Marrakech and Its Hospitals - Eleventh Day in Morocco

27. September 2022

We woke up a bit later than planned. Oh well. At this point, it was to be expected. We ate breakfast and analyzed the situation. The other day, some of the group were not feeling well. We thought it was simply fatigue from the 9-hour drive.

It was obviously more than that.

Leon immediately said that he would stay in the apartment and rest, and another girl was also not sure if she would go to the city with the rest of us. When we left, luckily she didn't feel so bad and came with us.

Our first stop was at the train station to get coffee at Starbucks. Yass, OMG, Starbucks! I didn't take anything. Then we went out to the taxi stand right next to the train station – the destination: the Jardin Majorelle botanical garden.

This time we were assertive with a low price from the very beginning. We said 30 dirhams. He said 80. Then we said 40. We agreed on 50. Okay, we went. Instead of a 40-minute walk, we had a short pleasant drive.

Unfortunately, an unpleasant surprise awaited us at the garden. God damn, what a line! People and more people were waiting one behind the other for about 50 meters, maybe more! And there were two lines!

We lined up and did the only thing we could. We waited. Fortunately, the line wasn't slow. It probably took us 20 minutes to get to the ticket window. We paid 80 dirhams each to visit the garden and the Museum of Berber Art.

Then we got out of line to see what we were going to do next. Yeah, we lost about 5 minutes with that. We originally thought that the second line was intended for people with guides or for people who bought tickets in advance. No, it was the line to enter after buying tickets.

Ah, yup. Fine.

When we finally entered the garden, we were shown the allowed path along which to walk (likely to not crowd the place). The path was circular around the entire garden. And well, the garden was beautiful. There is a story about the owner, but I don't remember it.

The Berber Art Museum was super interesting. It contained Berber artefacts from different regions of the country.

We walked around the park a little more and realized that we were at the end. Huh, it didn't take us that long to make the rounds. But we did not see the scene in many pictures of the park. The owner's original villas!

So at the end of the circle, we simply went back to the beginning. The employees weren't preventing such action. We found a map and quickly realized we weren't going the right way originally. So we went again. We found the villa, took a few pictures and then stopped on a bench to discuss further plans.

We had planned to go to lunch where we would meet up with Leon and then head to the medina of Marrakesh towards the Bahia Palace. The problem was that the palace was supposed to close at 17:00. And after a quick calculation, our plan could not come true.

So, we changed it. Those of us in the garden would go for a walk through the medina to the Bahia Palace and buy some food on the way, and Leon would join us only after we toured Bahia. With a plan in place, we left the garden.

Google Maps told us that it would take us 49 minutes to walk to the palace. Well yes. Without stopping. And we stopped a lot. This was the medina after all. It was big and rich with shops, trinkets and people. Bicycles and motorbikes raced through the alleys.

We bought quite a few things and hehe, it seemed that 10 days in Morocco taught us something. One of the group continued to lower the prices of merchants. It wasn't that hard to get 50% off. We simply had to walk away until the salesperson called us back.

It was like a game! So, the medina was nice. But as in Meknes and Casablanca, it was simply not the same as Fes. That one truly was something else. Truly special.

In Fes, there were no vehicles in the medina, only people and animals and chariots. The alleys were also narrower and the shops didn't look as planned as in Marrakesh. There weren't that many tourists in Fes either, so walking through that labyrinth felt much more authentic.

If you want to experience a real medina, go to the oldest medina in Morocco – Fes.

After an hour and a half, we finally got to where Google said the Bahia Palace was. And the door was closed. What. I already had the feeling that something was wrong because there were no people around. Now what?

At this point, a young man told us that the palace was closed and that it would be opened the next day. Huh. He told us that we should go see the synagogue that was nearby. Well... We sat down in the shade to analyze our options.

Then two British women came who were also looking for the palace and we laughed together at how Google leads to closed doors. Until another boy came by and told us that the palace was open but we had to go around. That the main entrance was open, not the one we were at.

What? Now we didn't know who we could trust. Regardless, we got up and started following the wall. At worst, we would see where we end up.

At this point, a problem arose. The young man who first advised us followed us on a bicycle. Dude, calm down, what do you want? When we met, he was on his way in the other direction. We followed the wall and mostly ignored him and he didn't seem to mind us at all. At one point, he shouted at us to follow him and see the synagogue. He was facing a dark alley leading off the main road.

LOL, the guy thought he could trap us like that. I simply gave him a thumbs up and we continued on our way. We didn't see him again. After just one more turn, we reached the main entrance to the palace. It was open. Thank God.

We hurried inside and found the ticket office. Hmm. They only accepted cash, which we lacked. After all, it was our last day in Morocco. So we started to think whether the visit is worth it. Then we saw a sign saying that the main attraction, the marble courtyard, was closed.

Bruh. There wasn't even a discount for entry. They simply shut down half the palace and demanded the same amount of money!? We left and sat down on a bench in the shade. Was it worth it? We asked a couple of people coming from the palace. We decided it wasn't worth it. So we wrote to Leon to come to the agreed restaurant.

