meknes

Ah! Meknes! How wonderful this city is. We arrived and planned to stay a day or two. We ended up staying five days and I didnot want to leave!
The first day we ended up in this gorgeous old Palace, now a museum. We ended up having a guide, which I normally donot want at all. Hafid was delightful and incredibly knowledgable.
I came back to make some watercolours of the place. Mainly the Harem s entertainment room. I could hear the music, laugther and smell the sweet smell of the opium pipes!
Hafid s English was excellent and as he came checking up on me every half hour or so we started talking. He brought me cups of sweet Moroccon tea. Cushions to sit on. Very sweet. Before the day was out he had asked us over for a meal at his mothers house the next day. Friday was a public holiday and all was closed. We gratefully accepted. Out of respect I wore my jellabah, traditional dress, which I was given for the Berber wedding. His mother was very pleased. She was adorable and also makes the best couscous ever. We had a thouroughly interresting afternoon. His mother was very concerned who would be looking after my children, as I was gallavanting across Africa. Needless to say that she didnot understand the aspect of our culture, which means your children actually move away from you. I am sure she felt very sad for me.
Hafid came with us on Saturday to Moulay Idriss and Volubilis. These Roman ruins are the best I have ever seen. Most of the exquisite mosaics are still in tact. The grounds are over 40 hectares. Needless to say that it is impossible to see it all. I did some watercolours, but could have spend weeks here. One day I would love to come back and just stay in the small village!
Leaving Meknes was hard to do, making new friends, also means having to say good bye , not knowing when you will meet or see each other again.

Fes

Fes was not at all what I expected. The travel book warns about getting lost in the Medina. Being hassled by false guides. Nothing about people trying to run you over at all times!
The Medina of Fes is wonderful. We didnot get lost at all. Very disappointing. Probably means that we werenot adventurous enough.
Medinas are the old part of the towns. Walled in, narrow streets and a delightful maze. In Fes the government have started doing up the old houses and how absolutely gorgeous they are.
Souqs are the markets, I am absolutely hooked on going to the markets. The produce is fresh not intervered with and it tastes like it should. Tomatoes actually tastes like tomatoes. I love the pommygranates. Red, ripe and juicy. Also the only thing my stomach can hold at the moment. I still cannot eat proparly altough if I stay away from the sweets all is well. Kasbahs are old places where people still live. People also live in Medinas so I actually fail to see the difference. Fes is the first big city we have come across and we didnot stay long at all.

shitty sahara story

We travelled with our so called friend, Majid, to Merzougha. His family has an auberge, camel treks and four wheel drive business. This is the guy who took us to his cousins wedding, gave me a dress for the occassion. It was at his mothers house that we had a wonderful couscous. We left on our camel safari late monday afternoon. Rode for about two hours. Slept under the stars. I had hoped to experience the silence of the desert. No such thing! The generator of the tourist groups kept buzzing till late in the night. Dutch and German tourists had the need to sing stupid songs as loudly as possible through the desert. Screaming and shouting. Very disappointing, especially since I had asked, and paid for, NOT to be near other tourist. To me it felt like being in an Holy place. Obviously I was the only one!
The next morning Pete woke up ill. Severe shits. We were in the middle of no where so onto the camel he went. Two hours later he couldnot go on any longer. He fainted and collapsed.
It was only about eleven o clock. Four mobile phones between the guides but none of them capable of doing anything. Finally a four wheel drive came to take us back. By now Pete was projectile vomiting as well, so straight to a doctor! Injection an lots of tablets and back to the auberge. By the evening I came down with it. I am not the best of nurses, hence I became a teacher! When I am not well just leave me alone and go away. I will go to sleep and wake up when I am well again. In the mean time Majid kept asking for the rest of the money. We were supposed to go out for five days. We went for less than two. When I was ill dispossed he asked Peter, who still was feverish and not well, for the rest of the money. I didnot realise this until I was well again. Okay so out of a hundred people ninety nine are really nice! People tell me that Muslims are not aloud to lie, steal or kill. If they do they are NOT good Muslims! This is wonderful, but HOW can one tell if somebody is a good Muslim this is the question! I suppose there is nothing in the Koran about being a bullshit artist or con artist! Never mind another lesson learned and no harm has come to us. We have both recovered, although I still cannot eat anything without vomiting it all up again. On a positive note, we both lost weight!

