Prayer

      Around noon on Friday, at the Mosque down the street.  There are hundreds of people filling the mosque, the courtyard, the street outside, around the block.  Except for a few babas with headscarves manning some booths on the outskirts of the throng, they are all males, many of them young guys like me.  On either side of me on the sidewalk, young men are murmuring along with the text, rocking back and forth, feeling a fervor and devotion that I can feel but not know.  I have read most of the Koran, but I cannot understand what it is like to be born into this faith.  I can only think of wide open spaces and turqoise.  I am moved to profound respect for such a vast religion that, at least in theory, is founded on peace and humility.  

Habbous

          This is the outside of "Al-Habbous".  Because, unlike the Meddina, it is not an area frequented by tourists, I felt that it might have been both unwise and indiscreet to take pictures of the enormous market inside the gates.  But there is indeed a carnival of people, smells, and vendors further in, stretching for endless blocks.  In shops, storefronts, or arrayed on carpets on the street, are piles of everything from discount designer panties, to hookas, to fresh escargots.  I almost tried some of the curiously appetizing molluscs but I lost courage at the last minute.  The market seems to go on forever, stretching through the entire old-old city (older than the Ancienne Madina), full of labyrinthine corridors and dwellings that must have dated well before the birth of Jesus.  I tried to get a cup of tea from a stand run by an old woman with a tatoo running from her lower lip to her chin, but she refused.  Evidently not a fan. It reminded me of the Old City in Jerusalem but way more crazy.

Architecture

They call this style of architecture "Orientale" and I love it!  Apparently you can see similar examples in the Andalusian region of South Spain.  Never been there so I dunno.  I go gaga for this stuff.  These buildings populate most of the Medina (Old City - not to be confused with Al Habbous, pictured above, which is older) giving it a fantastic, mysterious, conspiratorial flavor.