General Archives ⋆ The Passenger

January 5, 2025January 4, 2025

Tenerife

It was a rather spontaneous decision to spend the end of the year on Tenerife, enjoying the warmer weather in contrast to central Europe. Tenerife is the largest of the Islas Canarias located in the Atlantic ocean close to Western Sahara and Morocco. The island has the shape of a tilted Y and was formed 12 million years ago by volcanic activities. First human traces can be dated back to the 10th century BC; interaction with European cultures started in the 14th century CE followed by a colonisation by the Spanish after massive fights with the indigenious people.

November 26, 2024November 27, 2024

Winter Wonderland

When the days are getting shorter and colder, a part of Hyde Park close to Speakers’ Corner turns into the Hyde Park Winter Wonderland – a crazy mix of a Christmas market, the Oktoberfest and a fun fair. Winter Wonderland began at London in 2005 and was ever-growing since then (if you ignore the Covid-19 times). It combines good music, festive lights, fun rides and overpriced food and drinks. A funny adventure letting you taste unexpected food creations and experience the joy of amusement parks.

November 11, 2024January 12, 2025

Is this Africa?

That was one of the very good questions my first tour guide at Casablanca discussed with me. A question that is easy to answer geographically, but culturally? At Morocco, the Arabic history mixes up with Portuguese, French and Spanish influence. It is a country oriented pretty much towards Europe but with a fascinating past and heritage that makes a tour through the North African country an endeavour that one must do once in a lifetime.

November 6, 2024December 8, 2024

Tajine

The Moroccan kitchen has a lot to offer: beginning with the national dish couscous, via pastilla (a pie filled with meat and vegetables) to harira, a soup made of lentils, chickpeas, rice and onions. Bread is incredibly important and traditionally food is eaten together from one plate only with the fingers of the right hand. As a tourist you’ll for sure most often find knife and fork in restaurants – with street food it is different.

November 4, 2024January 12, 2025

Villes impériales

When people visit Morocco, they typically visit the four villes impériales: Fès, Meknès, Marrakech and Rabat. These four have been capital cities throughout time for different dynasties of rulers: Idrisids (Fès), Almoravids (Marrakech), Almohads (Marrakech), Marinids (Fès), Saadis (Marrakech, Fès) and Alaouites (Fès, Meknès, Rabat). They shaped their favorite cities, contributed new buildings to them and left their traces.

November 3, 2024December 30, 2024

En train

When I decided to visit multiple cities in Morocco I also took the decision to do the round trip by train. It is a pleasure you can’t have in many countries, but in this case you see the strong influence of the French colonialization: the high-speed trains are the same model like the TGV trains at France and the doors even close two minutes prior to departure like only in France. The rail network is suitably good, the stations have a great quality, you can buy tickets online upfront and travelling with locals and foreigners through the country is an absolutely nice experience.

November 2, 2024December 30, 2024

Here’s looking at you kid

The city of Casablanca is two-faced: first of all it is the economic powerhouse of Morocco. If it is about business in Morocco, it is most probably at Casablanca. That’s a factor that shapes the modern parts of the city and influences infrastructure. From a touristic point of view, the city attracts visitors with something virtual, an illusion created far in the past. If you say the name Casablanca all around the world people immediately see Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergmann sitting at Rick’s Café in Casablanca struggling with the German influence on the Vichy-regime-controlled Morocco during World War II.

November 2, 2024January 2, 2025

Arabic

Morocco is a multi-language country. As parts of it were Spanish and French protectorates until 1956 you can use these languages while travelling. Especially in the north nearly everyone understands French. Official languages are (Moroccan) Arab (المملكة المغربية) and the berber language Tamazight (ⵜⴰⴳⵍⴷⵉⵜ ⵏ ⵍⵎⴰⵖⵔⵉⴱ) – two languages with a unique characterset typically undecipherable by Europeans; but typically signs are tri-lingual.

November 1, 2024January 2, 2025

Dirham

The Dirham is the historic Arab silver coin unit introduced in the year 698 CE. Some countries in the world still use this name as a reference to that and one of them is the Moroccan Dirham (MAD), with prices often shown with the abbreviation Dh. The MAD is not freely convertible. You can’t get it outside of the country, even importing and exporting it is forbidden. A maximum amount of 1,000 MAD (a bit less then 100 Euros) is typically accepted at the border.

October 5, 2024October 21, 2024

Oldest republic

San Marino was founded in 301 and is probably the oldest still existing republic with the oldest still used constitution (established in 1600). The country only has 30,000 inhabitants – much less then most European cities – and is fully surrounded by Italy. Official language is Italian, currency is the Euro; but the country is not part of the European Union (only of the United Nations). The legend says that quarryman Marinus fled from Rimini because Christians were prosecuted in the Roman Empire and went up to mount Titano to build a monastery there.