Wednesday, March 15, 2000

1 flights and first night in Marrakesh

1 flights and first night in Marrakesh

15:00. we meet in my dorm. time for me to start packing. two trausers,
two t-shirts, second pair of shoes, jacket, lightweight sleeping bag -
that should be enough for two weeks. everything else we can buy.
dad drives us to airport. thew - it's already working. they managed to
clean snow during night.
cheers in the airport's pub and we're taking off for one of those
crazy adventures.
ah, Frankfurt Hahn is also full of snow, but no cancells. we have 12h
for our next flight. a big sandwich. need a place to chill. airport
info lies to us that there's no small village close, but we don't
believe, put all the clothes we have and go to explore.
jipii! after 0,5h walking towards lights we find a cossy viladge.
there is an Irish Pub. Giedrius thinks they are really Irish, I say
it's pribsbly only such a brand. but after a few beers we happen to
chat to the owner of the pub. she's really Irish. german love imigant.
it seems it's a pub where pilots come to have some beer before
flights :). we have an interesting talk, some foosball, leave a record
on a flag and head back for the airport. a few hours naping, and we're
on the second flight. we're on the cloud 'carper', full moon's
shining. morning sun, gibraltar - I can't fall asleep.
jej! it's 18C in Marrakesh. imigration girl doesn't understand we
still don't know where we gona sleep tonight.
palm, cactuses, sour oranges on the trees. it's a heaven for us after
a -25C winter back in LT.
airport isn't remote. we decide walking to the center. first thing
attracting our attention is a crazy trafic. we figure out that main
rules are to make noise and give a way if that doesn't help.
lots of flowers. no trash. it seems to be very clean and green.
supermarket. as everything seems to be cheap, our bag fills very
quickly.
some local fresh bread, sausages, cucumbers and juice. that's our
dinner.
then a call to Jamal - a guy we found on coutchsurfing and we're
heading to his home in a poor district. everything seems so different.
so that's how some people really live in Marrakesh. a room without
beds. strange friends. good references on Jamal's profile on
coutchsurfing doesn't help us to feel confident. we leave our food we
bought, take our other stuff with us, and with a help of Jamal's
friend, head back to the main square to meet with Fernando and other
Spanish friends from Erasmus exchange times in Alborg.
the square is crazy. everybody is going somewhere. there are full of
performers, do everything seems to be as a huge noisy mess. and you
have to be careful for scooters coming out of nowhere. I start
filming. a guy from cobra performer runs to me and start demanding for
money. I start walking away. he follows. I drop some dirhams, he asks
for more, but I start walking more quickly and we dissapear in the
crowd. later we learned that the best way to avoid them is ignoring.
so every time some girl suggests to buy tissue or guy offers taxi,
hashish or viagra we just pretend we don't hear and they walk away.
a walk in a huge market. back to their hostel for Fernando's girfriend
who was feeling tired after working night shift. some kebab in the
street. some local food back in the square and we head back to Jamal's
place. it's open. Jamal is absent as well as the food and drink we
left. we learn that it's coming some ppl from his viladge to stay.
that's too much. we're in a taxi back to the city center. hostel for
60MAD each and we're in a room without windows, but comfortable iron
beds. that's everything we need.
now it's already a morning, Giedrius and Nerijus are still sleeping. i
don't have what to do so i'm writing this blog. i guess it's gonna be
a long day in Marrakesh full of new experiences.


Sent from my iPod

2 trying to get a bus towards sachara

from the very morning we decide to go to a bus station, but we have an obstacle - we find unsecured wireless in our hostel's roof. facebook, blogging until our stomacs begin to 'ask' for food :)

some bannanas, pita with coconut jogurt & we're ready to go. we decide we need to go to tourism information first. so we find some more like european looking guy, who says he also needs there. he sugests to walk us. we learn that he's german, who doesn't have a job at the moment and travels to Ghana.

as it is sunday, we find tourism information closed. so we head straight to bus station. on the way we decide we wanna climb the rock we saw yesterday, so we figure out we'll find a hostel somewhere close to the station, buy some food and head to the rock. we find a poor district there. lots of trash. meet some locals climbing rock and feel insecure again. but everything's ok, we have our dinner on the top and as a sun is setting down, hurry to the station, where we find out that there is only a bus to Quarzazare, a town like 200km from Marrakesh, but already behind the Atlas mountains. and we wanna stay one day in some small town in mountains. there is an option to take so called chicken bus - microbus, but that station is on the other side of the town. it's already dark. hostel? somewhy there are no cheap hostels in the station district. bus. old town again. this time we're suggested a room with a shower for only 150MAD for 3.

next day we visit tourism information office where we find no map neither information. going to another big bus station we didn't find yesterday, finding out the last bus was several hours ago, sitting on the street and discussing what to do next. idea comes itself. we're already used that. everyone is sugeesting us something for 'a good price', but this one is not that irritating and we decide to talk:


-Polish?
- no, Lithuanians.
- ah, Lituanie, very poor country, like Morocco.

if you say so. anyway, we start talking about how we plan to travell. he says it's possible to rent a car.

