Morocco - Day 0 - Madrid/Marrakech

10am. What does a normal person do on a typical Saturday at this time? Probably eat breakfast, go for a run, run errands or at least get out of bed. What does Dom do? The exact opposite - actually go to bed. Kai and I had a loooong night of partying behind us. 

It all started off like this. 

Fast forward two hours. The alarm goes off. Why so early? Well, I still had to pack my stuff for Morocco and MOVE OUT OF MY APARTMENT. That's not as easy as it seems, especially having lived there for half a year. The inevitable hangover wasn't really helpful either. However, I managed to get it all cleaned out, drop off my stuff at my friends' place and made my way to the airport.

Enjoying the sunset on my balcony one last time - goodbye, Calle Oso

Next destination: RAK, also known as Marrakech, Morocco. I landed at about 10.30pm local time. Outside of the airport I encountered exactly three taxis and pretty much nothing else, so I figured I'd catch one and negotiate the price beforehand, as you always should. 100 Dirham (the local currency, conversion is roughly 10DH = 1€) was the price, which I deemed acceptable. Once arrived near the hostel, it was 200 all the sudden. After discussing about the price for a couple minutes I just got out of the cab and walked off, just to realize that I had absolutely no idea where to go. Luckily (or maybe not so luckily, as I'd learn later), a couple boys offered to show me the way. 

Lesson Number 1: Nothing, absolutely nothing, is for free in Morocco. 

Once at the hostel (which I without doubt would never have found), the kids wanted 100DH too. For three minutes of work? That's insane. I didn't get out of there without leaving them 50DH though, as I didn't know the local circumstances (that could be very troublesome later on). As soon as I got inside, everything was mellow. I was welcomed warmly by a couple fellow travelers, some moroccan mint tea, shisha and a very pleasant atmosphere in general. My first thought was: I don't wanna leave this place at all. Which I didn't for the first night. 

Lesson #2: Everything takes longer than you think (although I already knew this one from Spain). 

However, I was looking forward to exploring Marrakech the next day ...