Leaving Brussels

Our way to Marrakech was a direct flight from Brussels via Jetairfly, a budget airline based in Belgium. For some strange reason, only budget/small airlines fly directly to Marrackech. In all our flight research there, we did not find any major airline that flew directly over there. The ticket price with Jetairfly was pretty reasonable and you are only allowed 1 checked baggage at 20 kg and 1 carry on at 6kg with the ticket. Additional baggage kilos can be purchased while buying the ticket for a not so reasonable price however this fee gets even higher on the flight day. Chloe and I being frugal, decided that we would not allow our lugage to weigh over 20kg (this is when we first started packing for this tour ) but after visiting 4 countries and shopping like maniacs, we had far exceeded this weight limit. You should have seen Chloe and I trying to repack and doubling up on layers. We couldn't exactly put all the extra stuff in our carry-on because we had exceeded that limit too. Chloe ended up throwing away a couple of her clothes all in the name of not paying 12 euros per kilo over. Kofo looked like a mad woman stuffing her clothes into her pants and sweater but she was 15 kilos over the allowed limit even Jesus couldn't save her from paying for the extra kilos. This girl packed as if she was going to Africa for a month. Luckily for Chloe and I we were able to check in after a couple of kilos removed from our baggage. We ended up leaving Kofo at the checkin counter to figure out if she was going to pay for her overweight bag or get left behind because we had spent 2 hours there trying to check in and we only had 30 minutes until boarding. A few minutes before boarding, here comes Kofo with a smile on her face. She told us she was able to check in after removing some stuff and pleading with them to only pay for half of the kilos over.

I was exhausted and hungry at this point. Did I mention the flight was at 6am in the morning so we got to the airport right before 4am. All I was thinking was the food better be good on this damn flight. Well, there was no complimentary food but of course that is to be expected on a budget airline. The trip was pretty fast though, it was less than 4 hours. At that time in the morning, you would think the airport would be empty, Nope! It was full and so was the immigration line. We stood in line for over an hour and people kept cutting to the front. They did not seem to have any order at all. It really reminded me of Ghana. I almost got into a fight with someone who cut the line but these officers did not care. I am sure they were bribed.

If this airport looks familiar to you then you probably remember it from the Sex and City movie. In the movie they said they were in Abu Dhabi but in reality they were not allowed to film at Abu Dhabi airport so they filmed it at Marrakech. Chloe told me this while we were in the immigration line.

So we had booked a car via our Ryad (what they call bed and breakfast) but the driver did not show at all. I was so annoyed. Apparently the driver was running very late so another driver that was already at the airport waiting for someone else that I guess did not show called the Ryad and asked if he could bring us. They said of course. Apparently, they all work for each other. We wanted to leave the airport but I am not going to lie I was a little apprehensive about going with this driver. But Chloe assured me that Marrakech is safe and that the Ryad confirmed he was legit.

Our driver was very nice and spoke very good English. He gave us a mini tour and history of Marrakech. Marrakech is broken into two, old Marrakech (Medina ) and new Marrakech (the ville Nouveau). A giant wall divides the two towns. New Marrakech is outside the walls and it more modern than the medina. The Medina is the true Marrakech and the stuff you see on TV about Africa. Lol Before booking our hotel/Ryad, Chloe asked me if I wanted to stay in the new town or the Medina. I told her I wanted to experience the "real" Marrakech so let's stay in the Medina. Well, I immediately regretted that when the driver pulled up to the parking lot of where the Ryad was located. I mean I really thought I was in the ghetto of Nima. There were no paved roads so all you see is that dirty red sand, a giant dirty wall and it smelled like urine. You should have seen the look on my face. I side eyed Chloe like, "For real? This is where we staying? ".

We were staying at Ryad Amiran which was located within the walls. The Ryad was another 7 minute walk from the lot through some shady alleyways. The look on my first said it all. I was disappointed. I mean I knew we were in Africa but I did not expect it to look like Ghana. Lol We finally arrived at a very grand rodiron door which the driver told us was Ryad Amiran. It was not like a typical hotel or Inn where you just enter. This looked more like a house and it was locked. We had to ring a doorbell before we could enter. A nice lady immediately greeted us when she opened the door as if she had been expecting us for a while now. Stay tuned to find out whether the inside of the Ryad matched the outside.

#Morocco #Belgium