DAY 107

Today was a big traveling day. I woke up about an hour or so before th train arrived in Madrid. I arrived in Madrid when it was still dark outside so it was a little hard to get around, but not that made. I carry all my things down a very long staircase, know normally this would not be a problem, but know that I have all my stuff it's not that much more annoying, just a lot heavier.I get all my stuff down the stairs and then for any signs for the main part of the station, and not just the tracks. Well since nobody is in this long hallway and I can see to the very end of both sides, I don't have a problem leaving my bags and walking down the hallway a little ways both directions to find any sort of inclination of the main station. A couple of minutes later I see a couple of guys heading up this one stair case, so I think maybe that's where I should go. I then go back to my stuff and roll it down the n-e-v-e-r ending hallway. Then I had to carry all my things back up this staircase, to were I found my self just on another platform. I'm like great I just had this insane work out carrying my bags up and down the staircases.Then when I about to give up, I see the most lovely sign ever created, "Main Termainal", though of course it was in Spanish. I then took the elevator, yes I know I said elevator, which I now beleive is the single most coolest thing ever created by man, it would only be beat if someone created a "Mary Poppins" bag were it wouldn't be any bigger then your normal weekend bag, but could fit, everything you wanted in it. Anyways I get to the main terminal and head outside, after quickly getting something to drink first. I cross the road, well no really a road it's more like 4 lanes, 2 for loading/unloading, the other 2 for driving vehicles. Anyways I cross it and go into the area where they have those lockers that you can put your stuff in for the day. Afterwards, I go and take the metro to the internet café that I went to last time that I was in Madrid, which actually happens to be only to be a week ago. Gosh such a jet setter,LOL. I get to the place and it say that it doesn't open till 11am, it's now a little bit before 9am.Well I'm certainly not just going to sit around for 2 hours, especially when I'm hungry. So I walk back towards the metro stop, there are lots of little shops and cafés around it. I find this café that was opened and appropriately named Café&Thé. I then had a long, enjoyable breakfast, while also updating and organizing some things on my BlackBerry that I have been meaning to do fo a while now. I then went back to the internet café at 11am and was there for a couple hours before heading back to the train station. Even though I was in no hurry, I quickly got my bags and took a taxi to the airport. Now when I go to another country I am always a little excited, but I am really excited because today I am not only going to a new country, but also a new CONTINENT. Since being on very long train rides the 2 hour flight from Madrid, Spain to Marrakech, Morocco felt like 20min. It felt like we went up into the air, got served our drinks, then got ready to land and then landed. I love time zones and what happens when you fly in the opposite direction. See I left Madrid at 7:10pm and then arrived at 7:10pm, and on the same day. See my flight was 2hours and so was the amount of time zones that I was going through. So on paper I was doing a little Harry Potter stunt. I get through customs with no problems and wait for my luggage. I had totally forgotten the whole wait for your luggage/airport thing. I have gotten so used to the train and also going to different countries and not doing customs or border control that I had forgotten what it was like. I get my things and head outside. I then have a sudden realization, that I have no idea what the name of my hotel is or anything about it, like the address, telephone number, etc... I mean I have all that information, yet it is, so not, conveniently tucked away in an email on the great World Wide Web. I ask this guy, nobody sketchy of course, he worked for some tour group and was waiting for some people, and asked if there was any payphone or something. To make a long story short, there are no payphones,internet, or even a phone book at the airport. So I asked him what he thought I should doI should take a taxi into the center of town where there are many payphones. So I went out to the taxi curb, well more like a road with lots of palm trees next to the fort door of the airport. I am so glad that my taxi driver spoke English, well I had to speak v-e-r-y slowly and always got a delayed moment, but if that's what it took to speak and to completely understand me, than so f**king be it. It's not like I had any pressing engagement that needed my immediate responce to. My taxi driver takes me to a shop of payphones and waites outside for me to call. Well since nobody was picking up, not to mention any names, (cough, cough) Ima, Daddy, Raviv, Erin (cough, cough)I ask the driver what we should do, the guy at the front of the shop said that I should look it up in the phonebook. He then out the phonebook and gave it to me, I then made this laugh/cough noise, becuse he had given me the phone book that is in Arabic and the only thing that I understood was the numbers, he then was like whoops... sorry and then gave me the French one. One nice thing about Morocco that I like more than Israel is that in Israel if it's not in Arabis it's most likely in Hebrew, where as in Morocco if it's not in Arabic it's in French. So then I can