Hello everybody!I have been walking around here in my new internethome :) and found this topic: [URL=http://www.yabiladi.com/forum/read.php?44,520469] How often do you feel the urge to visit Leblad?[/URL] started by @almotanabi. It was interesting to read your feelings and opinions about visiting your home country.For me Morocco is not “Leblad”, but a country which I visited for the first time in 1999. I knew next to nothing about Morocco, when I first came there.I had starting learning Arabic in my leisuretime, because I wanted to learn another language from a different cultural setting. I chose Arabic because it is an official language in over 20 countries and because I wanted to learn more about Arabic history and culture and the Islam.After some first tries with a Learning-Arabic-CDrom, I thought it would be a good idea to make a trip to an Arabic country. The aim of that trip became Agadir, mostly of practical reasons. My children were only seven and nine years old at that time, so it was nice with holidays at a beach.My few words in standard Arabic were appreciated, when I tried to use them in Agadir and they led to some interesting conversations in English. I soon found out that I should learn Darija for communicating with people. I also learned that there was a very large percentage of Berber or Amazigh people in Morocco, not only Arabs as I thought before.But “Agadir is not Morocco” as many people say, so we went back to Morocco in the beginning of 2003 and also 2004 and travelled around.Last year we visited the desert and stayed in a small camp for four days, where two nomads were looking after us, preparing food and of course tea. This time not mint tea, but tea with “chiba” and also “louisa”, the latter was always prepared in the evening. We were sleeping under the stars, studying the traces of different kinds of animals in the sand every morning, made short trips on the back of the dromedars and really enjoyed ourselves. My daughter said the other day “I will remember our trip to the desert all my life.”Now in the beginning of 2005 my children have both become teenagers. In February/March we went to Morocco for the fourth time for a five-weeks-trip visiting Marrakech, Rabat, Meknès, Volubilis, Fès, Ifrane, Bin el Ouidane and for the last week again Marrakech.We have made friends and have got to know people living in different parts of Morocco. Our friends give us the opportunity to have a look on Morocco from “the inside”, when we stay together with their families. We appreciate their friendliness and hospitality very much and also the interesting exchange of views and facts about our respective countries.In Rabat we went to the archeological museum, where we had a look at the exhibitons, especially from Roman times, since we later wanted to visit Volubilis.We also went to the zoo in Rabat, twice. The first time we had to leave the zoo after about half an hour because of never ending pouring rain… The second time showed us, how popular the zoo is on a Sunday. Moroccan families and young people had picnic on the lawns and adults and children in all ages were walking around looking at the animals and sometimes also at us, the only European family in the whole zoo… ;)In the Chellah, for the first time in my life, I saw colonies of storks, many of them breeding in trees with the different nests in several “floors” on top of the other. The storks in Volubilis on the other hand prefered to live more separate with single nests high up on a Roman column.Volubilis impressed us by it’s size and the variety of remains from Roman buildings. It was amazing to see that the mosaics have endured so many centuries in such a good condition. Our guide had studied history and told us a lot of interesting facts and also the mythological background of the mosaics. ………Well, this has become quite long, and since we still have sunny weather I think I close now and go out into my garden, giving our hens an opportunity for a walk, before they go to bed, i.e. on the perch.Have a nice eveningCalendula//en.yabiladi.com/topics/visiting-morocco-44-555161-555161.html#msg-555161 Thu, 04 Jun 2026 12:47:36 +0200 Phorum 5.2.15