Walking the World

Last Day!

Wed, 01 Apr 2009 16:01:19 GMT

So my last entry was kinda sub-par, i realize. Sorry about that.

I slept horribly last night, again. I hope that this doesn't become a trend that follows me home. That said the jet lag is going to suck rocks. In fact my plans for friday (i'm not even home yet and i'm making plans!) includes accounting for waking up at 4am.

Today we got our stuff all packed, moved around necessary items to various packs then checked out. Between then and when we hop train we are without room which always makes me a little nervous. We leave our bags by the front desk to continue our day.

We walk along Casablanca's ports to the King Hassan II Mosque. A very modern mosque built between '87 and '93; impecibly designed by some french guy and stands to be the third largest mosque behind Mecca and Medina. So it's pretty kickass. Keith liked this mosque because it also includes a laser that points directly to mecca. We found out during our private tour (we were the only english speaking tourists for the 11 o'clock, lucky us!) that the laser alternates between red, blue and green. Multicolored laser for the win. Our tour included the inside of the prayer hall, which non-muslims aren't generally allowed in most mosques, the abolutions hall (for pre-prayer washing) and the hammam (to be opened for public use at a later date). All are amazing! The other cool thing about being the only ones in the English tour is that other than the prayer hall we had each place basically to ourselves. Our guide sounded very impressed when we said we'd been here for a month. She exclaimed that we have seen all of morocoo, and was surprised when i said there were a couple of things that i would have liked to see.

After we walked through the medina to get back to the Nouvelle Ville. This was kinda neat, seeing as we've been through so many medinas and we found it wasn't that hard to navigate. We also met an old man (met= "hey you! where you from!") who lived in Canada 15 years ago and regailed us with an impressive list of Canadian cities. We had icecream to stave our hunger and eventually found our way to the front gate.

We had lunch and then we went off to find this Kubba that only appears on our map that turned out to just be a little site that we weren't allowed in. That's okay. We went shopping a bit, finally finding a pipe for cassie's collection. But Keith needed to get off his feet and we need to check the train schedules so here we are! We have 5 more hours before we even think about the train and even then, our flight is at 1am. I am already exhausted, and it's going to be awful. Luckily it's only going to be a 5 hour wait in frankfurt as opposed to last time's 15.

Sigh. Guess we're off to the medina for tea and shoping.

Next entry should include fun culture shock updates!

That's it! back to casablanca!

Tue, 31 Mar 2009 19:24:36 GMT

So here we are back in Casa.

We slept beautifully last night in our expensive bed. My arm spots!welts are dissapearing. We packed up, had breakfast up on the terrace then hoofed it to our bus. Bus to Merrekesh, hop train. train hella longer than expected. Other than that, our 7 hours of travel were amazingly dull.

Arriving in Casa, dodging invasive taxi drivers, we ran out into traffic to catch a taxi making us terrible unpopular. But this guy not only ran the meter (yay! no rip offedness!) but also spoke English and was very personable. We got a not bad place with a balcony and a reception guy who's pretty funny. Food and off to find internet which in Casa is harder than it sounds.

Tomorrow is going to tons of fun! Lots of stuff to see and do last minute. Then we taxi to the train station, train to airport (not sure how that works, entirely) then zoom home!

Keith and I talked today about what we have learned from the trip and stuff. I'm so stinkin' proud of him. I guess it's a good thing I'm going to marry the dude. It's going to be fun to see him go through reverse culture shock. awww; everyone's first time is so different!

Hammam: it's good for what ails ya!

Mon, 30 Mar 2009 22:07:31 GMT

So it seems i'm coming down with a cold. ew.

Yesterday, not much more to tell. Started feeling sick, riad searching, dinner, shopping, early to bed. Had an awful sleep. Woke up with more red spots and Keith didn't have so much as a nip off of him, which again makes me hesitate to name bedbugs as culprits. Possibly a reaction to the sheets? We'll see if it gets any better.

This morning we paid up after much standing around. Despite having considerably nicer rooms and facilities than the other place, Hotel Centrale has the worst reception in all of Morocco. Then, we hoof it to the riad we picked out yesterday, the Dar El Qadim, which means the old house. Ha! So, we're now paying out the nose for a very nice room with a couple chairs and our own bathroom and hot shower on demand. Riads are the hot hot thing in Morocco, and we should at least try one before we leave. The fun thing about riads, and many of the hotels in Morocco, is that there is no way to tell anything about it from the outside. The fanciest, swankiest places are still a wood door down a dark narrow alley. So now we have a pretty place for tonight!

The other big plan for today was my birthday present: a trip to a hammam! It isn't a real hammam, which is a public turkish-ish style bath, but more like a spa organized through our riad. I've been itching to try a hammam since i read about them but once i got here i found i was, of all things, shy. I really didn't know what to do and i didn't want to go alone. If i were here with my sisters, i could probably had bullied them into going, but by myself, i couldn't quite do it. but since this was a private hammam, Keith and I could go together. Which is also super cool, because he wouldn't have done it without me.

Inbetween moving in and our hammam trip we ate breakfast, took a shower (we weren't sure how clean or dirty we really aught to be for this thing, so we decided to play it safe and get good use out of our swanky riad shower!), did the great budgeting for the next couple days, did some shopping, had lunch, had ice cream and sat by the beach, and generally enjoyed our last day in Essiouara. Though i do warn people, despite our VERY best efforts, our shopping has been patchy at best. Unless it's a scarf or a wood box we seem to be having trouble with it. Anywho; after some of that, we headed back to our riad, changed into our bathing suits (which it mentioned in our book) and waited to get picked up. Promptly, we were picked up by a young woman who first walked us though a part of the medina, then we caught a taxi (which she paid for) the rest of the way.

Up in the spa-hammam we were escorted in, told to remove our clothes and we exchanged the flipflops we both wore for ones that looked pretty much identical. I was instructed to only wear my "coulottes" so i wrapped myself in a towel which was promptly taken away from our Hammam attendent, who i would like to call the Hammam-amama. She apparantly took her hammam-ing very seriously. we were brought into a little steam room and were soaped up, rinsed, scrubbed down like crazy (she took a layer of skin i swear! magic eraser-ed my tan!), rinsed, shampooed, rinsed, soaped up, rinsed and then dumped a bucket on our respective heads. She was very down-to-business, but she did smile a little when she dumped the bucket of water on keith's head. Then we were given towels, lead off to another room for MASSAGE! I love massages. I practically lived off them in south east asia. it was great, though, there was a bit of an odd boob-jiggle in there during the chest part of the massage. Despite that, all in all, it was pretty kick-ass.

After, we managed to find our way back to the medina (somehow!), got back to the riad, got jackets and went for dinner. now we're here!

Tomorrow we're off to Casablanca by bus then train. Then, day after tomorrow we catch the flights to get home! AKK! where has the time gone! A month goes so fast! Keith is quite ready to return. There were a couple more things in Morocco I'd like to have seen but we would have had to completely cut out Essiouara after Merrekesh and I'm very glad we didn't. Just means i have to come back, at some point. I'm just happy we've had a month to see Morocco, unlike so very many who come here for 2 weeks then leave. Listen to me gripe. Anyroad...

See you all in Casa!

Essiouara day three

Sun, 29 Mar 2009 17:19:47 GMT

We're not nearly as lazy as we sound. Consider we spend 5 plus hours a day walking. That and Essiouara inspires a laid back beachy attitude!

Yesterday after internet we walked around, Keith picked up a bunch of gifts for people, wandered about, stopped by the room briefly to pick up the game board and brought it to a café, played a couple games of backgammon then went for dinner. Dinner was unexciting, really. Nice place, good harrira, neat art on the walls but otherwise uninspiring. After dinner i felt a little oogie so we went back to the room for a bit and then to bed.

Woke up a the dawn call to prayer; I noticed that it's nicer here, maybe a better P.A. system. At 6amish someone tried to walk into our room. And then this morning, i woke up with my right arm covered in bites. I, of course, freaked out about bedbugs, but we're fairly certain that it's mosaquitos. I'd seen a couple in the room the night before and lit a coil, and it's only on my left arm, that was the one over the covers most of the night, and there isn't a single bite on Keith. Here's hoping, but we're putting our rucksacks through quarantine when we get back.

We headed out this morning to find inexpensive breakfast and found a place that offered a decent amount of fare for okay little. We were set upon by the cutest kitten that was hunting and begging our food the best he could. He climbed up my chair 5-6 times trying to get at our pancake and omlette. Even Keith, renound hater of cats, thought his tenacity was pretty impressive.

After breakfast we went towards the harbor and climbed the ramparts there. In it's day, the harbor here had around 4 forts defending it, ready to canon the crap out of any unsavory folk trying to get in. the ramparts were pretty nifty and we met a couple of other canadians: some seniors from Toronto who are here for a couple weeks. They were super sweet!

