Day 12: Homeward bound.

About to leave our pretty little hotel here in Paris, the Porte Doree. Just bringing our bags down and will be hoping back on to the metro to head to Charles de Gaulle. Hopefully all will go well.

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Well, finally on my seat here on the plane. The plane was originally scheduled to depart 40 minutes ago, but there was a huge mess at checkin, and then another at the gate with all of the stand by seats, so that's not surprising in and of itself. What's worrisome is the fog outside the plan - I can see the next plane besides us, but not much else. Hopefully everything goes through ok, but should the worst occur, atleast I'd end up with an extra night in Paris - miles better than another day in Casablanca.

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Sitting on the plane - I think our meal is coming soon. It feels like we were in Paris days ago, instead of earlier today. I'm super tired, which is understandable, but am also starved which is a bit odd. The info screen says we're currently somewhere over Ireland, and its covered in snow - the only way I can tell it isn't clouds is because I can still see all the lines separating the different properties.

This morning started off pretty early - first we decided to hit the Eiffel tower, and ended up having an overpriced breakfast at a nearby cafe - though my cafe creme was fantastic, and you couldn't beat the scenery. Then, since it was still to early for shops to be open, we decided to forego visiting the galleries Lafayette since there wouldn't be enough time to shop anyways, and instead headed towards Notre Dame. It was cool - all three of us had been before, but it was dressed up for Christmas, with a giant tree out front, and then a nativity scene inside. It was fun wandering a little, since that had been our original plan for Paris had we arrived on schedule. We wandered up towards the hotel de ville, which was similarly decorated for Christmas. There was a skating rink out front, and also free carousels. We also hit up a few touristy shops, and I got a yummy crepe and hot chocolate at a haagen daaz cafe. Then it was back to the hotel, to get back to the airport.

The airport was kind of a mess, but apparently a huge improvement over the previous days. When we finally found the right desk, we ended up having to be bumped to the front of the line to avoid missing our flight. But, when we go to get our boarding passes, we end up on the standby list, which is ridiculous as we should have been confirmed all the way through, and the luggage was already set to go ahead. Anyways, after some drama we get two confirmed seats, and then I go through security on standby, along with a huge crowd of people. Ultimately, I think we all made it on to the plane though - the ongoing problems accross Europe meant that a whole bunch of people wound up missing their connections. I wasn't one of thE lucky few to get upgraded seats, but arleast I got a window. I even had time to stop by the Laduree counter before boarding, conveniently beside our gate. Passing by the shop and picking up some macarons was one of the only things on my to do list in Paris, and it was nice to be able to check it off. Only thing left undone was duty free shopping - there was no time at the gate, and apparently the on board shop stopped carrying alcohol.

Anyways, this trip, and especially these past few days has completely tired me out. I'm going to try to nap. With Christmas coming up, It might be awhile before I come back to put up a final post recapping this trip. Until then, I hope you all enjoyed following along with our Moroccan and Parisian adventure. As always, i welcome any comments you may have, and feel free to send me any questions you have about the places I visited or about travel in general.

Day 12: early morning in Paris.

Super quick post because there isn't any time to spare today. It's almost 7am now, and we have to be back to the hotel in just over three hours to make it back to CDG. We got in to our hotel in Paris last night at like 10 in the evening, had a quick dinner at McDonalds accross the street, and then decided to head out to see as much as we could before the metro closed at 1am. We made it out I see the champ Elysees which is stunning lot up for Christmas. Oddly, given all the snow based delys there's none on the ground - it started raining at some point apparently, and rained on us a little whole walking last night. Today we're heading out of our hotel before anything is open to atleast see things in the dark, aiming on ending near the galleries Lafayette when they open at 9:30. I'll recap our day, and some stuff that was missed from yesterday when were back at the airport. Here's hoping that at this time tomorrow I'm home.

Day 11: finally heading to Paris.

Update: posted from Paris! Late arrival, nighttime views of the champs Elysees, and now off to bed.


Finally sitting on an Air France plane, though unspecified errors mean we won't be taking off for about another half hour. But atleast we're now more or less assured of getting to Paris today - more than a day late, but atleast in time to hopefully enjoy our hotel, have a nice dinner, and perhaps do a bit of shopping. Though of course, if the city has really been ground to a standstill, I'll settle for a good sleep, and then getting fancy macarons from the duty free catalogue on our flight home. I'm way past ready for this trip to be over.

Today was another day full of frustration. Dealing with massive lineups, several delays, switched gates, a lack of lunch vouchers (ended up with shawarma again - eventually), and then an unannounced slighly earlier than expected boarding (it was like "where did that crowd suddenly go - there's no plane out there?". Turned out there were shuttles on the ground) wears on the nerves, but the worst part was again the complete lack if information from Air France. Again, we sit in the terminal, have our first delay announced, only to have no Air France staff to explain anything. Sitting here on the plane, it seems like the crew is pretty in the dark too - it's just a massive storm of confusion.

