A 'Lively' Place

I've described many towns and cities in my journal as 'lively.' It wasn't until I saw Marrakesh that I realized how  when concerning any other place, just how pointless the word was. Marrakesh is hands down, the strangest, busiest, and most chaotic city I've ever been in.  Describing it as lively would be the understatement of the century. 
We arrived in the evening, settled into our riad and headed out into the Djemaa el-Fna, the central market. At night, the market becomes (even more) alive and a series of food stalls pop up as well as OJ stands, date sellers, fortune tellers, street performers, snake charmers, and all manner of people. Oh, and pickpockets too.
We ate dinner right in this night market which was very exciting for me, as it is very difficult not to feel like a tourist in Morocco, but this experience felt very real.  We sat along a long row of tables, 24 of us squeezed into a table built for far fewer. It was a good dinner with plenty to eat, almost all of it recognizable. Toward the outside end of the table, there was a bit of a kerfuffle and I looked up to see one of the food stall workers who had a kid by the scruff of his neck and was giving him a serious pounding. At first I was horrified, but quickly learned that the cheeky kid had reached right in front of my friend and grabbed his camera. Unfortunately for him, he ran right into this guy who wasn't going to let him forget it. It was a briefly entertaining exchange then, but then mostly unnerving. As news spread down the table, every valuable was cinched more tightly around necks or stuffed into bras.
We wandered through the market after dinner, now more prepared for the chaos of it.  We hit some of the market stalls, amazingly decorated with goods.  I've never seen anything like it, and, like most of Morocco, is beyond my description.  But, each of these stalls were absolutely packed with stuff, leather products, clothes, blankets, rugs, jewelry, antiques.  I mean literally packed from floor to ceiling.  This pic will help.  
We had the next day free to explore.  I tagged along with an American couple who had an interesting idea, as we found the nearest swank hotel, pretended we stayed there and hired a local guide from them to take us safely around the city.
This was a great idea that gave us some insight into the city and kept people from bothering us so much as we wandered through the souks.  Our guide took us into Ben Youssef Madrasa, and old Islamic college which is full of fantastic carvings and mosaics.  We also went into the Marrakech museum, a former palace, being converted into a museum.  It is a beautiful venue and is full of antique Moroccan crafts, pottery and interesting photos of the old city.  When we finished with history, we delved back into the market, wandering through the different areas.  The souks are semi organized into districts according to what they sell- leather, lamps, food, spices.  It was a bit tedious to ask every shopkeeper if I could take a picture of their shop, but it helped that the people I was with bought a lot of stuff. 
We had lunch overlooking the square, the best way to observe the snake charmers and monkey handlers without having to pay for the privilege.  We spent the rest of the afternoon ogling at the the market stalls and learning to be shrewd bargainers.  The bargaining thing was really fun after a while, especially when observing a master.  The evening was surprisingly relaxing, hanging out with the group in our riad.  Everyone was tired after a day of constantly saying "No" in various levels of politeness.  The next day we headed out of the city and to the calm and beautiful coastline.