After climbing around the fort we decided to walk down the beach to this ruined fort. Local legend says that it is this ruined fort that inspired Hendrix's Castles Made of Sand, but that album came out in 78 and Hendrix didn't come to Essiouara till 79. That said, he did perform some concerts (read: hung around with his hippy pals and then decided to start rocking out) in a Berber village nearby. So we headed down the beach, watching everyone, locals and tourists alike, enjoy the beautiful weather. Everyone was out in force playing soccer!football and bathing in the sun and even a few boys decided to brave the coolish water. We wandered down, getting asked to buy hash!spacecakes!happybrownies or camel!horse rides the whole way along. But it was all pretty friendly like. Around the time that we'd arrived in view of the ruin i noticed that my little navy blue hoodie (for free from a closing garage sale) that i had wrapped around my purse had gone missing. I hope some moroccan kid finds it and takes it to cool places. We tried to ford the river that seperated us from the ruin but found the water went above our knees and decided not to chance trying to get through. Our book warned against riptides and currents in the area at high tide. But we had an excellent view of the fort as well as an old pavillion nearby. Then we headed back, walking through the shallow waves. Very nice! Keith, who had taken off his shoes and socks when we were going to ford the river continued to wade, showing more ankle than he ever does at home!

We got back after our long walk and had some icecream! The parlor we found has seperate scoops for all the different flavors. Keith had an after eight and i had strawberry (15 dirams each! YUM!). We got back to the hotel and decided it was money changing time, at least until we figured out that it was Sunday and the banks were clothes. well; dang. So back to the hotel for the ATM card. Then a cheap lunch at one of the snack restaurants and then to the machine for cashy money. We also bought Keith a pretty wood hair clip thing. After lunch, we had another ice cream: Keith had tira misu and I had Crème Caramelle. Awesome! And now we're here!

I think that was a very busy day!

pff! Lazy! Indeed!

Essiouara day two

Sat, 28 Mar 2009 16:41:34 GMT

Hidyho!

What an odd day. Regarding last night, nothing to report. We basically went back to the room and I remade the dodgy bed and then went to sleep at the wooping time of 830pm. However the bed gave me fears of bedbugs by its mere existance and i ended up waking both me and keith up at 2am in an adreneline pumping panic when a moth somehow got trapped in the sheets and buzzed by my knees. After dodgy sleep, we got up before 7am. Our room didn't exactly inspire lazying around in bed so we got up to walk around town a bit.

We walked down to the harbor, to see what was going on with the boats. I'd forgotten to mention yesterday the terrifying amounts of seagulls around here! with their malicious beady little eyes. We looped around, paused to watch the beach a while, walked back into the medina, i ate a pancake and considered how someone could make a killing selling them outside a bar betwee 12 and 4 in the morning, i petted a lost kitten and looped around some more. Eventually we figured that it was late enough and we picked up our bags and moved ourselves to hotel centrale. However, apparantly everyone THERE was still asleep! we were knocking forever untill an old guy who worked there came and knocked harder for us untill a sleepy-eyed youth came and answered the door. we were afraid of having to find a different place.

After check ins we showered (yaaaaaay!), changed and got ready to go. While Keith was in the shower, i was accidently walked in upon by another guest while i was wearing no pants. The poor man was terribly embarassed; i told him it could have been worse. We walked around, went to see the North Bastion (part of the 18C fort) and doddled about. For lunch we'd picked out a restaurant that was listed as cheap italian food. It opened at 1230 but only till 3 then again for the dinner rush, but we were their only lunch people. It wasn't cheap, but it was excellent and they even had wine (made in Meknes, go figure!).

After lunch i was ready for a nap but Keith said no and we went in search of the South Bastion and the Ensemble artisanale (for Keith). The South bastion isn't open, as it turns out, and the E.A. seemed strangely abandoned. On our way back to the centre of town (5 minute walk tops!) Keith started feeling sick again. He headed back to the hotel and i went for a bit of a wander on my own. Some guy tried to trade gaudy jewelry for my used Tevas (they ARE pretty awesome, but i need them for my feet!), more men got all "nice, very nice!" at me and all that. Could do without that. Any who, went and collected keith, almost fell asleep again and here we are!

Yayyyyy!

Not entirely sure what we're doing this evening other than dinner (super cheaply!) and shopping.

Also, yesterday when we went to the harbor, there were scary fish being sold. Ugly, ugly mothers. Mothers is my current favorite word. and they were all layed out on the ground and I had to step over them. I also now understand the term 'packed in like sardines' cuz they actually DO pack those little mothers in there. Granted, i could have used 'dudes' instead of 'mothers', but it doesn't feel right.

Essiouara adventures!

Fri, 27 Mar 2009 19:53:12 GMT

Heya folks from Essiouara! As we were quized repeatedly by the dude at the train station, i should let you know that its pronounced Ess-ih-whera. we managed to have a pretty busy past 24 hours, lucky you!

After internet at the best internet place in all of Merrekesh if not Morocco, we headed back towards the hotel, stopping to spend crazy money on ceramics. After dropping those off, we headed of to find food, in particular tanjia, the speciality of Merrekesh. We stopped at one of the first restaurants that we say the tanjia, a type of ceramic jug, out in front and headed up to the terrace. considering the restaurants all around the main square hack up their prices when they have a decent view the place we found had an amazing view with a decent price too! So we tried the stuff, a sort of slow cooked meat thing, and i wasn't terribly impressed. it was okay.

Afterwards, we went out into the souks, bought some scarves for gifts and padding (thought we got a terrible deal but as we were at the Ensemble Artisanale today we found we actually got a good deal! yay!) and headed back for insane packing of rucksacks and packages for home. We were exhausted by the end of the day and slept well.

We got up early today and got right back to work getting our stuff together. Our bus was at noon which didn't leave us alot of time to get everything we wanted done. We started out by trying to take our stuff to get sent home. We arrived at the post office, bags of stuff in hand all wrapped up expertly by yours truely. the man behind the counter says that he doesn't have any boxes himself but we should head out into the souks and try to find one. He puts out bags behind the counter and we head out. It is 8am and there is noone out except a very rude old man making obsene jestures at us. So, needless to say, no boxes. We head back and we're in luck that there is a guy there with the perfect box and he goes about taping it up awesomely. Boy were we relieved! After paying a seemingly insane amount of money to get this stuff sent (i'm happy we're not carrying it with us!) we header back toward the hotel.

We stop for pancakes and end up having this long chat with a couple americans who were wondering about our delicious breakfast fare. we were also chatted up by a Britt couple looking for lodging! so sociable! we head back to the terrace, have some juices and coffee (for me). After, we head back to the ensemble artisanale (big government run store for handicrafts, also renting space to various artisans and coops) to pick up a couple things that keith saw and liked. Keith likes the E.A.; it's kinda like a handicraft mall. All the prices are set (kinda) and there isn't as much the hard sell or feeding frenzy as the souks. We discovered as we compared prices that you can get a better deal in the souks if you want to haggle, but if you don't you can get an okay price at the E.A.. Thus, keith loves it. We got the stuff that keith wanted (pretty caligraphy and some leather boxes) as well as a guys kafkan for him and a ladies for me, a pair of traditional leather shoes for him, and a couple cussion covers (either for us or as gift).

Power walk back to the hotel, check out, catch taxi, hop bus and bus ourselves over here to Essiouara. The ride wasn't too bad, not that far. Now we're next to the ocean! the touts were a little bad at first but once you're without your backpack it's pretty easy going here. lots of shopping to round off what we had done in Merrekesh. We have put ourselves in a nasty little hotel by accident (over eager to get away from the touts) but we're moving tomorrow morning to a lovely place with a fig tree in a tiled courtyard. Same price, lovelier atmosphere and nicer facilities. We're going to be here a few days and I think we'll like it! we're also hoping to spend a night in a riad on the last night! then back to casa and back to icky winnipeg with the awful weather.

See if you guys can clean that up before we get back? please?

Thu, 26 Mar 2009 17:34:26 GMT

So it turns out the photo situation isn't as dire as i had thought. i only deleted all of yesterdays and part of the day before's photos. Not so bad, but still stings.

Today we visited The Majorelle garden, this super cultivated, neato garden, designed by this crazy artist dude and was most recently owned by Yves Saint Laurent. It was crawling with people and tour groups and kinda expensive to get in, but we'd walked all the way (the long way, as it turns out) so we decided to go in. It was actually really relaxing and quite lovely. With the nicest bathrooms we've seen in all of Morocco!

On our way back we stopped in at the Ensemble Artisanal and saw some stuff we liked. We're going to try to get back there later to get some stuff. Also in shopping news, we negotiated hard and bought Melly the best gift EVAR: a DRUM! Well, drums, kinda like bongos. her parents are going to hate us later! But now that we got them, i'm kinda sad to give them away. they're actually pretty little drums. More shopping later! We really want to get a bunch of stuff and mail it all off tomorrow. It'll be nice to have backpack room again!

In other news i've had serious coconut addictions here. today i had 5 dirams worth of coconut. Same yesterday. but the day before i had 15 dirams worth. It's just so good! Also, we've discovered ice cream here. so yum. In fact, I'll probably have more coconut later.

Other than that we're leaving for Essouaria tomorrow (beach here we come!) and then after that it's back to Casa for home flying purposes. So sad!

6 days left!

Wed, 25 Mar 2009 16:33:53 GMT

Waaaa! i'm a moron! i accidently deleted all my pictures from the past couple days! i can't believe i did that! arg!

ugh. anyways, other than that, what have i been up to?

