From Spain we took a ferry to Tangier. Here we observed the Muslim religion being practiced, we saw a man with a carpet laid out on his knees facing Mecca in prayer. We spent our first night in Morocco and were woken at 4:30 in the morning by the call to prayer. We walked the streets of Tangier and came upon a nougat stall we bought some with peanuts and some with almonds, it was delicious. We learned our first Arabic words: As-Salamu Alaykum, a greeting meaning Peace be with you which is used as all the time instead of hello. As well as shokran wich translates Thanks. We made our way to Chefchoan a town painted all in blue. There is a water fall flowing where women come to wash their clothing and carpets. There are two shacks with tubs and racks carved into stone with the water flowing directly from the river into the wash basins in the shack, here is a photo.
The day we left we went to go and get a carpet. We visited and had Moroccan mint tea which is green tea with mint leaves and very sweet. We chose two carpets both the traditional red with many patterns. We bartered and ended up with a price of 400 dollars. The man there told us that when a women got married she would make a carpet for her parents with a woven message in it telling her parents if she was happy or not. We went to visit the city of Fez where we explored the maze of streets in the Medina. The Medina was amazing, there was so much to see. Dye souks, leather souks and a metal worker souk. I found the metal worker souk the most interesting. There was a small square with many workers banging on huge sheet metal pots about four feet wide and very deep. We would have gotten head aches if we had stayed any longer as the sound of the hammering was so loud. We went with a guide to visit the leather tannery which stunk badly so they gave you mint leaves to smell. We bought Ruben slippers and watched the workers. They use pigeon droppings and other foul smelling ingredients in the tanning process.
We wandered through the streets passing donkey stations and many fountains. Most women in Fez make their own bread and pay 5 dh to have it baked in a bread oven in a bakery. We passed by a women standing on her door step with loaves of unbaked Moroccan flat bread on a wooden tray waiting for someone to pass going in the direction of the bakery. Then maybe the person would deliver it to the bakery so that the bread can be baked, she probably had children she couldn’t leave. Our guide offered to take it but the bakery in the direction we were going she told us was closed. We enjoyed all the Tajines we had in Morocco and especially the ones in Fez. I rode a camel for the first time in my life in the Sahara desert. We passed by beautifully made mud houses, where children waved and where there were many chickens and crops of wheat and Chick weed. We spent the night in a tent and the next morning we played tag in the sand dunes before breakfast. The next few days my bottom was very sore. We only spent a of couple days in Merrakesh but we got to see a snake charmer who put snakes on us. Ruben and I got water snakes put on us and dad had a cobra on him there was also an Adder that I am glad was sleeping because I would not have wanted one of those on me. Afterwards we learned that poisonous snakes are often miss treated and only have about a week to live with the snake charmer. We flew from casa Blanca to Istanbul in Turkey. We visited the blue Mosque, inside it was nice and cool and very peaceful. We went to the Museum of Islamic History of Science and Technology. There were many models of tools used in medicine, optics, geometry, chemistry, astronomy, physics and geography. I enjoyed the models of contraptions used for moving water. We learned a lot about an instrument like a sextant used mostly for travelers in the desert it can tell the time and be used as a compass it has another use which I can not remember at the moment. We had our first apple tea in Istanbul and I adore it.
I will continue to write about Turkey as we explore next week.
Your exploring student,
Mia
Inside the Blue Mosque
