Africa
Trip Start
May 02, 2010
1
20
21
Trip End
Aug 09, 2010
Rabat, Morocco
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
We spent the last two days in Fez, the oldest medieval city in the world. We had such an amazing time wandering the narrow winding, car free streets and stayed in a beautiful hotel that was built in the 10th century.There are hundreds of artisan shops with people weaving, sewing, and making shoes and other leather goods. You have to clear the streets every ten minutes to make way for donkeys pulling carts full of fruit, fabric, and leather hides. The smell of spices and freshly cut lemon grass fills the air.
Walking through the butcher district has turned me into a vegetarian once again, at least for now. Camel heads lie on the counter tops, tongues sticking out. Skinned lambs hang from the ceiling with their bare rat like tails. You buy your chicken live and they snap its neck in front of you and put it through a feather plucking machine. I'm sure the meat at home is worse and the animals probably have far lower living conditions but as they say 'out of sight out of mind.' Wow, I'm pathetic.
Staying with Adil's family has been so wonderful. They are the sweetest people ever. I really love Islamic culture, everyone has been so genuinely kind to us. Adil's mom Yemna is the cutest. She feeds us four times a day and after I stuff myself to the brim she looks at me forlornly and says to Adil in Arabic 'She hasn't eaten anything.' One day she brought out all of her kaftans, traditional Islamic dresses, and had Shanti and me do a fashion show complete with head scarves. When we were done she gave each of us a dress.
Rabat/Sale, Adil's city, is on the coast so the weather here is actually pretty nice with the cool ocean breeze. We went to the beach one day where it was a mix of berkas and bikinis. We road camels on the beach and of course had a picnic prepared by Yemna.
We go back to Marrakech in two days for our flight to Barcelona. We are excited to
further explore the marketplace where horses, camels, donkeys, and monkeys gather.
Today is the first day of the Mayan new year. Happy New Year and Salam Alikoum (May peace be with you).
