Today
Salaam,
In the words of Bill & Ted, it has been a most excellent day
Alhamdulillah i arrived into Casablanca and then into Marrakesh without any problems and then found one of the hotels i was recommended without too much difficulty
Marrakesh seems a very nice place; almost too nice as there are tourists everywhere. The thing is most of these tourists are hippies...i can't remember the last time i saw so many people with dreadlocks and tattoos...i suppose Morrocco being so close to Europe yet so different in culture is the reason why its so appealing to all these people trying to "find themselves"
The first thing that strikes you about Marrakesh is that all the buildings are pînk, or at least different shades of pink not because its painted like this but this is the colour of the material.. so that in itself is pretty cool. Also since the spanish and french have played quite a big role in its development in the past century, there's lots of areas where it feels like you're in those countries.
Anyway today i visited Masjid Koutabia, the biggest mosque in town, then i went through the souk and ended up at Masjid Ibn Yusuf and next door the Ibn Yusuf Madrassa. After this i slowly walked back through the huuuge souk, perusing all the different stalls and got back to the main square.
The highlights have been the madrassa, the souk and the square. The madrassa was absolutly beautiful with intricate carvings all around the walls, mosaic patterns on the floors, fountains, pools etc etc..also you got to see the "dorms" where the students would have stayed..you could just imagine a few centuries back it being full of students striving for knowledge. The souk stood out as it was just sooo colourful, much more than in Syria or Egypt; bright red, yellow, green, blue and it just went on and on...and then the square. This was absolute mayhem, but organised mayhem. The huge square, when it got dark, was covered with probably 70 to 80 stalls selling food, drinks, juice etc and then all around there were all these "entertainers" surrounded by onlookers...it was like a freak show with people putting 3 inch nails up their noses, people bending their bodies in weird ways, snake charmers performing, Lots of musicians playing traditional Moroccan music, old women reading your hand and telling what lies in store for you, "witch" doctors selling random stuff as cures, story tellers captivating their audience with their tales and so on...it was like a huge fair or circus had come to town unexpectedly, but thats the way it is everyday...
So tomorrow is another day of this and then after that i'll be going to Rabat for a day and then onto Fes inshaAllah.
Do dua it all works out...
Salaam,
Ps, I'm soo gutted my camera has died on me..so many good pictures could have been taken today..
In the words of Bill & Ted, it has been a most excellent day
Alhamdulillah i arrived into Casablanca and then into Marrakesh without any problems and then found one of the hotels i was recommended without too much difficulty
Marrakesh seems a very nice place; almost too nice as there are tourists everywhere. The thing is most of these tourists are hippies...i can't remember the last time i saw so many people with dreadlocks and tattoos...i suppose Morrocco being so close to Europe yet so different in culture is the reason why its so appealing to all these people trying to "find themselves"
The first thing that strikes you about Marrakesh is that all the buildings are pînk, or at least different shades of pink not because its painted like this but this is the colour of the material.. so that in itself is pretty cool. Also since the spanish and french have played quite a big role in its development in the past century, there's lots of areas where it feels like you're in those countries.
Anyway today i visited Masjid Koutabia, the biggest mosque in town, then i went through the souk and ended up at Masjid Ibn Yusuf and next door the Ibn Yusuf Madrassa. After this i slowly walked back through the huuuge souk, perusing all the different stalls and got back to the main square.
The highlights have been the madrassa, the souk and the square. The madrassa was absolutly beautiful with intricate carvings all around the walls, mosaic patterns on the floors, fountains, pools etc etc..also you got to see the "dorms" where the students would have stayed..you could just imagine a few centuries back it being full of students striving for knowledge. The souk stood out as it was just sooo colourful, much more than in Syria or Egypt; bright red, yellow, green, blue and it just went on and on...and then the square. This was absolute mayhem, but organised mayhem. The huge square, when it got dark, was covered with probably 70 to 80 stalls selling food, drinks, juice etc and then all around there were all these "entertainers" surrounded by onlookers...it was like a freak show with people putting 3 inch nails up their noses, people bending their bodies in weird ways, snake charmers performing, Lots of musicians playing traditional Moroccan music, old women reading your hand and telling what lies in store for you, "witch" doctors selling random stuff as cures, story tellers captivating their audience with their tales and so on...it was like a huge fair or circus had come to town unexpectedly, but thats the way it is everyday...
So tomorrow is another day of this and then after that i'll be going to Rabat for a day and then onto Fes inshaAllah.
Do dua it all works out...
Salaam,
Ps, I'm soo gutted my camera has died on me..so many good pictures could have been taken today..
posted by Me at
11:15 PM
1 Comments:
i love this blog
may Allah make your travels a means for becoming closer to Him, ameen
wasalam
By
Anonymous, at 12:56 AM
Post a Comment
<< Home