Anyways, hopefully I'll soon be posting this from our hotel in Paris in a few hours. If I have to spend another night in Casablanca I might lose what little mellow I've been able to regain.

Day 10: unexpected trip interruption.

Instead of writing this from our chic Parisian hotel room, I'm writing this from an anonymous little business hotel nearish to the Casablanca airport. Which I suppose is still better than being at the airport...

As some of you may know, the weather in Europe is kind of insane at the moment, with cancellations all over the place. Charles de Gaulle, where we were due to fly in early this afternoon, was apparently shut down to arrivals. Of course, we only got all of this news here at the hotel. The airport was chaos.

Its been a really long day. We left Marrakech at around 5:30 this morning, inorder to be in Casablance in time to check in for our 10:30 flight. After standing in line for awhile we notice that our flight was delayed, which happens all the time so was not really alarming. Besides, when we got to the front of the line, we got meal vouchers with our boarding passes, so all was well. So we make it past security, have a yummy shawarma lunch (I've actually been craving it for awhile, but was warned against having it by our guide - sanitation standards here are kind of lax), use up out dirhams, and also use up the credits on my Moroccan sim card. We don't notice anything is up until we realize that our flight hasn't started boarding. And then come the announcements that our flight is cancelled. As apparently was the other flight to Paris that was meant to leave before us.

What follows was a highly irritating series of events, including lots of waiting with very little information. We had to go back through immigration to reneged morocco, then turn around and go back through security to reclaim our luggage. And then go back out to wait again for information that never came, as there apparently a single Air France employee in the building. And the Air France office in downtown Casablanca, where we were apparently to reschedule our flights would be closed till Monday morning. After a lot of confused discussion with fellow stranded passengers, panicky phone calls home, and chatting with various airport employees, we ended up aiming to go to a nearby hotel and then heading back to the airport in the morning, instead of trying to navigate downtown Casablanca. Our tour company ended up really coming through for us - helped arrange a hotel way cheaper than the airport hotel, and also getting us rides here, then back to the airport in the morning. The real hero though is my dad and brother back home, who not only already managed to get us rescheduled on a flight tomorrow, which will atleast give us some time in Paris before heading home, but also to contact our hotel in Paris.

The best part of which really is that we hopefully went have to deal with too much of what's sure to be an epic drama at the Air France counter tomorrow.

Anyways, it's likely going to be another super long day tomorrow, so I'm going to head off to bed. Next time I blog, hopefully I'm enjoying yummy macarons in Paris.

Day 9: post hammam relaxation.

Hanging out in a lounge waiting for my manicure, having some nice cold water. Mom is getting her manicure now, while B is off getting a massage. Today was pretty relaxing. We spent the morning shopping for last minute souvenirs, and then finally figured out how to work the calling cards we got our first day here to call home.

We just got back from the hammam which was an excellent way to end our time here in Marrakech. It's an interesting experience - we went to a typical hammam, not a luxe spa, though we did have attendants from our riad with us. Given how covered up Moroccan ladies are when they're outside, it was surprising to see how loose they were in the hammam.

You're in a steamy room, and first you get covered in this savon noire, which smells kind of like oil, and looks a bit like mud. After getting rinsed off with buckets of hot water, you get exfoliated with a rough mitten, which honestly took off the entire top layer of my skin, after which you rinse and wash your hair. Currently I feel all soft and shiny, though immediately after I was a bit light headed from being in he steamy room for so long. I downed something like a litre of water when we got back to our riad.

Plans for the evening are to have dinner back in the riad, where we are going to learn about making tajines. We've had them so often here, that I'm honesty a bit tired of them, but I think I'll miss them when I'm gone. Though, there's some spice in them that I don't quite like - maybe too much cinnamon? Hopefully I'll figure out what it is tonight, so if I do it myself I can avoid it.

Later tonight we might head out to meet some friends for drinks at a restaurant. Shopping this morning, we happened to run in to these three Malaysian girls that we met in the desert. They sat beside us by the fire, and then were part of the same caravan back to the hotel for showers and breakfast after playing in the sand dunes over sunrise. Of all the souks in Marrakech, running into possibly the only three people in Morocco that we know is pretty incredible.

After that the only plan is to pack all our things and head to bed early, since we have a ridiculously early departure tomorrow morning to get to Casablanca and catch our flight.

