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Showing posts from March, 2014

Marrakech March 2014

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On our last full day in Marrakech we decided to do some more shopping. We headed to La Table Du Marche for lunch then headed over to one of the main roads called Mohammed V. I saw a silver teapot there before for 355 dirhams/£26/$44/€32 which I thought was a bit pricey but it's hard to haggle much in a shop as opposed to a souk.  I decided to buy 2 teapots and could only haggle a price of 650 dirhams/£48/$80/€58. But I was happy for my purchases.  We then walked about 15 minutes to the Medina and entered a lantern shop. I had no intention of buying a lantern when I came to Marrakech but the souk owner was a quite nice and the lanterns were really pretty. They were all different sizes, handmade, with different coloured glass in each lantern. I bought a large lantern and Hannah a large and a small lantern. It should have been 1000 dirhams/£75/$123/€89 and we haggled down to 750 dirhams/£56/$93/€67 for all three lanterns.  As we wandered through the souks Hannah purchased more Argan o

Marrakech March 2014

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Today we went for breakfast at the La Table Du Marche then walked to Marrakech Plaza which is the area where the Western stores in Marrakech such as Zara, Mango, Steve Madden and Monsoon. There are also other more Morocco like stores selling bags, teapots and trinkets.  My friend Hannah bought a bag at a local store then we walked over to the Medina to venture into the souks. As soon as you enter the souks the shop owners shout at you, asking you to come into their stores, look at their stock and calling us beautiful to try and get us to enter their store. We entered a few shops and Hannah purchased a leather bag pack, leather duffle bag, argan oil and mint.  I purchased argan oil, mint and spices. After our long day of souk shopping we tried to find a place to find a snack, but alas all we could find is ice cream and  sugar cane. So I bought a glass of sugar cane juice for 6 dirhams/£0.45/$0.75/€0.50 and if you've ever had sugar cane juice in the Caribbean you know how amazing

Marrakech March 2014

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Our second day in Marrakech was a Sunday and we definitely treated it as if it was the day of rest.  After waking up at around 11am we got dressed and headed to breakfast at a local restaurant across the street from our hotel La Table du Marche, they serve breakfast until 11:30 or later at weekends and mostly other Western dishes such as sandwiches, pizza, sushi and paninis. As we missed breakfast we got a panini each with salad and crisps. It was yummy and came to 65 dirhams/£4.80/€5.80/$8 each. After lunch we headed back to the hotel and went to the spa to book our treatment for later.  Next we went to the pool and sunbathed, slept, read and ate for a few hours which was divine. It was about 25 degrees which was the perfect temperature to sunbathe but not feel like you're dying at the same time. There are two pools at the Sofitel, we were by the bigger one and there were not sun loungers as per usual but bed like things which were incredibly comfy and cosy. There is also an outdo

Marrakech March 2014

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Seven months after I last left the country it was that time again for further exploration of this wonderful world we live in. I wanted to go somewhere hot, cheap but close and Marrakech seemed like the perfect place in addition to the fact that I had wanted to go there for so long. So I roped a friend (Hannah) into my little break this time and jetted off.  Marrakech has become very popular in the last few years for the reasons mentioned above. It's very accessible from London, budget airlines such as EasyJet and Ryanair fly there regularly in addition to British Airways. We decided to go for a few days and bought the trip via Expedia and flew EasyJet.  For 4 nights flights and hotel start from about £200/€240/$332 per person. We paid around £280/€335/$465 for ours. There is a combination of riads (large houses which are now used for accommodation), hostels and hotels to choose from in Marrakech. We opted for the hotel route in the Hivernage part of the city which is quite modern a