SIDE PROJECT: CURIOUS SIGHTS IN MOROCCO

I started to realize that we were walking past a hair salon every few blocks, and that all of them had the best homemade signs, so I started to take pictures as we went:

 

And Canned Luncheon Meat:

And a thumbs up wearing a fez:

And rape for only 60 Dirhams (that’s less than one dollar!):

And the innocent tree who caught a raw deal:

On the train, the cutest cell phone on/off signs:

Cell Phone ON

Cell Phone OFF and dreaming of a ciggie.

 

The unlicensed Disney Channel ice cream shoppe which was apparently established in 1957 ???

DAY 11: LAST DAY: ANDREA OF ARABIA

We spent most of the day at the beach, me sweating out the sangria and Drambuie from the night before.

Turns out the Mediterranean Sea is the biggest meat market EVER.  I went in the water and had two boys chatting me up in 5 minutes, which never happens.  One looked like Yul Brynner and swam like a fish, and the other was non-descript but wanted to hold my hands under water. eww. I think they think American women are exotic or something.

And on to Cafe Hafa.  This is a place located right on the cliff, just past the Kasbah. It opened in 1921 and has a Big Sur vibe to it. This is where you drink mint tea, smoke hash (or “kif”) and stare at the water. It has been visited by all the hippie greats: William Burroughs, Jack Kerouac, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Dylan, Tennessee Williams, etc etc etc. I could’ve sat here all day.

View from Cafe Hafa

The tea man. Cafe Hafa serves the best mint tea.

At a nice lookout point on the walk back to the medina:

Picture of a typical mini-market store in Morocco–filled with bread! It is the symbol of life and love and comes with every meal:

The Kasbah:

Take me to the Fibar, no the Kasbah. anyone?

And my trip ended with a moonlit camel ride on the beach of Tangier…My camel’s name in Jamon (means ham in spanish):

Giddy-Up Jamon!

Song of the Day: Chi-Baba Chi-Baba, Peggy Lee

DAY 10: TANGIER IS CASABLANCA!

Tangier has evolved into yet another metropolis set on the beach. It is full of discotheques and restaurants, and street vendors ans souvenirs, just like many other cities. I was really interested the history of Tangier as a mysterious and exotic destination for the jet set in the 50’s and 60’s (Turns out, Tangier was the city that the movie Casablanca was based after!! Ahhh…this explains so much about Casablanca). 

First stop: The Hotel Continental.  A legend in itself.  This hotel played host to many a folk, including Degas, Winston Churchill, Truman Capote, Jack Kerouac, Tennessee Williams, Paul Bowles, etc.  It is a classic, and has a view of the entire bay and of the Straight of Gibralter.

The Hotel Continental

 

Shop located next to the Hotel Continental

 

View from the Hotel Continental

Then then walked about town and saw the Cinema Rif, which was the only “real” theatre that we had seen on the trip. I think I read somewhere that a guy made it his pet project to refurbish it. 

 

The cafe inside the theatre lobby

 

Theatre lobby. The chalkboard is the official marque. No, the TV is not the theatre screen.

The AWESOME posters hanging on the wall inside the theatre itself.

 

 

And, another famous Tangier spot, Cafe De Paris.  This cafe is on the corner of “Place de France” which is the little French section of Tangier. During the Second World War this was the rendezvous point for British, American and German spies. Here you can get coffee, tea or fruit juices. The men of Morocco sit at cafes like this for HOURS.

 

Interior of Cafe de Paris

Our waiter at Cafe de Paris

And, for the finale of the day, and certainly for Tangier, and maybe even the entire trip, this is Caid’s Bar, THE actual bar which Rick’s Cafe in Casablanca the film was based on…sigh.  We went here late in the evening, had a drink, and relaxed. This was my kind of place.

 

Caid's is located in the Hotel Minzah, the nicest hotel in Tangier, and home to old Hollywood.

 

The list of celebs that have stayed at the Hotel Minzah: Dougles Fairbanks, Rita Hayworth, Bridget Bardot, Farrah Fawcett...

 

Caid's Piano Bar a.k.a. the real Rick's Cafe

 

Blurry Caid's by night

To top it off, a cute french boy asked/got volunteered to play the piano after the regular guy was done for the night. He did. It was perfect. sigh…

 Song of the Day: Summertime, George Gershwin, as performed by the French guy at Caid’s.

DAY 9: TRAIN TO TANGIER

Most of the day was filled by the train ride to Tangier. 

We arrived to a cool sea breeze, and a hotel right on the beachfront.  Tangier appeared to be the Miami Beach of Morocco…And as a bonus, most ”Tangerines” spoke Espanol since it is only a 1.5 hour ferry ride to Spain.

View from the beach

That piece of land of the left is Spain.

 

 

And this piece of land is HOT.

