Ah, Marrakech!

What a city.  Do you know how big Marrakech is?  I don't but it's smaller than I expected.  It's like a town more than a city.  Just from the area, it seems like it's no bigger than Fort Atkinson--the city next to where I grew up.  Or maybe Watertown.  Certainly smaller than Jainesville.  Or maybe it's just my imagination.  When I visited my hometown, Elena teased me for not wanting to walk to Piggly Wiggly because it's clear on the other side of town.  In fact, it's like a 20 minute walk--not much further than my Seattle apartment to downtown Seattle which didn't even phase me.  Anyway, I am shocked by small Marrakech is.

Last night, we went to Marjane--the biggest hypermarket (hypermarché) in Marrakech.  We walked there and it was far enough that we passed 2 McDonald's to get there.  They even smell like McDonalds in the USA.  When we got close, it looked just like the area with the Carrefour in Lattes, France near Montpellier where we lived for almost 3 months.  There was the large Marjane, a large gas station, McDonalds, Celio*, United Colors of Benetton, Etam, and other stores.  We went in.  I was hoping for a little more AC, but at least there was a bit of AC.  It wasn't hot, but it wasn't refreshing.  The Cave du Vin was closed just like ACIMA.  I think it's a law that there can be no alcohol sales after 8pm.  Actually, Wisconsin is not much different.  But there, they want you to go out to the local watering holes if you want a tipple.  In Marrakech, they want to keep you in line morally.

After we left the Marjane store proper and entered back into the "mall area" we stopped at the McDonalds express.  The lineup system is more free-for-all than orderly, but we eventually got to the front.  I tried to ask for a large Sprite in French.  But the girl didn't understand.  She was young (and cute) so maybe she didn't learn enough French--but she was eager to speak English.  And I'm never unwilling to speak in English to a cute girl who wants to speak English.  Elena and I shared the Sprite.

From outside, the Marjane looks huge, but once inside, it seems to only be half of a Carrefour.  And only a quarter, if that, of the Wal-Mart on the Madison beltline which my parents forced me to go to against my will.  Or I guess I should call it Walmart now since their squiggle is no longer part of their logo (and possibly their dance--did I read that on Slog or Metroblog Seattle?).

It was an interesting walk.  Again, we saw that one of three buildings seem to be under construction.  Wow!!! I've never seen so much construction.  Each city has a street called Hassan II and Mohammed V.  I think the current King of Morocco (whose name I am ignorantly unaware of) is on a building spree to try to guarantee his place in history.  Frankly, he seems to be overbuilding, but the population will eventually grow into all this new construction.  By the time his reign ends and his successor takes over, he'll be responsible for probably 2/3 of all buildings in Marrakech.  The main building material is this sort of orange concrete.  I guess the guts of the building is regular old portland cement based concrete, but almost of the of the buildings in Marrakech are orange.

Many of the large boulevard have a separate lane for, I guess, motorcycles.  There is a sidewalk on the side of the street and between the side walk and the real side of the street is another road level lane that motorcycles ride on.  The motorcycles are interesting.  They don't stop at red lights.  They may slow down a bit, but having a motorcycle sort of turns you more into an upgraded pedestrian than a downgraded car.  They just sort of do what pedestrians do and go where pedestrians go.  I think it's what the inventor of the Segway wants for the Segway--to make super-pedestrians rather than second class vehicles.  Many of the motorcycles are driven by women.  It's sort of interesting to see women in traditional dress riding motorcycles.  Actually I haven't seen a veiled woman riding one--just scarfed women.  Sometimes there are two on them.  There are many women here in the veil and scarf, but also many women in Western dress.  Though I think there were more in Fes as a percentage.  The highest percentage of women in less traditional dress was Casablanca around the Twin Center.

Thankfully the heat today wasn't too bad.  The weekend is supposed to be good.  We had originally planned to escape to the Atlantic sanctuary of Rabat, but upon weighing the pluses and minuses, Elena decided we should stay in Marrakech with or fridge rather than the temperate hotel rooms of Rabat.  I'd like to go to Rabat and get some more pages sewn into my passport, but I guess I have to do that a day later, if at all.  We'll see.