Chefchouen: Is The Blue City Worth Visiting?

in Pinmapple24 days ago

'Giselle updated her profile picture'

I splutter. My husband can make me laugh sometimes. But all over the streets of Chefchouen in Morocco's north, woman are posing in blue dresses on blue steps in blue alleyways.

IMG20240421110706.jpg

IMG20240421094449.jpg

The thing is, this blue city is on a tourist route precisely because it's painted blue. Sure, people visit because it's in a stunning setting, surrounded by mountains, and is great for hiking and nature, but the vast majority of people are here for the blue buildings.

IMG20240421110446.jpg

IMG20240421114719.jpg

We walk around early and catch it before all the shops and hustle open and yes, it is very, very pretty. Apparently it was painted by Jewish residents in the 1930s - why, no one seems to know. Perhaps to attract tourists, or to scare away mosquitos due to natural repellent on the paint.

IMG20240421114149.jpg

IMG20240421114327.jpg

However, we were asked over breakfast what our favourite town in Morocco was. We paused. It's not so much a town we can name, and it wouldn't be a tourist town. It'd be one of those towns in the High Atlas where we are driving through chaos on market day, people on donkeys bringing in baskets of fresh herbs, stalls of fresh bread, bags of lentils and rice, kids kicking footballs and high fiving Jamie as Butters pushes through.

IMG20240421114325.jpg

IMG20240421114319.jpg

It could be Chefchouen, very very early in the morning, before the stalls selling rugs and fridge magnets and straw hats with pom poms open, before the tourists come through in blue dresses to pose in front of blue buildings to update their new blue profile shot.

IMG20240421114455.jpg

IMG20240421094237.jpg

It could be a old town where you stop for an espresso and a pastry and watch life go by before moving on. It could be a place where we are sitting against a building in the shade eating bananas and baguettes and waiting for the Landie to have her brakes fixed. Or the place where the call to prayer echoed down the valley and no one sold us anything or even tried Favourite place? Not really. Perhaps a sprinkle of this place and a dash of another.

IMG20240421114330.jpg

With Love,

image.png

[//]:# (!pinmapple 35.17759 lat -5.26326 long [//]:# (!pinmapple 35.17759 lat -5.26326 long d3scr) d3scr)

Are you on HIVE yet? Earn for writing! Referral link for FREE account here

Sort:  

Congratulations, your post has been added to Pinmapple! 🎉🥳🍍

Did you know you have your own profile map?
And every post has their own map too!

Want to have your post on the map too?

  • Go to Pinmapple
  • Click the get code button
  • Click on the map where your post should be (zoom in if needed)
  • Copy and paste the generated code in your post (Hive only)
  • Congrats, your post is now on the map!

Congratulations @riverflows! You have completed the following achievement on the Hive blockchain And have been rewarded with New badge(s)

You received more than 64000 HP as payout for your posts, comments and curation.
Your next payout target is 66000 HP.
The unit is Hive Power equivalent because post and comment rewards can be split into HP and HBD

You can view your badges on your board and compare yourself to others in the Ranking
If you no longer want to receive notifications, reply to this comment with the word STOP

Check out our last posts:

Hive Power Up Day - May 1st 2024

Seems unusual, but I can see why it's not necessarily a favorite. Seems more of a social media draw, the whole blue thing. That being said, no blue dress selfie?! What is this. Not even a blue hoodie for Jamie. Maybe that's how the magic happens. You wear blue in this place, bam, you've sold your soul to it for life. We'll never know now, will we? :D

You know I had a cute blue top but there was no way I was wearing it 😂💙