Yesterday afternoon, we went to Bahia Palace which was way cool! It was built by this guy that was a slave but had fanagled his way to regent. Lots of really neat courtyards and painted ceilings. Which of course, noone will see cuz Im a moron. We'd tried to go to this other museum which was the smaller palace built for this guy's brother, but it was closed. we wandered back.

On our way out to supper a little later, i got to impress keith with my haggling skills which are improving. I got a whole bunch of bracelettes for a little more than half of his original asking price, though i did end up buying more than i'd originally planned. Which is fine: gifts for the various sisters. We had shwarmas and another hillarious salad and went back to the room for games and sleep.

This morning i was awoken by our room light spontaniously deciding to turn on. This led to a weird morning where we got up super late, i ordered a café au lait and ended up getting one café au lait and one black coffee (i drank both, weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!), and i felt kinda blue about going home soon while also being homesick a the same time. We got a little lost on our way out but not in a bad way and i just took one weirdo to put us right.

This morning we went to the Morocco museum, another amazingly restored palace which was, as keith said "full of win". I will never know, however because of my lame photo deleting. Anywho, it was covered in tilework and painted ceilings and an enormous courtyard that they covered and hung this HUGE bronze chandelier in. They also had this music playing that i really liked at first but had begun to sound like arabic dueling banjos by the time we left.

Next up was the medersa that was again, really cool zeilj and tilework and carved stucco and cederwood. It had a pool in the middle of their courtyard instead of a little fountain and it totally had water in it. The medersa was different than the others that we've seen, but you'll never know. will you. We had to leave after this guy in a red backpack wouldn't move himself for 15 straight minutes and continued to ruin my shot.

And lastly was this Kubba that was the only remaining piece of Almoravid archetecture left in all of morocco. It was really interesting to see where all the other dynasties took their inspiration from. It even had some things like the shape of some of the windows that i hadn't seen at all elsewhere. not that you'll ever know. cuz i'm lame.

We got to do this all back to back due to the fact that these places didn't close over lunch. So by the time we were done we were HUNGRY! but to get back to the medina we had to walk through all these souks or markets. we ended us stopping to haggle for another blanket!thing and some scarves. He wanted 960 dirams for the lot. We haggled hard and even tried walking away a couple times. We took away some of the scarves and got him down to 600 and our half-dead pen. The pen was important somehow. he insisted on it even though we said it was almost dead, but the 'gift' was essential to the deal. so when we went back to the room to drop off our purchases, i threw the rest of our shitty dollarama pens into my purse, just in case.

After lunch we walked around a bit more and then came here! oh, and when we'd gone by the room, was when i stupidly deleted the pictures. sooooo dumb!

anywho, out to do more adventures and maybe buy some more stuff. probably buy more stuff.

Mayhem and madness!

Tue, 24 Mar 2009 14:35:23 GMT

I'm wearing a pair of pants that i bought yesterday. All the cool backpacker chicks are wearing them! They look kinda ghandian, sorta like you took a skirt, and sewed up the bottom leaving two holes for feet purposes. I love them!

Anywho yesterday turned out to be a non-happening day. Keith took a little sick so we were a little hotel bound. We ventured out a little later to drop him at a net cafe and i went off to explore a little on my own. At first it was fun! I went and bought some olives, and then haggled for some pants. As I was heading back across the square, i got chatted up by a couple young guys running a shop. I went along with the sales pitch at first, but i swiftly realized they weren't particularly interested in that. I was told i was a 5000 camel lady, blah blah blah, did i want a Moroccan husband, blah blah blah. I extricated myself when they were wanting hugs and kisses. Immediately after leaving another guy tries his luck! i hightailed it right back to Keith. Holey Moley!

Last night i bought a book off our hotel that is funny, but sad and generally fluffy, but i've been without a book since Fez and I was desperate. With Keith feeling sick it was amazingly comforting. We lazed around, had strawberry shakes on the roof, untill I convinced Keith to go for food. We went to the same place as yesterday and had wacky salad and lovely brochettes!

Today Keith is feeling much better, but has acquired a bit of a sniffle and a cough. But we can work with that! After breakfast we headed out, in the right direction, to the palace we wanted to see yesterday afternoon. It was pretty amazing, obviously it would have been mind boggling in its day. We payed the extra 10 dirams each to see this really old, amazingly contstructed minbar (muslim pulpit). it was artistically beautiful, and i know at least a couple carpenters i know would blow a gasket at the intricate inlay work.

By the time we get out it's about 1130 and most places close at noon and don't open till 230. So we decided to do some changing of Travellers Checks as part of the mid day break.

OMG the horror! apparantly Morocco hates travellers checks. I have never had these kinds of problems cashing them before. We were turned away for 4 different banks before being told to go to this hotel around the corner. I sent Keith back to the room to get the rest of the checks seeing as i'm only going to do this run about once. It was rediculous. Luckily there was a brittish couple going through the same thing. While I waited for Keith to come back, the girl went to find the hotel and the dude stayed and chatted with me. They're on a London to Australia by land and sea thing. No flying. They've got a year and a bit and they're going everywhere! JEALOUS!

Anywho, the girl finds the hotel, Keith returns and we get it all cashed up, no questions asked! Sweet! We go and eat pasta for lunch (cream and mushroom sauce for me = mediocre, and a pretty good boglonaise for Keith). Seing as we had an hour still before stuff opened again, we're here!

This afternoon we're seeing some more palaces hopefully. I'm also hoping to do some SHOPPING! I'm pretty excited. I had fun haggling for my pants. We'll see how well i do.

Later kids!

Merrekeshi mayhem!

Mon, 23 Mar 2009 14:24:34 GMT

HI everyone! Thanks for your wellwishes on the engagement!

Right now we're updating from Merrekesh's Cyber Park, a beautiful leafy green park just near the medina that has free wi-fi and an excellent cyber café! Hereby offering solutions to getting the techno-geeks out of the basement and into the outdoors! I think we should employ these immediately!

So far i'm really enjoying Merrekesh! Tons to see and do, lots of hustle and bustle but still interesting. Keith, of course, doesn't really like it, the touts and such reminding him much of Fez.. this is okay.

Yesterday we went and slept for a few hours after interneting. This was essential to being able to function. We showered, also essential being as we had spent 15 hours travelling and having not washed our hair since Meknes. We went to find this particular cheap place mentioned in our book, couldn't find it, wandered around the medina, gave up, THEN found it, had rotissary chicken that was awsome, wandered around the main square some, saw monkeys and performers and got harassed some then went back to the hotel, sat on the terrace and had tea, then sleep.

Today had a rough start with us getting very lost trying to get to our first place, and the two of us getting very annoyed with each other, but stopping at the tourist office cleared everything up and we got a new map to boot. We finally found our way to the first place for today: the Sadean tombs.

The tombs were amazing and interesting. It's cool because Moulay Ismal, our crazy builder dude, feared the consequences if he were to tear anything down so instead he just sealled it up and it wasn't really recovered untill a french arial survay pointed out that "dudes, you got something behind your mosque". So yeah, tons of tile-work, carved stuco, painted and carved ceilings and all that good stuff.

We took a minute in a cafe to hydrate and plan our next move. We arrived to our next destination without issue, but found it closing for lunch just as we arrived! thats okay, we headed back towards the medina for foods and later (now) internets! We had to divert to the hotel temporary to clean up keith's head after he managed to walk into a sign trying to keep up with my power walking. Maybe he'll get a scar!

we're just finishing up here and will be setting out to palaces in the afternoon! Hourray!

I wanted to upload some more pictures but this computer didn't like that idea at all, sadly. If Merrekesh cyber cafes don't smarten up, we may have to wait to get home before i can add anymore. speaking of which we only have 8 days left. This is kinda scary. I think we're staying here for the next 3-4 days and then to Essouaria and then to Casa for a day then we leave. Back to the cold! Boo!

Merrekesh and Merzouga continued...

Sun, 22 Mar 2009 12:48:15 GMT

So where did we leave off? Oh yeah, i'm all engagified now. For those of you following both our journals, the 'babbling something romantic' was something to the tune of "It's interesting that I would never have seen this (refering to stars) if it weren't for you... something something... will you marry me?" which was followed up by "will you be my 'it's complicated on facebook?'". oh baby oh baby. Truthfully it was very sweet.

The next morning (term used loosely), i woke up at 420am after a dream where we were forgotten in the desert. The Polish folk had to be up and out around 5am in order be back at the Auberge for breakfast, shower and bus catching. So we went with, which was neat to see stars and sunrises by camelback. I froze my toes though. We got in, had a lovely breakfast and then Keith and i tried to figure out what we wanted to do next.

Our plan was marrakesh, but trying to find a good way accross the desert and Atlas mountains that is both comfortable and time economical is impossible, it seems. Despite getting a few odd looks, we decided to head back to meknes on night bus and then transfer to a train. Lucky for us, there is a bus company that is actually owned by the train company that take care of that kind of things. So last night we got on a very nice, comfy night bus at 7pm.

The bus messed up my back bad! it huuuuurts!

The bus drops us at the Meknes train station at 330am and gave us rushed directions. we got into the building and got rushed to the platform, only for the train to pull up at that moment! no wait! so then we were on this bus for another 7 hours before we got into Merrekesh.

