Advertisement
Rest, relaxation, sanity. Ever elusive, a glimpse vanishing around a corner.
Solution? Yoga.
But how to stay true to the travel mission? And, let's face it, self motivation is not at an all time high and me doing a head stand without parental guidance isn't a good plan.
Saviour: Yoga holiday. Location: Morocco.
After waiting by the phone for the recruitment companies to call, I gave myself a deadline. If I didn't hear from them by Wednesday, that was it, I was off. So, the research began, the beloved credit card burning a hole in my purse. And, with the deadline flying past, I decided. Morocco, for tourism and yoga, perfect combination of leisure and pleasure, exercise and meditation. And, I have to say, one of the best decisions I have ever made.
A week quickly past and I was off on more travels, taking the train to Gatwick on Wednesday night and then spending the night in the airport. Yay. For some reason I thought that was a good idea, primarily because that was the only train I could take and get there before my flight. Unfortunately that meant being something like 5 hours early
How peaceful is this?
And a night, they light the little tealight candles - so pretty! for check in! So, after first finding a coffee and then settling on a piece of floor, I hunkered down for some solid waiting and reading. Luckily for me 😡 I had made the slightly silly decision to bring an easy read with me instead of something that would actually take me 5 hours to read so I quickly made the decision to ration out the reading. Before I got totally settled a young girl, in this almost empty airport, asked me where I had found the coffee. After giving her accurate directions to this life blood of many a sleep deprived traveller, she was almost off and racing before I realised something...she spoke like me! Yup, after wandering around the empty check in area of Gatwick airport, the only person to speak to me was Australian. From Perth. From Canning Vale! What are the chances of that?
So settling down for all of an hour and a half, my lower back started to rebel and I needed to move. And I was getting kinda peckish! A trip to M&S (yay!) and I was sorted, egg salad sandwich at the ready. I was on the hunt for a softer
Cafe Arabe
This is where you go in Marrekech to be with the beautiful people. seat so I headed upstairs and snuck into a coffee shop to a rather padded seat! Reading and sneaking bites of my sandwich, I was much more comfy! And, lucky for me, a young man from Vancouver fancied a chat, so I spent the remaining hours discussing the state of the world and the philosphical dilemas facing us all. The universe is definitely throwing like minded people at me! Despite the fact that we were both exhausted, we managed to struggle along, avoiding the lure of the floor unlike many of the inhabitants of the airport. It looked rather like the 'home' of the homeless, so many travellers just curling up on the floor for a sleep. That is the main flaw of the alternate reality that is the airport: the lack of seating. Why are there no seats? An airport is essentially just a giant waiting room, why not add some seating? Anyway, keeping my eyes open and saying goodbye to my new friend, I was checking in and heading to the departure lounge. To my surprise, the sun was up. Not surprising given the fact that it was 5 in the morning but still...
Eventually it was
boarding time and I spied what I thought could be a fellow yoga holiday-er - the yoga mat is kinda a give away! Deciding to keep to myself - who wants to be annoyed at that time of the day? -I made it on to the plane despite my sleepless stupor. The three hour flight passed quickly enough, and I spent most of the latter part of the flight watching the countryside of Morocco. From the sky it is an extremely organised mosaic of fields and orchards. Straight lines of plants and square, squat, white buildings, clustered together, giving nothing away, most appearing rather dilapidated.
Arriving in Marrakech I couldn't keep the smile of my face. I made it! I was in Africa! How bizarre. Walking off the plane and across the tarmac, even the early heat of the day was brilliant. Standing in the customs line, conscious of the wait, nothing could wipe the grin off my face. Perhaps it was the lack of sleep, I don't know. But, I felt great to be there. The airport in Marrakech has only recently opened and is actually solar powered. Quite a cool building and really close to the city.
Djemaa el-Fna
In the heat of the day. Grabbing my bag, finding my transfer and getting some money - dirhams, in case you are wondering what the Moroccan currency is, about 7 dirhams to the Aussie and US dollars - I soon became aquainted with Pam, Laura, Harold and Karen who were also on the trip. In all there were 11 of us on the trip, plus Ali, our tour leader and Karryn, our yoga teacher. Arriving at Riad Lakhdar -
we were soon meeting Ali and chattering away, learning all about each other and how the trip was going to run. A riad is a traditional town house set around an internal garden or courtyard and because there was 13 of us we were going to be spread over 2 riads while we were in Marrakech. Despite the glorious mosaics and the traditional setting I ended up staying just up the road at Dar Atta, which as you can see from the pictures, was pretty spectacular too - .