Day 9: chill day in Marrakech

I'm really loving the riad we are staying here in Marrakech - Riad Zehar. The staff here is super nice. Last night, we were planning on just staying in and watching movies in our room, and they made us a
yummy salad as a light supper just because. Breakfast is again on the terrace - we've gotten super lucky with the weather on this trip.

We no longer have the place to ourselves, though with us taking up 2 out of 3 rooms, we certainly dominate the space. I think the other couple might be Canadian, given the way they speak french, but have not had the oppourtunity to meet them yet.

Anyways, are heading out soon to do some shopping before heading to the hammam this afternoon. And for a desperately needed manicure - Ive been wanting one the whole time we've been here since I forgot to do
my nails before leaving.

And here's a teaser picture of us on our camels in the Sahara. I'm on the middle camel, with B in front, and mom at the back. I really like this photo, but didnt realize till just now that camel eyes glow in the dark. I was prepping a whole batch of photos to load, but its taking too long, so might have to wait till we get home. Though I might post a few tonight if I'm feeling appropriately chill after our spa time. 

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Day 8: Impressions of Marrakech.

Hanging out in our riad after a day of sightseeing here in Marrakech. There was a lot of walking touring around the old medina and the new city, but as the city is relatively flat, less stairs than in Fez. We visited all the major sites, including two palaces here in the medina, the principal mosque, and the main square, none of whose names I could tell you. Ooo, though in the principal square we did get to see snake charmers - one even put a snake around my neck. When I get the chance - possibly on the plane to Paris? - maybe I'll fill in details from our itinerary. I'm kinda wiped at the moment. Having the luxury of time to just stop here, I've really been feeling my tiredness. The highlight of my time here was when we visited the Marjorelle gardens in the new city. Besides being absolutely gorgeous, the gardens were previously owned by Yves St Laurent, and we had the good fortune of being here while there was an exhibition of his clothes in the little museum, showing the influence of Morocco in his designs.

The clothes were beautiful, and he had bougainvillea embroideries in some of his designs that I particularly enjoyed, but my favorite part might have been one of the display rooms. The ceiling was dark with lights, and with mirrored walls and angled mirrors on the ceiling it looked like the whole room was filled with stars. It's kinda hard to describe the effect, and regrettably no photos were allowed. Maybe I'll figure out how to recreate the effect on a smaller scale, as my original plan of redoing my bedroom that way is probably overkill.

In terms of my general impressions of the city, Marrakech is an interesting mix of modern and cosmopolitan, while retaining a strong Moroccan flavor. Even the medina is very modern - where in the Fez medina moving things by donkey, here, most people seem to move around by motorcycle.

Anyways, I'm going to go rest up. Tomorrow is going to be pretty chill, but the next day we have a ridiculously early departure from Marrakech to catch our flight from Casablanca to Paris.

Day 7 - from Dades Gorge to Marrakech.

Actually started this post super early on day 8, from my comfy bed in our riad here in Marrakech, and then finished it on the roof top patio. Turns out if I'm not super exhausted, I can't sleep through the first call to prayer at about 5:30. In theory it should last like 10 minutes, but there are several mosques in the medina. Either they disagree about when the sun rises, or they just don't like playing all at the same time because it feels like the whole process takes closer to half an hour. And after that life in the medina starts so I can hear people moving around on the street (medina style, so really an alley) outside my window. Right now I'm mainly hearing bird chatter so it's rather pretty.

Our riad is quite a ways into the medina, which was kind of hard last night getting here, even though other people took our bags in a cart, but atleast means we don't get traffic noises all night. The tiad we're staying in is gorgeous, with an inner courtyard open to the sky, and a gorgeous rooftop terrace. We were upgraded to two separate rooms again - mom has a bedroom on the first floor, while Barbs and I are in a two bedroom suite on the second floor. And as we have re place to ourselves again, it's kind of like renting a house to ourselves. I really love the furnishings here, and wish we had room in our suitcases to bring more - the colorful textiles, and the ornate lamps are all really beautiful, and they seem to be fond of this red/orange/purple palate I really like. My bedroom opens out to both the street below and the inner courtyard, where I can see a bougainvillea in bloom, and it has this funky in room bathtub.

Anyways, to briefly recap yesterday, before I sink in to Marrakech. We were off to a late start yesterday, exacerbated by the fact that we still had to see the Dades Gorge from the day before. Being late, and the potential of having cut things from our itinerary put me in a funky mood all day. We ended up hitting all the main points on our itinerary though arrived in Marrakech last night past dark. Which all kind of feeds in to why I didn't wrote up any if this yesterday. I usually write while on the road, the suv has an iPod connection, so I was providing our music for the day.

So, we first saw Dades gorge, which is stunning - not as high as the first forge we saw, but there's a twisting turning road coming up it which photographs gorgeously. Which as some of you know is super important to me.

