Marrakech wa Riad wa zuin

السلام عليكم،
after our amazing Spring Break trip, we decided to head to Marrakesh for the weekend. That, my friends, was a great choice. We ended up staying in a Riad, owned by some French people. Riad's are traditional "villas" in the medinas of Morocco, and can be found everywhere. They basically are atrium constructions, and go over two, three floors. Many times there is some form of water body in it to help control the temperature, since Marrakesh can get quite hot over the summer.
As it is "custom" in Morocco, most rich families will have a caretaker as well. The lady who was taking care of the Riad, was a rather interesting person. She did not seem to appreciate the help we were offering her, and clearly did not enjoy non-Moroccan men in her kitchen. Something I thought to be rather interesting.
Back to the topic of Marrakesh. Morocco received its name from the city, only speaking about European languages. It is the fashion capital of the country, it is also the city of the young people. There is a certain "arrogance" throughout the city, a feeling of being better than everyone else. But the pulse of the city is the Djma al Fnaa. That square seems to not have changed at all over the past years. It is full of life, and useless things. Yet these useless things are so fascinating, they give the whole place a character of its own. People with Cobras, monkeys, and other random things. Orange and dried fruit stand vendors, fight for customers, although everyone has the same goods. At night time food stands pop out of nowhere, and yet again, basically the same stuff everywhere, yet they advertise them as the very best of Marrakesh. The rest of the medina has various different souqs, anything your heart desires, can be found here. The freaky part was the voodoo section. Supposedly voodoo was brought from sub-Saharan Africa, and mixed with Islam somehow. I did not really understand, and ran out of the area after a while, because I actually am scared of the stuff. Alessandro did not understand that, the Moroccans did.
Another interesting thing of Marrakesh is the Koutubia. A mosque that was once completely destroyed, because the kiblah was facing the wrong direction. Once they've rebuilt it though, the kiblah was still facing the wrong direction. Mumtaztic. It was completely restored a few years ago, so the pink bricks can actually be seen. It is not just a pretty building, but it also provides some sort of backbone to the chaotic Djema al Fnaa.

In my next one I will talk about the Majorelle Garden. It's late wa ana taba3an.

مع سلامة من المغرب،
ديوگو

SPRING BREAK Y'ALL!!!

Finally the week of Spring Break arrived. It was over the same time as Miami's, which means I missed no important news. Well we decided to head South. It seemed to be the best time for such a trip due to the countries size. Morocco has an area comparable to the state of California. We went from Ifrane to Casablanca to pick up my friend Alessandro from the airport. There we visited the Hassan II mosque. By pure coincidence I also met Wynona and her husband Richard there, quite pleasant I have to say. That mosques is "ginormous", and completely out of proportions to reality. I mean, it is the third largest mosque in the world, it has the tallest minaret in the world, with all the bells and whistles, every Moroccan paid money for the mosque, and people even died building it. Instead of giving it a name that is synonymous to the people and the country, it was named after the King Hassan II. I assume that this is how Morocco works, if you have the money you get everything that you want.

The next day we started our journey due South. We left Casablanca and traveled towards Marrakesh, where we stayed for one night. The next day we left for the coast. We arrived in Agadir around 4ish, and instead of continuing towards Mirleft, we decided to go North and stop in a small town named Taghazout. We decided to do that, since Agadir is a giant luxury construction site.... YUK! In Taghazout we stayed at the beach, had fish 4 times, and Andrew tried to surf. From there we finally made our journey to Mirleft, yes we went to a small Berber fishing village.

Once we got into Mirleft, it became clear that it might just be one of the most deserted places I've ever put my feet in. One road, that was basically it. The beach was beautiful, cliffs all around, nice waves, fine sand. Except for some trash and a tourist trap cave, it was a very different experience. Most people there spoke better English and Berber than Arabic I felt. The place we stayed in was original Moroccan to a certain extent. A nice atrium style house with an original squatter toilet!!!!! It was quite an experience, be ready for it if you come to these parts of the world. The rest of the week was dominated by relaxation and random shenanigans. On Friday we headed back, the trip was marred by some disagreements, but all in all, we were a pretty fun crowd to travel with.

