Essaouira - on the Edge of Morocco

Morocco is SO full of cool colors. And - the DOORS -!

So - do you know the difference between a medina, a souk, a casbah, a riad?

I wasn't sure.
So here it is:

The medina - is the old town.
It usually has a wall around it.

The wall around the medina in Essaouira. It used to be called "Mogador". Isn't that a great name?

Small restaurants within the medina.

Taxis here cost between 70 cents and a dollar.

Those huge stone gates? They're called "Babs".

You can use them for directions. 
Like telling a taxi, "Drop me off at the South Babs."

Cats - are everywhere in Morocco! One fellow said, "We should really call it Catablanca."

The souk - is the market. The bazaar.
Often covered.

The souk is usually within the medina.

You can buy EVERYTHING in the souk.





A casbah is a type of fortress.
A citadel. Might also be within the medina.
Or not.

This old casbah has a VERY large stork's nest on top of it!

And a riad - is a traditional house built around a courtyard, often a garden.
Recently, a lot of riads have been turned into hotels.

It's a popular thing: Come to Morocco, buy a riad.
Fix it up, and start a guesthouse.

There you go. Now you know, too.


We're in Essaouira. 
The western coast of Morocco.

It's crazy colorful here.

We've been in Morocco over a month already. We hadn't planned to stay here so long.





In fact, we'd already bought tickets to SE Asia.

Turkish Airlines - from Casablanca to Istanbul to Bangkok.
We've been traveling in Morocco for a while, and thought we were ready to move on.

Then - we arrived in Essaouira. 
We spent Christmas here with family.


And - it's really cool! 
Relaxed. Comfortable. Chill.
Perfect temperature. Plenty of places to rent.

Kite surfing.
Guys playing soccer on the beach.
Umbrellas over restaurant tables. 

History, culture and a colorful medina.

And camels.

So - we decided to stay here a while longer.
We've rented a super cool little rooftop apartment.

It's about $40 a night. But - the wine is more expensive here. When you can find it.

Just inside the medina.

It's very sunny - but not hot.
Just about perfect for long walks on the beach. 

It's a very long beach-!

There's a thriving fishing industry here.
Lots of boats. Lots of fish. Lots of sea birds.

The birds are loud! Almost as loud as the mosques -

And - good restaurants.

It's about 3 hours' drive west of Marrakech. 

Marrakech - in contrast - is a VERY busy place.
About a million people, but it feels like more.

Traffic in Marrakech is - challenging.
 Erik drove through it.

His comment: "You’re right. The driving here is reaaaally crazy." 

And this - from a guy who lives and drives - in Bangkok.

So, what's in Morocco beside sand? 

Awesome blue cities.




Ancient castles buried in palm fringed valleys. 
Old stone palaces. Roman ruins. 

Mountain peaks and wild gorges. 

Berber villages.

We stayed with a large Berber family up in the mountains - lots of mint tea and soup.

Incredible markets and souks where you can wander for hours.
Everything from carpets to camel heads. 

The medina in Fes has 9,000 alleyways. (and 40,000 dead ends) 
It helps to have a guide - we did. 
One who was born and raised in the souk itself.





Oasis after oasis. Just like in films.

Music. And - incredible fossils.

This - is a table in our room.

Rugs. Tiles.
Handicrafts. Art. 

Steps are tiled. Walls. Sinks. Tables. Floors. Fountains. Tiles everywhere.

Brass, copper, rugs, textiles, teapots, trays, coffee pots. Certainly an Aladdin's lamp in there somewhere.

The tanneries of Fes, what a sight! 

Built in the 11th century, where they still tan and dye leather. 
Cow, sheep, goat, and camel hides are tanned, and then dried in the sun. 

Did you know goat hides make the softest leather?

The view is impressive - and so is the smell. 
(They give you a spring of mint to smell when you enter. As if.)

So many of the places look like film sets. 

Apparently, the film companies think so, too. 

A lot of popular films are shot here. 

Stan adding to the local color. They all call him Ali Baba. Not sure exactly why.

Stan was looking for meteorites.
Morocco is a good place to find them.

Stan hunting for meteorites. With his pétanque magnet.

Did I mention the doors...?

The main languages in Morocco are Arabic and Berber. 

About 75% of the people are Berber. 

Here's what the Berber alphabet looks like. 

Really.

Berber alphabet

A lot of Morocco reminds me of New Mexico. 

And of Iran, where I lived 1977-79. 

The climate, the geography, the adobe buildings. 
Sunshine and deep blue skies.