sort of get around. Well I still couldn't find the hotel in the phonebook, so then we were stook again. Then the guy at the front had another brilliant idea, go to an internet café. He then told the taxi driver were it was and then I was driven just down the street to this little internet café. Where I found all the information that I was looking for. I then gave it to the taxi driver and he then went on his way. There was a couple times where he had to ask where a certain road was. But we never got off track though. Then at some point we left the actual city limits of Marrakech and were on this dirt road, and of course since we are in the middle of the dessert it is very dark. That is except for the cluster of houses ever so often, that had this picturesque look that if the Torah was a picture book, this would certainly be in it. We then went on a little bit farther and past this little family walking on the side of the road, coming towards us, with some nap sacks, if I had taken a picture (wante to but to dark) you would have thought that it had came straight out of a National Geographic. We finally got to the entrance, it was this large, i'm talking 40-50 feet high dark green door with the hotel symbol on it in gold, and then then handles to gold lion heads. I'm thinking to myself, OMG what am I going to the Queen's summer palace or something. We then see this guy come out of the door (it was one of those doors that is on the bigger door but only the normal 7 or so feet door)after we told him who we were, etc... he then went back through the little door and then we had to wait a minute or two so he could open the main doors. This was like watching the doors to some great fortress be opened or the doors to troy when they let in the horse. We then drive down this little stone path that is lined with bamboo trees and every so many feet a little Moroccan lanterns. I arrive at the hotel, which I shouldn't call it since that gives a false idea in one's head. Think of a large mansion but Moroccan themed. The taxi stops and parks, where this man is staning reay to great. I then get ut of the car where the taxi driver says that he will have to charge me 200 Dirhams (the Moroccan curancy)but he said this in a way like he was saying I'm going to have to charge you $200 and that it would make a dent in my wallet. (Well first of all I had a couple thousand Dirhams in my wallet, well actually most in my bag and only some in my wallet, since I couldn't fit all the money in my wallet, besides trying to close my wallet, I couldn't even put it in the wallet to begin with.)I later found out that 200 Dirhams is $22.70, I later just had to laugh at that. I then was shown my room and my luggage was brought in shortly afterwards. I then walk down this little pathway with a trough looking water structure with eluminated fountains at either ends. I walk in to the "mansion" and walk through two doors and a little hallway into the main court yard inside the house. In this inside courtyard, there is a fountain in the middle, with chaise lounges and little tables, etc... all around. I then get lead up to my room, or should I say little suit.Let me just say that I feel like some sort of Arabian Princess in my room. Ok, let me just try and explain this. Well here goes my explaination of my room, though you will have to look at the pictures to really get it. You open the door and the first thing that you see is, of course, the main room. In the main room there is the bed, which I will get back to later, then next to the bed is the big closet and a couch. Across from the closet is a fire place with two chairs and a coffee table, and yes you read correctly, a fireplace. Where just next to is a little writting desk and a mirror. Then if your standing at the front door again and go to your right you will into the bath room, or more correctly bath suite. No joke, I actually got lost in the bathroom. When you open the door to the bathroom you come across the toilet, then you go straight and around the corner, yes corner, where on you left is this really big tub and then on you left is a couple sink, you know where there is two sinks one for the husband and the other for the wife. Oh, I forgot before you turn the corner, there is a little fireplace, yes again you read correctly, there is a fireplce in the bathroom (or as I like to call it, bath suite). Plus two big mirrors over them and some shevles underneath. Then if you go even further, down the sort of miny hallway, yes there is a sort of hallwat in the bath room, you will then come across the shower and this little area next to it were there is a little sitting area. Now going back to the bed, which I had mentioned earlier, the bed is in its own sort of room it's self. What it is is the California King size bed, with a Moroccan themed wood paneling going around the whole bed with about a foot and a half boarder between the bed and this barrier. Then there are these tissue paper thin drapes that swoop from ceiling to floor, going around the entire of this wooden frame. Then on both sides of the bed there is a little opening, where there are three stairs up to the bed, and yes you heard me right, stairs, this is beacuse the bed is on another level then the rest of the room. Then to complete it there are two night stands on eitehr side and then a little window right off the bed chamber that looks down into the little coutyard in the middle of the house, the one that I mentioned earlier. I then was brought some orange juice and a light snack before going to bed.

SOME PICS!!