Full day in Morocco

From: Hicken, Garry
Sent: Sunday, October 21, 2012 3:29 PM
Subject: Full Day In Morocco

 So this is the end of the three Emails I said I would write to cover a very busy 2 and 1/2 days when I didn't write. This one I'm going to try and cover our full day in Tangiers. When I say I'm going to try, it's because it was such an unbelievable day that there is no way that I could do it justice, but I went through about 200 photos trying to choose the best 5 and I hope the ones that I chose show a little of the mood and atmosphere of a very exotic city. The first thing that Said ( our guide ) did was take us for a drive around the outskirts of the city. We saw Palaces owned by the ruling family as well as other palaces owned by Muslim princes from the Arab states. We drove to the point in Morocco where the Mediterranean sea meets the Atlantic ocean and we drove to all the parts of the city influenced by other countries. (Tangiers at one point in time was an international city where any world governments could set up businesses tax free and operate ) so there was a British section, a Spanish section, a French section, etc.. At the end of this part of the day he took us to meet some very interesting animals. Camels!! We rode camels as you can see in the first photo.

When our camel ride ended I commented to Joani that she is the only person I know who has boxed with a Kangaroo and rode a camel. A very exclusive club indeed.

 After that we headed into the inner city. This is the old section of the city and that is the part known as the Kasbah The Kasbah is also the name of the market so it is a well used word. First we had lunch at one of Said's favorite restaurants. The next photo I have sent is of the meal we had. This is couscous served Moroccan style.

The bowl that looks like soup is actually supposed to be a sauce that you ladle out on to your couscous as you eat. We felt very native.

 After lunch we just started wandering through the city and of all my traveling in the last few years I have never felt so much like an alien in a foreign land. The third photo I have attached is not part of the market but pretty well just a normal street in the old section of Morocco. People just put their wares out on the stoops of their house and everyone walks around at any point in time buying and selling talking and arguing. It's like everyone's related but you only ever run into your distant cousins that you never got along with. The old man walking down the center of the street is real. I saw several like him through the day. 

The next photo is believe it or not the way eggs are sold. Not chilled. Just out in the warm air all day. Although we couldn't figure out their grading system there was obviously some way of rating them as there was 5 different prices for warm eggs. I was definitely not ordering an egg dish in Morocco though.

 The last photo was of a local baker. No one had ovens in their home and everyone would bring their bread or pastries with a personal stamp on the raw dough and this guy would bake it for them. You can also see nuts and seeds on the ground in front of him as the bars would bring their snacks to him to cook .

He would bake whatever was brought to him and people would pay him a set price and take their goods back home, to  the bar or restaurant to serve that evening.

 All in all a very different lifestyle than the one I know a lot of you and I are used to back in Canada. Exotic indeed. Hope I did it a little justice in the telling.

 See you later

 Garry