We arrived in Marrakesh after quite a scary end to a flight at around 8:00pm. Due to storms Marrakesh airport was closed for a while so we had to keep circling the airport with only an hour of fuel left! There would of course have been a backup plan but the mood in the plane was still quite anxious!

We had pre booked a taxi (courtesy of our riad!) to take us to our riad which was right in the heart of the Medina. We expected to see someone there with a plaque with our names on but noone was there! After calling our riad and with some help from another taxi driver (who we thought was going to cancel our riad without us knowing-you do need to trust some people!) our driver turned up and off we went.

Our driver was great and showed us some sights on the way, after dropping us off on the closest road possible which was still around 20mins walk. A cloaked arabic guy handed us an umbrella as we got out the taxi (old clapped out merc from the 80s) and put our suitcase in what was basically a big wheelbarrow with a car axle welded to it. I don't recommend getting a taxi pre booked for you. It cost us 18 euros and we could have probably got the taxi for 8. But as we were arriving at night and didn't know where to go we thought we'd go for it. So we followed this guy who didn't say a word through the Jemaa El Fna (main square) which we didn't really want to get into until tomorrow so we could experience it in daylight! We were dodging motorbikes, donkeys and carts, people, touts, everything feeling very bewildered. The atmosphere though was incredible, so much going on. Although we felt very vulnerable and anxious walking through, we loved every second of it and the experience of walking through that busy square straight away at night will be one we'll always remember!

We followed the guy through the square and onto a dirt road where the shops, people and madness continued but the road narrowed. This didn't stop motorbikes still zooming through crowds tooting and people trying to get donkey-pulled carts down the roads! After what seemed like the longest walk in the world we turned down a very dark alleyway leading to the riad, where we said goodbye to our quiet friend (he must have had connections with the riad as he didn't demand any money).

It turns out all riads are like this. Nothing to it on the outside but beautiful and traditional inside. And man, was it beautiful. Our host welcomed us in, we paid, had mint tea (which is absolutely delicious by the way) and sat in our room and reflected for a while.

We needed supplies (water etc.) so ventured out into the unknown unaided this time. It's incredible, the atmosphere, always something going on. We headed to a shop and bought some drinks and headed back. We sat up playing cards for a while talking about the experience of the day, then hit the sack at 11:30.