Turkey, Morocco and Hungary and all that is inbetween

Last night, I went for a little sing song birthday celebration of a girl friend from Morocco. The Belly dancing and the Moroccan singing was splendid, who knew you could get all of this within a 20 minute tube ride from Surrey?! There was a table of Moroccan men so mesmerised by the singing, the way they joined in created almost a tribal feeling!

I had the most amazing dish (stuffed cabbage) which I've tasted in Hungary and my Turkish friend was saying they have it in their culinary line-up too. It got me thinking, how all these cultures of that part of the world are inter-connected.

North African culture is one that I am not accustomed to, belly dancing is such a sensual dance arousing any hot blooded man/woman's desires but yet people from this part of the world, who are pre-dominantly Muslim, have the most conservative of cultures. They are a fascinating bunch. Despite the fact that a massive amount of effort is put in to dressing up in the most sexually attractive way possible, sex is very much a taboo issue amongst them. A cynic may say this is hypocritical, but I guess as with many things this might be yet another testament to how everything in life is a contradiction.

Today, for example, I decided to spend a beautiful sunny Sunday on my own basking in the glory of happiness born by complete freedom devoid of any human contact. But I found my self, constantly using facebook to try and connect with other people, yearning for human contact. Life is very much a mystery for us humans, and we are constantly searching for happiness and failing as every happiness we find is temporary. What is certain about life is the uncertainty.