Almost as cool as the doors....

Our route: 

Casablanca - Rabat - Meknes - Volubilis - Fes - Midelt - Erfoud - Merzouga - Ouarzazate - Ait Benhaddou - Marrakech - Sidi Kaouki - Essaouira

...and more Morocco - here.

"OUR Castle" - in Ireland

An old Irish castle.
With a ghost and a dungeon and a place for the portcullis to fall.

Even a hole for pouring boiling oil on unwanted visitors.

5 bedrooms. Not counting the dungeon.

That was our home for a while this summer.
The ghost we brought ourselves. In a story.

Erik, Kilian, Stan, Trish Ray, Mikey, Noah and Iris. Aidan's taking the picture. Rick, Jenny and Tati haven't arrived yet.

There was Guinness and smoked salmon and mussels and pubs.

But also pig racing and bog jumping.

Each pig has a number. And a stuffed cotton jockey. 

And the retelling of the "Ghost of Castle Kilkarney", the book my mother wrote 50 years ago.
About us. And a castle. In Ireland.

Aidan, Kilian, Iris, Mikey, Stan, Ray, Erik, baby Noah and Trish

In 1969, my parents moved from the Chicago area to Ireland.
We 5 kids - I was the oldest - went to Irish schools.

We got uniforms.
Counted money in pounds, shillings and pence.
Learned the differences between roods, perches and furlongs.

Learned what a chancer was.
Messages. A press. A quid.
That "the jacks" and "banjaxed" were not necessarily related.

We lived in an Old Rectory, built in 1725.
Complete with a ghost and an underground tunnel to the graveyard.

The adjustment from the US wasn't always easy, but it changed our lives.
It also gave us incredible freedom.




The bus left outside our gate.

From there, we could go on our own into Dublin.
Take a ferry to Wales.
A train to anywhere in Europe.
And beyond. 

I wound up going to school in England.
Germany. France. Switzerland. Italy. Ireland.
Working in a dozen or more countries.

We got the gift of thinking internationally. 

In 1969, my mother also wrote a book in Ireland, starring the 5 kids.
"The Ghost of Castle Kilkarney".

Steve, Trish, Rick and Pete in 1969.

Every day after dinner, she'd read to us what she'd written that day. 

When my kids were small, I read the book to them, too.

Erik, Mikey and Kilian. Okay, they're really reading Tintin, but - still.

This year was the 50th anniversary of that book.
We put together a new version, digitized it, included a few pictures.

And - rented a castle in Ireland for a family reunion.
One that was as close to the fictional "Castle Kilkarney" as possible. 

With a suit of armor.
A stone staircase.

Even a dungeon.

Noah and Kilian. Involved in castle activities.

We had the place to ourselves.

Cooking, shopping - and driving - was a combined effort. 

The windows were small and narrow. 

The stairway was steep, and wound to the right. 

They usually do, so that the defenders could use their right arms for weapons. 

Someone saw a poster for "pig racing". 
Off we went - to an excellent local county fair. 

Kilian and Aidan check out the potential new wheels. Not for NM, with the driver on the right-hand side.

Tractors, tools. And - yes, pig racing.

(It was very popular. You could bet on the pigs!)

Ireland today is a long way from what it was like in the 70's.

Central heating was a rarity.
Some of my friends' homes had no refrigerators or washers.
Milk was delivered daily, and kept outside on a windowsill.

None of my friends had a car.

The stone house I rented in Connemara had no electricity.

There was a pump in the field for water.
I used turf - that we dug and dried from the bog - for heat.

The "ould" days: Temple Bar in Dublin. My hearth in Leitrim, with the "crook and crane". Trish at 20 years old.

It's changed drastically.

Something lost, something gained. 




This trip - this family reunion - was a chance to share a bit of Ireland with my kids.
Ireland played such a large part in my life.

My brother Rick also wanted to show his daughter, Tati, where he grew up.

We even went back to our home in Co. Wicklow, The Old Rectory.
The current owners are my parents' friends, Jimmy and Miriam Carroll.

They kindly gave us tea and let us wander through our old rooms.

At the Cliffs of Moher. We used to go there before they built the walls. Watch the ocean from the edge. Sometimes at night.

What an adventure - both then - and now.
A trip with stories of the past.

And now - we're creating new stories of our own.
For our kids - and grandkid.
How cool.

Noah says,"That's OUR castle!"
And - he's right. -At least for a while.

"Remember the time we went to Ireland? And stayed in a real castle?"

Yep.