Now we are in Merrekesh, got ripped off by the taxi, got a rude tout, found a great hotel, had a lovely breakfast and now we're here! i'm exhausted! So far Merrekesh is kinda intimidating. i was described to me once as all of Morocco in one city. It does have that feel. Things seem kinda intense here; people are higher strung. I'll have to haggle super hard for anything, which i've been lazy about this trip. well, im deffinately not haggling in this condition.

after internet, nap and then lunch! yay!

The Desert!

Sat, 21 Mar 2009 18:25:55 GMT

Hey Everyone!! What's the word?

We're just grabbing some internet while we wait for our bus back to Meknes, then our train to Marakesh!

There is so very little to report regarding our last day in Meknes. We caught a taxi to buy our bus tickets, walked back through the nouvelle Ville, had pancakes and tea and orange juice, lazed about, keith uploaded the last half of 514MB of pictures to his skydrive (took FOREVER!), chatted with some UK girls (who had run into another couple from Winnipeg earlier in their travels!), lahdeedah. Keith felt a little intimidated about our night bus so we went for some pizza for something familiar. I found it to be gross and bland, but that was made up for by buying some street coconut for a couple dirams! yum! then off to catch our bus.

Night buses can be pretty awful at the best of times, so i gotta say that Keith took it all really well! We had a half hour stop at 1am where we had harrira (soup), went to the bathroom (yay clean!) and tried to keep warm. After that it was pretty fast going(ish). I think we both managed to snooze a little. At stupid o'clock in the morning we arrive in Rassani, the stop before we could get to Merzouga which was our destination. Getting off the bus there, with about 6 other backpackers, we were approached by a guy asking if we had transport to Merzouga, which we didn't, and if we wanted for 10 dirams each (good price) he'll take us if we first stop at his hotel, just to see. Someone asked if they could be taken to town after and he said sure. So we all cram in and we go driving down this road, turning seemingly in the middle of nowhere at some magic point into the desert. Not dunes desert yet, but vast dark dirt and gravel. We off road for 20 minutes; super bumpy where Keith hits his head on the roof of the car a couple times! We know we're in the desert when the mountains in the distance come into focus and they're not mountains at all but dunes! We're taken to one of the Auberges that littler the edge of the dunes. It's shabby and unimpressive. the view is interesting in that there is a small lake next to it (due to the large amounts of rain this year). we don't want to stay here and neither do 5 of the other passangers, so we ask to be taken to town. At first they refuse, of course! Arguing ensues. Eventually I encourage people to walk with me to another auberge down the way without paying the 10 dirams because if they change the deal, then there isn't really a deal. The guy reluctantly calls us back and asks that we pay before he takes us to town. We do and off we go again! This time he doesn't take us to town, but another hotel i guess they're affiliated with. That's okay, we heft our bags because now we have tons of options around us where before we could just see one other place in the distance! We walk with our fellow backpackers (3 polish folks and 2 german girls) for about 15 minutes before we happen to find the place where Keith and I originally wanted to stay! Such luck!

Now i really want to say how impressed I am with how Keith managed through all of this. Being tired and kidnapped and touted and walking in the desert with our backpacks would be enough to get anyone crabby and i really wouldn't have blamed him but he handled it with amazing positivity, chatting and singing a little with me, trying to teach the polish folk some arabic, and making jokes. A was so relieved that I didn't have a cranky Keith on my hands and in situations like that it makes all the difference! Instead of a shitty situation, it was an adventure!

We got to the Sahara Auberge and was greeted with tea and tons of information and helpfullness. Everything was really nice and a drastic change from the shabbiness of the other place. We arranged our camel excursion for that afternoon, staying overnight in tents on the dunes! The better part of the day we spent napping, playing games with each other, chatting with the other backpackers, exploring the dunes that were litterally in our backyard and even managed to grab a shower.

At 330 we headed out on our camels onto the dunes! It was so nice that it was late in the day because, as i've discovered from my other camel trek, that full day deals leave me sore and sunburned. This was a great length with tons of ups and downs and dunes and the wether was beautiful! My camel was the only white one; it was at the head of our train and it like to eat along the way when none of the other camels were allowed. It also liked to lie down like it was dead. So the trek was super fun and it was Keith's first time on a camel (actually also his first time seeing a camel not in a zoo!) as well as his first time in a really duney desert!

We got to camp and climbed a dune (of doom!) that nearly killed us, we are so out of shape! at night we were served tons of tea, an amazing chicken tajine, played around with drums before we were shown to our tents. The highlight of the night was when, under the beautiful stars, Keith proposed to me and i accepted. So romantic, especially with the camels whining just near by and the polish folk giggling over by a cusp of trees.

So now it's all official like!

but we're off to catch the bus, and i'll finish our story later!

Volubulis! do do dododo...

Wed, 18 Mar 2009 17:51:31 GMT

I'm not as young as i once was. My back, hips and knees hate me for my gallavanting. My feet, in my awesome Tevas, are relatively okay! Proving that Tevas rock.

So, yesterday after internets we went out shopping. We explored, ate street popcorn (yum!) and I bought a rediculous faux Pashmina, which i have wanted since I've started seeing them around. We wandered around the Medina, then eventually headed back. Keith went back to the internet café to actualy do his LJ entry and I went to the room to hang out. Yes, we spent an hour apart and neither of us exploded.

Today we tried to wake up early for our big Volubulus trip but Keith was having tummy troubles and we didn't get started till our regular time. First we headed to what we thought was the grand taxi place and one guy told us that we had to go to the one in the Nouvelle Ville and a different guy offered to take us for 150 dirams. we were like, no. So we walked all the way over to the other one and we were wandering around looking lost when a guy on a bus yells Volubulis at us. I'm like YES! so we got a super cheap bus ride to the next town, closest to Volubulis. We got off the bus and walked for around an hour along the road.

The day is really pretty and the walk is really nice; passing olive orchards and the like. When we could see Volubulis a ways off i asked Keith if we just wanted to walk across the fields. He says no. i'm like why not. And he says Morocco has 15 species of poisonous snakes, two of which can kill you in under an hour. I'm like, so we're staying on the road then. Then he's like, and there are scorpions. I said, that's great.

We arrived in Volubulis and it's quite an enormous site! There are tons of stuff, tons of colums and buildings and tons of mosaics and stuff. I think I'll let keith describe it though. But it was huge! And the mosaics were really beautiful and some fairly well preserved. We were out there for over 3 hours. Keith is VERY sunburned, but seems unconcerned. We had sunscreen, he just didn't want to put any on. I had the benefit of putting on some in the morning, but i know i forgot to reapply so who knows how bad this is going to be. At the end of our visit we are tired, sun-soaked, really hungry (I had grabbed a pancake on the go but keith had had nothing for breakfast) and sore. The original plan was to walk back to the small town and take either a bus or a grand taxi back to Meknes. But at the gate we got to talking with a guy who offered to drive us back for 100 dirams and we're like, cool! a little pricier than expected but we had gotten there cheaply and so it doesn't hurt to spend a little more getting back. And we did the math and we were paying about local taxi rates too. sweet.

We walked back to the Medina after being dropped off and aloe vera-ed ourselves before going to our cheap place for food: kababs and i got a salad, which i don't think i've mentioned, is not a salad at all! it's like all these non-salad things thrown on a small plate: some chopped up seasoned tomato (kinda salad like), potatoe with cilantro, potatoe with spicy stuff, rice, and today they had beets!

In other news; i find that i've either left or lost 2 of my shirts someplace. I'm not too sad cuz they were both 2nd hand amounting to $3 in value. but i am now down 2 shirts. Keith's shoes are crapping out on him which sucks cuz we just got him these shoes before we left. Granted, we got them at giant tiger, one wouldn't expect they'd crap out so soon. So we're going to try and find him something in the Medina market.

Tomorrow day we will likey be online but then off to the desert we go!

Later!

Oh ya i'm almost out of book as i shall likely soon finish Goblet of Fire. stupid addictive harry potter.

Oh Meknes, you so crazy...

Tue, 17 Mar 2009 13:54:48 GMT

So yesterday afternoon we went exploring to see if we could get into some of the places in our book. We found our way (by stalking a guided group) to the Mosoleum of Moulay Ismeal (i think) which was pretty neat. We wandered around the main square and then the medina some. In one of the buildings (a learning centre converted from an old house) we acquired a guide. He wanted to show us stuff that wasn't in our book and he did it in such an inobtrusive way that it took me a while to clue in that we acquired a guide and he wasnt just trying to show us to this neat place. With this guy we visited the homes/mosoleums/shrines of 4 poets ranging between the 15th qnd 18C; a couple philosophers' mosoleums/shrines; workshops of all kinds of trades (without taking us to a single shop or selling us a single rug); to see different areas of the Medina; a leaning minerette that was made that way on purpose; and when i got tired, he took us back to the main square. He asked for 30 dirams and we had no problem because he took us to places not in our book and never took us into a single shop. 30 dirams means he wasn't taking commision from other places. It was a fun way to spend an afternoon. The tour was entirely in french, which is kinda hard, but fine.

I was exhausted and we were hungry by the end of the impromtu tour and so we went to our cheap place; hung out with some german dudes and made a pretty big travel decision: instead of heading right to Merekesh like we were planning, we're going to Merzouga on the edge of the Sahara! Keith has never seen desert before so i felt it was pretty important to go. But this is going to mean a... bum bum BUM!... a NIGHT BUS!! This almost dissuaded me but i felt like i'd really regret it if i didnt go. So we're going to try; despite the fact we're kinda unsure as how to get there exactly. but we'll figure it out! If i could take 2 trains and 2 local chicken buses to get to Omkareshwar, this'll be a piece of cake!