Getting back on our route was a bit tedious. Turns out that it was 10 days after the Muslim new year and everyone is on the streets walking to visit their families, which makes it difficult on skinny winding roads. Yesterday, we also saw a town known for it's roses, where they have a rose festival in the spring, the city of Ourzazate where a lot of movies here in Morocco get made. Ooo, and I looked up prince of Persia shooting locations and they shot both in Ourzazate, the nearby unesco world heritage site of Ait Ben haddou which we saw from a mountain top, and at the dunes of Erg Chebbi where we spent the previous night.

We spent some time going off road, both to see some kasbahs and also to cut time off of our drive to Marrakech. We drove through the high atlas mountains, which are gorgeous because they have so many different colours. Some are reddish, some yellow, green, or even purplish. We also stopped at a co-op where women from nearby villages make artisinal argan oil. I picked up a bottle to use - apparently it's the main ingredient in Moroccanoil, so it should be good for my hair.

Anyways our tour guide should be here soon so I should finish up my breakfast. Marrakech, being a big city apparently has more of a problem with pickpockets and petty crime, especially compared to the desert and mountains which are super safe, so I'll probably leave the recapping till tonight.

10 days after Muslim new year.

Day 6 - Quiet morning in Dades Valley

After our rather full morning yesterday, most of the rest of the day was spent driving with occasional panoramic stops. The higlight if which was Toudra Valley and Gorge. The valley is essentially a picturesque oasis nestled between mountains, which eventually feed in to the gorge. Its beautiful, but the roads were treacherous - sometimes barely more than a single pitted lane up and down mountains. I'm really glad that we have an expert driver and a suv. We were originally meant to visit Dades Gorge aswell, but by the time we got to the area it was already getting dark so we went straight to our hotel and will visit the gorge first thing tomorrow.
Driving to our hotel from the main road made me glad again about having an suv - we actually had to cross a rocky stream to get here, though apparently there's a long route from another direction that normal cars can take. The hotel, la perle du Dades, is a stunning property. We have it all to ourselves at the moment - sadly the gorgeous pool I mentioned earlier is not heated and its too cold here at night ti consider swimming. Theres a library though, in addition to various other acrivities including pingpong, though we mainly repacked our bags and went through our suitcases and then headed off to bed early to catch up on our sleep. With the desert camping and early wakeup it was a long day. Oh, except or using the inroom sound system. Theres an interesting selection of CDs - mom is listening to Cat Stevens.
Our room is massive with Barbara sleeping in a separate loft, and with two bathrooms. I don't know if rooms in Morocco are always this nice, or we've been upgraded because it's the off season. Anyways, we're heading to breakfast now in the hotel dinning room, which is bound to he delicious if it's anything like dinner yesterday will be fantastic. There was a yummy quiche, then veggies and steak, and then dessert was melon balls - which sound plain, but were in this yummy honey sauce, apparently scented with rose water that this region is known for. Seeing roses are one of the many stops on the itinerary today, as we wander towards Marrakech. Hopefully our hotel has wifi, as we'll be there for three nights, after which we leave Morocco for our two nights in Paris enroute to Toronto.

Day 6 - on the road to Dades Gorge, and Sahara recap.

Now that I've been sitting for awhile, I'm totally feeling the soreness from camel riding and sleeping in a ten - Its particularly noticeable when I have to climbing in and out of our suv.

The tent wasn't that bad comfort wise, but it got really nippy late at night. Sleeping, and earlier on, wandering around and sitting by the fire, I was really glad for my purple cloak. Who knew it would wind up being a practical purchase? The berber guides really liked it - apparently nomads use cloaks like mine, and I was even asked where I bought it.

I particularly liked my cloak when we were outside watching for shooting stars. The biggest one we saw was during the campfire portion of the evening, where we also tried out drumming on tam-tams.we stayed up or awhile waiting for one just as big, before giving in and going to bed. There were lots of little ones though. Given how unlikely sleep was going to be, I considered watching the Prince of Persia on my iPod touch, but decided it would ruin the mood - the desert us so dark, quiet and still at night. Besides, I should probably save it for the plane. I kinda want to find out if it was filmed in that part of the desert - the guide mentioned that most recently, the Erg Chebbi dunes were featured in the second Sex and the City movie.

There were something like 12 people in various tents around the site, all either staying in the same hotel, or as in our case going there for the first time in the morning for showers and breakfast. The Berber guides speak decent English and French in addition to Arabic and their own Berber dialect. But they speak bits and pieces of several other languages, all learned from meeting tourists. We taught some of them a little bit of Portuguese.

