After a chance meeting in Tarifa, Spain, and weeks adventuring through Morocco together, the day has finally come for my friend and I to part ways. He flies out early the next morning, while I plan to continue on to Morocco’s coastal city of Essouira. We have been good tourists up until this point, visiting many of the historical sites, and never missing a chance to partake in an authentic cultural experience. Today, however, there was only one thing on the itinerary, and that was to drink.
Being that Morocco is a Muslim country, alcohol is not as easily accessible as it is in much of the rest of the world, only being sold in a few select stores, hotels and high-end restaurants. Even in a large city like Marrakech, one must be tactical in both the procurement and consumption of alcohol.
The hotel we are staying at has a nice pool, and we set our minds on finding a way to day drink at this pool. Now, before you go on judging me, I should point out that my friend is Canadian, and it is in their culture to day-drink.
We speak with the ladies at the front desk, and they confirmed that we were allowed to drink there, but they didn’t know where to get any alcohol besides at fancy restaurants near the main square. They even took the time to draw us this detailed/confusing map to direct us into the general area of where we might find one of these restaurants.
As sweet as it was for them to draw the map, we both knew that the day was far too early to be sitting in a fancy restaurant, and that grabbing takeaway drinks would likely be costly. We knew there had to be a better way.
Some light Googling brought us to our solution. Carrefour! This French grocery store chain was located a bit outside of the medina (old city), and apparently had a large selection of alcohol, in a special section called, “The Cave.” When we arrived, we knew that we had found exactly what we were looking for.
There is a large selection in the cave, and it is hard to decide what to choose. We decided to ask one of the local guys in there what he recommends, and he suggested we try Moghrabi, a cheap local wine from Meknes.
We take a few bottles back and enjoy a nice afternoon drinking at the pool. I am certainly no connoisseur, but I thought the wine was more than drinkable, and a good bargain at 30 dirhams (about $3) a litre.
As the bottles begin to run dry, so too do our stomachs. We decide it is finally time to check the earlier map we were given, and to continue this party at a nice restaurant near the main square.
As we navigate our way through the many alleys, I see the city with new eyes, noticing hidden beauty, likely never to appear on a Google Maps listing.
Near Jemaa el-Fnaa (the main square), we find a cool restaurant with a rooftop terrace called Le Salama. The aesthetic inside is very appealing, and the lighting from the approaching sunset was really spectacular. Icing on the cake, was they were having a 2-for-1 happy hour special on the same wine we had just been drinking.
After dinner, we finished the night in prime fashion at a nearby jazz bar.
The rest of the night evolved into quite the bender, and was a perfect sendoff to what had become a close friendship. I hope you enjoyed reading about my boozy adventure around Marrakech, join me in my next post where I visit the coastal Moroccan city of Essaouira.
If you would like to read more about my adventures in Marrakech, please consider checking out some of my previous posts, including:
Wandering Medieval Alleys & Enjoying a Sunset over Marrakech’s Old City, which can be found here.
Breathtaking Designs of the Saadian Royal Tombs in Marrakech, which can be found here.
Rooftop Turtles & A Ruined El Badi Palace, which can be found here.
All of the above photos were taken by me. Have a great day! :)