Medina: |məˈdēnə|noun the old Arab or non-European quarter of a North African town.

ORIGIN Arabic, literally ‘town.’  Abderrahim drove Lane & I in to meet Courtney at the medina, inside the ramparts of the old city.

There is a big central square called Jemaa el Fna.  It’s a huge plaza where food stalls selling hot food set up for the evenings, there are snake charmers, monkeys doing tricks, whirling-type dervishes, ladies reading your fortune or doing henna tattoos, people selling all sorts of things.  We also wandered around the souks, which are the tangled web of little alley ways  lined with shops (rugs, jewelry, spices, leather goods, shoes, fruit, you name it, you see it). We wandered through a metal working souk, shops taking apart and reconfiguring old bedframes and other stuff. I didn’t buy anything, nothing I wanted yet and I wasn’t quite ready for haggling. People in the souks were fine, tried to get us into shops, but were respectful enough if we ignored them (which is of course what you want to do unless you want to get involved in a haggling session or have someone follow after you).  We went to a café that Lane had visited and had a coffee overlooking the market. By the time we were ready to leave, it was sunset and it was getting really crowded, noisy, smoky. I saw my first snake charmers and KEPT MY DISTANCE. Live, loose cobras are NOT my idea of fun. It was a good first exposure, I’m looking forward to seeing more of the medina, there are loads of gardens, I’d like to explore the ramparts, some of the gates through the walls are evidently gorgeous, so I’ll have to find them.