I was very eager to begin my first full day in Morocco with a morning train ride to the large city of Marrakech. I arrived at the Marrakech train station with a few hotel names and a map and I went directly to the medina. The first hotel I tried was full. But after trying a few more, (in the medina they were all located very close to each other) I finally found a single room with a shared bathroom for 150 DH.

I had to figure out how to get out of this maze of local streets and get to the sights and main plaza. Luckily, I only had to make a few key turns and I was at the main plaza – the Djemaa el Fna. This was a huge plaza and served as the physical and cultural center of the medina.

Afternoon in the Djemaa el Fna - rooftop restaurants offer great people-watching

Lots of stands selling all types of dates in the Djemaa el Fna

One of the main roads (pedestrian-only) leading to the Djemaa el Fna - my hotel was just off this street

Here in the afternoon, it was already crowded with musicians, peddlers, sellers of traditional medicene, storytellers, jugglers, dancing boys and snake charmers. They packed up when things started getting dark (I was happy not to step on a cobra).

At 4 pm, everything started getting set up for the dozens of open-air restaurants in the square. It took almost an hour, and then they started serving dinner.

The start of the dinner hour in the Djemma el Fna

I walked to the Marrakech City Museum and the Ben Youssef Medersa next to it north of the square, but this was late in the day, and I decided to visit earlier the next day.

The next day when I set out, I got turned around in the narrow maze of streets of the medina, and it took me over 2 hours to find this place the next day. But the sights were worth the long hike.