Today has been laid back and fun. After breakfast in the tea room, we headed out and went to the ambassador's meeting room, the "christian prisons", the museum of Meknes, and the Medersa. Meknes is kinda shabby and everything has been heavily restored, but some things were quite fun! The ambassador's room was nothing really, and the prisons were more story than anything to see. The museum was overpriced but nice enough and i thought the Medersa was really pretty.

After surprisingly wandering our way out of the Medina, we went for lunch and now we're here! this afternoon we're going shopping! Tomorrow is Volubulis, more roman ruins which are apparantly really nice. the next day we arrange things for Merzouga. I'm still not sure how we're going to do it. That said we're doing really well for time. I think we are going to be able to fit in a couple things like Agadir that i thought we were going to have to cut out for time. They say that there is internet out there in the desert, but if you don't hear from us for a couple days, that's where we've gone. There will be at least an entry tomorrow.

Later dudes!

Later Fez, Moving on to Meknes

Mon, 16 Mar 2009 13:49:04 GMT

So this morning we got our stuff together, took showers, had breakfast, lah dee dah and off to the train station. We decided we wanted to scope out the trains for our 8 hour slog to Marakesh in a few days. Fez decided it needed the last word against Keith and he managed to scratch the lense of his glasses on the petit taxi. Gosh darn you, Fez! I actually kinda liked Fez, actually.

The train was nice! Second class is comfy! Now we're in Meknes, in a slightly higher range hotel on the outskirts of the Medina. We tried a budget place first but the room was cell-like and it all smelled like urine. I'm not that hardcore. but the place we're staying now is nice, and the restaurant just outside is cheap and sells these yummy pita/sandwich thingys! There are Californians who want to find beer! I just thought it was exciting that someone bothered to talk to us; the other backpackers in Morocco are really into themselves.

The rest of yesterday was chilled out and laid back. I did some shopping and bought some rediculous and cheap jewellry. we played cards on the terrace and the like. I ate another avacado. Nothing interesting, really.

I was bemoaning my unharcoreness this morning. we haven't slept on a single terrance or dorm; i have been enjoying having rooms to ourselves. We've had hot water at every place we've stayed. i'm so not tough anymore! though it does have some to do with having Keith with me, i let things like private rooms slide with him where i wouldn't as much if i was by myself or with the sisters.

wah wah wah.

Anywho; later dudes!

Fez: day deux

Sun, 15 Mar 2009 15:34:15 GMT

Hey everyone! Fez day deux coming at ya!

Yesterday afternoon, after internets and lunches, we headed out to find this Medersa (place of islamic study) which according to rumor is the most impressive building in all of Morocco! It was pretty impressive! All carved wood and plaster and marble and tilework. We had a good 5 minutes alone with it before the various other backpackers started showing up. After we had explored around there, we decided to set out into the infamously confusing Medina.

It should be said that even at the time of our guide book's writing, the only way to get around the Fez Medina was to acquire a guide, something that is costly and that we really didn't want to do. Hozwever, our Airport buddies told us that Fez's tourism dudes put up these color-coded stars that you can follow for different themed excursions (palaces, souks and markets, artisans, etc.). As far as I am concerned, this is the best thing evar! We wandered around the medina for a solid couple hours, seeing old houses (refurbished into rug vendors and restaurants) and markets and taking back alleys, seeing where we would end up! I thought this was great fun! We eventually headed back because we didn't want to be caught far into the Medina when it got dark (or we had to go to the bathroom). So we went back to the hotel, totally finding our way with these stars, and had a siesta.

Come sunset, we moved our siesta to the roof to watch over the Medina and to watch these crazy swallows (and other birds) swoop and dive around above us. There were other backpackers up there too, including one dread-head dude we've been seeing around since Chefchaouen, but noone seems interested in talking to each other. Not at all like South east asia. Anywho, we have snacks of frest fruit (apples for keith, avacados for me), we eat dinner, we hang out, and we listen to the soundtrack of the Medina (hillariously, there is a music shop near our window so we hear Arabic music and a susurrous of voices).

Today, Keith's feeling a little sick so we go and buy some yogurt for breakfast (we have no spoons so we have to eat them with the big ends of chopsticks). Our plan is to go explore more of the Medina using the handy-dandy stars. Our activities are more of the same exploration: markets, old houses, peaking into Mosques, historical buildings and Fez's famous tanneries. But the touts and guides and "come and see my shops!" are out in full force today. I'm pretty okay with this, i'm used to it. Keith really isn't and is getting increasingly more and more annoyed. I try my best to bear the brunt of it, but there are a lot of touts and false guides. He even tells me at one point when we end up outside the Medina how much he is disliking all the touts. I try to be helpfull but i think i underestimate how bad of a time he's having.

I accidently (sort of) follow some guys saying "tanneries, this way!", missing the Fez Tourism star ahead entirely, and landing the two of us in a leather shop that does indeed have an excellent view of the tanneries. I'm okay with this because i know we're not going to buy any leather and the pitch doesn't bother me, but i am missing how annoyed keith is getting. We paw our way though the very pretty leather jackets and shoes and stuff and then i make the motions of our extrication. the guy invites us next to a spice shop that is litterally across the way. I agree and we get a very long, but actually kind of neat explination of Moroccan spices, oils and perfume stuff. I actually end up buying some very reasonably priced spices (Moroccan curry, a 4 spice mix for Harrira and a 5 spice mix for Kababs and other meat. Oh yeah, and some lovely saffron!). However when the same guy physically pulled me into yet another rug cooperative, i finally got us out. I'm still in a great mood, we find a star to follow and we start heading our way out. But while i'm gushing about how well i felt it all went, Keith pointed out the Tanneries star that i'd missed and i finally clued into how annoyed he is. We make our way out of the Medina and take refuge in our room for a while. Luckily he's not really angry at me so much as he is angry at Fassis (the people of Fez) who harass us for money (doesn't this sound familiar, not unlike an India Athena?).

We chill and then head for lunch, then here. We're probably not going back into the Medina, but that's okay. I've had enough of it myself. Tomorrow we're heading to Meknes which is famous for a far more laid back attitude and less pressure medina, souks and markets. These will suit Keith better, i think. I really quite liked Fez myself but I do recommend people take a look at Keith's journal for his point of view, which is very different from mine, at bighairyviking</lj> .

Also, new photos (finally! a cyber cafe I can upload at!) at:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=220171&id=621540006&l=034ca22c53
and
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=224158&id=621540006&l=9df619a8ce

Enjoy!

Fez: The day begins!

Sat, 14 Mar 2009 12:53:00 GMT

Now that we have normal keyboards again, i'm finding it impossible to type!

Now that we're somewhere with actual sun and heat, we are taking refuge from the noon-day sun in an internet cafe! Seeing as I have exactly nothing new to report, this will be a fairly short entry. But i did get words regarding going a couple days without entries, so here i am.

Last night, despite my valiant attempts to stay awake, I ended up turning in at 8pm, the sounds of the Medina still going strong. I woke up at 7:30 exactly, feeling less sick-like. It seemed to take forever to get going today. Finally, showered and ready to go, we went for a good cheap breakfast at our Restaurant buddy's place. This morning we went to a small museum nearish to our place. It held examples of various crafts and stuff. I managed to score some photos, even though we were told not to. The museum itself is housed in an old palace/guest house/rayad with very pretty gardens. A lovely begining to our day!

Fez is very different than anywhere else we've been. We've seen horses and donkeys. Lots of hussle and bussle. Fez is the most intact medieval city in the world (or something like that) and pretty awesome too! I'm actually kind of surprised that i like it here so far.

So far we haven't done much, because now everything is closed for lunch, but this afternoon we should be out and about for more adventures!

And on to Fez

Fri, 13 Mar 2009 18:42:02 GMT

The road here was so bumpy my chin was in danger of being bruised by my bosoms.

How's it going, out there? We're in Fez now, after a LONG 5 hour bus ride. We've travelled by local bus, which is cheap, but has its pitfalls of tourist taxes and discomfort. We're looking forward to using the train for the next couple legs of our journey. I've always loved the train.

Previously, on Bbackpacker Feet...

I didn't end up buying eggs or making our own breakfast like i'd previously mentioned. We went for food, and it was delicious. Not much to report, regarding that evening, really. I started reading Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban and it is delightful.

Yesterday we had a VERY slow morning. We had breakfast through the hotel, which was cheapish and lovely: frest orange juice, mint tea, baguette toast, butter and orange marmalade. We read, ate olives and played cards for most of the morning before we got organized. Then we went out to find the art gallery we had seen before.

We had promised to come back and we kept it, which impressed the artist/owner. He'd moved to a new gallery and was in the process of setting it up when we came in. We picked out two pieces and sat down, mentally preparing to haggle like crazy. We were hoping to pay around 500 dirams for the two paintings, but were willing to settle for around 600. The Artist sits down and says that this is his first sale in the new gallery and we're the first people who've come in so he'd give us the best price: and quoted us 500 dirams. We tried to haggle for 400, feeling that he may be insulted if we didn't at least try, but he explained that it was his best price. We sat and had tea with him, he signed the back of our paintings with our names in Arabic and good wishes, we took pictures together and we paid him. Then he invited us for dinner that night.

