Betty's first day in Morocco: The Conclusion

We didn't get too adventurous for dinner. Our riyad (spelled riad or riyad) had booked us for a very expensive restaurant at 8pm. They said it had lots of atmosphere. We opted for a place that was just a little cheaper but overlooked the nightly food market in the main square. That ended up having plenty of atmosphere. We had to head back through the souk, which wasn't too hard. Did a little shopping on the way.

The cafe Argana gave us a great view of all the action in the square. All the mosques had their call for evening prayers at once just after we sat down. That was very impressive. A wave of chants and prayers across the whole city. The couple at the table next to us offered to take our picture with the lights of the square in the background. It turned out that the lady of the couple had been to Cardiff.

Tagine was the order of the day, which we ate with some difficulty. The cuts of lamb were very fatty and gritley but tasted amazing once we cut the meat away. I had apples and cinnamon with mine. The restaurant had more adventurous things and more common ones (a cheesburger, but why come all the way to Morocco to order that?).

We did a bit more shopping on the way back. The sellers were very aggressive. They actually led me way away from the folks to the inside of a warehouse. They had decent stuff but the prices were nuts so we left. They chased us down the street trying to make a deal. This happened several times. Sometimes we made a deal sometimes we didn't. Many of these finder chased us after a sale to ask for a "present" i.e. finders fee. We got a bit lost in the souk this time, which is scary at night, but we finally found our way out of the maze.

Went to bed on the early side. The intense heat of the day takes its toll without you realizing it. No amount of fluid intake does more than take the edge off but the Moroccans consider this cool weather and wear jackets and sweaters. The young people generally wear a windbreaker or motorcycle jacket (mopeds and small motor bikes and scooters being as if not more common than carts. Donkeys and human's pulling small carts were also pretty common).