With the holiday starting in earnest the following day, those of us who had already arrived had an impromptu tour with Ali, heading out in the heat of the day, into the heart of the medina, which means the old city. We quickly ended up at Cafe Arabe -
- on the roof terrace, under the misters, indulging in refreshing non-alcoholic (!) mojitos and watching over the roof tops of Marrekech. In 45 degree heat we were all holding up quite well and managed a stroll through the souqs (markets) and across the almost deserted Djemma el-Fna, the huge square in the medina. In the heat of the day it may be deserted but as you can see from the pictures, once dusk falls the food stalls and entertainers come out to delight tourists and locals alike. Heading back to the riads, lured by the thoughts of sitting in the shade and a cool shower, we found out way back, guided by the Koutoubia mosque, the 70m tall minaret built by Almohad Sultan Yakoub el-Mansour in the 11th century! In actual fact, apparently the name comes from the Arabic word kutubiyyin, which means booksellers, because a large booksellers market used to be situtated here!
The buildings of Marrakech are generally a reddy pink colour, previously because they were built using the red clay and dirt of the land and now in order to keep with the traditional style of the buildings. The square, squat buildings give little away, and hide relaxing and green oases within their walls - the tradition of hiding the wealth means that from the outside you have no idea of the beautiful, tranquil and colourful rooms, courtyards and gardens hidden away.
After a quiet evening, dinner with pretty much the whole group, Friday morning was the beginning of the yoga! Bring it on! 8am in the morning, in the courtyard of Riad Lakhdar, laying in shavasana, before I closed my eyes, looking up at the clear blue sky I couldn't help but grin. At last! I think about practicing everyday but here I was, in Marrakech, listening to the sounds of the city waking up, and slowly unravelling the knots in my body and tying myself instead into yoga knots! Love it! And...I felt great! Ta dah!
For those of you who didn't know, Morocco was a French colony and thus the French language, and the accompanying cultural nuances came along for the ride. So breakfast in Morocco was carb city! Croissant, bread, Moroccan pancakes called Beghir (I think!) and the freshly squeezed orange juice and cafe
The Souq
Olive & spice central! au lait. We quickly realised that the mint tea was slightly calorific, most possibly at maximum sugar capacity. I seriously doubt if another teaspoon of sugar would have dissolved! Anyway, Nigel and Harold, my breakfasting companions soon made the executive decision to only order the traditional mint tea, sans sucre! They couldn't quite solve the issue of how to pour the tea though. Not because of the traditional pouring style of holding the teapot up as high as you can and pouring it into the glasses without spilling it and splashing it everwhere. No, the main problem was that the teapots were too hot to handle! I think, though, that the teapots heat retaining properties made be quite purposeful. How else do you get people to slow down enough to share a leisurely cup of tea with you? Solution: make it impossible to pour the tea so they have to wait and chat!
It follows then, that breakfast everyday was a particularly leisurely affair, no rushing, despite our vague timelines. As long as we made it to yoga on time, everything else got done in it's own time. Brilliant! To be honest, all our meals were leisurely. We soon
realised that the key, if you are ever in Morocco, is to order before you get hungry because once the food arrives you will be!
Our first real day in Marrakech had us setting out for a bit of a tour. I had to keep checking myself, realising that no, this wasn't a set! I think when you travel to places you consider to be rather exotic or other you assume that everything will be different, but the reality is that everyone is actually doing the same things, going about their business the same way, across the world. So really, we are all the same, the set just changes! Marrakech also feels great, you don't feel like you stick out or are odd because you are there as a tourist, everyone just goes on regardless. It is so great, and almost impossible to put properly into words.
