Shops, Souqs & Médinas!

Driving around Marrakech and passing through the other Moroccan cities, you would think the shopping might be very similar to home. 

However, outside of these big cities, shopping is a lot different.

Moroccans do their shopping in their local médina or souq.
Most dictionaries define a médina as the old walled part of a North African town. 
A souq is defined as an open air market found in Asian and North African towns. 
As part of our tour, we had time to visit the médina's of Rabat, Fes and Marrakech. Each were interesting, busy and very loud!
While initially it seems chaotic, médinas usually have sections: meat, breads, spices, fruit/veg, clothes, furniture, household items. Local people know exactly where to go to get their fresh produce for their cooking. Look closely at the photographs to identify fruit and vegetables we find on our supermarket shelves which originate in Morocco. 

The médina passageways are really narrow and you can only imagine how hard it must be for the shop owners to bring their produce through.  Donkeys, hand carts and motorbikes are used. There doesn't seem to be any restrictions on motorised vehicles -once it fits, it's allowed to go through!

There were many craft areas/workshops at the edges of the médina. In Fes and Marrakech we visited the leather souq, the furniture souq, the carpet souq and the ceramic souq. Craftsmen work on their products in their workshops. Nowadays, a display or show for tourists is ready for viewing. Usually the owner or manager with fluent English will lead tourists around the workshop explaining the process and finish in the shop where the tourists are encouraged to buy souvenirs.