We went about our afternoon business, lunch, wandering and the such. We read the part of our book explaining cultural expectations of being a guest in a Moroccan house or dinner. It said we should bring sweets so we went looking for a patiserie. we found a little stall and tried to explain no peanuts and no almonds, almonds being the most common ingredient in sweets and pasteries. we settled on some which we figured to be safe. We went shopping some more, bought some spiffy pants, and then went on to the gallery to meet our Artist.

He was still setting up the gallery. Keith helped him set up his computer and magically fixed his digital camera. His friend arrived, and we all had an easy chat in english and french. We got the grand tour and he told us his plans for the place. He served us olives and whisky and coke. Keith showed off his Arabic and it was well received. Two Japanese girls wandered in and we invited them to join us. So now we were mingling in 5 languages: English, French, Spanish, Japanese and Arabic. Eventually we had Tagine, prepared by this teenage boy that the Artist was always telling what to do. We all ate comunally from the plate. Everything went delightfully until dessert.

I took one bite of the pastery and it was like peanuts exploded in my mouth. I went outside and spat it out, rinced with coke and spat some more. Up untill the peanut part it was a really nice party. We excused ourselves, and practically ran back to the hotel. I brushed my teeth and rinced like a crazy person. Keith ran our and got me a Fanta and i took 4 antihistamines. Then we waited. I thought my mouth felt weird but i did burn it on the Tagine. I thought my throat felt weird but that may have been my not swallowing for 15 minutes. I was shivering but that was from the cold Fanta.

Don't worry, i was fine. but it was pretty scary.

This morning we tried to get up early, but it was a late night the previous night. we managed to get going, pack our ever expanding bags and check out. We walked to the bus station (i was so sure we were lost till we got there) and in the same hectic manner we are becoming accostomed to, we were shuffled onto a bus, where we were ripped off on luggage costs (Keith is getting himself a healthy amount of backpacker rage; he was very close to getting us kicked off the bus while insisting on paying the actual rate for luggage. I'm a little proud) and we settled in for our 5 hour bus ride.

The busride was not very exciting. We watched the country side go for mountains to hills to plains. It took forever and was smelly and hot as one would expect from the local bus. But we got to Fez and we prepared for the touts to rush us.

And how they dissapointed! there was only one tout and when we told him we were going to a particular hotel, he gave us the name of that hotel's tout (though we never found him) and wished us a good stay. We got a little lost trying to find our gate into the Medina, but the helpful royal guards helped us out and gave us good directions. We found our hotel, a little pricier but that was expected for Fez and otherwise a fine little pension. During the summer/high season, they'd have a cafe but instead they directed us to the place across the way. A guy from the restaurant walked by our room, asked where we were from, proudly displayed his Canada shirt and told us if we came to his restaurant, we would get a discount. And we went and we did! their cokes are a little pricey but still; we got a lot of food. We chatted up a nice German sitting next to us, comparing where we had been and where we were going. We chatted up, or were chatted up by a couple of our Restaurant buddy's friends who were also really delighted with Keith's Arabic. Then our of nowhere, we met the couple we"d met on the plane! that was the most random and they were able to give us some great advice on Fez and Merrekesh. They're leaving tomorrow for Egypt, so it was really cool to run into them.

And now we're here. Our Restaurant buddy sent us here and after we're prolly going to bed, i'm dead on my feet. Even though it's only 630pm. Anywho; the internet is expensive here so thats all i got for now!

join us tomorrow for another exciting episode of backpacker feet.

Chefchaouen; or as it is pronounced: shefshuwen

Wed, 11 Mar 2009 19:27:59 GMT

Yesterday's cyber café was stinky and super lame for its ineffectual keyboards. This one smells like cats, but has superior keyboards.

Yesterday, i still wasn't at 100% so after interneting, we got some cokes from a cheeky vendor ("hello ola bonjour! thank you gracias merci shukran!") and headed back to the room for a rest. We went up to the roof to watch the sun set over the mountains, but it was a little cloudy and we could only see an outline. We went back to the main square for dinner (Harrira and kababs; i'm totally stuck on kabab skewers!) and then took a walk around to shop a little. We didn't buy anything, instead scoping and pricing stuff out in order to plan my attack! Many of the cheap tin earings and hands of fatima will be mine! Eventually we looped back to the hotel (it's actually a pension, which we don't know how it differs from a hostel), read and slept.

We've decided to employ a new philosophy of going out later, and thus waking up earlier which was definately the right choice. at 9am, the town was very quiet. I felt a hundred times better so we could count on some exciting activities today! We got ourselves together, and went and had a fairly expensinve omlette. in light of which, i'm going to utilise the kitchen tomorrow morning for breakfast, i think. in any case, after breakfast, we headed out on our morning expedition: an alledgedly 1/2 hour hike up to the Spanish Mosque.

I'm sure our 1/2 hour hike became longer as we got lost trying to figure out how to get accross the river and up the hill but it was alright because it was sunny and warm and no clouds to block the view of the mountains. We found a place to cross the pretty river and were delighted by the pretty little rivelettes, water trickles and water ways that supply the outlaying towns with their water. Up we climbed to the very busy place we *should* have crossed. As it turns out, the walk up to the Spanish Mosque is popular not only with tourists, but with scores of Moroccans, especially teenage boys, who wander up in groups of 3 and stop in shady areas to smoke a joint before continueing.

The two of us are NOT in good shape and it felt tlike it was taking us forever to get up that hill. I could picture it if my sisters were with us, Alexa would be at the top in 5 minutes and Cassie would be back huffing and puffing with the two of us. It was kinda sad. but we made it, also climing to the top of the minerette (sorta like a tower or steaple) up a very narrow staircase that barely allowed Keith to pass. The top was narrow little walk about which i was oddly fine with but left keith sticking to the wall in the middle. Then we went back down, which of course took only 10 minutes. We hung around the river for a bit before heading into the Medina instead of trying to retrace our steps. This was neat and fun and led us to an art gallery (i'm excited, hoping to pick us some interesting pieces to frame at home) and i got to see a couple little girls carrying little goats. I tried to snap a picture but they were too fast. Anywho, we made it to our hotel in no time. We took our free hot showers (sweet!) and went out for lunch.

After lunch, we checked out the kasbah and i remembered to rock this one. It had a very pretty garden, a prison, a tower, and a sparce little museum. Leaving the Kasbah, i stopped and picked up a snack of strawberries (in season here!) to bring back to the pension, for a late afternoon of sun and strawberries and games!

When we're done here, i'm going to find some eggs for tomorrow, maybe shop a little and then we hit up someplace for supper. We're staying in Chefchaouen tomorrow (we really like it here!) for the big souk tomorrow, then we're heading to Fes. This is a little intimidating as Fes, Meknes and Merrekesh are the trifecta of tourist craziness and more expensive to boot. And the week after Merrekesh is a little rough on the planning stage as i'm attemting to get Atlas/mountain/foreigner accepting Mosque goodness as well as Dessert/Kasbah goodness before heading to the coast.

Later dudes!

Now back to our scheduled programing...

Tue, 10 Mar 2009 15:56:46 GMT

Sorry about the strange cut out yesterday. I started feeling awful ill and it resulting is a swift escape. I'm feeling marginally better now, but still unsteady.

Now where did we leave off? oh right, we just ran into the guy who gave us directions in the Medina! It was a surprise but i good one, i figure. i was hungry and i just wanted to eat! He offers to take us to a good restaurant and we agree. so he took us down these twists and turns, he's slow and unobtrusive, unlike most guides who are really in your face and abrasive. He took us to a fancier, but a very nice place, completely empty. We ate (couscous with vegitables and chicken and kebabs for keith) and the food was good. After we were done, the guy showed up again and showed us the way out. He didn't ask for money but we tipped him for being helpful and not a jerk.

We wandered our way to the Archeological Museum but found it was closed. we went down (litterally down the hill) to the Ensemble Artisanale where different artisans sell their wares. It wasn't open so we hung out in the park accross from it which was sort of cut out of the side of the hill. When we finally got into the Ensemble Artisonale, we priced out the various items there so we would have a better idea of what items in the souks and markets were worth (very sneaky!). Just so we weren't wasting the dude's time, we bought a couple more blankets/tableclothes. After we got up towards our end of the city, i started to feel oogie, but tried to ignore it as we went to find internet. The internet place was muggy, humid and kinda smelly. I tried to tough through it, but it got bad enough i just exited out of everything, paid and left. Keith came with me, worried i was getting SICK, but i was sure it was just a small thing. small, but big enough to make me not want to leave the safety of the hotel room for the rest of the evening. Eventually, i had to convince keith to go our and find some food for himself. I'll let him tell that story!