We headed to the Ali ben Youssef Mosque and Merdesa, named after the amoravid sultan Ali ibn Yusuf (reigned 1106-1142). Now, we weren't allowed in the any of the mosques but apparently this is the largest in the medina. Across from the mosque is the Koubba Ba'adiyn which was built in
the early 12th century and was most probably used as an abultions block. Apparently, according to the tidbits of information our official tour guide gave us, there are specific abultions procedures, even down to instructions for men to wash the left and then the right side of their bodies if they have been intimate with their wives - talk about a give away! Anywho, around the mosque is the Medersa, which was the theological college. The merdersa was a college for teaching theology, law, Arabic, literature and grammar. In this medersa there are about 132 students cells and in it's hey day accomodated up to 900 people! Which is pretty amazing when you see the size of the little cubby sized rooms they were crammed into, for over 6 years of study. The building itself is fairly spectacular. The bottom of the walls are covered in zellij tile work, partially to avoid moisture and damp seeping up the walls. Above that there is a strip of stucco that incorporates versus from the Koran, and then above that, amazing carved stucco which was originally made using egg whites as it's main ingredient! On to of that is the beautiful carved cedar.
Liquorice sticks!
Hilarious! Had to stop in the middle of the street for this shot! The carvings contain no representation of humans or animals as required by Islam, and consist entirely of inscriptions and geometric patterns and thus the arabesque art is supposed to convey spirituality without the iconography of Christian art. This is quite a spectacular sight and while it has had some restoration it is amazingly intact. The pool in the middle of the courtyard is to wash your slate, cleaning off the study you had been working on.
From the medersa we headed to the Musee de Marrakech, which is actually a restored 19th century palace. As you can see from the pictures, it is a pretty phenomena building, although it has been fully restored. I love all the mosaics/zellji. There are a variety of changing exhibitions but for me, it was the building itself that was the drawcard.
Then to the pharmacy. We had a lively run down on the variety of herbs and spices used in Moroccan medicine, cookery and cosmetics and I even had my make up done for me! It was all very entertaining, and I was a little sad that I couldn't buy any spices, not really much point at the moment, living out of
a bag. Shame, because the saffron was a bargain. And I did contemplate purchasing some liquorice for you Ms M but I don't think I could have kept a straight face, picturing you chewing on a twig!
The afternoon was free for us to do whatever we pleased so despite the heat a few of us went rug shopping! Harold was in the market for a rug so we went along for the ride, ready to experience the reality of shopping in Marrakech, complete with glasses of mint tea. Hilarious! At the end of it all, Harold was 4 rugs richer and the 4 lovely ladies that accompanied him were named his 'rug wives'! Clearly the heat and the hours of perusing rugs in the largest store you can imagine, as well as pottering through the gloriously over the top furniture got to us slightly. To celebrate Harold's magnificent purchases it was back to Cafe Arabe for drinks - did you know that there is a Casablanca beer? Not a patch on the red beer but still...
To complete the Marrakech experience (we had run out of time for the hammam so Pam & I had decided to
Djemaa el-Fna
At night. The smoke is from the cooking stalls - don't stress, nothing is on fire! do that on our return!) it was off to la place, Djemma el-Fna for dinner at one of the food stalls. Unusually, this stall is actually run by a woman, in a public world dominated by men. While you do see women, men definitely outnumber women in the public sphere. The square itself was so vibrant and crowded but not in an agressive way. Everyone seems to be going about their business with purpose but in an unhurried, calm way. Locals as well as tourist milling around, watching the snake charmers, playing games or listening to storytellers. Indulging in more Salade Moroccan (yummy tomato salsa salad) and sharing a number of tapas like dishes, it was great to just sit back and get to know my new friends a little more. The language barrier was also not proving to be much of a dillema either. With most of my British companions speaking French, that helped things along quite a lot but it was hilarious when Nigel ordered in his best French accent brochettes poulet and the waiter responded immediately, "chicken kebabs, anything else?'. English is everywhere.
Next installment- * Sidi Kaouki & Essaouira
* Accidental shoe shopping
* More
yoga
* The Hammam!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.084s; Tpl: 0.014s; cc: 13; qc: 24; dbt: 0.0281s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
michaela
non-member comment
aww.. what a glorious story! i cant wait for the next instalment.. "accidental shoe shopping"?? hah. this just sounds so soul nourishing.. and i am so glad the universe is throwing same-same people your way... yay to that! i still wanted a stick though :P (beautiful photos!)