7 Seconds in Marrakech

As you may recall I spent three days in Marrakech back in May to attend a conference. I thought I made pretty good use of my time; attending the conference and seeing the sights. Given the distance to travel it wasn't the cheapest of trips but I think I made the most of it.

Back in August we went to see Mamma Mia! at the cinema and I thought I saw a brief glimpse of the Place Jemma el-Fna in Marrakech during the opening sequence. I dismissed the idea as crazy though given that the film is set in Greece and filmed in Greece and at Pinewood Studios. Now we have the film on DVD I decided to take a closer look at the footage. It seems I wasn't wrong and here is the proof:

On the left is a photo I took showing some of the Place Jemma el-Fna and the entrance into the souk. On the right is a still from the movie showing the same tower and some of the same buildings. Now I recon that the final film includes exactly 7 seconds of footage shot in Marrakech, that is 175 frames or 8 still photos more than I took over three days (ignoring the two short video clips I made). In fact I can only be absolutely sure of about 41 frames -- the rest may have been filmed elsewhere. I'm guessing that they were probably the most expensive frames in the entire movie once you factor in the transportation of the cast and crew. Even if they had wanted to show somewhere in Africa you would think they would have tried to save money by faking it. After all in the same opening sequence we see what is meant to be an architects office in New York. In fact it is the Lloyds building in London with a few yellow cabs parked outside.

I've mentioned before about the strange geography you see on TV and in films and these opening shots of Mamma Mia! are very strange. We are supposed to believe that the quay where the three male leads meet for the first time is not far from the previous shots of Marrakech. In fact the quay is in Volos in Greece which is almost 3000km (around 1800 miles) as the crow flies from Marrakech and given the Mediterranean gets in the way, a lot further by motorbike!

Shopping in the Souks - Part 2

When I described my trip to the souk in Marrakech I mentioned that I actually did do some shopping. Almost every meal served in Morocco will end with mint tea. So I bought a tea set so that when I try and cook Moroccan food at home I can also try and make mint tea in the proper kind of pot and serve it in the right kind of glasses.

Of course nothing in the souk has a fixed price. I have no idea if I paid way over the odds for the set or not but I did manage to bring the price down by 200 dirhams (about £14) from his initial asking price.

Before You All Get Confused...

Before you all get confused I'd like to point out that I am no longer in Marrakech. In fact I was only there for three days. The problem is that whenever I go away I end up with more to blog about than time allows and so I continue posting when I get back. So I still have plenty of posts to write about Marrakech as well as about our honeymoon.

Just to prove that I am back here is the page from my passport showing both the entry and exit stamps from Morocco. These are only the second set of stamps I've managed to collect in my passport -- the first set being from my trip to Budapest back in 2003.

Shopping in the Souks

Of course no trip to Marrakech would be complete without a shopping trip in the Souks.

Apparently the Souks are divided up into named sections based on what is sold there. I spotted a number of signs (two of which you can see above) naming a section but I couldn't work out what was being sold -- my guide book didn't list these names and everywhere you look almost everything you could think of is being sold anyway.

I did do some shopping (an interesting experience when nothing has a price on it) but I'll leave that for another time.

Camel Shelter

Not an actual camel shelter but the view directly upwards from my hotel room balcony. The view reminded me of the Deer Shelter at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park, although the sunlight through the hole is a lot brighter and definitely a lot hotter! The main thing common to both is that they are both quite tranquil and removed from the hustle and bustle of everyday life.

Menara Garden

On the way back from collecting my suitcase from the airport, my very helpful taxi driver suggested that I check out the Menara garden, as somewhere quite with some shade if it was getting too hot for me. Given that the markets in Marrakech are supposed to be better in the mornings I decided to take his advice and walk the short(ish) distance to the garden.

It is strange being somewhere so warm and desert like as there is virtually no sign of grass anywhere. The city is covered with plants but there is no grass in the gardens and no grass verges. I guess it is because watering grass would be so much more time consuming and expensive that watering large shrubs and trees as needed.

Anyway the lack of grass makes the gardens look strange, but it was still very pleasant to walk around away from the traffic, seeing camels and large oranges growing on trees everywhere you looked.

My Suitcase Arrived!

Bizarrely my suitcase arrived exactly on time on the first plane of the day from Casablanca to Marrakech. The plane was due in at 10am and I rang at 10:15am and my bag had been found and held on one side for me to collect. Unfortunately I had to take an unexpected trip to the airport to collect it but at least now I have a change of clothes and my toothbrush!

Fortunately, I got a great taxi driver, Mustaffa, to take me the airport. Not only was he willing to wait for me while I went in to collect my suitcase but he volunteered to come in and translate for me. I'm so glad he did as most of the people I tried to explain myself to didn't understand English (or not when pronounced with a Yorkshire accent).

1 Taxi, 2 Trains, 3 Planes, 3 Time Zones all in 17 Hours

I'm exhausted but can't sleep. It's 8:30am (ish) local time in Marrakech, Morocco (so 9:30am in England) but that really tells me nothing as I've totally lost track of what time it is. I'm here to attend LREC and present a poster, although I'm hoping to sample the sights and sounds of Marrakech while I'm here.

Anyway the journey was very tirring: it started at 8:30am in the UK and ended about 17 hours later at 1:15am in Marrakech.

I took a train from Penistone to Sheffield. From Sheffield a second train to Manchester Airport where the train driver started the time zone confusion by stating that local time was approximately 11:15am -- I know that Manchester is technically in a different country (Lankarshire -- wrong side of the hills for this Yorkshireman). Then the fun really started...

We took a plane from Manchester to Brussels so we put our watches forward an hour to change time zones. Then another plane from Brussels to Cassablanca where we put our watches back two hours to go into the third time zone of the day. Unfortunately the plane into Cassablanca was a little late so we had to run to catch the final plane of the day from Cassablanca to Marrakech.

While it all seemed to have gone OK, upon arrival in Marrakech the first (and hopefully only) problem raised it's ugly head -- my suitcase was still in Cassablanca! I've been told that it will arrive on the first plane of the day so should be here at around 10am but I'm not holding my breath.

A short taxi ride took us to out hotel and I finally made it to my room about 1am local time (which I think made it about 2am in the UK) and I haven't slept well hence the exhaustion.

Anyway enough blogging it's time for breakfast....