 

Song of the Day: Better Days, The Kinks

DAY 8: GETTIN JIGGY JIGGY WITH ABDUL

The streets of Fez are crazy! At least a mile of shops, and souqs (artisan quarters) specializing in silver, glass, leather-shoes, jackets, poufs, belts, everything!

One of the main streets in Fez.

A nooooogat dude.

Looks like more quality dentistry.

More from the streets of Fez. The red with the green star is the Moroccan flag.

A mirror shop.

Dried fruit and nut shop.

Through the doors of a mosque

 

We walked most of the streets looking for the tannery, which is where the animal skins are treated, dried, then dyed, but we never found it. Then Abdul came along…

This is Abdul.

He is a student and speaks good english, and offered to walk us around for a small fee and he wanted to practice his english on us. We were so lost and I was so hell bent on seeing the tanneries, that I agreed (it is not unusual for someone to offer to be your guide here, and Abdul seemed nice and smart and he grew up in the medina); Jonathan decided to head back to the Riad. Over 2 hours, I saw many things in the city that I would have otherwise missed, like, the boiler room for the bathhouse, which a dude has to man all day long, in the already 100 degree weather:

The fire that is manned by the dude in the boiler room, all day.

And the community baker, where denizens take their raw dough to be cooked:

This boy's mother sent him to the communal bakery with raw dough.

And this is the baker that will bake it for him.

And the herbalist that had all kinds of spices and oils, and even raw musk and amber. And an old house that converted to a music school the converted to a museum. It had spectacular views of the city:

On the roof of the old music school.

And many berber (nomad-like people of Africa) shops that sell wood, leather,
linens, blankets, etc.

And the tannery. The stench here is awful, not unbearable, but muy muy rancid. Like wet leather  overpowered by, well, rotten raw meat that is baking in the sun. They give you a sprig of mint to sniff while you’re there to help cope. Here, you can see the pools where they treat the skins with oils, then dye. And all the fuzz on the rooftops is the wool, which will be used for yarn and such. Goat is the most supple leather, cow and camel the hardest, and sheep is somewhere in the middle. Baaaa.

The tannery. Notice the scale-you can see little people in there. Each pool is about 4' in diameter.

Mules transporting the treated skins.

Abdul then invited me to his house for tea and a massage. He said his heart beat fast for me, and he liked my feist and that he would treat me like his wife. And we could get jiggy jiggy and it would be CRAZY (which he said about 20 times) and I would not be disappointed! He would make me happy and he would never leave my side like Jonathan, my husband decoy. I declined, over and over and over, but not without both of us laughing, because his bargaining antics were just so funny. He went no holds barred at the end, and when he found out I was 33 (he is 22) well perfect, even more CRAZY he said! HA! We exchanged email addys, my only goal being to receive a note from him that may be as hilarious as today and worth publishing on this blog. I still don’t know if Abdul was a man-of the-night, or a tour guide, or both! Good times. (In case it is not clear, I of course did not go to his apt. I am not a tart).

The stench of the tannery has stayed with me all day to the point where I put perfume under my nose. On to Tangier tomorrow…

Song of the day: Mrs. Robinson! Simon and Garfunk

DAY 7 BONUS: THE SMELLS OF MOROCCO

The consistent smell of Morocco can only be described by a combination of all things below:

Warm spices like cumin, tumeric, paprika, ginger, moroccan curry, cinnamon, allspice
fresh sweat
baking bread
raw toilettes
a sharp bite from the smell of rosewater
raw musk
b.o.
rotting trash
fresh mint
exhaust fumes
uncooked lamb
mothballs
burning cedar

DAY 7: MOONLIT IN FEZ

Spent 7 hours on a train today from Marrakesh to Fez. I always get melancholy on trains, and the ipod only supports this. Hence, the song of the day is La Demme d’argent by Air.

There was another farter in our train car, but it was a one time thing.I figure once in 7 hours with 6 revolving seats has to be with the odds.

We are staying in a very old Riad in Fez, right inside of the old city (called the “medina”) which seems magical and alive.The moon is bright and the streets are bustling. It feels like Aladdin ninjas should be lurking on the rooftops here.

Courtyard of our Riad in Fez.

Arabian Fantasy

Since we are food ninjas, we had a rooftop dinner at a local restaurant, and I finally ate my favorite Morrocan dish, b’stilla (or passtilla), pigeon pie but sometimes made with chicken. Yum! My goal is to eat this at least once a day. I’ve been talking about it for the past 5..

Oh, and tried “avacado juice” this morning-stangely tasty, and not like guacamole at all.

DAY 6: MONKEY, SNAKES, GOLF & BBQ

Our last day in Marrakesh is appropriately my favorite day thus far.

