Marrakech - Morocco: Part 3

The train ride to Marrakech was awesome in a very non-traditional sense. Jeff and I both voted it “The Dirtiest Train We’ve Ever Been On” and after a trip to the bathroom, Jeff informed me to “hold it” for the next 3 hours. The train appeared to be a recycled European train from the 70’s. It was exactly like an old Regionale train in Italy, but in way way way worse condition. The quarters were super cramped, hot, smelly, and dirty and yet I had a marvelous time because the countryside was spectacular. It changed consistently as we went inward so we got to see a lot. The land was exactly like what I had pictured of Northern Africa and it was really neat to see the adobe houses, palm trees, huge expanses of nothing, and even a camel.

We arrived in Marrakech and decided to continue our public transportation adventure by taking a local bus. Of course we had to ask 4 different people who all indicated 4 different directions before we found the bus stop. Noah was all smiles wearing his backpack and clinging to our leg as we swayed back and forth with the bus.

The main square which serves as the hub of the medina in Marrakech is CRAZY! There was so much going on…snake charmers, moroccan music, dancers, monkeys on chains, henna tattooing, horses, donkeys, carts, etc. We joined the masses and wound our way through the medina to find our bed and breakfast. It was fairly easy following the directions and once we got settled in we headed right back out into the chaos.

The bazars/souks were beautiful! Each little shop was absolutely packed with stuff hanging here and there. You’d pass one filled with brightly colored linens and then right next door there would be a lamp souk with 400 lamps of every size and shape hanging every which way. Jeff and I quickly found ourselves under the shopping spell and started compiling a list over dinner of what we wanted to buy and what our price limits were. The next day we hit the souks for a super fun birthday shopping spree. I spent my 32^nd birthday bargaining my brains out. We spent hours going back and forth…we went back to one place 3 different times before finally agreeing to a price.

Our favorite experience was with one of the lamp guys who was about our age. We went back and forth playing the official game of bargaining and laughing the whole time with this guy because we all knew it was a total act. At one point the guy said “okay, okay, I said 600 and you said 200, let’s meet in the middle…500.” We burst out laughing and said “what!? that’s not the middle at all!” and he responded with a wink and a slap on Jeff’s back and said “that’s the Moroccan middle.”

On our last day, Noah seemed super run-down. We ended up carrying him in the Ergo Baby for most of the day and he took 2 naps for the first time in 6 months. We figured that something funky was up and did our best to keep him comfortable. By that night he had developed a pretty high fever so we had to go in search of a pharmacy that was still open. It was like being on an Amazing Race challenge. We had to ask people at every corner for directions since we were in the middle of the medina maze and then we diligently followed their directions until we finally found the one open pharmacy in the area.

Once Noah was asleep around 10pm we went out for my birthday dinner to one of the outdoor food kiosks. There were over 50 of them side by side and all of them were completely packed with both tourists and locals. We managed to squeeze in between a couple groups and we just started ordering random things. It was a really fun experience because the waiters were running around and yelling things out and it seemed to get louder and louder the longer we were there.

The next morning our alarm rang at 6am in time with Noah waking up vomiting. He continued on the Vomit Train for the next 7 hours…during our taxi ride to the airport, while waiting in the check-in line, the security line, the passport check line, the customs line, the line to board the plane (pretty much, if there was a line, Noah puked in it), and during the flight. Jeff and I were extremely prepared with plastic bags stuffed into every pocket with one constantly in each of our hands. We tag-teamed him as discreetly as possible with one of us covering the scene and the other one providing the bag. Having just gone through training 2 weeks before when Noah had a 48 hour stomach flu we had the procedure down pat. Along with the fact that Noah is the most silent vomiter that we have ever witnessed, we are 99.9% sure that no one ever knew what was going on.

By the time we made it back to Piacenza Noah was mostly good to go although his “African Sickness” (official diagnosis from the pediatrician) lasted for a good 2 weeks with the Big D and kept him out of school for more than a week. Jeff and I also had some interesting stomach issues going on, but after taking some of Noah’s medicine from the pediatrician, we too came out of it. It was a gnarly way to end the trip, but we chalked it up as a fantastic experience nonetheless.

In the end we finished our shopping spree with 3 lamps, 2 oil paintings, 2 tapestries, a leather satchel bag, shoes, a giant ceramic fruit bowl, a silver pot, and a pound of dried apricots. Then we had the awesome job of figuring out how to get it home with us. We were able to fit it all in our bags, but it was pretty tight due to the big globe lamp that I "had to have" so we decided to buy a cheap little suitcase and then to pack Noah’s backpack in the suitcase so that we’d still have the allotted 3 bags for RyanAir. The only problem was that the fruit bowl was so wide that it didn’t fit so in the end I put in in my Mary Poppins purse along with the 2 oil paintings and slung it across my back. When we went through check-in and bag check Jeff and Noah stayed at my sides to hide the crazy purse on my back. It was super funny. Here are the before and after shots:

Leaving Piacenza

Returning to Piacenza

When we got back Noah told his teachers that he saw donkeys and snakes in Morocco and that he had changed his name to “Noah Moreno Morocco.” We’re not quite sure how that happened but even a month later he still tells people that his name is Noah Moreno Morocco and then laughs hysterically.