Susannah, out with the French, and an Herbalist

(Written 11:55PM June 28 2009)

Since leaving Riad Davia, I haven't had the wifi access to post full entries. A lot has happened, such that the blackberry updates will not suffice. I will try to fill in the details below, though it all is a blur already.

The morning after my adventures with the owner and her family, I woke up early. I had asked for an early breakfast, but that was before meeting them. I decided to wait, and eat with my hosts from the night before.

Breakfast was much better than the previous breakfasts, crepes, orange juice, coffee, tea, the works. The friend of the family, a girl in her twenties, who spoke no english was feeling better and joined us. After dining, they invited me to go out for the day.

I found out today that as per custom in Morocco, the person who does the inviting always pays, that men almost always pay, and that bills are never divided.

We started with some shopping in a different area of the souks, away from the main square. It was wonderful, being away from the area where they all had the same thing and they no longer tried to force you into their shop. At one point, we passed through an area of spices - I wish there was a way to share the overwhelming and quite intoxicating aromas wafting in the air. The owner had relationships with various shop owners and greeted them as we passed through. It was nice to be seen as a guest and not just an object, a financial project.

An herbalist (this is the first one, not the same as in Fez) invited us in for Tea, and for the next hour we had a wonderful experience as he showed us his stuff, told us stories (mostly in french, some they translated for me) and spent time with us. As he showed us different things to cure things, they all started to laugh. Apparently, he was trying to think of a way of curing me of being American.

He encouraged us to take some pictures, and in the end, the french girl purchased some herbs for her skin. We moved on to lunch, going to a terrasse restaurant where I had the sushi, and we shared a bottle of wine. It was actually the best sushi (morimoto excluded) I have ever had, which was rather surprising given our proximity to the sea.

As we left the restuarant, we ran into the gentleman we had been at the bar / club with the night before, and exchanged greetings. It gave Morocco a small and quaint feeling in a fleeting moment. Then, they decided to go visit a friend's pool - and I needed to catch my train.

My taxi was late.

I freaked out and tried calling Susannah. For some reason, my initial text message from my Moroccan number worked, but nothing else was going out. I later learned I had to change the automatic country dialing code in the phone settings.

Anyway, I finally found a store to use their phone, and she told me to find her roommate. Luckily, he was wearing some clothes that stood out - Nantucket red pants are not popular here.

We started walking, but couldn't find Susannah or Genna. Finally, we hit the end of the train, boarded, and started working our way back. Eventually, we found them - they had reserved seats, and we settled in for the ride.

The supposed 4 hour ride turned into 5 or 6, and we arrived late in Rabat. No time to explore, except for a jaunt to Susannah's roof. The Ocean really was a stone's throw away. Susannah had some work to do, and so I stayed in her room with Genna, who is a very light sleeper. Apparently, my heavy breathing woke her up. This is important later on.

So, Genna joined Susannah out in the apartment living room, which was amazing by the way. It was in a Casbah, and like my riad, very quiet. Not like the hotel I am at now, right over the street, rather noisy, and not very accomodating with respect to letting me out past 12, despite what I was told during the negotiations for the room. But I am ahead of myself.

We caught an 8:12 train from Rabat, and arrived in Fes(z?) three hours later, approximately. These are the trains I remember seeing in the pictures online of ONCF. Unfortunately, we arrived during the taxi change, and it was impossible to find a taxi. Finally, we were able to get one, and head to Susannah's former host family. They were incredibly sweet, making us lunch. The house was beautiful - I have some pictures to share - with a large open courtyard, and big rooms off of the main court yard. Lunch was delicious, and afterwards we stayed to talk with the family for a bit, before starting our tour.

First stop, the Jewish Quarter. We spent a little while walking around the cemetary, and then wanted to go to the synongogue. A man named Jacob offered to bring us, but he took a rather circuitious route, avoiding our requests to just see the synongogue. It was getting frustrating in hearing about things that we weren't that interested in. At the Synongogue, they wanted a huge donation, as did Jacob want a personal donation.