borderline

Travelled from Saiidia to Bouarfa. Along the Algerian border. The landscape looked very familiar, much like central Australia.
People welcome us to their country all the time. Drinking mint tea is the local past time. For men only, of course. We have been invited to peoples houses to have tea twice now. Somehow it becomes complicated afterwards. We have had one wonderful meal, couscous in somebodys home, in Bouarfa. Then there was the Berber wedding we got invited to. Unreal. Pete sat with the men and I with the women. Lots of fun. Especially as nobody spoke any other language than Berber!
I can get away with Dutch, German, Spanish and English. My French is coming back albeit too slowly for my liking. We never got to see the bride. It can take days for her to show up. We decided NOT to wait!
We travelled all the way to Figuig, 4 kilometers from the Algerian border. Saw my first oasis. Was great walking through early in the morning and getting lost in time.
Things I love about Morocco are the people, they are warm, friendly and funny.
There is NO grafiti! None what soever. This was an enormous contrast with Portugal which was so ugly with its grafiti. The food here is delicious. The colours are wonderful. The people on donkeys. I SO wanted to see that. The helpfulness of the people, especially at busstations. This again in contrast to Spain and Portugal where the busdrivers were borderline rude. Altogether Morocco is easy to travel, a pleasure to travel in. A pure delight!

morocco

Morocco; beautiful; colourful and the most amazing people I have ever encountered.
We entered on the 9th of October via Ceuta. Ceuta is a Spanish enclave. A wonderful mix of Andalusian and Africa delights. I thought it was extremely pretty and Peter liked it because of the duty free booze.
From Ceuta we took the very early morning bus because I was so excited that I couldnot wait. Of course this created a problem at the other side of the border. NO transport. A minor little detail I forgot that the time was two hours earlier. Instead of seven o clock in the morning it was only five o clock. Never mind we caught a taxi and arrived very early in Tetuoan. Of course being this early also meant that the hotel had no free rooms as yet. So we waited. Had breakfast and did a speed course in the Arabic language.
Chefchauen was next on the list to visit. A little place which gets white washed with blue wash. If this make any sense at all. I wanted to stay and just paint forever. The whole village looks like it has been dipped into ice and has turned into a snowglobe.
Things I love about Morocco; the poeple and the colours. and the people did I mention the people. No grafiti and wonderful people.
In the small villages the people still ride theis donkeys. I was beside myself because I had expected this in Portugal and of course I never even saw a donkey in Portugal.
We stayed nearly a week in Chefchaouen.
Al Houcima is a fishing port . THis is where we spend Pete s birthday on the beach. I am not sure WHY Australians travel the world in search of great beaches as we have the best in the world. But that is what you do on holidays. Had a marvellous fresh seafood platter on the wharf. Very special. Afterwards we travelled to Saidia also on the coast. It is also very close to Algeria. You could shake hands if they were friendly people. Saidia is a touristy seaside town for the Moroccons. Amazing. First day great weather and great waters. So we decided to stay a day longer. As my friend Murphy would say of course the weather changed. Wild and wonderful all day. The next day as we left the waters went back to being like a mirror. Just awesome.
We also had the best meal ever here in Saidia. A sardine tajine. Pete had photographed the sardines in the morning as the man selling them came around on his moped. In the evening we ate the little buggers. It was fingerlicking good. Of course the fingers of the RIGHT hand only. The down side; there is somehow always a downside to every story ; is that my stomach couldnot handle the richness of the food nor the olive oil it was cooked in and I have been unable to enjoy a proper meal since; but by jove it was worth it.