Anyways, as I mentioned before we left our tent while it was still dark, leaving the camp for the camel parking lot. Riding the camel was much easier this time around, helped a bit I think by the fact that as the sky lightened there was much much more to see. About partway through, we got off our camels to climb a sand dune and properly watch the sunrise over the desert. Climbing dunes is surprisingly hard. I'm glad I had the tough little camera that already survived snorkelling and falling down waterfalls, since sand got everywhere. Esoecially in my shoes - I have a little baggy of saharan sand I shook out of them that's coming home with me. The shockproffness also came in handy when I dropped the camera off the back of the camel.

Oh, and I forgot to mention that the region we were in is also known for it's fossils. We stopped by a workshop yesterday - apparently the nearby mountains mark the edge of an ancient sea. I think the same mountain range as the Ziz valley we drove past yesterday. I don't know if I mentioned that yesterday - it's really beautiful. You're driving through mountains and plateaus and it looks like there's nothing but rocks. Until you step to the edge if a canyon and see a valley completely filled with palm trees.

At the moment we are heading to see some the Dades gorge, which is near where well be staying tonight, as well as some other gorge whose name I forget, also part of the same mountain range - or connected to it anyways. We stopped to visit a village inhabited by people from further south in Africa, who has originally been brought to Morocco as slaves, where we saw a performance if traditional Berber music, and also to pick up some Berber handicrafts - mainly from the Touareg people, known for wearing all blue. Among other things, I picked up a scarf dyed with natural indigo.

I think we have a late lunch coming up soon. We shop super slow (atleast mom and I do, exacerbated by the slower pace here, and the bargaining process which always involves overly sweetened tea, sometimes with fresh mint leaves), so I think we might be running late. Hopefully nothing ends up cut from our itinerary.

I really hope our hotel tonight has a spa. The soreness is really starting to settle in. No idea what I did to my arms - maybe the stiff armed jolting when the camels go up and down? Not sure if I understood the instructions there correctly, but I did well enough since I didn't fall off. Ooo, or if there's arleast a hot tub, in addition to the pool I know they have. Which better not be closed - like when I visited Vegas last year and all the pools were closed since it was 'winter' and 16 degrees outside. The car tells me that it's currently 19 right now, which is a perfectly acceptable temperature to go swimming.

Day 5-6 : Sahara!!!!!!!!

Mini post from our Berber tent in the middle of the Sahara!!! Well, probably more like on the edges of it. But I had to sit on a camel for almost 2 hours to get here. I was going to update from the camels back, but decided against it as my I'm not that steady on it, and it was kinda dark. The sunset on our trek here, and though the moon is bright, I figure falling off when I still have to ride the camel for two hours tomorrow would be a bad idea. Anyways, time for dinner. Will write more tomorrow. Early start to see sunrise over the dunes.

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At a comfy hotel at the edge of the dessert where we go to shower and have breakfast after our night in the desert.

Honestly, last night was amazing. The ride was a totally bumpy, and given thy the last time I rode an animal in a foreign country i fell off, I wast very optimistic. My camels name was Asgouin - it means "its nice" and h really was. Going down sand dunes was a bit hard, but for the most part he was nice and steady. By the time we got to camp it was dark, and it was also dark when we left the camp at 6am so I never got a clear view of the camp. There was a nice dinner in this restaurant like tent, and then live Berber music by the camp fire. But the best part was the stars. Being in the middle of nowhere I expected to have an awesome view of the sky but didn't realize there would be shooting stars. B and I stayed up a little before going to be in our tents lying outside watching for them before going to bed. The desert was surprisingly cold.

Anyway just finishing up breakfast and will post more later.

Day 5 - impressions of Fes.

Fes has been the highlight of the trip so far - largely because Fes, and especially the Medina is sort of what you have in your head when you think of Morocco. The medina is a fascinating place - from the ground, it's a twisting and turning mass of alleyways surrounded by high sand colored buildings. And stairs -lots of stairs and ramps and uneven ground that's somewhere in between. It can look run down and some walls are certainly crumbling, and the whole thing is like something out of the past.

There are no cars (none would fit) so people still use donkeys to carry loads around - people are forever calling out to get everyone to squeeze to the sides of the path so their donkey can pass. But everyonce in awhile, you make a turn and come accross a market place, or a beautiful mosque. And it's an entirely different world once you go in to a building - like our riad, most have central rooms that are something like three stories tall, which help keep buildings cool in the summer. The buildings are stunning, covered in mosaics and with carved and painted woodwork. Both our riad, and also the carpet merchant we visited have awesome rooftop views of the city, though you do have to go up and down a lot of narrow staircases. The medina isn't a very accessible place and would be problematic for someone who was claustrophobic. Fitness wise, if I made it most everyone can.