- no problem. i know good place. good price.

these words for us already means that we will have to pay somebody for something we didn't need.. and so it happens. for 20 dirhams he drives us to palce just some blocks away and introduces us to 'his friend' car rental owner. the price's too high for us but we decide to inquiry at the other rental place. 100€ for two days leaving car in Quarzazate. quite a good deal. no car today. another rental. 25€ per day. and a car right away. deal. some petrol and we're on our way to Atlas mountains. as it's already dark after food-shopping, we decide to drive to national park and sleep in a car. done.


to be continued..

1 flights and first night in Marrakesh

15:00. we meet in my dorm. time for me to start packing. two trausers, two t-shirts, second pair of shoes, jacket, lightweight sleeping bag - that should be enough for two weeks. everything else we can buy. dad drives us to airport. thew - it's already working. they managed to clean snow during night.

cheers in the airport's pub and we're taking off for one of those crazy adventures. ah, Frankfurt Hahn is also full of snow, but no cancells. we have 12h for our next flight. a big sandwich. need a place to chill. airport info lies to us that there's no small village close, but we don't believe, put all the clothes we have and go to explore. jipii! after 0,5h walking towards lights we find a cossy village. there is an Irish Pub. Giedrius says that probably they are really Irish, I think it's probably only such a brand. but after a few beers we happen to chat to the owner of the pub. she's really Irish. germany's love imigant - came here after her husband. it seems it's a pub where pilots come to have some beer before flights :). we have an interesting talk, some foosball, leave a record on a flag and head back for the airport. a few hours napping, and we're on the second flight. we're on the cloud 'carpet', full moon is shining on the left, morning sun on the right, gibraltar beneath - i can't fall asleep.

yay! it's 18C in Marrakesh. imigration girl doesn't understand we still don't know where we gonna sleep tonight. palms, cactuses, sour oranges on the trees. it's a heaven for us after a -25C winter back in LT.

airport isn't remote. we decide walking to the center. first thing attracting our attention is crazy trafic. we figure out that main rules are to make noise and give a way if that doesn't help. lots of flowers. no trash. it seems to be very clean and green. supermarket. as everything seems to be cheap, our bag fills very quickly. some local fresh bread, sausages, cucumbers and juice. that's our dinner. then a call to Jamal - a guy we found on coutchsurfing and we're heading to his home in a poor district. everything seems so different. so that's how some people really live in Marrakesh. a room without beds. strange friends. good references on Jamal's profile on coutchsurfing.com doesn't help us to feel confident. we leave our food we bought, take our other stuff with us, and with a help of Jamal's friend, head back to the main square to meet with Fernando and other Spanish friends from Erasmus exchange times in Alborg. the square is crazy. everybody is going somewhere. there are full of performers, do everything seems to be as a huge noisy mess. and you have to be careful for scooters coming out of nowhere. i start filming. a guy from cobra performer runs to me and start demanding for money. i start walking away. he follows. i drop some dirhams, he asks for more, but i start walking more quickly and we dissapear in the crowd. later we learned that the best way to avoid them is ignoring. so every time some girl suggests to buy tissue or guy offers taxi, hashish or viagra we just pretend we don't hear and they walk away.

a walk in a huge market. back to their hostel for Fernando's girfriend who was feeling tired after working night shift. some kebab in the street. some local food back in the square and we head back to Jamal's place. it's open. Jamal is absent as well as the food and drink we left. we learn that it's coming some ppl from his village to stay. that's too much. we're in a taxi back to the city center. hostel for 60MAD each and we're in a room without windows, but comfortable iron beds. that's everything we need. now it's already a morning, Giedrius and Nerijus are still sleeping. i don't have what to do so i'm writing this blog. i guess it's gonna be a long day in Marrakesh full of new experiences..


Sent from my iPod