Into Africa: The Souks of Marrakech

Marrakech is pretty widely known for its large and bustling market, also known as the souks. It's located in the old part of the city, called the Medina. That's also where the main mosque is. I wasn't really sure what to expect on our first trip into the labyrinthine streets. At first it was a bit overwhelming being surrounded by a crushing river of humans and bikes. And I have to admit, as a quartet of blond girls, we did stick out just the slightest bit, so that added curious questions and friendly greetings to the already high level of noise- people trying to sell things, or just talking loudly, and of course the constant cacophony of motorbikes. 
Especially coming from Scandinavia, I was at first taken aback and even confused and a bit annoyed by everyone trying to start a conversation with me. But it grew on me, and was actually quite nice. I didn't meet a single unpleasant person there- on the contrary every person I met was very genuinely nice, and totally willing to go out of their way to help someone out. The amount of people we asked for directions who then dropped everything to take us where we were trying to get rather than just explaining it to us was staggeringly high. I now understand how it is that Morocco is consistently at the top of the list of the world's friendliest countries to foreigners. 

Yarn drying on the rooftop of a dyers' workshop.

While we were wandering around the souks, somewhat lost, we met a young kid named Karim who took us to his family's dyeing workshop. Is there a word for that? Like 'dyery' or something? I feel like there should be. Anyway, we were shown around and got to see all the dyes and the drying yarn. Karim's cousin even showed us the proper ways to wear all the different kinds of scarves they sold there. And then he took us to the shop where he worked which sold jewelry and artifacts from the Tuareg people of the Sahara. Super, super cool stuff. And the Tuareg guy that worked there was fascinating, and really nice, just like everyone else we met.

Some stalls in one of the squares.

The mosque.

I made a new friend.

Another lovely door.

And another. Seriously, beautiful doors everywhere.

The souks are even bustling at night.

Really bustling.

And, the mosque at night.