CATS (and Fes)

I think now is a good time to mention the cat population of Morocco. The number of cats in Morocco is probably comparable with the number of cigarette butts strewn through the sand at the beach in Barcelona, or in the gutters in Paris, or the number of people on pills at a music festival, say, Stereo, back home. They're not like domestic cats either, they're lean, small and don't tend to be as conceited. However, some were too scary looking - missing an eye/ear or mangled from a fight with the possibility of having rabies - to pat. With the number of photos I've collected of the cutest kitties I think I'm well on my way on to being that future single crazy cat lady that lives next door... and seriously, watch the video.

1. Busing it through Morocco.
2. Standard.
3. Pastilla, a pie-like pastry traditionally made with pigeon but here with chicken, as well as sultanas, nuts, an incomprehensible amount of spices (as usual) encased in phyllo-like pastry and then sprinkled with icing sugar and cinnamon.

4. 5. Fes' medina is literally a maze. We took our hostel's advice and got a private guide and we were more than thankful for her. She mentioned most visitors only see the two main streets; Talaa Kebira and Talaa Seghir that are filled with mostly uninteresting touristy stores selling fakes, and it's understandable because the second you venture off either of them, you end up in a unnavigable maze of narrow alleys shadowed by tall walls and structures that bridge low over your head.

6. 7. 8. 9. Before it was a wood museum, the Fondouk el-Nejjarine provided food and shelter for travelling traders. There's a cute little cafe on the rooftop, though not so pleasant when the sun is beating down mercilessly...

10. Trying on Morocco's latest threads.
11. 12. 13. 14. Al-Attarine Madrasa was built in the early 14th century, can't get over Arabic architecture, just look at all those hand-carved walls, and this was seven hundred years ago!!!!! Why does this stuff not have a greater influence on what is built now??

15. The closest we got to getting into a mosque. The Al-Karaouine University was built buy a rich woman called Fatima (sadly I don't remember anything else about her...) and is HUGE.
16. The famed Chouara tannery. We just stood there watching the men work like they've been doing for the last nine centuries or so. Just casually. Also it's important to note that it smelt like death. Probably from the hides and also pigeon shit (they soak the leather in it to soften it up). One cool thing though is that the whole process uses natural methods, things like saffron, poppies and henna are used to dye the leather.

17. View from a museum filled with random crap that didn't seem to be really on display...
18. 19. View of the Fez medina from the five star hotel Les Merinides just before sunset and at night.
20. Mohammed at Dar El Yasmine teaching us how to make berber whisky the right way.

Salem aleikum

And then we were in Africa.

When we first arrived in Marrakesh to say we were glad that we'd booked a driver to take us to our Riad is definitely an understatement. Without stepping outside the airport you could tell this place was different to anywhere else we'd ever been. We'd known that there'd be a culture shock but it's an entirely different experience being there and being so wary pretty much every minute of your day.

We both took care to cover up wearing long skirts and scarves over our shoulders and still attracted an uncomfortable amount of unwanted attention. However, we met two girls from Adelaide while in Barcelona who had visited Marrakesh over Ramadam during the peak of summer and decided to YOLO and wear singlets and shorts rather than try put up with the scorching 50 degree heat. In turn they got ass-brushed by creepy men in open spaces and constantly harrassed by locals so I think we can only count ourselves lucky in that sense.

Incredibly, at dinner on our first night we befriend the two most genuine local guys whose names I don't know because neither Chelsea nor I could understand what they had said when they introduced themselves, and were too embarrassed to ask them to clarify. And then, like in Rome, they then went out of their way to show us around over the next few days we had in Marrakesh.

I don't know who'll watch this, I think I love it more for memory's sake. Basically, we ran into one of the boys on our way out to get dinner, were escorted to a rooftop restaurant where they had live Arabic music, then were waited on while we were given free mint tea and gorged ourselves on couscous by candlelight while cats weaved between the tables (more on the cats later) and then hung out with both incredible human beings and listened to them jam. And after all that we were left, dumb, asking, how the hell did this happen?



I was too chicken to take out my Canon the entire 4 days we were in Marrakesh so all these are thanks to the miracle invention of the camera phone.

