After the heat

After it cooled down around 4, I went for another walk back to the square. In the evening, it apparently becomes one giant restaurant - or rather, many hundreds of restaurants. I am missing out on it this evening, since I already told the Riad I would like to experience a traditional meal here. My return trip ws great, since I navigated without having to pay off the children to take me back - the first time a pack of children lead you somewhere it's fine, but after that it can get obnoxious.

There is a strange custom of throwing water down around the stalls. I would like to find out what it does, at first I thought it was to set a boundary or territory, but then I wondered if it has to do with the heat - cost effective climate control perhaps?

Most of the souks and shopkeepers so far speak Arabic, and french. Very few I have encountered speak english, none German. So, when I want help, I go for English and some spanish, which they seem to follow a bit with the french / english. If I don't want them to bother me, I stick with German and they give up pretty fast. So far, so good - though I imagine I will run into the one fluently german souk eventually.

Suprisingly given the amount of stuff being sold, I haven't found anything I really yearned to have. Everyone told me the best bargaining method is the ability to walk away. Negotiations have been easy so far, I don't even look back. I bargain for the fresh orange juice, but it becomes a matter of cents after we get in a ball park area between the initial offer and their counter offer. I did try on a tunic, but the ones sold here are so touristy. I just want to find a cotton shirt or two that won't be so hot to wear, brooks brothers polo's while comfortable aren't heat friendly or at least as hear friendly as I would like. Linen I imagine would be much cooler. When I meet up with friends, I am going to ask if they can help me find something. When I inquired in a shop, they tried to sell me expensive embroidered shirts with matching points. It's a little to much, I occasionally see American Tourists walking around in full regalia, which tends to be very entertaining from a distance. I guess the problem is that I know what I want, but expressing it with the language barrier is not working so well.

So far my favorite part is the smell of the spices, and the vibrant and rich colors of them presented in the stalls. The smell is intoxicating and I couldn't help but step into the room to take a few deep breaths before continuing my walk.

To give an idea of the complexity of the maze in the Medina, I decided to walk straight, so that returning was simple. I still quickly became lost when coming back. I try not to take out the map unless it is completely necessary, instead relying on visual cues. Of course, things change through the day and this dynamic city enjoys confusing me. All to fast, the clues move, or disappear. Usually just far enough to send me down the wrong street.

I started playing golf a little while ago and remarked to friends and family often how it was convenient that I didn't hit the ball that far. My error didn't propagate as much over the shorter distance.

Unfortunately, this is not true in Morocco. Any errors in navigation, large or small, seems to put me across the entire medina from where I want to be.