Today, i felt weak and gross. I managed to rally myself enough for us to go find some breakfast, keith convinced thats what i needed to perk up. we acquired a dude-guide we didn't need but we didn't care enough to ditch rudely. we found a small cafe, impressive because today is a holiday: the birth of Mohammed. Which means it is kinda hit and miss if anything is open. We headed to the Archeological museum again, found it to be closed as we were early, sat and drank a coke, then returned. it still wasn't open, so we figured it'd be closed for the holiday. We went back to the room to try to decide what to do. neither of us particularly wanted to hang around Tetouane. It has some interesting archetectural aspects from the spanish occupation, and a confusing Medina, but not enough to convince us that staying was what we wanted to do. And Tetouane smells like gasoline all the time.

so we packed up, i dosed myself with anti nausea meds and we caught a taxi to the bus staition. It was nuts in there and noone seemed to have a bus to chefchaouen, our next destination. this guy started talking to us about Grande Taxis (a car for 5 that they shove as many people as possible into). he gave us a good price and we decided to go with it. Keith and i were packed into the back seat with these two loud rambuncious dudes and there was another dude and an older woman in the front seat with the driver. The ride was about an hour, and i managed to sleep most of the way.

Chefchaouen is up more in the hills/mountains. It is absolutely lovely! we were dropped and we started walking towards the Medina. we had a rough idea of a place to go, but nothing definate. soon we picked up a tout, but this one was kinda welcome. He quoted us a good price, and we decided to follow him. He took us to this really nifty place in the Medina with lots of comon space, an awesome asymetrical room, a communal kitchen, and a rooftop terrace! and cheap!

my stomach was killin' me so we went and found food. this is even easier than usual because chefchaouen is a tourist hotspot. in fact, we haven't seen so many other foreigners at any point in our travels so far. I'm not sure what this might mean. In any case, it smells better than the other place and i'm happy we decided to come here.

Later dudes!

Moving on...

Mon, 09 Mar 2009 19:26:42 GMT

Not much else to report from last night. We did go out to the market and I made my first stab at haggling here. To tell the truth, I have been very reluctant to start shopping here. I don't have as good of a feel of values and I have also felt a little performance anxiety. In India and S.E.A. i was a haggling force of nature, devestating all who step between me and the object of my desire. So, while here with Keith, I have been slow to start. But yesterday, I mustered my courage and wandered out into the Medina. And I didn't do too badly. I haggled for a blanket and a necklace. I paid 150 dirams for the blanket/tablecloth and 50 for the necklace. I have to say it wasn't my best work. I should have at LEAST gotten him to throw in a bracelette or something. But at least I'm out of the gate.

This morning we got going early because it is a travel day. We weren't entirely sure if we could get a bus to go directly where we wanted or if we'd have to circuit through Tangiers. We arrived and this guy told us that there was a bus in about 1 1/2 hours. So we settle in at a cafe to wait and order breakfast. As it turns out, that was a poor time estimation. We were waiting around 15-20 minutes when our bus came. We moved our bags and I left Keith to pay up while I went to get our breakfast 'to go'. All went well, we weren't ripped off on our tickets but Keith did have insist on paying the regular price for luggage (5 diram per piece v.s. 10 diram per piece, like they wanted). Points to Keith for negotating prices!

I figured the trip would take a while as it was a little cross country, but due mostly to the insane speed of our driver, we arrived in just over 2 hours! After some fun in acquiring a taxi, we found ourselves a hotel and went out to find food. While wondering which way to go, a guy came over and told us the cheapest and best food was in the Medina and he gave us directions to get there. We thanked him and headed in. After wandering around vegitable and fish markets for 20 minutes, we were getting reading to give up. Then we round a corner and there is the same guy! He offers to show us the way to a restaurant. We're hungry, lost, and we know that this is a guide deal but we go along with it!

What happens next? Wouldn't you like to know! Im feeling a little oogie this evening, but I promise to update you the rest of the story tomorrow!

Later dudes!

When in Morocco...

Sun, 08 Mar 2009 15:43:19 GMT

Do as the Moroccans, right? Even if that entails listening to live music and sitting in a café. Tough life.

So as we left the internet café last night, i noticed while passing my reflection that i am far more sunburned than i had previously thought. Especially right across my forhead, which makes for a very unsightly burn-line. Not much to be done for it other than aloe vera-ing it up and pulling my hat farther down my forhead. We picked up some kickass Chwarmas from a stall and brought them back to the hotel. We had started to feel all the sun we got and we were gross and tired. Food, showers and backgammon, then to bed. We could hear the festival's music from our room.

Today hasn't been exciting in the nicest way. We had a rough time getting up and it seems like the rest of the town had the same problem. Finally rolling ourselves into the street, we wandered ourselves to the Medina, stopping to chat with our hash-hawking friend on the way. The Medina here is close packed and mostly residential with a small market mostly dealling in fish and vegetables. We found ourselves pancake breakfast and started to wander in search of a fort, a prison-cum-museum, and a couple old Spanish buildings. Unlike Salé, we found everything we had set out to, only the prison/museum wasn't open (for a while, it looks like) and the fort was fenced off, apparantly undergoing renovations to restore it and turn it into a hotel.

From this exploration, we took ourselves to the promonade overlooking the ocean. The festival has restarted today and we find ourselves a seat in a nearby café where we can sit, listen and sometimes see over the heads of the crowd. We're not sure the reason of the festival, but it was a combination of talent/performing portion and contests, there were teams, each with numbers pinned to their chests like in a marathon, and there were definately winners, because the team of young girls chanted and clapped their way triumphantly down the promonade with a beauquet of flowers. One of the girls ran up to us and gave us a flower each from the beauquet, her friends laughing. It was really nice! The people here are in general very friendly. The kids all say 'Olla', trying to practice their Spanish. Another group of girls ran up to us, speaking spanish and wanting to smell our newly received flowers. We ended up giving them one which they were very excited about and went skipping away.

But really, the bulk of our morning was spent playing backgammon, sipping mint tea (me) and coke (keith), and listening to the festival.

We had hamburgers for lunch. Sort of. It was something special: ground meat not exactly in a patty of any description, a fried egg, processed cheese, and chopped up tomato and red onion. Totally yum but not what one would expect.

Our afternoon is largely unplanned, but tomorrow we're hoping to move on to Tetouane or, if unavoidable, to Tangiers. I'm worried about finding the supposed bus station.

I am attempting to update my facebook album. Come take a look! I am hoping to upload more of Lixus and Larache at the next stop, because the connection here kinda sucks.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=220171&id=621540006&l=034ca

by the way: Keith's rediculous scorpion
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=5903816&l=91075&id=621540006

Romans build to last...

Sat, 07 Mar 2009 18:25:18 GMT

Hello Folks!

We're hailing you now from Larache, a small city on the coast between Rabat and Tangiers.

In all our negativity about Salé I forgot to tell a cute story; an annecdote. An amusing story and a cure for poison. When we were wandering our way into Salé, the Medina was still waking up and the streets were relatively empty. The one woman came out of a building and was walking ahead of us. Occationally, she would peak over her shoulder at us. Finally, she says to me in French "Put on your Jacket! It's cold out!". We explain that we're Canadian and that this was warm for us. She gave us a disapproving head shake. Its good to know that I have various moms looking out for me no matter where I go.

Yesterday was fairly uneventful. Keith was angry at Medinas and so we spend the rest of the day eating at our favorite place (Sandwich Amal), reading, playing chess, and eventually walking around the main market until we got rained out. It appears we chose the righ time to get out of Rabat as we had a passle (8ish) of Italian teenagers move into our nice, quiet hotel. They kept me up till all hours; Keith slept blissfully through the cocophany.

We got an early start this morning, got up, had breakfast, got packed, caught a taxi and asked to go to the CTM bus station, the private bus line. Instead, the driver took us to the public bus terminal. It was seconds before we're being hustled through the hustle to the very unprofessional ticket booths. "100 dirams" he says with out looking anything up. then off to the bus, always being led. 20 dirams for 'first class', another 20 for luggage (we read in our book after the fact that it should have been more like 10). Fine, fine, whatever gets us there. The bus ride is fairly uneventful.

We're uncerimoniously dropped in Larache, on the side of the road. We orientate ourselves on our little Rough Guide map and start walking. When we get to the main square, this casual, friendly man appears and chats us up, tells us about a festival going on in the Medina, and tells us where to find the hotel we want. And off he goes. Too good to be true, someone both friendly and helpful? Don't worry, he tries to sell us hash later. But he was genuinely nice and helpful, and really cool when we later declined. We found the place mentioned in our book that we decided we wanted to check out. There is this little sign over a little door down a nice little alley. they show us up to the room. We LOVE it. Just a simple, airy, tiled room with a bed and a window (two beds actually, a small single & a double; we're using the single for our rucksacks) and very clean shared baths. There is even a little table in the common area. And CHEAP. If we heard correctly, it's only 100 for the two of us. Keith thinks it's just the best place ever.

Checked in and everything, we head out for lunch and to see Lixus, the main drive behind coming here. At cafe we decide to sit at (another pancake each for lunch!) another friendly, helpful hash dealer tries to give us directions. It's not far, you can totally take a bus or you can totally walk, yadda yadda. So we head off to try to walk. we try the bus. we give up on waiting for the bus. we try to walk again. we get lost, ask for directions, and get told we're going the wrong way. This time, Keith is the cool headed one and I'm the frustrated one. Finally we manage to wave down a taxi (never one when you want one) and he takes us out to Lixus.

