Minusgrade

When it´s -10 °C outside that feel more like -20 °C, reasons for going out are few. We stay in and prefer to connect with the outside world through blogging. Here´s Eva, and here´s what she drew on my Wacom: Außer Rand & Band.

Marokko

Winter escape to Morocco with the main goal of avoiding everything cold, dreary and european. The part about skipping the cold didn´t quite work out though. 

Route: Ryanair flight to Fès, bus to Essaouira via Casablanca, then passing Agadir, on to Tafraoute, joining an organised tour to see the Anti-Atlas and Sahara, then going back to Fès via Ouarzazate.

Bluest skies over the Mellah of Fès. This used to be the jewish quarter, but the majority of moroccan jews either emigrated to Israel or moved to the newer parts of town. 

Nowadays the population in the Mellah is muslim.

 

Leather tannery in the Medina. Only natural ingredients are used, as another overeager salesman assures us, like pidgeon excrement and chalk. It smells like rotting flesh.

 

Much tastier: Thé a la mente. Green tea, fresh mint leaves, and sugar chunks the size of oranges.

Essaouira back alley, trying to find some food that isn´t tajine or couscous. I´m not sure what we had, but it might have been bowel soup. At least we went somewhere that wasn´t listed in the Lonely Planet!

 

Oasis near Tafraoute, spectacular mountain backdrop, turquoise water, date palms, there were even frogs. Conclusion: Some things are too pretty to draw.

I didn´t see much of Zagora, except this view from the hotel terrace. It´s also a very dusty place.

Ouarzazate´s Medina.

Franken

  

Former means of transport in the Verkehrsmuseum in Nürnberg: Goggomobil Coupé, 1960s & E 19 locomotive, 1940

Modern means of transport: Anonymous, crowded regional train from Nürnberg to München. No seats available = 2 hours for one drawing + stiff legs

Mitfahrgelegenheit

Driving home in a battered old VW bus. I met Vanessa, the driver and another girl, Tracy, through an online car pooling comunity that arranges cheap lifts. Though the heating didn´t work and the interior fitting was coming apart, it was much nicer than taking the train.

Sternkino

The neighbourhood´s cinema next door was demolished this summer. It was a former riding stable that was converted into a cinema in the 1950s. I used to go to sleep with the noisy chatter of people emerging from the movies at night, a very comforting sound.
Now it´s all to quiet.
The new owners of the lot want to build two large and exceedingly ugly appartment buildings. People are hoping that the investors won´t suceed with their plans and have filed a complaint with the board of works, so for now all work on the area is stalled and left in this state.

digital

museumsuferfest/ frankfurt

kaffee in der annabatterie

café sketching with complying companion, who was engrossed in his favourite newspaper.

jazz

i found this sketch from february- AYM refers to the jazz band playing in the background, called angry young men. At SchonSchön bar/club, Mainz. These three were engaged in a lively discussion, and i sipped my drink and drew.

evelyn

kräne

Zollhafen, Mainz.