California Dreamin'

Of all my travels, I have never been somewhere that looks and feels more like California, than the Northern mountain regions of Morocco. Today on the bus from Fes to a small town called Chefchuan I continually found myself forgetting that I was in another country.


After saying good-bye to Michele's business school friends, we started the bus trip out of town and down a straight flat road through an agricultural valley surrounded by rolling brown hills. I felt like I was driving down I-5, but then, right when I would expect to see a McDonnalds or a Mac Truck, we would see a mosque, or a donkey crossing the road.


Slowly we drove up into the hills and I felt as if I were on the twisting roads of Calavaras County or the inland sections of Highway 101 on the way from the Bay Area to LA.

Chefchuan is nestled amog larger hills sprinkled with green trees and splashed by the shadows of clouds. After settling in to our hotel, Michele and I went for a hike along a sun scortched path. We ended our hike at a Spanish mosque whose simplicity and location reminded us more of the California missions than other mosques in Morocco.


As the sun went down during our dinner at a terrace restaurant, the air cooled and we missed those nifty outdoor heaters which are ubiquitos in California.

Fes

We spent the last three days in Fes. As the religous center of Mroccco, Fes was both interesting and uninteresting. During the day the medina crawled with people, locals and tourists alike. A night, finiding a place to watch the world cup and have a beer could be difficult. We did get to spend a great deal of time 'lost' in the Medina, where we came across many beautiful Muslim buidlings such as mosques and medersas (Koranic schools). We even passed some of the most important mosques during a prayer time, so we could glance in to view what non-muslims do not usually have the opportunity to see. This is Michele and in one of the medersas.


The medinas are even better for shopping than viewing architecture, so we did a bit of browsing as well. Shopping areas in the medina are divided into Souks, which are clusters of one kind of shop or work areas for one kind of craft. You may be sourounded by shops selling jallabs (traditional Moroccan robes that bring to mind Jedi Knights) and turn a corner to find yourself surrounded by half a dozen stalls selling an identical assortment of candy. By far the most fascinating souk (and the most pungent) was the leather souk. From a terrace above the medina you can see vats full of the chemicals and dyes used to make leather from cows, sheep, goats, and camels. This is a picture of a leather souk from ground level.

Meknes and Volubilis

Yesterday when we left Marakech, our plan was to go to Fes for a couple days, and then decide if we wanted to visit the nearby town Meknes, the starting point for visiting Volubilis, a site of Roman ruins. When we were on the train to Fes, we realized we had made a hotel reservation in Meknes, not Fes. Luckily, Meknes is on the way to Fes, so we just got off a few stops early. We saw the ruins this morning and got on an early afternoon train to Fes. The ruins were really cool, especially the mosaic floors which are well preserved because the matirials the tiles are made from are naturally colored so they didn't fade.

Here is a picture of Michele, Ankur, and I in front of one of many of the hamam ruins in Volubilis. A hamam is a Morrocan bath, which is similar to a turkish bath.


This mosaic depicts the 12 tasks of Herculese.

The People of Marakech

We have met so many fabulous people in Marakech who have made our time here a memerable experience.


One afternoon we bought water from a herbolist, Rashib, who escorted us into his shop to aquaint us with his products. He served us tea, a sign of Moroccan hospitality, and the lesson began. We learned all about uses for different herbs and spices, and smelled a variety of incences, and sampled many skin creams. Soon we were talking about where we came from. Rashib told us about his village of 50 people in the Atlas mountains where the sky is so clear you can touch the stars and feel like there is no one there but you, the earth and sky. Eventhough he spoke in French he was so enthusiastic and poetic in his body language we understood him. Keish confirmed this by translating for us. In the end we bought a few little things from him, and as a token of his gratitude he gave us each a pummas stone, perfect for our Moroccan bath.