We beat the heat by chillin at the riad for most of the day. I set out for a traditional “hammam” treatment which a spa-like scrub down experience that was quite nice and relaxing, and, I always feel cleanest when scrubbed with sandpaper or other abrasives. Basically, they slather you with a black eucalyptus soap, rinse, extreme loofah, rinse, body mud mask, rinse, oil, rinse.

We then got into le petit taxi ‘o hell as we tried to go to a much talked about local traditional restaurant, and our plans were foiled due to our language barrier (main languages here are arabic and french), but still ended with some excellent cous cous.

Then on to the souqs which are the specialty shops/quarter of town. Here you see craftsmen at work, sewing, woodworking, etc.

The streets of old Marrakesh, near our Riad.

 

A typical dentist sign

...and the advertising case for the dentist.

and more on the streets...

Then on to Djemma Al-Fna, the main night marketplace filled with street performers and at least 100 BBQ/food stands, not unlike the 3rd street promenade merged with the county fair. It smelled great, and was very smokey, which made for some good pics. I was satisfied with seeing a man with a monkey, snake charmers, golf, and other wackiness.This marketplace is really what Marrakesh is all about.

Ladies and Gentlemen, see the spectacle...a putting green!

 

At the Djemma Al Fna night market

Man with a Monkey

dried fruit cart

Wide shot of the night market

mint tea, pretty much the national drink

Main mosque in Marrakesh by night

Tomorrow, some quick power shopping in the am, followed by a 6 hour train ride (premiere classe this time) to Fez.

Goodbye to the Riad Dar Attajamil!

Song of the day: Fernando Pando, The Virgins

DAY 5: MARRAKESH IS AFRICA HOT

Our day started with breakfast on the rooftop, so nice.

Breakfast on the rooftop

View from the rooftop of the Riad.

The streets of the old town district of the city.

We then set out to see the local cemetery and ancient palace. We got booted out of the cemetary in no time, but I was able to get two pictures. I try to visit a cemetery whenever I am in foreign lands. I felt satisfied.

The cemetery

At this point, it was crazy hot (I’d say 105-110F), and I think I had more chicklets…

My offspring, multi-colored!...which look just like the cotton balls in our room.

the cotton balls in our room

A spice shop. Just one of many.

A local cinema poster "Love was his only destination..." BTW, only men are allowed in the theatres which makes this even more gay.

We decided to seek refuge at the Riad. It is so hot here that most of the businesses shut down between 12-3 (similar to a ciesta) to escape the heat, and explains why the night markets are so lively.

We chilled out with naps for a few hours then headed out to “CyberPark”, the Central Park of Marrakesh, where there is free Wi-Fi! I ventured off on my own for the first time, while Jonathan surfed, but quickly was hassled/leered at by the local men, so I came back in about 5 minutes. I had read about this…

Jonathan surfing in Cyber Park

We set out to see the local Grand Dame of Hotels, the Momounia Hotel, built in the 1920 and Art Deco-y and host to visiting dignitaries, complete with Casino and Lavish pool…but it was closed for renovation. Oh well.

Back to the Riad for a homecooked rooftop dinner, and a quiet night in.

Song of the day: The Kids Don’t Stand a Chance, Vampire Weekend

DAY 4: ARRIVING TO MARRAKESH

We got to the Casablanca train station, bought our tickets, and had 2 hours to kill, so we had lunch in a little local cafe. 2 chicken breasts with rice, bread, a beef dish and 2 sodas for 52 Dirhams, which is about 7-8 bucks. Amazing.

The Casblanca Train Station, what an oasis!

In the cafe, the clock looked wrong, or maybe we entered a new time zone?!? Or maybe we’d been living in our own personal (and wrong) time zone for the last 36 hours and our train was about to depart!!! So we ate and hustled back to the trains station where we soon learned that our peaceful and air conditioned train car was 1st class, and we were 2nd class, so we had to demote ouselves. The 2nd class cars were billed to be “air conditioned,” but not so much. Little incubators really; I think I had chicklets. And it didn’t help that someone in our car kept farting. I don’t know who the culprit was, but I felt my bench vibrate, and it wasn’t me, so that leaves 3 suspects…

In the hallway of the train

View from the train for most of the ride-kind of like driving to Vegas.

For about 2 minutes, the view turned lush...suddenly.

Once we got to Marrakesh, we were absolutely delighted with our Riad (guesthouse/b and b place). It is just lovely. Red roses everywhere, cool clay walls, rooftop garden, friendly staff, just blissful. I am writing this now from a little alcove of pillows and couches on the 1st of the 3 floors.

The alcove in our riad where this post was written from

My bed at the Riad

The kitties that live at the riad, relaxing on the rooftop patio. mow.

We headed out for a much nicer dinner than expected. I had the lamb cous cous, wine, and we shared avacado sorbet! Which tastes similar to green tea ice cream.

The Lamb Cous Cous

 

Song of the day: One, Vampire Weekend