September 19, 2009 by Adrian
There is so much life in Marrakech. We have been here a few months now and I feel I have hardly scratched the surface. It is hard to decide where to go each day, what to see – I want to drink it all up at once, breath it in. But I have to go slowly, a day at a time and sip at it.
It is a pleasure to behold. An assault on the senses to such an extent you become dizzy and many stops are needed for mint tea from where you can sit and watch and refresh your mind as to why you are there doing what you are doing.
Having recently come back from our summer sojourn I am a bit behind. However, here are a few visions from my wanderings.
The Medina Walls
Children 10km from Marrakech
Beautiful girl in the mountains
The Medina Walls at night
The Koutoubia Mosque through a broken window
Young beggar girl picking lice from her child in one of the Babs (gates) to the Medina
In the tanneries washing leather
Pouring the mint tea – such a beautiful thing to watch someone do. I was complimented recently by a wise old looking Moroccan on the way I was pouring my tea in a cafe – a fine art!
June 12, 2009 by Adrian
The world is a dirtier, uglier, grittier altogether more sinister place in the wee small hours of the morning. In my last post I commented that the Jemma El Fna, otherwise known as ‘Place of the Dead’, was quite definitely not a place of the dead – ‘there is nowhere livelier’. Well – at night it lives up to it’s name.
There was no death there, not visible anyway – but I could feel it.
It lingered in the shadows.
It watched.
Had I jumped back to the time when this square was used for public executions? (Once the most dreaded place in the whole of Africa.)
I roamed back and forth across the square, quite unsettled. A scooter zipping across the cobbles brought me back to the present.
The mess from the previous night’s ‘carnival’ blankets the ground….. but it is soon taken away. With help from the street dogs and cats and no doubt a few rats.
By 5:30 it is no longer a ghoulishly ghastly place. It is resembling it’s modern day self. Stalls are starting to get ready for the day, people make their way to work or home perhaps.
There is a hint of a rush. A whisper of the madness to come. A taxi drives by. A horse whinnies. A gentle flutter of leaves in the mind.
A carriage driver sleeps in his carriage while doves keep watch. The call to prayer sounds. Across the Place, the great place of the dead, life stirs.