One night dinner we sampled our way around the main plaza in the medina, and stopped for kabobs at a stand with a particularly gregarious waiter. He showed us our names are written in arabic, and then tought us a few dirty words, but not after much blushing and laughing on his part. Then he took us around behind the cart and let us be the "chefs" and call out to the passers by to enjoy their evening repast here. It was one of the most fun meals I have had.


The night we went out clubbing in Marrakech we had a fabulous cab driver take us home. When he asked us where we were from and we said California, he whipped out his California drivers liscens. He was so excited. It turns out he had been a limo driver in Long Beach for the last year and had just returned to Morocco, but wanted to go back to Long Beach. By the end of the cab ride we were all rocking to 2-Pac. It was good times.

Doors and Ceilings of Marakech

I noticed yesterday that I have been taking many pictures of doors and ceilings. I have teken too many pictures of them to be interesting unless they are part of a door and window study, so here it is, a sample of the doors and ceilings I saw in one day in Marakech. The first is the door to our room in the riad. I feel like I am entering a munchkin house every time I go in because of the way the small door opens in the bigger door. The doorway behind the rectangular door is spire shaped.


Later we were walking down a random street and came across this door, framed by Michele and Keisha. I want to emphasize that this is a random door on the street, so, you can only immagine what the doors are like in palaces and mosques.


In the afternoon we visited the Saadian Tombs, where many generations of the Saadian family, the people to drove the Portuguese out of Morocco, are burried. This picture is the ceiling in one of the rooms, the room had about a dowen ceiling pannels, each with a unique design.


The best doors and celings were at the El Badi Palace. A complex of apartments built around open courtyards with gardens of fruit trees all around.

The first two pitcures are a ceiling and door around the first courtyard.





The last two pictures are a door and a ceiling around the second courtyard. Notice the door within a door going on here.



This last ceiling is my favorite. It reminds me of a flying carpet.

Marakech 411

I have been in Marakech for 3 nights now. This place is fantastic. When we got here, Michele and I met up with three of Michele's business school friends, Keisha, Ashish, and Ankir. We are staying in a riad which is like a guesthouse where all the rooms open out on to an open room or garden. Our riad is in the medina, which is the old part of town. We are very close to the central market which is filled with food stalls and entertainers and bordered by restaurants and shops. The place is enchanging at night when it is packed with tourists and locals alike.

Casablanca

So far Casablanca is not outstanding, but not bad either. After arriving yesterday, Michele and I went out for dinner and called it an early night. One interesting observation was that a large number of street vendors appeared on the pedestrian boulevard outside our hotel some time after 9 pm.

This morning we visited the Mosque Hassan II, which is the thrid largest religious building in the world. The architecture and craftsmanship were amazing, and almost all the building materials, most of which was marble, came from Morocco. This afternoon we will visit the colonial section of town to see the Art Decco buildings before we head off to Marrakech on the Marrakech Express.

Arrival in Casablanca

The airport here is beautiful, with tiled walls and pilliars, green plants, and even a fountain to greet you as you step into the terminal. The difference is especially striking when compared to Heathrow where we spent the greater part of the afternoon waiting for our flight to Morocco.

Cheese Cake

This isn't exactly related to my travels, but I have to share it because it is too cool for the world not to know. I went to a wedding on Saturday night, and because the bride didn't like wedding cake (who does?) she had a cheese cake. Now, this was not the kind of cheesecake you are thinking of. No. It was several wheels of cheese of various diameter, stacked on top of one another to look like the tiers of a wedding cake, and decorated with flowers. They served the cheese with crackers and fruit and little pastries for those who insisted on sweets. I love it!

New York, NY

Erik and I arrived in New York this morning, and so far I have spent the whole time taking care of business for the international part of my trip. I can't decided if it is good or bad that I have spent enough time in New York to be content running errands and surfing the net instead of shopping and visiting museums.

Airplane Windows

Why don't they make an airplane on which the windows actually align with the seats instead of having windows with a head rest smack dab in the middle?

Getting Ready (haiku)

travel appraoching
much to do before I go
this trip will be fun