Feeling a little bit like Bill Murray in Groundhog Day, I woke up at an ungodly 3.30am on Saturday with the tune 'Marrakech Express' locked into my head. I was so paranoid about missing the flight that I set three different alarms, but ironically I woke up before they had a chance to go off and was ready to leave about an hour before I needed to be. Anyway, I got to the airport with plenty of time to spare and my passport, and went through the rigmarole that flight security is these days. The flight went smoothly and arrived about midday in a balmy but slightly overcast Marrakech. They are an hour behind us surprisingly, and therefore two behind Spain - which gives the east pretty early nightfall I guess. I texted Natalia and we met about an hour later, not without a few cockups, mainly because I was too tight to get a taxi from the airport, opting instead for the bus though I didn't really know where it was going and had to hike for about half an hour with my rucsack in the increasing heat. My first impressions of the place were that it looked quite smart, not too much rubbish lying around although there is clearly plenty of poverty, with beggars on every street corner. The other thing you notice straight away is that all the houses are built with red clay, uniformly. Either that or they are all painted the same red clay colour.

Natalia was fine, having slept most of the time we had been apart. She had been a bit nervous finding a place on her own obviously, but some kind soul had helped her - possibly with ulterior motives on his mind, but helped her nevertheless. We took a bus to the centre and found a decent place to stay after a bit of looking. unsurprisingly, most inns were full as it is still high season: we had to sleep on the roof terrace for the first night for a bargain 3 pounds each. The thing you notice when you get to central Marrakech, or the Medina as it is known, is the massive square, which have warrens of totally labarinthyn streets going off in every direction, crammed full of market stalls selling every imaginable item you could imagine, from crafts and metalware to herbs and spices to lizards, falcons and even snakes. The main items qre obviously clothes, leatherware in particular,shoes, sandals, belts bags etc, with food and spices closely following. You can't walk ten metres without someone offering to guide you through the 'souk' as the market area is known, or be offered a cup of sugary mint tea and a chance to buy a carpet. An old hand at this hard sell technique from Turkey, I thought I would be ready for all this, but they really are very persistent and you end up buying stupid knick-knacks just to get rid of the pesky traders sometimes; I was ripped off royally today and ended up paying 4 pounds for a bar of soap if you please.

Anyway, we have basically spent a pleasant couple of days in this manner, sightseeing and stopping to buy odds and ends; the main sights are all quite walkable but it can take you a couple of hours to find something on foot because there are no decent maps for the city and even if there were, they would be unusable because of the swarms of people, heat and sheer volume of streets winding in every direction, combined with the fact that there are very few street names anywhere except in Arabic. It is exhilirating and maddening in equal measure, and a challenge to the most coordinated traveller. You end up just using landmarks to navigate your way round.

The best thing about Morocco so far is the food; it is absolutely delicious, and very cheap. On the first night we went to an incredibly sumptuous restaurant which was dripping from ceiling to floor with guilded artwork and beautiful ornate architecture, and were served one plate after another of the most mouth-watering dishes served from 'tagines', clay pots in which they are carefully prepared. The entire 2 hour experience came to no more than 5 pounds each and we felt like royalty when we left, having spent virtually the whole time there alone. This morning, we went to the main square and 3 glasses of freshly squeezed orange juice each for 80p; 2 pancakes each for 40p and 2 cups of tea for 10p each. After which I went for a steaming hot Turkish bath for the princely sum of 60p. All in all quite bargainous really. The main square gets absolutely packed with people in the evenings, crowding round simple wooden tables and benches to dine on very cheap delicious food cooked on the spot. Tonight, I got a streaming plate of succulent lamb and hot bread to scoop it up, and was surrounded mainly by locals, not tourists. This is definitely a nation where people eat out and like to be seen. For a Monday night, it was incredibly busy.

Tomorrow we are going to the Atlas Mountains as part of a group trip. It will be for around three days and then we are probably headed to the coast. I will be in touch when we get to Agadir.