After a less than perfectly restful sleep, Elena woke me up. She had slept in the bedroom and I slept on a couch by the open window with the gauze curtain over the couch trapping the nice breeze between the window and the couch. Elena cracked up when she saw my construction, but I didn't wake up until she started talking to me.
We headed to the medina--the Place Jemma-El-Fna (no, that's not a typo--it's spelled "fna"). Leaving the part of town we were in, we passed an Aswak Assalam. It wasn't open yet, but we could see that it was a store--like a real store--groceries and household goods. And it is close to our place. A definite stop on our return. We found a park called Cyber Parc and suspected it has WiFi like some of the parks in Paris. Elena announced to me that she likes Marrakech. I was surprised. She usually starts out not liking stuff and takes time to like it. Something curious happened on the way. A guy on a motorcycle was at a corner. He tried to talk to us, telling us we works at a hotel and asking if we wanted to go to the Socco. We said we were on our way to the Socco. He took off on his motorbike in the opposite direction from us. We advanced another block toward the Jemma-El-Fna and at the next corner, there he was again. He motioned for us to turn left, saying there are carpets down there. We kept walking straight and he took off again in the opposite direction. it was quite bizarre. But that was the last we saw of him. We found the Jemma-El-Fna.
We wandered around a bit and stopped in a cafe to have a coffee. Then we went and got orange juice. There is a whole row of orange juicers, each like the next. They have glasses of OJ for 3 dh, lime juice for 10 dh, and grapefruit juice for 10 dh. We drank it. It was fresh squeezed and cold. Very refreshing. The guy pointed to his number "36" that was hanging behind him. Then I realized that all the orange juicers aren't quite identical--they all have different numbers. ;-)
We did a little shopping. Our first dip into the streets of the medina, a 20-ish man on a bicycle tried to give us advice as to where stuff was, but we were interested only in looking at stuff with guidance. Elena started to look at some blouses and the guy got off his bike and started to show stuff to her, but all that did was make us leave. The Routard guide warns of people who do this type of thing--they are after their cut as well. Elena did eventually buy some stuff at the one store that actually posted prices. Then after some masterful negotiating, she got a pair of "pantalon climatisée". Fortunately, the part of the medina under the covered part is cool in the morning. And the shopkeepers are not as aggressive as I thought they would be. Some are, but the larger part aren't. And some are downright apathetic.
After a morning of shopping we walked in a straight line until we hit the medina wall. We were just north of the main bus station. So I knew where we were and we were able to walk back. Stopping at the grocery store we discovered in the morning, Aswak Assalam. We got 93 dh worth of food including ice cream. But there were some things they didn't have. Their motto is "votre hypermarché" but in order to be "notre hypermarché" they gotta have beer and wine. This store doesn't. :-(
We made it home and had a nice lunch of bread, cheese (Vache qui rit or laughing cow), tomato/cucumber salad, and yogurt. Then Elena prepared ice cream. After our nice lunch, it was time for a midday siesta. It was getting hot. We connect the AC, but all it has is heat and fan. No actual AC. Still, the moving air was refreshing and it actually took us a while to figure out that it was wasn't chilled. That's the nice thing about dry heat.
I read my book and Elena fired up the CD player with some Orchestre national de Barbès.
Later I got a 5 liter water bottle for only 9 dh. Yay!!! I asked the guy at the store across the street from our apartment how much it costs and he pointed at the price on the label. Gee! The first honest merchant. Elena made a cabbage stew which was yummy. Then out to find the ACIMA store in the new town. We walked there and found it at about 8:20. It's like a local copy of Auchan. There was good news and bad news. The good news: they sell wine. The bad news: only until 8 pm. The rest of the store was open, though. We wandered around the new town and found lots of people and stores and cafes. Here I am in front of a fountain.
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