Desert bliss

I find it enriching to get to know the food, customs and everyday life in another country.
I've been traveling with Moroccan friends for weeks and have always eaten delicious food and been inspired.

Every now and then I get to know tourists and listen to what fears they have when they come here and how amazed they are that so many things are not true at all.
Well noticed: their truth! Because none of us are immune to influence, media and the experiences that others have had.
The question is always: What are you listening to?

to eat out

When I spoke on the phone today to a friend who is currently on an organized tour of Morocco, we talked about the food.
She said that she had to buy salt because everything is not seasoned and nothing tastes good. I'm sorry if someone comes to Morocco and has such experiences!
I also tried many restaurants in Marrakech and I was almost always disappointed!
Why don't Moroccans season their food for tourists?
Every time I ask the waiter to give me at least salt and cumin.
food in Morocco is known for its spice market, for its composition of wonderful spices!

I recently stayed in a classy hotel for one night and really enjoyed the beautiful ambience of the hotel! Except dinner. Unfortunately it wasn't as tasty as I've experienced with locals. My tablemate, who was in Morocco for the first time, thought it was very good. And I thought to myself, no, you don't know what original Moroccan cuisine tastes like. She is a poem! But I kept that to myself.

Eating together is a highlight of the day

The food culture is completely different here.
You start putting on a tagine in the evening and then eat it later. We eat at the end of the evening, not at the beginning like we do. At least that's what I 've experienced here so far. So I usually don't eat dinner before 11 p.m.

At the beginning of my stay here, I was given a place setting with a knife, fork and plate. But I like to eat with the others from a large plate where everyone helps themselves to a piece of bread. The bread is the fork. Since I need to practice this even better, I eat a lot of bread. Way too much bread! Which isn't exactly on a good diet plan for me, as I usually hardly eat any bread. But here I take what is offered to me. That's how I eat everything. At home it's almost exclusively vegetarian and sometimes vegan. I eat a lot of meat here. Nomads eat a lot of meat. In ancient times they traveled through the country with their herd of camels and goats.

The way of eating here in this communal way means that you don't eat until your own plate is empty, but until you are full. A small piece is always left on the plate. Either for the guest, i.e. for me, or for the cats. Everyone is anxious to give me the good piece of meat.

There is no greed between each other, everything is shared.
The last cigarettes, everything. This observation led me to the thought that this creates a much greater sense of unity.
It's kind of like this: look for another and you will be given.

The carpet is the living room

The riad where I am is currently a construction site.
But I like being here and enjoy being in good company. In the evening, a large red carpet is rolled out in the parking lot in the backyard.
This is our living room, so to speak. Sometimes we go to the dunes in the evening and eat there.

When everyone takes out their cell phone and adjusts their volume to their needs, no one ever says: Can you please turn it down, or turn it off, or do anything else that makes me feel better. We always want to change things externally when we don't like something. But the reality is that you can't expect everything outside to work out the way you want.

Here I learn: live and let live.

The evening has many facets of communication. Sometimes everyone is in their own cell phone world, sometimes they play a game together, talk, discuss, laugh and listen to music. Music is still very important here in Africa.

Then late in the evening the delicious dinner is served.
No matter who else joins in, it will be shared. Coming and going, a constant rhythm.

The doors are open. I have a friend who lives in New York.
She is half French and half Sicilian. She told me that she suffers from the fact that you can never just visit someone here.
It always takes a date, an invitation, an appointment planned well in advance. And finding an appointment there is difficult. This means that no spontaneous meetings can take place.

I know this because I lived in the metropolis of New York for a long time.
Spontaneity versus day-to-day life.
And everyone is so incredibly busy and busy! That leaves little room for friendships.

Of course I also get to know another side of Morocco.
For example, that there are also envy, promises, crooks, seducers and exploiters.
And that not everything seems as golden as it is.
Not everyone lets their cards be looked at. There are also spies here like in the old GDR times.
Everywhere and not a few! This also makes people here suspicious and so they play the game of adaptation and caution.

All fears come with you

The fear of others? Or your fear?

You will meet them all. If you want, everyone! The deeply dusty fears as well as the freshly baked and newly announced ones.

There is always a reason to be afraid. And these reasons are subconsciously used as excuses not to move and rather stay where you stand and sit.

It feels really good to be at an age where I am no longer interested in what doubters and fear-driven people want to tell me along the way. The advice is meant kindly. But I would like to have my own experiences myself. I even have to make these! Because it is ME who is on the move and I will use my energy to attract events and people who match me. Or I have experiences that are needed to get to know myself better and grow with it.

How can I take advice from people who have neither traveled far nor know the country and people where I am going?
It takes courage to embrace life and get up again and again.
It takes intuition, a healthy amount of caution and it shouldn't be overwhelmed and suffocated with too much caution.
I would always choose risk over letting my fears overwhelm me.
I always risked everything! I lived everything that wanted to be lived in terms of experience. I slid through ravines, got stuck in valleys and bounced off walls. I stood there feeling mushy and offended and didn't want to know anything more.

However, my phoenix from the ashes kept rising.
Also for love.
For the risk of a bad or good experience. Through all of this I got to know ME.

Who I am, what I need to be happy and how I can take care of myself so that this life is the best journey of my life. This is how I unpack my fears when I travel and am always happy when they dissolve and I unmask them as an illusion.
I'm learning a lot about my inner voice, which I had sometimes ignored in life and subsequently understood how it communicates with me.

Life needs experiences in all directions.
This is the only way we understand who we are and what makes us human and what we need to feel safe and secure.