Categories: uncategorized
Date: 17 November 2005 19:19:23
Where to start? First up... what an amazing place! I've never been to an Islamic country before, nor anywhere where my husband could barter his trousers for a mule ride and it is normal to buy pastries by the kilo. I have never been scrubbed thoroughly in a manner reminiscent of a childhood bathtime with about eight Muslim women wandering round in their underwear as it happened. I have never stayed somewhere so utterly sophisticated and yet so utterly earthy at the same time.
Morocco is a country of contrasts. Fiercely religious, with the call to prayer ringing out five times a day (and waking us up at 5am), but also hugely worldly - constant haggling to buy stuff every time you stepped out of your riad (guest house). I liked the architecture - all the beauty is on the inside of homes, which are dripping with eastern decadence, while the outside is just a plain door and the passage inside is kinked so you can't even see anything when it is opened.
That's what the country and the people are like too, I think. For instance all the women are veiled, which automatically made me feel that they were inapproachable, but when you met them in their own turf (such as the women only bathhouse), they were hugely welcoming. That taught me a lot, actually - I've so much to learn about Islam and how it works.
It's a place that rewards people watching, full of stuff going on that is just utterly bizarre. We never worked out why so many people were buying chicks and just wandering along with them in their hands (handwarmers, or just the cheeping sound?) and were the ones that were dyed different colours somehow better? Why would you only want to eat male meat (and hence it was all displayed with the testicles hanging down)? I'm sure there must be a reason, I just don't know what it is.
Anyhow - Moroccans are lovely, or the ones we met were, anyway. They were accepting, fun, and very willing to share their beliefs with us. I only hope we were as accepting back.
And as for the pastries by the kilo - I could do with losing half a stone now. But it was a fantastic break!