We were very hungry at this point. We had barely eaten anything since breakfast and when we left the palace it was 17:00. We headed to the previously agreed restaurant and returned to the medina. And the shops were closing. The hour was late even for the locals.

Crazy. Apparently, they're not the hustlers I thought they were. They were very active during work, yes, but they started work late and finished relatively quickly.

We arrived at the restaurant and ordered food. For a while, we wondered how long it would take Leon to get to us. Until we got the message. On the way to the restaurant, Leon collapsed from dizziness. Some people were watching over him.

Eyo! Two of us left the restaurant and rushed towards him, running through and out of the medina to find him lying on the pavement with his feet on the wall, three guys watching over him.

Oh! He could see normally, he could speak, and he was fine. The problem was overwhelming vertigo he felt as soon as he tried to stand up.

We thanked the people watching over him and sat down to think about what to do. After a while, we decided to call our travel insurance company and they told us to call an ambulance and then the insurance again from the hospital. Fine. The problem. We didn't know the number of the ambulance.

A taxi pulled up and shouted out the window do we need an ambulance? The number is said to be 155 (I think, we never checked). When I turned away from the taxi and back to Leon, there was a policeman there. Okay, he would call an ambulance. We once again confirmed that we can trust Moroccan uniforms. I took the key to the apartment that Leon had and ran back to the other two of the group at the restaurant to give it to them. They were supposed to go back to the apartment and take a picture of the insurance policy.

Just before I got to the restaurant, I bumped into two Germans we had met on the Sahara tour. I briefly told them that our friend had collapsed, and then ran into the restaurant. It was funny, I suppose, just dumping the info on them.

I learned at the restaurant that we would get the food to go. Great. I picked up all the bread that had already been provided for us and stuffed it into my pockets (wrapped in napkins).

I rushed back to Leon, who was still waiting for the ambulance. Are you serious? So we waited for him together. Until the girls from the restaurant arrived and then went to the apartment with the third girl that was with Leon and I.

I stayed with Leon and waited for the ambulance. And oh my god, we waited. A long time. The police officer waited with us. And the language barrier was real. I don't know why but they asked us about Leon's passport, our residence in Marrakesh and whether he was married or not. Yeah, wild stuff.

After about an hour, the ambulance finally arrived. Yes! Hooray!! They helped Leon into it and we drove off. Through the medina, to the unknown location of the public hospital. Heh. Then the ambulance suddenly stopped at a random building in the medina. The paramedics simply opened the side door, took a stretcher and rushed into the building.

At first, I thought it was a hospital. But why would they just leave us? So I took out my phone and opened up Google Maps. The building was a school. Paramedics returned after a few minutes with a paralyzed student. Leon was kindly pushed from his bed to a chair in the ambulance and we were off again. This time directly to the hospital.

There again, we were pretty much ignored because of the immobile female student. It wasn't until she was rushed away that we were told to go to the room where the... um, doctor? Or a nurse? Checked Leon. We communicated in broken English until a dark-skinned medical technician arrived. His English was excellent. Then the doctor came and his English was also good. They quickly checked on Leon and asked him a few questions. It didn't seem like anything out of the ordinary. Besides the dizziness, of course. I think they assumed he was dizzy from the lack of food and the sun. They prescribed him some medicine and gave him two injections.

Being told that the pharmacy would close soon, I left Leon in the hospital and ran to the pharmacy. Another problem arose. I couldn't communicate with the pharmacist at all. I tried English. Then I tried French with Google Translate. Then I tried Arabic with Google Translate. And the female workers at the pharmacy didn't speak any of these languages?? What!? They also only accepted cash, which I didn't have. So I decided not to buy anything and went back to Leon. No, we wouldn't just leave him without pills. The rest of the group went to the supermarket anyway, and they went to the pharmacy on the way.

Now about the hospital. It was bad. Very bad. The paint on the walls was peeling off, there was no hand sanitiser, no one was wearing masks, and no one wore gloves. Leon said there were ants in the bathroom and a cat casually strolled through the main entrance. Yeah, it was bad.

I helped Leon up, gathered our things and we went to find a taxi. The short walk to the main street had already exhausted Leon. Come on, are we even going to make it home?

Well, we got a taxi and rode back to the apartment. The driver was great and friendly. We talked about our stay in Morocco and the country in general. Then we came home and ate everything we got at the restaurant - a complete rip-off for the price, and Leon seemed to be the tiniest bit better.

Then the girls came back from the store. We made pasta again and ate it with tomato sauce, even though Leon said he wasn't hungry and didn't eat. The pasta was fucking bussing, by the way.

We talked, rested and watched Rick and Morty. Leon got a little better. At least he seemed better to me.

He already had a cold from the desert and although he said he drank a lot, I know how much water was left in the apartment in the morning. But, we'll never truly know why he collapsed. He may have drunk two litres of water and – he says – a ton of green tea that day. He might not have. He was fine in the end.

We went to sleep. I think. We kept talking... Until I woke up at half past midnight. I think I fell asleep. It's funny to me how some days are perfectly calm, and quiet (yesterday, while driving) and the next day can be a wild roller coaster.

Yes, thank you, Leon, for making this blog more interesting.