As we leave Morocco for Syria, here are some things we noted throughout our trip...
-FOOD: Minus the one FP incident, the food in Morocco is delicious and Spanish food pales in comparison (except for churros con chocolate). We had delicious, spicy kebabs, pastille (a chicken pastry with cinnamon and sugar), couscous, and various tagines (meat and vegetable stews--weird to eat when hot but you know it's safe since it comes piping hot). The only annoying thing about eating in Morocco is we tend to attract friends of the animal variety--lots of bees if eating outside (since we are scared of them we both tend to run away and confuse locals) and stray cats--really, really mangy ones that you do not want to look at while eating. Aside from the animals, meal time is one of my favorites in Morocco!
-FIGHTS: From what we observed, Moroccan men like to fight. During our trip we witnessed 5 fights which usually involved one man getting furious at another, a few people holding back the instigator, and the formation of a crowd. The most intense one we witnessed was in Mksh when a French tourist (of Moroccan descent) walked by with his girlfriend and his shirt ripped off, followed by a gaggle of people. According to the Moroccan men who spoke broken English at our cafe, apparently his girlfriend was getting henna done in the Djemma El-Fna, and a Moroccan man went up to her and pulled at her tank top to sneak a peek. Thus, her boyfriend naturally got POed and fought with the guy. Do not worry, we did not get involved in any of these.
-MAN HOUR: Quite possibly my favorite observation from our trip, man hour consists of the daily gathering of men at cafes. It usually happens in the evening, but in some cities, it exists all day. Basically, women usually sit upstairs or inside cafes if they go to them at all, so the men are usually the ones sitting outside and watching passerbys. As two girls, we can usually sense when a cafe turns into man hour and decide to leave as it is just us and a bunch of middle-aged Moroccan men. We noticed in Essaouira that man hour lasted all day in most of the cafes!
-STREET CLEANING: Moroccans like to dump water in the street in front of their shops. At first we thought it was to keep down dust in front of food stalls, but then we noticed it pretty much happened everywhere and usually when you were walking in front of the store. The only thing is really does it gets your shoes and pants wet--does not actually clean anything. Furthermore, isn't there a water shortage in Africa?
-PEOPLE: The Moroccans we met were extremely friendly (usually because they wanted to be your guide or take you to their shop) and, at times, slightly intense. However, I have to say I was most impressed with how many languages most Moroccans knew. Granted we mainly met people involved in tourism, but most people we encountered spoke Arabic, Berber, English, Spanish, and French, with the first two alone being extremely impressive!
-ATTENTION: As noted above, Moroccans were at times intense, more so in some places than others. We got a bit of hassle from shopkeepers who wanted us to visit their store and some from guys on the street. Interestingly, we got the most attention in Essaouira, the town most used to tourists. The annoying part was that most guys (who often grouped together outside their shops) would wait until we passed to say hello, ask us where we were from, and so on and so forth and expect us to turn around to respond. Sometimes we would try to walk close behind a group of Moroccan women to shield us from some of the attention, but it did not always work. It definitely gets exhausting having to say "no thank you" repeatedly or nicely ignore people as you walk by and they want to know where you are from, etc.
-USA or CANADA: So where were we from? Depended on the situation. If it was a guide, like our Saharan Berber, or people at the hotel, we said USA. However, if someone came up to us on the street to ask us where we were from--definitely Canada! And people loooooove Canadians, let me tell you.
-THE PRINCE: We were greeted with photos of the Moroccan prince everywhere. Here I will leave you with one of the many photos in which he usually did not look terribly happy...
-FOOD: Minus the one FP incident, the food in Morocco is delicious and Spanish food pales in comparison (except for churros con chocolate). We had delicious, spicy kebabs, pastille (a chicken pastry with cinnamon and sugar), couscous, and various tagines (meat and vegetable stews--weird to eat when hot but you know it's safe since it comes piping hot). The only annoying thing about eating in Morocco is we tend to attract friends of the animal variety--lots of bees if eating outside (since we are scared of them we both tend to run away and confuse locals) and stray cats--really, really mangy ones that you do not want to look at while eating. Aside from the animals, meal time is one of my favorites in Morocco!
-FIGHTS: From what we observed, Moroccan men like to fight. During our trip we witnessed 5 fights which usually involved one man getting furious at another, a few people holding back the instigator, and the formation of a crowd. The most intense one we witnessed was in Mksh when a French tourist (of Moroccan descent) walked by with his girlfriend and his shirt ripped off, followed by a gaggle of people. According to the Moroccan men who spoke broken English at our cafe, apparently his girlfriend was getting henna done in the Djemma El-Fna, and a Moroccan man went up to her and pulled at her tank top to sneak a peek. Thus, her boyfriend naturally got POed and fought with the guy. Do not worry, we did not get involved in any of these.
-MAN HOUR: Quite possibly my favorite observation from our trip, man hour consists of the daily gathering of men at cafes. It usually happens in the evening, but in some cities, it exists all day. Basically, women usually sit upstairs or inside cafes if they go to them at all, so the men are usually the ones sitting outside and watching passerbys. As two girls, we can usually sense when a cafe turns into man hour and decide to leave as it is just us and a bunch of middle-aged Moroccan men. We noticed in Essaouira that man hour lasted all day in most of the cafes!
-STREET CLEANING: Moroccans like to dump water in the street in front of their shops. At first we thought it was to keep down dust in front of food stalls, but then we noticed it pretty much happened everywhere and usually when you were walking in front of the store. The only thing is really does it gets your shoes and pants wet--does not actually clean anything. Furthermore, isn't there a water shortage in Africa?
-PEOPLE: The Moroccans we met were extremely friendly (usually because they wanted to be your guide or take you to their shop) and, at times, slightly intense. However, I have to say I was most impressed with how many languages most Moroccans knew. Granted we mainly met people involved in tourism, but most people we encountered spoke Arabic, Berber, English, Spanish, and French, with the first two alone being extremely impressive!
-ATTENTION: As noted above, Moroccans were at times intense, more so in some places than others. We got a bit of hassle from shopkeepers who wanted us to visit their store and some from guys on the street. Interestingly, we got the most attention in Essaouira, the town most used to tourists. The annoying part was that most guys (who often grouped together outside their shops) would wait until we passed to say hello, ask us where we were from, and so on and so forth and expect us to turn around to respond. Sometimes we would try to walk close behind a group of Moroccan women to shield us from some of the attention, but it did not always work. It definitely gets exhausting having to say "no thank you" repeatedly or nicely ignore people as you walk by and they want to know where you are from, etc.
-USA or CANADA: So where were we from? Depended on the situation. If it was a guide, like our Saharan Berber, or people at the hotel, we said USA. However, if someone came up to us on the street to ask us where we were from--definitely Canada! And people loooooove Canadians, let me tell you.
-THE PRINCE: We were greeted with photos of the Moroccan prince everywhere. Here I will leave you with one of the many photos in which he usually did not look terribly happy...
2 comments:
It is mind bottling to think men in Morocco fight, waste time carousing outside of cafes, and relentlessly make comments to women as they pass-by. I'm shocked. That never happens in America.
hey lindsey! betsy sent me the link to your blog. i'm so glad to see you enjoyed morocco. and i love your observations, because they're so true. although i had the fortune to not witness fights while i was there. or if i did, i don't remember them.
i particularly love "man-hour". i always felt so uncomfortable dining out between 6 and 9 pm, but i did it anyway. a girl's gotta eat, especially when she doesn't have access to a kitchen.
anyway, from your description, i'm in love with damascus. thanks for keeping us updated!
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