Though I do have a separate store of energy for shopping which might have helped me along. Like I think I mentioned in my second post, we spent the morning touring cultural sights and learning about life in the Medina, but the afternoon shopping. We visited a tannery, where they dye leather naturally in those natural earthenware vats - it smells like lye and possibly pidgeon poo, both of which are apparently used in the processing of leather. B got a custom leather jacket, and I got a nice bag (though it's still a little smelly so it's in the trunk) and some funky slippers.

We also passed by different stands and shops, including the one where I bought my cape,and also cool blankets made if agave silk, but my favourite might have been the carpet merchant. Besides getting us access to an awesome rooftop view, you also lounge in a cool room while shopping, drinking mint tea whole they unroll carpet after carpet for you to see. Then you yeah or neah them, and they bring more of the ones you like. A lot if them are too ornate for my tastes, though they were all stunning. I personally prefer the Berber style ones over the more traditional Fes style - the one I got is little, but has a soft purple in some of the patterning that I really liked.

Anyways, for dinner we went to the new city and had pizza. We've been enjoying the traditional food, but besides being a bit pricy (partly because it always comes in three courses - plates of appetizers, a tajine pastille or couscous, followed by fruit and pastries) it also gets a little repetitive. We also got to see some of the sites there, like the fountains on re main promenade and the kings palace, though it was admittedly dark. We also for a chance to get more cash as we were running a bit low.

Right now, were driving through the mountains. It's genuinely chilly here, partly because of the elevation, and partly because it's so early. It's about 8:30 now, but we left the riad at 7, to give use enough time to see all our sights for the day, but still make it to the sahara for sunset. We got to see sunrise from a mountain top just beyond the medina which was gorgeous. The terrain has shifted from farmland and apple trees to more rocky ground, and apparently soon well enter Berber country, and start seeing palm trees again. Oooo, and apparently a monkey forest. Right now we're in Swiss Maroc, in the city of Ifrane. There's frost on the ground here, which is kind of trippy. Also apparently skiing near by.

Day 5 - on the road to the dessert

It's incredible how much the terrain has changed since this morning. It's hard to believe that just a few hours ago, I broke out my purple cape and saw frost on the ground. We passed through the middle Atlas mountains, and have now hit the desert. We passed some rivers and a dam with some palmtrees and such nearby bit it's pretty much sand and scrub - they use adobe like construction, and are fond of highlighting the pinky colour of the buildings with sage green doors, so the effect is a little bit santa fe.

Day 4: Quickie Fes post

No down time at all today, but thought I'd write a quick update while I still have internet. I managed to put up all the posts I had prepped while internetless earlier today, but it's going to be another long stretch before I get to go online since we're spending tomorrow night in the dessert. I'm excited about the sahara and sleeping under the stars. Riding on a camel for 2 hours there, and then 2 hours back the next morning - not so much.

We spent the day wandering the Fes Medina. We were also supposed to tour the new parts of the city too, but didn't really make it there before dark - sunset is super early, since its winter, but I definetly wouldnt want to be here in the summer. The weather right now is pleasant by Canadian standards at 20 degrees today, and its nice being here in the off season. Anyways, the Medina has something like 60 km of alleys and turns all smooshed up into a valley between the surrounding mountains. We spent the morning looking at cultural sites in the Medina, including the oldest university inthe world from the 9th century, and then the afternoon shopping - both at stands, but also by visiting different manufacturers. I'm now the proud owner of a moroccan rug. Ooo, not to mention a purple cape. Not sure where I'll use it, but its kind of fabulous.

Anyways, we have a ridiculously early start tomorrow, and I really should finish getting ready.  I really am totally concerned about the camel thing tomorrow. Me and animals don't really mix.

Day 3 - night time in Fes

Hanging out in our riad - a traditional Moroccan guest house - here in Fes. It's absolutely gorgeous. I want to take home everything from the lamps to the silk bed covers and curtains, to installing a fountain like the one in the courtyard here. Hopefully they have stuff this nice when we explore the shops in the Medina tomorrow.

We're in two rooms connected by a washroom, both with their own sitting areas. In mom's room the sitting area is in a loft space. The only negative about this place is all the stairs massively high ceilings means lots of steps - and they kind feel like the steps might be higher than normal, though its possible I'm just tired. I'm just glad our bags are taken up for us. Oh, as a related thing - cars aren't allowed in the Medina, so you have to walk in to your hotel, down steps and twisting paths. Some person with a cart took our luggage for us.

We arrived here in Fes a few hours ago, after visiting Meknes and Volubilis, but it was already late - we chilled for awhile on the rooftop patio, enjoying traditional Moroccan tea, with a view of the Medina below. At one point all the mosques around started playing the final call to prayer which was kind of chaotic at it's peak - they all started at different times, and varied greatly in terms of both volume and quality of sound. Dinner was also here at the riad. Delicious, with everything super fresh.

