Tuesday in Marrakech
I met the guide Simon's cousin sent this morning - he got to the riad a little early and we set out for a walk through the medina. His name is Khalid, he's about my age or a little older. Very friendly and excellent English, which I was greatful for. I had a little bit of a meltdown with homesickness last night. It's beautiful, but not having anyone who shares a language is lonely after a few days. I think if the wifi was better and I could connect with people more via email it would be easier, but the last LJ entry I posted took four tries and finally close to 40 minutes to load. It's been almost a week since I've had a conversation with Bob longer than 90 seconds. He's trying to get through on the riad landline, but the phone is ringing off the hook and he keeps getting a busy signal.
Anyway, Khalid is great. First stop was the public water fountain - most houses here have plumbing now but the few who don't still get their water from this fountain, that is still using the original roman, gravity fed plumbing from the Atlas Mountains. We toured a beautiful madrasa, and then he took me to the museum of Marrakech, which is small but has some fantastic paintings, pottery, and textiles. I was pretty impressed with myself - the descriptions of the pieces are all in Arabic or French, no English anywhere. I had to read through three times for most of them, but I understood about 90% of the French. Still can't speak for shit, but it's amazing how much has come back from college, and how much more I was able to pick up in context. It does help that a lot of the basic art terms that we use are already in French, but I was still very pleased.
At the museum I pointed out the embroidered textiles on display and told Khalid that I do this for a hobby and that I was impressed with the work. He got really excited and told me about an antique shop/museum in the new city (that is, the modern city outside the medina that's still a hundred years old, the medina was established ca. 1100) that he wants to take me to tomorrow. Then we headed for the big souk. I wasn't really sure what to expect. It was very different from the open air markets in India - the best description I can give is that the grand bazaar scenes in Argo could have been filmed there - tight crooked passages, it has a roof (for shade, not waterproof), and a huge mix of vendors and craftsman. I had a few sellers call out to me, but the harassment wasn't anything like in India, although I'm sure that if Khalid hadn't been with me it would have been a different experience.
We exited the souk at the great square, walked around the original mosque and a rose garden, and then went by car out to a modern cafe for lunch. After lunch he showed me some different neighborhoods in the suburbs and we stopped at the Jardin Majorelle. It's a garden originally owned and designed by the artist, which Yves St. Laurent purchased on Majorelle's death in the sixties. There's still a private home there, that YSL's partner still uses as a residence. The gardens are open to the public and are really amazing. They have the best collection of cacti I've ever seen. There's also a small but spectacular museum that holds his private collection of berber art and clothing. Then we took the long way home - Khalid drove us around the outside of the medina walls. Things I learned - the medina and most of the structures in it are adobe. You can really see how the Moorish influence on Spain in turn has influenced architecture in CA and Mexico.
At this point my feet and knee were killing me - cobblestones are death on bad knees. Khalid parked as close as he could get to the riad and walked me back, which took about 10 minutes.
Tomorrow he picks me up at 10, and we'll do another monument and some shopping. I'm looking forward to it.
Anyway, Khalid is great. First stop was the public water fountain - most houses here have plumbing now but the few who don't still get their water from this fountain, that is still using the original roman, gravity fed plumbing from the Atlas Mountains. We toured a beautiful madrasa, and then he took me to the museum of Marrakech, which is small but has some fantastic paintings, pottery, and textiles. I was pretty impressed with myself - the descriptions of the pieces are all in Arabic or French, no English anywhere. I had to read through three times for most of them, but I understood about 90% of the French. Still can't speak for shit, but it's amazing how much has come back from college, and how much more I was able to pick up in context. It does help that a lot of the basic art terms that we use are already in French, but I was still very pleased.
At the museum I pointed out the embroidered textiles on display and told Khalid that I do this for a hobby and that I was impressed with the work. He got really excited and told me about an antique shop/museum in the new city (that is, the modern city outside the medina that's still a hundred years old, the medina was established ca. 1100) that he wants to take me to tomorrow. Then we headed for the big souk. I wasn't really sure what to expect. It was very different from the open air markets in India - the best description I can give is that the grand bazaar scenes in Argo could have been filmed there - tight crooked passages, it has a roof (for shade, not waterproof), and a huge mix of vendors and craftsman. I had a few sellers call out to me, but the harassment wasn't anything like in India, although I'm sure that if Khalid hadn't been with me it would have been a different experience.
We exited the souk at the great square, walked around the original mosque and a rose garden, and then went by car out to a modern cafe for lunch. After lunch he showed me some different neighborhoods in the suburbs and we stopped at the Jardin Majorelle. It's a garden originally owned and designed by the artist, which Yves St. Laurent purchased on Majorelle's death in the sixties. There's still a private home there, that YSL's partner still uses as a residence. The gardens are open to the public and are really amazing. They have the best collection of cacti I've ever seen. There's also a small but spectacular museum that holds his private collection of berber art and clothing. Then we took the long way home - Khalid drove us around the outside of the medina walls. Things I learned - the medina and most of the structures in it are adobe. You can really see how the Moorish influence on Spain in turn has influenced architecture in CA and Mexico.
At this point my feet and knee were killing me - cobblestones are death on bad knees. Khalid parked as close as he could get to the riad and walked me back, which took about 10 minutes.
Tomorrow he picks me up at 10, and we'll do another monument and some shopping. I'm looking forward to it.