south place that we went on this trip