Arrivals Task- Alix Dessain

To begin the project we were asked to imagine arrving at a place. I decided to look at arriving in Marrakech, Morocco, as when I visited the country last summer there was such a stark contrast to England that I felt and saw as soon as I stepped off the plane, despite only being 3 hours away on the plane.  The biggest difference to me was the colour, arriving from a drab and grey England to a city full of warm shades of oranges, yellows and red was refreshing and gave the city an striking look immediately.

I loved the hustle and bustle that is seen along the street and the alleys within the medina. Anywhere you walk down there is some sort of activity happening, whether its children playing outside their homes, cats running around, a donkey cart pulling oranges along, a motorbike about to run you over, men rushing to the mosque at prayer call, there is always something going in and even late into the night there was still constant activity going on in the alleys.

But this is in complete  contrast to when you enter a riad, a traditional Moroccan house with an internal open-air courtyard. What appears to be a dull, ordinary looking and often suspicious door off a winding alley of the medina opens up into a tranquil surrounding that feels a million miles away from the chaos outside.  Once inside, you feel very calm and content being surrounded by gorgeous coloured tiles, lanterns hanging everywhere and amazing rugs and textiles scattered on the floor. The noise from the alleys and streets is completely hidden and the only sound you can hear from the outside world is the mosque calling the Moroccans to prayer which is heard several times a day from one of the numerous mosques found within the medinas walls. From the rooftop, you can see across all of the roof tops within the medina and the towers of the mosques.

Marrakesh was such an exciting place to spend time in, there was so much to look at and admire when I was wandering through the souks and streets that I want to revisit my time here and wish that I was still there!