Natural splendour, real musics, wines, wordpower
We have just spent the second half of October in Morocco, and the first part of November in southern Spain.
This little single-image series highlights key aspects of those places.
We had expected/already knew of some of them.
Others surprised us.
This post’s photo covers both categories.
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Actually, two continents comprise most of the Americas, but the Spanish hotelier’s point is well-made.
I suspect that few guests from the USA even notice the “writing on the hotel lobby wall”, let alone grasp its message.
This hotel has a most “unlikely” name, given its quintessentially Andalusian location.
The Hotel America has 17 rooms and a (good) courtyard restaurant which serves homestyle Granadan food.
Comments closedTo a local resident, the meaning was probably perfectly clear.
To these visitors to Chefchaouen (Morocco’s famously “blue” city) it was a mystery, but we enjoyed looking at the pictured wall, which is on one of the city’s many narrow, cobbled, very steep streets and laneways.
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The location is a “historic”, cobbled street in Catania, which sits below Mount Etna.
Contrary to popular misconception, Europe’s biggest volcano has never “devastated” Catania. (although an earthquake once did)
Catania is second to Palermo in population, but Catania is Sicily’s industrial/commercial hub.
If Sicily/Italy ever does go down whatever “revolutionary road” the graffitist had in mind, let us hope that it leads to a less corrupt, less bloodthirsty, more fair and more freedom-favouring future than any avid student of history would have good reason to expect!
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The fabled “Silk Road” city of Kashgar (aka Kashi) in southern Xinjiang has been a trading hub for thousands of years.
One of China’s westernmost cities, it is home to circa one million residents, and is a fascinating destination.
Its gleaming, newish museum is huge.
Unsurprisingly, it houses many historical treasures.
It is billed as a “must see”.
If your desire is to learn anything meaningful about Xinjiang’s history, Kashgar Museum is in fact a “must miss”.
However, as a cheerlessly relentless example of the lies and utter drivel which totalitarian states inflict upon their citizens (and visitors), Kashgar Museum certainly offers a “world class” experience.
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On 14 May 2024 we enjoyed an unforgettably delicious meal at an Afghan restaurant in Pakistan’s capital city.
You are looking at the sign in front of it, in Islamabad.
Sometimes a sign “tells” an already well-informed viewer something significant that is not stated directly.
Consider the establishment’s opening date.
Comments closedA surprisingly large number of Pakistani citizens have a good grasp of English; we enjoyed more than a few mutually-intelligible and rewarding conversations with complete strangers during our visit in 2024
Presumably, the proprietor of the pictured fruit juice stand does not have such a grasp!
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On 25 May 2024 I took the photo as we sped by the pictured billboard.
It was lunchtime in Kashgar – the “fabled” Silk Road city in western China, where it is known as “Kashi”.
Doubtless, before it was “translated” into English, the description of the soup was altogether more enticing.
Comments closed…but even so, this street food vendor’s claim was relatively ambitious, even in terms of “locally famous, within the vale of Kashmir”.
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In one of Europe’s most “touristic” towns – Taormina, Sicily – two adjacent signs have accidentally combined forces to “call out” one of the characteristic idiocies of the 21st century’s first quarter.
”Narcissism” and “ethics” used to be entirely discrete/separate terms.
In our present, overly-performative, hyper-partisan world the two words are oft sorely-misused.
They are also frequently (albeit unwittingly) wed… forming an unholy alliance, oft-accompanied by “alternative” “facts”, “personal” “truths” and other weasel-wordery.
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