The Streets of Marrakech, Morocco

I loved Marrakech. The vibrancy of the people and the colours were mind blowing. I visited with a friend and we spent three days furiously haggling, visiting Hammams and drinking mint tea. I must admit I was quite nervous of the haggling at first, but after a day of observing the ritual, I threw myself whole-heartedly into the game! I’m sure I still paid way over the odds for my purchases, but it was so much fun.

The Hammam experience was interesting too. In true British prudishness I didn’t want to take my underwear off, so sheepishly walked into the steam rooms, where the lady promptly pulled everything off me and got scrubbing! I was so silly to have worried about it, next time I will stride in with confidence.

A not so nice experience was getting a Henna tattoo on my hand. The minute we set foot in Jemaa el-Fnaa square we were grabbed and pulled into seats where the ladies started to draw on our hands. Before we had time to realise what was happening my hand was half covered. When I pulled away they demanded payment. Of course they had spotted two newbie arrivals and pounced on us and we ended up paying, what I now know, an extortionate amount of money – for a rubbish, badly drawn henna tattoo! I learnt my lesson – you have to hold your nerve in this bazaar.