We settled, checked it out. There is a scroll, although, from the decay it was experiencing, I wouldn't necessarily call it a Torah. It certainly is not Kosher. There was also a Mikvah, which was pretty frightening as Mikvahs go.

We proceeded to continue our walk, past the palace of the king - one of his many, and into the Medina. Genna had some shopping to do and we looked for things for her. One of the cooler stops was where the weaving of blankets takes place, using old wooden looms. It was amazing, and then we went to the herbalist.

He's exactly what you want in your herbalist, a man of unknown years of age, wise looking, etc.

I decided to ask about my snoring problem. Like a doctor, he started to probe into many things I didn't think about - how my stomach felt, if I experience headaches. He told me (through Susannah) that the three things to consider are my blood (circulation), my nervous system and my immune system. This learned man (we were but a stone's throw from the oldest university in the world) inquired about everything, and then prescribed me a course of actions:

For 40 Days:

1. Before Breakfast, cup of tepid water with 1 spoonful of honey (pure), 2 spoonfuls of apple vinegar. Eat 7 Dates

Then have breakfast

2. at 11:30AM drink a half liter of water

3. at 5:00PM drink one and a half liters of water

4. before bed, cup of warm water, spoonful of honey, 2 spoonfuls of apple vinegar

For 2 Weeks:

Breathe herbs in hot water

Some stuff to put in the nose in small drops.


We shall have to see how non western medicine works.

Afterwards, we visited a tannery, a place where leather is made. This tannery is 800 years old (if I understood him correctly). The leather is very nice, and Genna purchased a bag. Susannah and I chatted about life plans after travel, in her case, the Fulbright.

Then it was for a cool down drink (I may be mixing the order of things up), I ordered the Avocado juice, we also had a raisin juice among other pastries and drinks. Onward to her host house, where we had a late dinner, before bringing me back to my hotel.

Traveling with them was a lot of fun. Genna and I could talk often when the conversation would switch to Arabic, and both of us were experiencing the same cultural explosion going on in that things are new. Susannah is tons of fun all around. Despite having moved to Rabat, many of the shopkeepers and people on the street would call themselves out. Having a speaker of arabic was helpful as well. It was a very different experience from my exploration of the souks alone. Certainly more enjoyable. It reminded me more and more of what my roommate sasha said about Egypt, that it was difficult to visit in a week, but magical to live for a while.

Morocco can be overwhelming, but with Susannah, I feel like I found a shortcut that is giving me a glimpse of this incredible world that doesn't exist by me in the states. What is hardest part is witnessing all the tradition, and realizing how devoid of tradition our culture has become.

It has given me extensive context however to wrap my mind around the decisions of friends and family that in other lights befuddled me to some extent.

I think that I will leave for Tangiers wednesday morning and catch an early boat on thursday, arriving in the evening thursday in Madrid. I am getting pumped for my next adventure to begin in Spain.

Traditional Dinner and some non traditional thinking

please excuse any poetic writing that follows. Continue reading and you shall understand.

It's 10PM and I am sitting on the roof of Riad Davia. Only a few minutes ago I was dining under the leaves of a large tree. Time, for all intents and purposes, had stopped.

Two other visitors and their newborn child ate across the room, with only murmurs of french drifting amongst the rustling leaves.

I had decided to dine in this evening, and asked for a traditional meal, couscous and tangine. I always tell friends that food is subjective, if you asked for chicken, and what you got was the best tasting chocolate cake in the world, you would still consider it less than satisfactory (yet hopefully delicious) because it does not fit your expectations. This was different, the meat sliced like a hot knife through butter, and the couscous melted in my mouth. I found the meal and the ambiance to be objectively exquisite, while peaceful.

"wine?" they asked. Of course, I told them. Red please. I expected a glass, but a whole bottle arrived at the table. Here I am, thousands of miles from home, in a completely new environment, and I have just had the experience of drinking an entire bottle of wine by myself. Hence the poetry.

But back to the present. I have come to the roof, where I sit with my glass and bottled water. I have removed myself from the oasis below, where sound and time stopped, and have returned to the world of Morocco. Young and old voices drift over the walls in arabic, and children and adults bicker in a tongue I do not understand.

