Having a Moroccan Good Time (gotta give Lanette credit for that one)

[This is post #2 about my Morocco trip, so if you want to start at the beginning, read the next post first.]


On Tuesday morning we all set out for Volubilis, the ruins of a Roman city first inhabited in the first century AD. Volubilis is set among green fields and mountains, near the town of Moulay Idriss. It is well-preserved (for ruins) and you can clearly see the layout of the city.






It's hard to believe this arch has survived for hundreds of years.


I climbed it.

This is an aqueduct.

Here are the baths. Supposedly the lucky people sat in front and got washed by their servants.


The triumphal arch was built in the third century.


This mosaic shows a guy riding a horse backwards. Pretty awesome.


We ate our bread and cheese lunch on the steps of the basilica.


The pillars behind us were topped with nests, inhabited by storks.



Molly had to teach that evening, so she, Aaron and Nicole headed back to Rabat. Eric and I walked up the road to the little town of Moulay Idriss.



We walked around outside a mosque, peeked inside a bakery, and drank orange juice in the main square before going back to Meknes.



That afternoon and the next day I hung out in Meknes. Meknes is a medium-sized city that was once the capital of Morocco. It's a pretty quite and conservative place, and Eric seemed to know most of the shop owners, cafe waiters, and neighborhood kids. Here is one of the main streets at twilight.


Eric's apartment is near this street, and he has a great view from his balcony.



In the afternoons there were always boys outside playing soccer and girls sitting along the ledge.


You can see that some women and girls cover their heads and some don't. I was told that it's a personal choice and people won't be judged for what they choose.

One evening I saw some younger girls out on this ledge playing school; more specifically, "French lesson". One of the older girls was standing in front of them with a stick, making them repeat "bonjour" and the alphabet. Sometimes she would write something on the sign with chalk and point to it with her stick. Her pupils came up one by one to recite things in front of the class, and eagerly raised their hands when she asked questions. A couple of little boys even joined the class later on, after growing tired of fighting over a soccer ball and spitting at each other. They held the class for at least an hour.

There were orange trees lining the streets. Aaron tried one of these but it wasn't ripe yet.

An Arabic stop sign:

Moroccans speak a Moroccan dialect of Arabic, only partially decipherable with standard Arabic. Most of the news and written material is in standard Arabic, and everyone also speaks French.

It was nice to sit in cafes, drinking coffee with milk, eating croissants with chocolate, and playing chess (chess isn't commonly played in Morocco, and girls don't usually sit in cafes, so we got some looks).


This is Eric's favorite rotisserie chicken place. The name says it all.


On Wednesday we walked to Meknes's medina and main square. On the way we stopped inside a mausoleum where someone important (the founder of Meknes? I can't remember for sure) is buried.


We drank orange juice in the main square. Orange juice in Morocco is always fresh squeezed, even when you order it in a cafe.




Eric had to leave to teach class, and I wandered around in the medina. Almost everyone was selling everyday goods rather than souvenirs for tourists. A lot of guys shouted things to me that I couldn't understand beyond "Bonjour, mademoiselle!" On the way back to the apartment I saw these fields. I don't know what they're growing there in the middle of the city.


And this is across the street:


I couldn't resist, and stopped for an ice cream cone. The weather was really hot. I gotta give the Moroccan McDonald's credit because they serve their ice cream cones in sugar cones rather than cake cones, making them at least three times more tasty than American McDonald's ice cream cones.

That's all for now. Look for more posts in the near future.