Love it or hate it, most people agree that you have to visit Marrakesh when you go to Morocco. It's considered the gateway to the Sahara, and was the first trade city that caravans crossing through the desert came upon. It still has a huge number of markets of all different sorts, but is now a hotspot for tourism as well, although I didn't find it nearly as touristy as many places I've visited.
I arrived by train and managed to figure out how to catch the bus into the center of the medina by asking locals - I've found Moroccans are generally pretty friendly and helpful. It cost about 30 cents to get into town this way, which was fine despite my backpack. Once in town, I looked for the hostels recommended by the Lonely Planet (I hadn't booked ahead) and couldn't find them due to my poor orienteering skills. Instead, I just went into one of the first places I found, checked out the room (which was fine for budget accomodation and worked to a reasonable 11 dollars a night for a single room) made sure it wasn't ever available to rent by the hour, settled in, and then took a walk to the main square.
The main square is a pandamoneum of sounds and smells and activities. You could buy all sorts of food, including the regular tanjines, skewered meats, snails, freshly squeezed orange juice, mint tea, and so on. There were bands all around playing various types of music, of which some was apparently Berber and some was more traditional Moroccan and some was a mix of styles - reggae mixed with moroccan, or sub-saharan African drumming mixed with moroccan. There were also women reading fortunes from cards or from hands, women painting henna designs on hands, snake-charmers, and magicians. Some men in the square were telling stories or jokes in Arabic - I'm told that the stories are generaly traditional stories which are passed down from generation to generation, and that many of them are from the Arabian Nights. The crowd was mostly arabic-looking men and some tourists as well, but there were definitely a lot of locals around. It felt very safe and I wasn't harassed at all.
I headed back to my hotel and discovered a large cockroach on the wall, so after killing it (to ease my peace of mind in terms of sleeping for the night) I decided to move to somewhere slightly better the next night.
The next day, after changing hotels to a place with hot water and without visible cockroaches, I mdea my way through the markets and through the main attractions of Marrakesh.
I visited Marakesh's most ancient mosque and religious school, and also went to its art museum, which is staged in a refurbished palace. The palace was at least as interesting as the art. There were displays of traditional artisans handicrafts, such as embroidary and pottery, as well as more modern art and paintings. The palace had been beautifully restored, and was in a style that reminded me of Andalusian Spain - the same types of intricate patterns of tilework and woodwork that you see there were evident here as well. (Unlike older Christian art, which is all full of saints and Jesus and Mary, Islamic art did not depict beings because these were too close to being false idols - so instead patterns were used. Sometimes artistic calligraphy appears - I presume it is writings of the Qu'ran.) This museam had a few painting by Morrocan artists from more recent times, and some of these were very beautiful - they depicted daily life in Moroccan towns, as well as scenes from the desert.
After visiting the museums, I braved the souqs and market streets. These were fascinating! I saw the way they dye leather and cloth, and learned the some of the natural dyes they use, including poppy, henna, saffron, indigo, mint, and so on. Walking through the souqs you can see people actually making just about everything for sale in the shops, so I watched wood sculpture, metal work, shoe-making, carpet-weaving, as well as other things. Some of the berbers (who generally live in the desert) seem to squat in the old run down hotels in this area and use the small rooms as their workshops as well as temporary accomodation.
I also spent plenty of time in the markets, from which I emerged relatively unscathed and only a few dollars lighter. The most interesting of these experiences was in the carpet shop - they saw me and I think immediately knew I wasn't in the market for an expensive carpet, but maybe a lovely thrown for my bed or sofa?? I also really enjoyed my time in the pharmacy/herb store, where one of the proprieters, Hassan, explained everything to me in great detail. He also made me sniff this black powdery substance, which he told me was for clearing the sinuses and the head, curing snoring and curing headaches - it definitely felt like it!
There are beggers and homeless people here, although they are pretty unobtrusive and have never hasselled me. However, in Marrakesh I saw a very thin man with bright but glazed eyes squatting in the street and watching me eat lunch. Every once in a while he poured a liquid from this bottle he was carrying onto a rag and held it to his nose and breathed it in; I presume he was addicted to sniffing some sort of solvent. I gave him about a quarter of my lunch in the end but no money, and the locals chased him away when he seemed to be asking for something more from me.
Later in the afternoon I went to Cafe Arabe, which is legendary among tourists and is on a rooftop of one of the restaurants in the market area. It wasn't very busy, and was like a little oasis in the middle of the crowded busy city - lovely ambience and very relaxing! They misted water every few minutes from above, which wasn't enough to get you wet but just enough to keep you cool. It was fabulous, but I wondered about the necessity of it in a place where water is pretty scarce. I watched the sun set from there and met some English women who were there on vacation as well.