Far off, and yet as if it were being whispered in my ear, comes the call for prayer. It is echoed in many directions, and morocco grows silent for a moment as the word travels.

In a moment, Morocco is alive again. Children's voices come over the walls, and mothers and fathers are heard continuing their conversations into the night. The city is once again alive.

There is a communal nature in Morocco that is beautiful, and wonderous. When I pause to inquire about directions, or another matter, it is never just a single individual who helps me - rather my quest carries across the community as each helps as much as they can.

[pause to drink water that I brought up - what I remember from high school chemistry is that one feels best when matching with equal volume of water before sleep]

So far, my only disappointment are the stars. I haven't seen the vibrant stars I was hoping to catch a glimpse of. When I was in Peru last summer, I saw stars like I had never seen before. Stars really do twinkle, just like the song. The southern cross was a magical sign in the sky. They seemed bigger than the dull stars of the northeast, whose bright light is often dimmed by the city lights. I had read somewhere that the stars over Morocco shone brightly, and I hope still to find them.

I remember reading some online material about traveling the Mediteranean, and how what captures the imagination of many travelers is the picnic under the olive tree, a bottle of wine, some fresh cheese and warm bread.

Tonight I dined under a tree. It was magical, the wine was tasty, no cheese, but the food was amazing. I am so excited about the rest of my trip - and yet, if I were to return now, I would go home smiling from my experiences.

I am ahead of myself.

This afternoon I returned to the market and to see the palaces, which never happened. I roamed around for a few hours and as I mentioned in the earlier post, tried on some traditional clothing. The Riad staff warned me to wait until tomorrow for buying anything since most of the shops were closed today. Let competition work in my favor must have been the thought. I also spent some time unlocking my phone, and getting a Moroccon phone number.

Upon my return, I wrote a bit and lay down for a few minutes to rest my eyes. I awoke hours later to find that I nearly slept through my dinner. I came out still dreary eyed and sat down for a feast, and thus, caught up with the beginning of the post.

I would like to use the bath, but am unsure of the etiquette. I will have to inqure of my host and find out if one may use it at this hour. Otherwise, I am to bed for an early start tomorrow.

Not so early, I asked for breakfast at 8. I was told 8:30 is the earlist. I could certainly get used to that.

Riads, Train Tickets and Ferries

I had a great conversation with Nabil Kahn last night regarding Morocco - what to do, where to go, who to meet up with. Lots of very useful information, I only wish that he could join me for this adventure. I also contacted a fulbright(er) and heard back where they will be while I am in the region. I am hoping to cross paths while there and see another side of the country that otherwise might have remained hidden from an english speaking short term travel.

Where to stay is the big question. I have looked into hostels, hotels and riads. While the latter portion of my journey I plan to be more free, I am constrained in time with Morocco and so I am trying to get the most out of it. Riads look amazing, and expensive. If anyone has suggestions, please send them along.

Fes and Marrakesh are both on the list, but I also want to see a smaller town, that hasn't been as over run with tourists. There is a musical festival I learned from writing to SG in Essaouira next weekend that she and another college friend will be attending. Would be fun to catch up with them there, experience that and see a smaller town.

As for getting to Madrid, I had the amex concierge look into things. For the first time, in a long time, they gave me reliable and useful information regarding the ferries and trains. They strategically planned a few different options for me to arrive in time for program and site orientation, maximizing my time on the other side of the Strait of Gibralter.

Meanwhile, looking ahead I emailed my aunt, who is known for writing cookbooks in the Mediterranean region, about things that I must do / places that I must visit during my travels. Reading through the introductions of her books, especially the one on Couscous, is the underlying reason I had the strong urges to include Morocco in my travels and booked my flight to spain through North Africa.

She suggested lonely planet as a jumping off point, and then sent me an article on a place to eat in Istanbul. The title alone was mouth watering, Çiya: Loquat Kebabs and Mesopotamian Truffles at Istanbul’s Culinary Shrine, and I realize already this trip is going to have a sweet and delectable ending.