The 3aneeda Holiday - Part Two

While editing the last post I was working on, I realised that I am yet to continue the stories of the 3aneeda vacation. So here goes. PS. I taught myself how to upload pictures. Yay. Im so happy.

Marrakesh

This post is dedicated to Marrakesh. A magical city in central Morocco. As opposed to the coastal city of Rabat, Marrakesh is actually very close to the Atlas Mountains. Also known as "Marrakesh Al 7amra2" - i.e. Red Marrakesh due to all the buildings being red.

When I was told that all the building in Marrakesh are painted in red, I actually expected blood red buildings. Its more of a dusty beigish pink than red. Thank god. Imagine if it WAS red.

The day we got there, we were exhausted. The drive had taken us over five hours and due to our late plans, another 2 hours were spent looking for a hotel with vacancies. The next morning we headed out to the main area. The typical old medina also named "Sa7at Il Fnaa2".

It was magical. I fell in love with Marrakesh at that point in time. Everything was so natural. It has the busy atmosphere that I loved. It had cats that wouldnt even budge if they saw u coming straight at them. The had old men wearing funny costumes and serving water. It has the snake charmers and other kind of animal charmers. It has the terrace style restaurants and cafes serving everything from the bastilla to burgers and fries. It has the rather disturbing affectionate men all over the place. Overall it was a city that I know I will never ever forget no matter what happens. You know how they say its all the small things that count!!

This is a picture of a rather brave cat that I watched for at least ten minutes. This cat never budged. People would be stepping over it. Carts being pushed past it and sometimes around it. People were actually changing their route to satisfy the cat. I thought it was so funny. Couldnt help comparing it to our Omani street cats.

People had warned me about Morocco for various reasons. The first thing I heard about Morocco especially from family members was this magic and a3mal business. I was relatively skeptical about it especially coming from Oman. When I met some people there, both Moroccan and other nationalities, I was again reminded of the warnings of family members. Apparently Oman comes 2nd to Morocco in these things.

This is a pic of those rather affectionate men that I referred to earlier. This is a stand that sells everything from spices to dried fruits. Some of these stands also openly sell the stuff that is required to make those so called "a3mal" and they are very very upfront about it. When speaking to some salespeople, they would explain to you exactly what each item is used for and what some of the most "popular" a3mal are done for.

This pic was taken while lunching on a terrace that overlooked the main middle bit. Thank god for zoom as I was pretty far away and they couldnt have known that I was taking their picture. Since Marrakesh is a realtively touristic location, dont be surprised if someone comes up to you saying "u just took a picture of me so u need to pay me".

(The drama events that occurred during the vacation will be posted seperately otherwise this post will be HUGE. Each drama will have a post dedicated to it. I will give everyone a day to digest this post beforing publishing the first drama. Even though its ready.)