Couscous in the Mind

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As one of the pushers in Chefchaouen said last night "If you have no grass, you no have been to Chefchaouen."



He was right, I'm wrong.
I wasn't there.
I must have been in an Alternative Universe, because I wasn't stoned.
I missed out on dope head heaven.



After all I couldn't possibly have been there for the stunning views of the mountains or the relatively relaxed atmosphere for Morocco. Or, could I?



I'm writing this in Fez, after a five hour journey on the bus. I spent a second day in Chefchaouen yesterday, wandering around the town, drinking mint tea in Salon's de The, and having some interesting conversations with some of the locals.



My evening meal yesterday, in the Restaurant Aladdin, was some performance! The Lonely Planet describes it as a traveller friendly restaurant with a chilled atmosphere. It was so chilled, I suspect I could have walked out without paying!



I entered the restaurant at about 8pm, and was given my own alcove by the waiter who appeared to speak 6 languages fluently. After about 8.30 the place began to fill up.
A number of Tagines appeared from the kitchen between 8.30 and 9pm. I finished my first 2 courses and was quite happy to have time to digest the meal.



At 9pm all the waiting staff, disappeared for a few minutes and came back with drums. We were then given an amazing floor show for the next hour - which meant of course that nobody was serving any food! To give them their due they were very good. I wasn't too worried as I was enjoying the show. It is a pity a didn't get a photo of the drummers.



Eventually at ten they packed up their drums, and started working again. By this stage I was amused to see how long it would take them to notice that they still needed to serve my desert and mint tea.



Fifteen minutes after they had resumed work, the waiter who was serving me, said"are you still waiting for something?"



So,he shouted out my order, but don't think that then meant prompt service.



Ten minutes later I saw what looked like my order waiting on the serving counter.



Five minutes later he got round to picking it up along with another order for another table. He served the other table but put the tray down on the other customers table, and then rushed off the take another order.



He then disappeared for 5 mins, finally he picked up my tray, and walking over to me said, " I'm so Sorry, I've got Couscous in my mind."

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