Greetings, earthlings! As the time approaches for me to go back where I came from, it has been impressed upon me that I have been remiss in posting on this blog. When I made this blog, I fully intended to post about once a week about my travels on the weekends or other cultural experiences and things like that. No doubt you all have noticed by now that this has not been the case. Please accept this small offering of pictures from a trip I took almost a month ago and just now put on my computer as a token of my sincere contrition.
The trip to which I refer was over the First of Muharram, and it was to Oujda, a city 15km from the Algerian boder. Prior to the closing of the border in 1995, Oujda was a major overland trade center as well as an industrial center. Now, it's mostly just industrial, and has clearly been suffering from a bit of a depression. The main tourist attraction in or near Oujda is the Sidi Yahia oasis. Loosely translated, that means the Saint John oasis. Apparently Algeria is also visible from some of the hills surrounding Oujda, but most of those hills are rather difficult to get to. Because of its proximity to Algeria, Oujda is in many ways more of an Algerian city than a Moroccan city; it tends to be more conservative than the rest of Morocco, and is not much of a tourist center, so furriners, especially light-skinned, medium-haired females, get stared at.
Anyway, here are the pictures.
Tree on the way in to the oasis. I'm not sure what kind of tree it was.
Another tree framing the water in the oasis. To the center-right there is a cafe. The island in the middle is for the ducks who live at the oasis.
More water, but from a different angle. The wall that surrounds the oasis makes it difficult to get to the hill behind, from which one can apparently see Algeria. I wouldn't know since, well, the hill was hard to get to and it was kind of a sketchy part of town.
Water and tree. And ducks in the lower right corner.
There were also roses growing near the wall by the entrance.
This is a short distance down the street from the oasis. As you can see, there's absolutely no water, underscoring the importance of water and thus the oasis, especially in earlier times when water storage and filtration and such were not as advanced as they are today.
I went to Marrakech this past weekend, which was really fun. I'll put up the few pictures I have of it soon, but I think that will mostly be a words post. I didn't take many pictures because every time I took out my camera, about fifty people would descend on me asking for money because apparently I was taking their picture, even if they were behind me, and thus I had to pay them. This was an interesting experience and definitely worth a words post, hopefully in the near future.
Later, gators.
The trip to which I refer was over the First of Muharram, and it was to Oujda, a city 15km from the Algerian boder. Prior to the closing of the border in 1995, Oujda was a major overland trade center as well as an industrial center. Now, it's mostly just industrial, and has clearly been suffering from a bit of a depression. The main tourist attraction in or near Oujda is the Sidi Yahia oasis. Loosely translated, that means the Saint John oasis. Apparently Algeria is also visible from some of the hills surrounding Oujda, but most of those hills are rather difficult to get to. Because of its proximity to Algeria, Oujda is in many ways more of an Algerian city than a Moroccan city; it tends to be more conservative than the rest of Morocco, and is not much of a tourist center, so furriners, especially light-skinned, medium-haired females, get stared at.
Anyway, here are the pictures.
Tree on the way in to the oasis. I'm not sure what kind of tree it was.
Another tree framing the water in the oasis. To the center-right there is a cafe. The island in the middle is for the ducks who live at the oasis.
More water, but from a different angle. The wall that surrounds the oasis makes it difficult to get to the hill behind, from which one can apparently see Algeria. I wouldn't know since, well, the hill was hard to get to and it was kind of a sketchy part of town.
Water and tree. And ducks in the lower right corner.
There were also roses growing near the wall by the entrance.
This is a short distance down the street from the oasis. As you can see, there's absolutely no water, underscoring the importance of water and thus the oasis, especially in earlier times when water storage and filtration and such were not as advanced as they are today.
I went to Marrakech this past weekend, which was really fun. I'll put up the few pictures I have of it soon, but I think that will mostly be a words post. I didn't take many pictures because every time I took out my camera, about fifty people would descend on me asking for money because apparently I was taking their picture, even if they were behind me, and thus I had to pay them. This was an interesting experience and definitely worth a words post, hopefully in the near future.
Later, gators.
