The Trans - Marrakesh Adventures in Cooking and Eating!

So far so good. Yesterday we came into Marrakesh and last night I stayed in a proper hotel again!! Yay!!! And itas warm during the day!!! Amazing!!! We were going to get a really nice hotel room with private hammam and pool and stuff but due to some strange circumstances with one of the slightly odder guys on the trip - Jo had to downgrade us...so we are in the hotel Geoff and Eti are staying in-which is nice enough. We have both a toilet and a bath in our room and its right off the main square and has a big balcony that almost
overlooks the square. Poor Jo was scared I would be mad because we weren't in a nice hotel (we've been planning it for days) but really all I needed was a bed and a hot shower...and the shower I had last night was amazing!!!! So we are all set!!


So yesterday morning a bunch of us went to a cooking class (which is why I wasn't around for the choosing of the hotel). It was a rather expensive cooking class so I was expecting to learn a lot. I suppose I ate a lot so that was good - but really most of what I learned was chopping vegetables - which I have done a million times before. So first we spent a bit over an hour shopping in the souk for the ingredients, which was rather annoying actually. I wouldn't have minded walking in the souk and they could have shown us the different market stalls and told us about the different spices...but it takes a lot of effort to actually buy food and stuff at the market and wander around - especially when you are in a big group of people. It was probably also less exciting because I just shopped at a Moroccan market for food a couple days ago when it was our turn to cook for the group. Anyways - once that was done we went to the cooking school - which was in a lovely Riad and we had some tea while they washed all the veggies and prepared everything for us to start. We made like 6 or 7 dishes including a Tajine (which is a Marrocan dish that's cooked in a strange looking clay pot (I didn't take any pics of the pot on my BB but I'll try to take one later! I'm hoping to buy one at the market now that I've changed lockers on the bus I have heaps more space - LOL did I tell that story?? Me and the crazy German girl were both rearranging our lockers. She has SO much stuff and her and her locker partner were constantly fighting. And I was sharing with the Aussie guy that has become her boyfriend - and he had SO much stuff I could barely fit my stuff in the locker. So while we were getting ready to reorganize the trip leader suggested we switch lockers so she could share with her boyfriend and she and the Aussie girl she shared with would stop fighting. I thought that sounded great because I knew I would have more space! So now I have heaps of space for my stuff (although its almost harder because now my bags tip over because they aren't jammed in and holding eachother up...so its a bit messier - but now I can buy some stuff!!! Woo hoo...and it was great watching 2 of the people with the most stuff trying to shove it into the locker!! Haha - poor Craig - he came back and saw what was happening and was like - can't you guys switch back. Crazy Hekke will prolly make him throw away half of his stuff so hers will fit!)

Ok-so where was I before that story?? Cooking class...so we made a lot of lovely food but we cooked it all together so I don't feel like I learned how to put stuff together to make any of the dishes since I only got to like chop veggies and then like stir a few pots and roll cookies...and I never saw one dish made from start to finish - which is disappointing after paying €45!! But then we ate all the food and it was amazing! There was a lovely roof terrace and we ate up there with a couple glasses of super super sweet Moroccan wine (not so nice) and chatted. There were 7 of us from the truck cooking and like 5 other people - so it was a nice group a nice meal!! Then I got to go and meet Jo so I could finally get rid of my heavy backpack (which might have been one of the reasons wandering around the souk at the beginning wasn't fun because I had to lug that around among all the people). But now I'm all settled at the hotel - had an amazingly hot shower and then we met up with the group again for dinner...which was another adventure.... So a big part of Marrakesh is the main square (Djemaa el-Fna) which in the evening tons and tons of food stalls get set up with tables so its quite an experience to walk through there to decide where to eat. All the guys come rushing out to bargain with you to eat at their stall and because we are such a big group they want us and offer like x niumber of pepople free and stuff. So the hassle is part of the fun eating there. So I was chatting with the food guys and bargaining for who could offer the most people free...I got one guy to offer 6 people eating free because we were 17 people all together - but I didn't realize what cheap people I was with! Most of them didn't want a set menu (which probably cost about €7 - and with 4-6 peoples being free would have been maybe €5 each) so we kept walking and I lost all my market stall friends (all of them of course loved me and wanted to marry me...LOL...this might be the easiest place ever if I wanted to find a husband!!) So anyways we kept going through the end and no one made any decisions or listened to me when I told them what I had talked to the guys about - so then we stood around with most people llooking sulky before just sitting at the closest table. And then they started giving us bread and stuff which half the people turned down so they wouldn't have to pay while others were arguing to make sure the dips and stuff wouldn't be charged extra - which was fair enough - but OMG...just order the set menu! So then the guys wanted like big slabs of meat, which of course there were just little kebabs and they didn't know what kind of meat!! What a nightmare!! I won't be going for any group meals again. I ordered some calamari and some fries and sat and drank the free water and happily paid my like €4 euro...most of the other people had a terrible time - didn't get enough food and hated every minute of it and ended up paying more than if they would have just gotten a set menu and been done!! Oh well...I won't have to hang out with them all again for a few days!!

