Bargaining like a Berber

After Sunday's adventure in Essaouira, we decided to spend Monday in Marrakech, touring the city and taking advantage of the markets. Marrakech doesn’t have many museums or monuments…the culture and beauty of the city is really in its buildings, gardens, and markets. However we did find an old palace open for visiting, and we spent the morning touring Palace Bahia. The walls and ceilings were all tiles and mosaics, and it was generally beautiful.

Following the palace visit, we made our way back to the main shopping with the intent of buying slippers, tea cups, teapots, a hookah, shoes, jewelry, and gifts. We had lots to do. My main objective, as well as Dan’s, was to find glasses. We had passed tons of shops selling them, and whenever we ordered mint tea, it always arrived in a pretty glass. After rejecting the goods in several shops, we finally found a store with a good selection and a nice patron. A very nice patron. From the moment I entered the store, he was all over me. He showed me tons of glasses, told me stories of how they were made (also told me he made all of them by hand), showed me how to wash them, told me the significance of the symbols and colors, etc. After I chose a pattern, he told me that traditionally glasses come in sets of six and it’s customary to have six different colors. There were only five different colors in the pattern I wanted, so he set his assistant to work rooting through boxes to find the sixth color. Meanwhile, the compliments just kept coming towards me, along with some kisses on the cheeks and some slightly inappropriate touching of the bottom. He told me that I had eyes of Fatima, and I looked like a Berber. Apparently I was the first customer of the day, which symbolizes good luck. For me, it meant a good deal. He also gave me a free glass, for my Berber eyes. I had only intended to buy the glasses, but after about 45 minutes of compliments and his poor assistant digging through numerous boxes to find the final glass, I agreed to buy a teapot (only after he lowered the price from 10 euros to 4). Thus, I now own my first tea set and some very special memories from that store. I also bought glasses for the Beguin family, and Mme. Beguin was thrilled when I brought them home. J

After the tea glass affair we needed some lunch, and headed to a small restaurant for some tagine and mint tea. I made a serious effort this vacation to eat primarily local foods, and I succeeded quite well. In Spain I ate eggs, ham, and cheese constantly. In Morocco, tagine, couscous, and mint tea were part of nearly every meal. Finally in Italy, it was nothing but pizza, pasta, and gelato (with some fruits thrown in there to save me from carbohydrate shock).

We continued shopping that afternoon, finding some beautiful scarves (getting ripped off for half of them, getting good deals on the other half). One vendor wrapped the scarf around my head into a hijab, then took a picture with me, but then offered me a totally ridiculous price and got pretty angry when I refused to buy the scarf. BB and I both found super-cute shoes, and Dan finally found the slippers he wanted (unfortunately they reeked of new leather and we banned him from wearing them in the hotel room that evening). Another vendor yelled “are you Americans?” when we walked by, and when we said yes, he called out “from Connecticut?” We then felt obliged to stop and chat with this CT-recognizer (his knowledge was limiting to driving through once, but it was a cute effort). American was only one of a multitude of nationalities we adopted during the trip, and at various points I said I was Belgian, Swiss, Canadian, and French. We tended to avoid French b/c they could recognize the accent. We also didn’t mind telling the Moroccans we were American, as they were all very welcoming (unlike some Europeans…Liza got spit on in Rome for speaking English). Talking to the vendors was more fun than shopping. Although bargaining was interesting, I think I prefer not to have every exchange be an argument/ordeal, even though it feels really nice when you succeed. Several vendors told me I bargained like a Berber. I’m not sure if that’s a compliment or not, but I took it as one, since I enjoyed the company of the Berbers I met.