Morocco (long and detailed)

Neil and I just returned from Marrakech, threw some clothes in the laundry, and sat down to upload all of our pictures. Neil went a little photo crazy, but that's fine.
Day 1:
We left on Wednesday morning, pretty early, and we were starving by the time we got to Marrakech. Security into the country was pretty lax, we had a little trouble finding an ATM in the airport but eventually got it. We took a cab from the airport into the center of town. It cost about $15, was an old hatchback, and didnt have any seat belts. The drivers are crazy. People pass on all sides, in whichever lane they choose, bikes and mopeds weave in between cars, and mule-drawn carts try to as well. The cab driver dropped us off at "the door" which I had read so much about when I was looking at the hostel. Apparently, the street to the hostel is closed to cars during the day, so we had to get out and trek a little while. It really was like a movie. There were shops everywhere and a maze of small streets, the craziness of which I cannot do justice. Tucked back behind a number of twisting turns was our hostel, in a neighborhood that seemed uninhabited, but was apparently full of houses. We had booked two beds in the four person room and our roommates had not yet arrived. Starving, we decided to head toward the "big square" and search for some food. My limited French got us there and we let ourselves be guided by the waiters who stand in the street shoving menus at tourists. We ate outside at a restaurant which we later realized was called "Fast Food al-habab" and was apparently recommended by lonely planet. We both got chicken shawarma, which was really really good, and cokes, for about $7. Small children selling tissues came by, and since Neil is sick, I spent about fifty cents on some. Then we explored the marketplace and did some shopping. I did so much shopping. Its actually really scary. My french isnt great, neither is their english, but we have to haggle. Everything seemed to start at around $30, no matter what it was, and I usually haggled them down to $10-12. At one point, we went into a rug store and quickly realized that we could not afford any of the rugs there. There were about four men who came to show us the rugs, pulling them from the middle of stacks piled along the walls, spreading them out over every inch of floor space, and then on top of each other when that ran out. I felt terrible, because looking at the tags I could tell we couldnt afford them, and he kept assuring me a "shocking price," but I knew it wouldnt be enough. We headed back to the hostel to drop off our stuff, but stopped in many of the shops on the way back. We were on our way back out to Djemaa el Fna when we met Alexis, and English man who was also looking to eat dinner. He came with us and we ended up eating in the middle of the square from one of the stall vendors. We all had couscous with beef, and it ended up being about $8 for the two of us, including the moroccan salads that we didnt order but were inevitably brought. Every meal is usually followed by mint tea, which is amazingly good, except the tea at this stall was very sweet, so I was misled in the beginning. The stalls are all in competition to get European tourists to eat with them, so they would applaud every time some decided to sit down. However, Alexis was black, and apparently I have a moroccan face, so we didnt get any applause. We finished eating and had mint tea, then went to explore the marketplace. There are people performing everywhere, but the locals surround them pretty heavily so you couldn't see anything. Also, as soon as we got close to a performance, someone would come around with an upside down drum or hat asking for money. I kept some small coins in my pocket, but if you don't give them enough they aren't happy. We went back to the hostel pretty early because everything starts to pack up around 10pm. Our roommates were already asleep when we got there, so we just called it an early night and went to sleep.
Day 2
We got up fairly early for our day of tourist stuff. We were armed with our map (given to us by the hostel, although they told us that it was ten euros, let us debate whether it was worth it, and pay them, before they laughed at us and gave us our money back. We went up to the mosque next to the square, but we couldnt get inside. We took some great pictures and then walked through a garden behind the mosque. Eventually we found the Saadian tombs, once we were pointed by the man who owns the spice shop. The tombs were amazing, ornate, and enormous. When we left we had to go to the spice shop, and I ended up buying a few things. After that we headed over to the Palais Badii, but got sidetracked in a little shop. That guy had some small rugs on the wall, but he didnt know the price because his boss was asleep across town, so we would have to come back that afternoon. He then took us through a small labyrinth to another shop, where we proceeded to "make a deal" for some rugs. They weren't actually rugs, which we couldnt afford, but are called kalim. We left, and actually did make our way to the palace, which was mainly ruins. There were storks on the rooftops, the biggest birds I have ever seen. It was really scary and I made Neil go into all the rooms first to make sure there were no birds inside. We also went onto the terrace, even closer to birds, and Neil got yelled at for taking pictures. Leaving the palace, we made the mistake of looking slightly lost and were able to find ourselves a local guide. He was probably fifteen years old, and he refused money at first, but offered to show us around. He took us to the Jewish Quarter and showed us a synagogue that was very pretty. The men worship on the ground floor, and the women worship upstairs behind them. Then he took us to another spice shop, I'm pretty sure it was run by his brother, who may have also lived in the shop. He invited us in, and gave us a demonstration of all the products in the shop, some of which we ended up buying again. I got a small facial and a pumice stone and lipstick as a gift. Another man came in and brought us mint tea. We left, our guide was waiting for us outside, and he led us to a restaurant for lunch. The restaurant was clearly a very nice one, and was the most expensive meal we ate the entire time. We got a Moroccan Salad, which came with about ten different small sides, cokes, entrées, a fruit plate, and pastries for about $60. I ordered the tangine with lemon chicken, which had an indescribably amazing sauce. Neil ordered a pastilla, with choice of chicken or pigeon, although I made him get the chicken under threats of never kissing him again. After lunch we made our way to the Palais Bahia, waited for it to open, and marvelled again at the intricate detailing of everything in this palace. I thought I had seen very detailed chateaus in France, but they were incomparable to the things we saw at Bahia. By this time we were dying to get back to the room and drop off our rugs, so we took a small detour, bought a few more things, and made our way back. By that time the rest of the museums were closed, so we went out again to the main square for dinner.