I see it's quite a standard here to have a webcam in every cybercafe...Anyway, reportedly 50% of Moroccans have a cell phone and I was pretty surprised, when a Berber, from a tiny village, living in a kasba, showed me his phone, better than mine!
Marrakech
- all the building are red - quite impressive
- the famous tower of Koutoubia - but it's actually just yet another minaret, nothing special
- I saw the museum of woodcraft - very nice stuff :-) Normally, I don't understand art much, but the work of artisans-artists in Morocco attracts me
- I tried out an avocado juice - very very good, a little bit cocktail-like, but very good
- I entered some palaces in Marrakech - I don't know, as the decoration, there are ornaments; it was to see for the first time, but as every palace (not only in Marrakech, e.g. the kasba in Ouarzazate as well) in here has the same or similar ornaments, it turns out to be boring
- I tried out the local kouskous - they serve it with kind of kefir...it's interesting :-)
- Djemaa el-Fna square - it's very much touted for it's fortune tellers, cobra enchanters and so on... I visited it on the evening...and it's just too much for tourist; just too much...and it was totally overcrowded
- suqs (markets) in Marrakech - the largest ones in Morocco; though they mostly sell stuff manufactured elsewhere (but I met a carpet seller, who actually made the carpets in Marrakech)
- overall, Morocco is a very tourist country (reportedly 1/3 of GDP comes from tourism!), but Marrakech even worse
- there is a lot of green lots in Marrakech - and more are to come - actually I slept in an olive orchard very near the center
- the road went through the Atlas mountains - a really impressive, sometimes
- I didn't want to pay for the taxi from Ouarzazate, so I (only with much luck) convince driver to throw me out 20 kilometers before Ouarzazate, on the crossroad with direction to Ait Benhaddou
- Ait Benhaddou is a world-famous kasba (on the list of Unesco); a kasba is a Berber mud castle; still, I don't get it, why Ait Benhaddou, there are hundreds of kasbas in the area; some perhaps larger
- it was 9 km to Ait Benhaddou, then, the other day, perhaps 25 to Ouarzazate (I didn't go on the main road, but through the desert)
- I slept in the desert
- actually, it's desert only during the summer, but during that, really a desert; it was interesting to walk through there; fortunately, there are quite some oasis in the desert (furthermore, during other seasons; in rains, sometimes there is even snow)
- the kasba seems small from outside (much smaller than from pictures), but from inside, it's huge and maze-like; furthermore, from the money paid on entrance, the kasba is being "reconstructed" - I'd rather say some parts are being constructed from scratch; the work goes on apparently quickly
- on the way back, I saw decorations (false walls and like that...) for a movie (Gladiator?); in Ait Benhaddou, a lot of films is shot, so that's it; they wanted to have it close; it's apparently still in use sometimes (after all, there's a person guarding it)
- on the way through the desert, I was invited for the tea a few times, I accepted; Berbers are known for their hospitality; it was tea (but surprisingly, not their famous mint tea; but black tea of Chinese origin :-) ; to that, they offered me bread
- on one occasion I was given the bread with olive oil - never realized how good it was - have to practice in back home as well - few drops of the oil are enough
- one of them started to smoke kif (hashish); he offered me as well, I politely declined; reportedly, it's stronger than what is common in Europe - can't say, but he seemed quite affected after a while (so I exploited it and ate most of his goat butter with home-made bread); I talked about that with other Moroccans before and it's apparently very widespread
- on another occasion, I got goat butter - it has more distinctive taste than dairy butter and I liked it very very much; on the other hand, I can imagine a lot of people would find it disgusting - as Bzochi would said, it tastes "of the goat"
- they were very interested in jewelry-trinkets I brought from the Czech Republic; you could buy it in the Czech Republic for 20 crowns, but here, they take it as a thing of value; next time going to a foreign country, I have to take more of stuff like that
- a city trying to become a tourist center, but there is really not much to see
- the kasba - very large; it was reconstructed, so I visited the interior; but it's better from outside - the reconstructed interior is...badly reconstructed; there are some decorations, but otherwise, it doesn't fit the kasba feeling
- I took a public city bus - quite crowded, but fun; they pay the fare in the bus (there is a small cabin where a person issues tickets
- I took an evening bus to Tinerhir - pity, I didn't realize it, but there's a lot of kasbas on the way, and I saw only the ones with lights on :-(
- in Tinerhir, there's a lot of kasbas; not big ones, but still nice
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