To briefly recap the rest of the day, in Meknes we had lunch within the old city - built by Moulais Idriss I think? Anyways, he was a king obsessed with security - the city has 4 layers of walls - and also his horses. Apparently he had something like 1200 of them. Theres even this gigantic pond which was apparently originally a horse swimming pool. The ruins at Volubilis were nice - the site was decently preserved, though the infrastructure could have been improved. No map of the place, and the signage was lacking. Besides the big attention getting gates and columns, there's also some nice mosaic work scattered about.

And now I'm off to prepare for tomorrow. Between our gorgeous accommodations, and the promise if fantastic shopping in a beautiful city, I really think I'm going to like Fes.

Day 3 - breakfast in Rabat, and on the road to Meknes.

Having breakfast in the hotel restaurant. Super pretty here with an indoor courtyard and modern furniture. And finally, I can see the little stage where the live music was coming from last night. Made it hard to fall asleep, but atleast the beds were comfy. Judging from the noise, the hotel La Pietri is a happening place on Saturday night. The music sounded good.

Anyways, last night when we arrived in Rabat, we first had lunch where we got our first taste of traditional Moroccan cuisine. Well, atleast mom did when she ordered a tajine - B and I stuck to grilled chicken. Then we visited ruins in Chellah - looked a lot like ruins in Rome, which make sense because some of the ruins date back to the same period. The guide book tells me that some if the others are from the Merinide period in the 14th period. Re walking was a bit treacherous, but mainly because we kept chasing cool action shots. Also, the whole site is on an incline, so while getting to the picturesque bits was pleasant, getting back to the car was a bit of a pain.

After that we headed on towards Hassan tower, which was built by one of the old kings, but never finished. It's in the same complex as the mausoleum of the current kings father - I think both of them were called Hassan, but might be getting them confused. The view from the complex is really nice, but mainly shows off how the whole of Morocco is under construction. The current king is apparently very progressive and has been making lots of improvements to the infrastructure of the country. Oh, the other cool bit about the complex is the fact that the horses at the gates sit on horseback. Ridiculously well-behaved horses who tolerate all sorts of tourists taking pictures.

Another royal type thing we did was visit the kings palace. It's a massive compound with nice gardens, but also houses for other ministers - it's a modern space, essentially being a house where the king sometimes lives rather than a classic palace as you'd think of them in Europe. Apparently the king has palaces all over Morocco and moves around a lot, though I suppose Rabat being the capital this was the main one.

Then we headed back to the downtown area to checkin to our hotel. Initially, we were meant to be in one room with an extra bed brought in. The room was decently sized but especially after our bags were in there wasn't space for an extra bed, so we ended up getting a second room for mom. Anyways, after settling in, we went off to find bandaids for mom. The pharmacy next door had already closed for the day, so we ended up just wandering.

We stopped for an espresso and had fun selecting some pastries to try. The coffee here is very good, but very strong. After that little break, we ended up wandering some more, ending up near the train station, which was really lively. Still no pharmacies though.

When we got back to our hotel, we initially just meant to have a quick break to check email (no wifi - just the one cable to split) before heading off to dinner. But then we turned on the tv, and Love Actually was playing. And in English! I ended up sitting through most of the movie, before leaving when there was finally a commercial. We ordered pizza from a place bear the hotel, and then I went back to the room to continue the movie while mom and B waited for it. There was a bit of a delay restarting the movie, since the tv in moms room didn't seem to have the channel - or at the very least didn't have them in the same order. Anyways, it all worked out. We had a nice night having yummy pizza (thin crust with plenty of cheese) while finishing the movie.

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Right now we're on the road to Meknes. Right now we're passing through farmland and fields, but a little while back we passed cork forest - the bark gets stripped every 6 months, so the bottoms of all the trees are bare. There are people picnicking bellow the trees, and also animals grazing. Oh, and men by the side of the road selling what are apparently giant acorns that people eat here.

This morning before leaving Rabat, we headed to the kasbah de Oudaias, the oldest part if the city. We wandered re little alleyways a bit - ended up picking up a guide, which we didn't really need, but was helpful for picture taking purposes. There's a nice view of the ocean, and of the beach on Sale, the city across the river from Rabat. The weather is cloudy today, which I don't mind as I forgot my sunglasses at home. We should be in Meknes soonish, and then I think also visit Volubilis before ending up in Fes for the night, were apparently we'll be staying in a traditional riad.

Oh, and interesting tidbit about our driver - apparently he drove the King of Sweden 2 years back when he visited Morocco.

Day 2: Casablanca, and onwards to Rabat.