So then we wandered the square a bit - which is full of performers and people selling stuff...and everyone was still grumpy and tired of all the hassle. But no matter what the hassle throughout Morocco has been
no where near the hassle and horrors of the people when I was in Egypt - so I don't really mind! Egypt was such a pain I just wanted to hide most of the time - Morocco isn't as bad and its cleaner!! Ugh - I get
chills remembering how dirty Egypt was and all the horrible men!!

Anyways - so no one enjoyed walking in the square so we went and had a tea on the roof terrace of some restaurant and the group called their taxi to pick them up early and take them to the campground - where
they will spend the rest of their time "in" Marrakesh - getting drunk around a smoky fire like 15 miles outside the city :P

So today - I'm up kind of early and already handwashed my socks and underwear (I must say handwashing is NOT one of my special talents) and now I'm writng my blog waiting for Jo to wake up so we can have
breakfast. Oh - I forgot the story about Dave. He's a kind of odd man on our trip - he's about 46-50ish and just very very strange. Nice enough most of the time but super odd. He's got crazy sticking up hair and takes 1000s of pictures of random stuff....so he can't do anything by himself...and Geoff somehow invited him to join us all in Rabat so we had to hang out with him there (he wanted to use the extra bed in Geoff and Eti's room but luckily Eti is strong enough to say no). So last night after dinner we were all standing around and he came over to me with this strange childlike look of hope on his face and said "So you know you have that extra bed in your room" - it took a minute for me to register what was happening (just FYI, Jo and I have a room with 3 beds, 1 double and 2 singles so really we could sleep 4 people) anyways - I don't know how Dave found out about the extra bed...but he actually wanted to use it!!! Now - I'm kind of impressed he had the guts to ask - but ummmm...NO!! All I could do was look at him in disbelief and shake my head and say "No Dave - No....you can't share our room". WOW!!! I can't even describe how awkward that would have
been...he's a harmless guy but so so so strange!!! Plus then Jo and I wouldn't have been able to gossip about everyone if he was around!!! Dammit - she's still sleeping!! I'm getting bored and hungry - oh!! She just sat up!!! Yay!!! Oh-she's feeling like shit :( she's just getting the cold I had...I'm am just recovering and feeling better and she is just starting it!!!! BOO!! But at least we are at a hotel and its warmish instead of freezing our asses off in a tent...miserable camping in the winter!! I'm actually really mad that the company only suggested 2-3 season sleeping bags!! Really need a 4 season one for this part of the trip! I would have gotten one if I had known...but thank goodness I brought a 3 season otherwise I would really be sad!!!
And I just learned about a super awesome sleeping mat!! Kaye has one that's got down in it!!! Apparently its super warm and its smaller and lighter than all the other sleeping mats I've seen!!! Very impressive...I might have to get one just for fun - even though right now I feel like I never want to go camping again!!!
Ok-the end for now!! I need to go for breakfast!! I'm starving and Geoff and Eti said they would go down about 8:30 and then we were all planning on going to the hammam...Jo prolly won't go since she's feeling worse - but its time for another scrub down!! Yay!! I need to buy a hammam glove - they are amazing for scrubbing off the dirt and dead skin!!!

I've added some pics. The first 2 are the cooking class and the last one is the view of the square from our Marrakesh hotel room! Yay!!!