Souqs and Roundabouts

Aaaah salaam and good evening my good friends. Come, come a little closer. Closer...closer. A little too close. So at last our journey has commenced and i write this from a small cafe in Rabat where Tough Guy is donning our newly purchased authentic fez on my left and a bizarre Polish woman is fashioning a trendy wallet out of a juice carton on my right. This has largely summed up our short time here. Our kind Couchsurfer host suffers from a rare condition called 'largyngismus stridulus' where his vocal cords contract randomly against his will meaning that every second word is a colossal ball-drag. I am childish so I find this very funny. But his English is good and he treats us very well. And his couch smells of fresh Wintergreen so I will say nothing further negative about him.

Our time here has been pretty full-on so far. The souqs and markets are really like something out of Aladdin. Everything from lemon and chili scented olives to artificial moving pigeons litter the the narrow streets. And the people here like to multi-task - with a butchery also doubling up as an orthodontist. Honestly. Quite bizarrely this timeless universe sits quite happily adjacent to a modern thriving metropolis in Rabat. Its very disorientating to walk 5 minutes from bartering for homemade nougat in a mans doorway to dodging an army of 30 year old Mercs all flying from the wrong side of the road. That is when you at least CAN see their faces: the hip new fashion in Rabat is for the people to wear body-length robes with conical hoodies meaning that the streets look like theyve been overtaken by hoards of Jedi-Knights. Or worse, Gregorian chanters.

Its now my turn to wear the fez so i need to run. Just a quick thank you to everyone who has donated kindly to the Key School. Just a quick word that none of the money donated goes to us, it all goes straight to the school so it really is a worthy donation. It isnt going towards purchasing an army of local hats. Although that would also be cool.