shoes, figs and goat heads....

The medina is a place of many wonders... you can find fake puma shoes, next to a stand of exquisite leather bags, next to a date and fig stand... and the list goes on... so you would not really be surprised when you come across a stand with animal heads on sale... right?
They stack spices high and I everytime we walk past a spice stand Jason and I marvel at the engineering behind the stacks of cumin, paprika and ginger...
The busy medina is right by the hostel were we stay, and every day we fall asleep with the sound of men, women and children screaming at the top of their lungs to anyone and everyone who cares to hear (or doesn't care) to buy their products.  Our hostel is also conveniently located between two mosques... for the past 2 days we have been woken up at 4am with arabic chanting that goes on for about 20 minutes... It is not as charming as you might think, when you cannot sleep because there is a busy street next to you and then wake up early in the morning with chanting through loudspeakers.  But we are poor and cannot afford to go anywhere else :)
There is a clear division in Rabat between the poor/rich areas, which can also be called the traditional/liberal areas... where we live, it is rare to see a woman without a full hijab... where we work, girls walk around wearing tanktops and skirts... we get culture shock just by going from one side of the city to the other!
Rabat is also plastered with cute coffee shops, with outdoor sitting and upstairs sitting... no matter where you are you can find a place to have coffee for a dollar, if you are willing to let yourself smell like smoke, you sit inside, if you want to die of second hand smoke, you sit upstairs, and if you just want to chill and enjoy the breeze you sit outside... it is what it is.