1. Our first meal; vegetarian couscous smothered in sultanas and nuts and a mindblowingly awesome explosion of spices.
2. 3. 4. In the famed souks!
5. 6. 7. 8. Dye markets.We were led here by some guy and surprisingly weren't pushed into paying him/buying anything.
9. In front of the minaret tower of the Koutoubia Mosque.
10. Dinner in Jemaa el-Fnaa (the souks surround the square); filled with monkey and snake handlers, orange juice stalls and veiled women sitting on little stools under the shade of umbrellas during the day, and storytellers and a hectic food market by night. Tangia (a Marrakesh specialty) and harira (the soup that I fell in love with and craved for the next 2 weeks), and an example of a traditional Moroccan spoon made out of wood.
11. Our favourite oj vendor! Note: 4 dirhams is about 50 Australian cents.
12. 13. Henna before all the brown stuff fell off. How eloquent of me, I think a year of not studying has taken a toll on my ability to spreken ze english..

Getting loose with Señor Gaudi

1. Plaça Reial featuring Gaudi's earlier work, a lampost.
2. Casa Batlló. Commissioned by this guy Battló in 1904 who gave Gaudi complete reign over the project and is now a museum with an outdoor jazz/cava bar round the back. 20.35euro entry for adults, 16.30 with a student card. Reminds me of a seabed covered with fish skeletons, or a building made from human bones.
3. Casa Milà. Commissioned in 1906 for the Milà family now owned by that massive bank Caixa and two families still live here! 16.50 for adults, 14.85 with a student card. Also reminds me of a seabed with seaweed-y balconies, also the desert.
4. 5. 6. Front and back of La Sagrada Familia! Incomplete church commissioned in 1883, Gaudi worked with it until his death in 1926 when he got run over by a tram. He looked so ragged and unkempt (he devoted the last decade or so of his life on this church) that no one gave a rats ass until someone finally identified that it was that famous architect dude that was building the epic church in town and called an ambulance, he died in hospital a couple of days afterwards. It's projected to be finished in the 2020s but when you're thinking in Spanish time.. I reckon it might be 2050 before it's done. The entire construction is being funded publicly meaning that the tourists that come to visit Sagrada Familia are helping build it; 13euros for adults and 11 for students. When it's finally finished though it'll be free (cause it's a church). Rather than waiting in line it's probably best to book online the day before, OR, you can buy tickets from the Caixa atms, sneaky sneaky!
7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. Park Güell. Commissioned in 1899. We spent an entire afternoon here making our way slowly up to the peak with this view(12) and then met up with our new Italian friends Andrea and Marco and found this view(13, 14) atop a random mound that elevated a stone cross; it's like entering an alternate Earth.
15. 16. Another recommendation by our apartment owner Lucia; a very expensive glass of shitty wine at the rooftop bar of B Hotel. Definitely worth it for the view.

17. 18. 19. Bar crawl with Equity Point. Free shots, cheap drinks, did a body shot and licked salt off some guys chest hair, all in the sweet name of tequila!

FREEFREEFREE

So by now we've realised that free walking tours should not be passed up because 1. you're getting to know the city you're in and 2. it's F-R-E-E, although most of the time people shyly tip at the end out of obligation unless the guide was really really that awesome.

Our god friend Vex had stayed at Equity Point Gothic and told us to do all their tours and their pub crawl too, so we did.

1. Where Picasso first went to art school. The roof caved in recently and due to the huge claims students/parents demanded for injuries the school went bankrupt and closed.
2. 3. 4. 5. Santa Maria del Mar was built in only 55 years which is impressive when you're living in Spanish time when churches usually take over a century to build, and it is the last remaining fully Catalan-gothic church having survived through earthquake and fire.
6. Shitters! The story behind these fun characters starts with your old nativity scene. Over here you've got Mary and Joseph and Jesus and the whole shebang, plus one; a guy shitting. This little guy squats over a freshly expelled turd and just chills with the shepherds and the three wise men and unites all human beings by addressing something that we all have in common; we all shit.
7. The head of a column randomly built into the middle of a roman wall.
8. Barcelona Cathedral.