Sitting in traffic at the moment. Kinda crazy even though it's Saturday - apparently most of Casablanca goes on a 6 day workweek with just Sundays off.

Anyways, just finished a morning of sightseeing here in Casablanca. Our driver met at 8am in our hotel (Villa Blanca) where we ended up having a chill breakfast in one if the hotel restaurant). Very carb heavy (I tried three different crepe like dishes) but delicious. Our driver is nice and has good English, and it's kinda nice jetting around with an expert in a new 4x4, instead of futzing around on our own.

Sightseeing wise there isn't a lot in Casablanca, as it's mainly a business centre for Morocco. We started off by visiting the Hassan II mosque, which was gorgeous and also gigantic - apparently among the biggest in the world, with the tallest minaret. We ended up hijacking a tour from a cruise ship, which was fun, though given that most of the group was elderly it was kind of slow. The building is a relatively new construction, and is a really interesting mix of traditional artwork and modern conveniences, like heated marble floors, and a retractable roof. The heated floors are particularly important - the marble floors are cold enough to walk around on barefoot - I can't imagine having to pray on them for extended periods of time.

After our leisurely tour of the mosque, we went back to La Corniche, the waterfront area where our hotel was to wander on the boardwalk for awhile, stopping at another super posh mcdonalds for some ice-cream. Honestly, It was nicer than lots of clubs I've been to. And super clean.

Then we drove around the downtown area, passing through some of the nice neighborhoods, and stopping at Mohammed V square - kinda blah. There's a fountain, and the supreme court building is gorgeous, but mainly there's lots of pidgeons.

On our way our of the city we passed by Rick's cafe, named after the movie. As we've pretty much seen all that needs to be seen in Casablanca, we are considering extending our time in Marrakesh at the recommendation of our driver , instead of getting back here a day early in advance of our flight to Paris.

Anyways, traffic has cleared up now that were on the highway - hopefully we get to Rabat soon, as I'm getting kinda hungry. We need to pick up some snacks.

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Sent from my iPod

Day 1 - Casablanca!!!

K. For some reason the wifi at our hotel works on my iPod touch but not on my laptop, so the lovely well written post I had prepared for you can't get posted. Well, in theory I could wait to post it - but I hate to wate the wifi opportunity. Though I'm also starting to get sleepy, so you're all going to get a condensed version of the days events.

- arrived here an hour late - luggage carousel not working at first so helped move luggage manually. Later had to walk around on it when the carousel suddenly started again which was kind of fun.
- driver not waiting for us when we finally got outside - some kind of scheduling snafu, with a typo on our start date on a copy of the itinerary that no one realized was there till today. We've been put up in a nice hotel here in Casablanca for the night before starting our original itinerary tomorrow. Kinda nice getting a day to chilled in fluffy robes.
- driving is crazy here. More on that likely to come throughout the trip.
- had dinner at a super fancy McDonalds on the waterfront. Huge patios, waterfront views, and some people were kind of dressed up.
- speaking French here super important. Unless you happen to speak Arabic. Some people speak English, but it's never any good.

Anyways, really starting to get tired - were coming up on something like 36 hours awake since I can't sleep on planes. Early start tomorrow, so I'll end this here. Hopefully the trend towards (atleast partially functioning) wifi in our hotels continues.

Day 1 - transition through CDG

Our flight was super delayed coming in to Paris. And because of some sort of computer glitch we all had middle seats - not fun on a seven hour flight. Things are looking up here in Paris though. My mom and sister went off to get coffee while I waited at the gate with our bags and game back with macarons for me. Yum. No free wifi here in CDG - hopefully I get a chance to post from Morocco. And interestingly, the info screens at the gate are hyper detailed. Info about our plane, our destination, the time difference.... Pretty much everything except the actual time. Which would be particularly helpful as our flight is delayed.

Day 0 - start of my Morocco adventure :)

Hey all.

It's been ages since I last posted something. Realized now that I never ended up finishing my posts from Halifax - which are unlikely to happen now that I'm on my next trip. This ones going to be big - I'll only be gone for 12 days, but our schedule is jam-packed. Not to mention the fact that I'll be travelling with my mother and sister....

At the airport now waiting to board my flight to Casablanca, with a brief stopover in Paris. Lots of little minor dramas enroute. A last minute paper to turn in, forgotten sunglasse to mourn, not to mention the fact that my mothers moisturizer set off some sort of detector so her bags had to get searched :) ou plane is running a bit late, but we should be fine for a connection so it's all good.

Anyways, I hope to blog through this trip as usual, but I'm not sure what the Internet situation will be like. Worst comes to worst, I'll keep writing them throughout and you'll get them all at once when we hit Paris on our way home.

Hope to write more soon!