Megan Cole - Riches - Snog, Steal and Burn

Twenty minutes passed before Celine finally came out. Luci looked up from stroking a stray cat that had wandered up. There were hundreds of the skinny creatures all over the city. ‘Has your thirst for shopping been quenched?’

‘For the time being. Talking of thirsts, can we go and get a beer?’

‘How about a mint tea?’ Luci said and frogmarched her over to this really cool underground café she’d seen all the locals go into. The place went quiet as they walked in. Luci wasn’t surprised; even in a place like Marrakech, Celine’s puffball skirt and striped braces were a little out of the ordinary.

The cool stone interior was heaven after the oven-like temperatures outside. After ordering mint tea in Arabic and some baklava, Celine pushed up her sunglasses and sighed happily. ‘So totally in my element. I could stay here forever.’

‘We haven’t got that luxury, unfortunately.’ Their mission was never far away from Luci’s thoughts. ‘Do you want to go check out some of the sights afterwards?’

‘You go, I’ll probably stay round here.’ Celine’s eyes gleamed. ‘There’s this silver necklace back there I have to get my hands on.’

After filling up on tea and the honeyed sweet pastry, they paid and went their separate ways outside. Luci politely refused the man selling hot snails on a street corner and decided to head back into the alleyways. She had the hotel guidebook with her, but it didn’t stop a very persistent young boy trying to show her the way. In the end she gave him a few coins because he made her laugh with a spot-on impression of Andy from Little Britain.

For the next few hours, Marrakech stole her. Luci went down into the 16th century tombs and walked up high on the medina walls. The El Bahlia royal palace was amazing, as was the Museum of Islamic Art. Streets seemed to appear from nowhere or disappear, and twice she ended up back at the place she’d started out in. Luci went with the flow, taking endless pictures. It was all part of the fun of exploring.

Last on the list was the famous Jemaa El Fna, the biggest open-air square in the world. When Luci walked out on to it, she wasn’t disappointed. It was massive, stretching away the length and breadth of at least three football pitches. Over on the far horizon she could see the towering peaks of the Atlas Mountains.

In the middle of the square was the food market - hundreds of identikit makeshift restaurants. Enticing smells wafted across and Luci realised she was starving. Giving the snake charmer coaxing a sleepy cobra out of its box a wide berth, she went to fill her stomach.

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