An Unusual Thanksgiving Dinner
We had many courses, including turkey, stuffing (I think that's what it was), a dollop of cranberry sauce, and a plate otherwise heaped with guess what---potato chips! Can't remember the other courses, but they were quite unremarkable, compared to Emily's wonderful gourmet cooking!
We have a Greek chief chef and that was his idea of the main course for Thanksgiving dinner---along with the dessert that one of my table mates called pumpkin linoleum. But at least it was honoring Thanksgiving dinner. I can't imagine what Christmas dinner will be. Actually, we have long
long formal meals in the dining room if we want to eat there,and informal buffet each meal around the pool, much more catch as catch can. Literally. But yesterday we had a great meal in Marrakech. We got up at 4:30 a.m, ate European breakfast---got on a bus at 5 a.m. and headed through a dark and silent Casablanca for a three hour ride to Marrakech---to see the "old" Morocco. And it was. We walked through the "medina," the old city, through the souks, where everyone trailed us around trying to sell all sorts of trinkets, and bigger things---caftans, rugs, furniture, and more. We visited a king's burial palace where all his numerous family was buried in rooms around him, and then had a quite wonderful lunch in a restaurant with interesting Moroccan food, cucumbers, beets, chicken in some kind of coriander or curry sauce with olives and other spices---mandarin oranges, tiny coconut cookies, mint tea--always mint tea wherever you go. Mint tea is a glass full of mint, with water poured over it and a long paper straw full of sugar. But actually it's quite good.
The countryside was fascinating, but all in all, not a haven for women. Almost every female wore the native covering outfit down to the ankles, many also with veils, and few could be seen with men in Marrakech. Quite disturbing to see. The men obviously ruled all. On the way back were many men scattered along the road holding a chicken or a turkey and waving it to sell. Also, everywhere, in the narrow streets, in the countryside of red hills, there were donkey carts and often several people atop the bales of hay or boxes; this was the very common mode of transportation, quite clearly.
Today we are moving rapidly toward the Canary Islands, and tomorrow we spend the day in Tenerife. Spanish. Maybe the culture will be significantly different.
More to follow. Especially about the ship!