WOW CHAOUEN

So we end up rolling to Chefchaouen two weeks ago, OOOOOOOWWWWEEEEEE!!! That city is blue. Well I guess it makes sense, since it is called the blue city. The city of Chefchaouen is located in the North East of Morocco, in the Rif area. This city is known for one thing, sorry for mentioning this dear Miami Administration, hash! They sell it left and right there, they'll take you to plantations, shady houses where they make the stuff etc. But once any of you arrives in Morocco it will be the third thing Moroccans will tell you.
Anyway, let us turn to the historic aspect of the city. The city was painted blue by the Jewish immigrants that came from Spain during the Inquisition. Most Jews at the time settled in Tetouan, which is North of Chefchaouen. Once they arrived they painted everything that was green over in blue, a traditional Jewish color. There is only one problem with this theory, almost every city at the Atlantic in Morocco is blue... Oh well.
Except for a new appreciation for the color blue, there really is not a lot in that city. I mean there is a old destroyed mosque, which overlooks the city from a mountain. There is also a kasbah, which I swear we rocked like Sharif don't like it (thank you The Clash).
During my wandering s of the Holy City, as it is called sometimes, I was pulled into a carpet store. There after an hour long negotiation, the owner invited me to his house for a meal and meet his daughter buy a carpet and while I am at it maybe even marry his daughter. I did not join in this form of Moroccan hospitality and gladly declined. I bolted and was ready to leave.
We soon realized that there is not a lot to do, my friends got baked, while I took random urban living pictures. Yes, for the record so no one asks I do not smoke anything. But everyone else in this city does not resist the temptation i assume. I've never seen so many hippies :P.

We left, our cab understood what Godspeed meant. A trip that lasted almost 7 hours one way, took us 4 hours back, due to the driver's desire to get rid of us crazy Americans.

This is all from Chaouen.
Ma Salama min al Maghreb

It's been long time...

Hello everyone,
sorry for the long absence. I will try to cover some things I have been up to in the past weeks. Three weeks ago we went to Fes, relatively early to be honest, so I could go to services. Let's put it this way Sephardic, semi-orthodox, French-Moroccan services are different from what we have back home. Holla to the Miami Hillel!! The people there were mostly older men. I assume that only maybe 3 or 4 were below their mid thirties. This probably has to do with the fact that being Jewish is not the big thing anywhere anymore, except to miss class, got to summer camp, or in Israel where it is forced upon you. Another reason for an aging Jewish population, at least in Fes, is that everyone left. They all bolted for Israel...
After services I was kindly invited to a congregant's house along with the Rabbi to have dinner. I was expecting to speak Arabic, but no, they only spoke Hebrew and French. Turns out that many of the remaining Jews here are French people that moved down here during colonial times. This family in particular is originally from Strasbourg, and lives between there and Fes. The dinner was typically Moroccan Jewish though, a delicious 4 course meal. It consisted of some cold vegetables as appetizers, followed by fish and chickpeas, the third course was a delicious beef kind of stew. The taste of the two main courses was out of this world. I mean since fish is always tasty, I will not elaborate on it any longer. The beef though... OY GEVALT that was good. I think the lady cooked it either with figs or dates. Along with the meat we had sliced string beans, which she cut individually, they seem to have been steamed. That course was just flat out amazing. The desert were strawberries that have been left for a day sitting in sugar. Yummy and 100% kosher, yes.
They explained to me during dinner that Moroccan Jewry is very moderate, and while one might perceive them to be orthodox this is not the case. Towards the end of the service two women were sitting along with the men, and no one cared. It was perfectly normal for the Rabbi to show me to the Taxi, or that lights were turned on in the apartment. This fascinated me, the sad thing was that I could not discuss this in more detail since I do not speak French anymore, and my Arabic is not proficient enough either.
This is the first entry of what has happened around here during my absence. More to follow.

Have a great Spring Break MIAMI.

Ma Salaama min Al-Maghrib,

Diogo

P.s. I am obsessed with these doors.