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