Lixus is amazing!! It was a Roman settlement from 100 BC-500 BC, but the site was being used by people as early as 1000 BC. We got dropped on the side of the highway leading to Tangiers about 2 km from town, then we had to ditch a guide and climb a hill. The ruins were pretty extensive with salt factories, living quarters, ampetheater, baths, bastions, a christian basilica, temple complexes and lots and lots of ROCKS! Seriously, the Romans left there stuff EVERYWHERE. it was fun to use the walls as little raised sidewalks to get ourselves around the brambles. There was quite a lot! At one point we though we were done but around another bramble bush BAM! Tower walls! Down side was i think i got a sunburn. boo. We spent a good 3 hours exploring the hill.

Once we climbed down, we starting walking our poor aching feet down the highway. Not even 5 minutes later, this guy driving a 3-wheeler pick up truck thingy pulls over and waves us into the bed, giving us his jacket to sit on. It made for a hillarious ride back to town as every car pulling up behind us was stuck looking at these pastey mugs. We got a lot of smiles, laughs, waves, thumbs-ups, and honks. Once in town, he pulls over and we hop out. He then shakes our hands, we thank him and before we could even offer him any money, he drives away. Its always good to know there are people who are just helping out.

So we've wandered back up to our hotel and updating now before heading to find some food. Tonight, we're thinking schwarma!

Mausoleum and Salé

Fri, 06 Mar 2009 12:14:34 GMT

Aha! This will be a short post!

Yesterday after posting, Keith and I dragged our weary bodies through the Medina, through the Mellah (old Jewish quarter, strangly empty of Jews). We emurged from the walls of the Medina and decided to head out to visit the Mausoleum of Mohammed V: a fairly recent construction on the same site as the ruins of the Hassan Mosque. In it's day, the Hassan Mosaue was the second biggest in the world (built in the 1300s) and remained so until it was leveled in the earthquake in the 1700s. All that are left is a tower, part of the minerette, and the reassembled columns. We filed through, with the locals and tourists, to the main hall of the mausoleum. There, next to the white onyx tomb, a man sits and chants passages from the Koran all day long. Everything here was very pretty, and would have made a nice place to sit and chill, but we were all kinds of achy.

We caught a taxi back and had a lovely dinner of kababs, harrira and fries. After dinner we paid for our hot showers (10 dirams a pop). Keith konked out at about 7:30pm and I was out at about 8:00pm.

Our morning today was a little disappointing. We got up, had a couple more of those great Moroccan pancakes and walked accross the bridge to Salé. Salé was the big city in the middle ages so we were looking forward to it. The main gate was pretty neat. It was built extra tall because it had a cannal running through it so that the merchant vessals could sail their ships right into the city. Nowadays, the cannal has been filled up but the gate is still pretty impressive. We followed along the inside wall, peaking over at one point to get a glimpse of the HUGE cemetary, the ocean, the beach and Rabat's Kasbah. We decided to head into the Medina to find the Grand Mosque and the Medersa (sort of like a university).

That's when it all went wrong!

we wandered around forever trying to find these. We found the stairs and doors to what we THINK is the Grand Mosque, and it was really pretty, but we couldn't find the Medersa. At first the wandering around was interesting to me, like on the first day in Rabat, but it kept dragging on and on and we couldn't find anything and we ask for directions and people either don't know what we're talking about or give us the most unhelpful directions. Keith is getting more and more frustrated. We decide to call it, but don't even know how to find our way out. I pick a direction and we eventually find our way to a wall, then a gate, then we walk along the outside and find our way back to the bridge.

Very unsuccessful morning.

So we're back in the Rabat Medina. we're not sure how we're going to spend our afternoon, but tomorrow we're heading out to Larouche to see the Roman ruins of Lixus, then to either Tangiers, to check out the port town (i suspect we'll want to head out to Ceuta or Tetouan almost right away. Tangiers is where all the tourists day tripping from Spain come in and i anticipate busy, smelly and tout-y).

See you on the road!!

Crazy Henna Ladies & Keith learns a lesson

Thu, 05 Mar 2009 15:21:44 GMT

Hidey-ho folks! Here I am again with more crazy stories.

After my entry yesterday, Keith and I went walking through the Medina (the old city and main market place). This happened to fall during the afternoon call to prayer, so streets were pretty empty. It was really fun wandering down the narrow alleys, taking pictures of interesting doors, and getting away from the crazy market area and into the smaller, local markets. Eventually, we emurged from the Medina by the river and from where we were, we could see the Kasbah (the fort). Though it was getting quite cold and drizzley, we decided to check out the Kasbah anyway.

Enter the Crazy Henna Ladies. On the way up to the Kasbah, these two ladies sat off to the side of the sidewalk doing henna on a couple of ladies. "oh come see! come see!". Now, i know this game. The minute I go over there, they'll start putting henna all over my hands and then demand I pay for it. So i put my hands behind my back and go look. Almost immediately, they start pulling at me and I start saying no. As I'm doing so, I look over at Keith and there he is, smiling, saying "go ahead, hon! you only live once!". And that is when I realize: Keith DOESN'T know what's going on! He thinks I'm being SHY! He's pushing me towards the ladies and i realize Ive lost. Without being able to negotiate the price before hand or choose a pattern I get the henna gobbed on me. After they'd finished with me, they even managed to get a scorpion on Keith. Then they demanded 150 dirams, we only had a 200 bill and they, of course, had no intention to give us change. I haul Keith off and explain to him what had just happened.

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=5873227&l=d9c9f&id=621540006

At first, Keith was quite proud of himself. He knew Id wanted henna on this trip and he'd encouraged me when I was being shy. "Full steam ahead!" he says, "we're in Africa". The I explained about haggling, about controlling the situation, about how now I'm marked as a rube by my terrible henna job and also that by supporting that kind of behavior that others that come after me will be more at risk of the same behavior. Then he felt dumb and bad. My poor scorpion. Unlike the situation with Omar that left me feeling stupid for not trusting my instincts, this was actually really funny to me. I was feeling shocked and surprised that he hadn't known what was going on, not angry at all. I razzed Keith a little and he cheered up but still felt a little bad. The important thing is that he learned a valuable lesson.

"I guess you're 2 for 2!" I say, "No, I'm 0 for 2." he replies, "that depends who's team you're on." I tease.

The Crazy Henna Ladies tell us that the Kasbah is closed during prayer time, but we're waved in by a tout-guide. We thank him, but swiftly loose him. We look around the garden area a bit, have some tea in the cafe, get harassed by another henna lady who offers to 'fix' my henna job (that keith empatically joins me in saying no to), and we wander around the old fort. The Kasbah (to be rocked at a later date) doesn't seem like a fort at all. It is more like a small walled town, having around 3000 people currently living in it. It was really interesting. It also appeared to be the date destination, seeing as there were young couples in every corner making goo-goo eyes at each other. Seeing as my hands were starting to go numb (which was kinda good cuz my one hand had started to burn, either from chemicles added to the henna or from the needle applicator scratching me up good while i was struggling) we decided to go back to the hotel. By this time it had also started raining pretty hard but we managed to catch a taxi back to the Medina.

We rested up before choosing a recommended place out of our book for dinner, not an easy task as those places tend to be on the expensive side. We found a place, i had some Harrira, a soup i had tried to make at home and now had a chance to try, and some turkey Kababs. And of course more tea. Despite the drizzley weather we wandered around the closing down market before heading back to the hotel. It had been a long day without a nap and i was exhausted.

What's funny about jetlag is that you can't really tell how it's going to crop up. For example, Keith and I both woke up at about 330 AM out of nowhere. We read and talked and I managed to doze off just after the dawn call to prayer (which is LOUD in the medina). Keith didn't. I woke up again around 730AM and he was wide awake and dressed. I sent him out to scout out breakfast while I got ready. Off to an early start, we scored some Moroccan pancakes on the go and took off for our first item of the day.

Our first stop today was the Museum of antiquities, a little treasure trove of Roman artifacts from around the area and up towards Lerouche, where we're headed in a couple days. They also had some 'neolithic' artifacts, some pheonician stuff and some artifacts from the early days of the Arab settling. A very good collecting and a very helpful staff. We managed to get some very good pictures in before we were told there was no photography. We also had the unique opportunity to touch the Roman artifacts, which we would never be allowed to do in the West.

Next, despite my aching feet and back, we were off to the old city of Chellah. Chellah is described as one of the last cities to sever links with the Roman empire and one of the first to sign on with the Sultan. It was totally hopping till the 1300s when everyone picked up and moved over the river to Salé (which we're visiting tomorrow). These are some beautiful ruins with an intersting mix with parts being distinctly Roman and others distictly Arabic. The best preserved parts are the Mosque, the Kubbas and graves. The places was infested with egrets and storks (which make an almost menacing noise) which are signs of good luck. I gave a coin to the sacred eels, which at this point counts as a good investment for us.

On our long walk back to the Medina, we witnessed a scary political demonstration which was broken up by the police. We almost got ran over by demonstrators when the police ran into the middle of them. We have no idea what the demonstration was for.

Lunch was delicious couscous and turkey kababs. We had a nice wander around the ?edina, a very odd conversation with a guy who just wanted to chat for 2 seconds and rush off and now here I am reporting to you! Sorry for the crazy long entries, Friends Pages.

Feel free to check out my album by copy/pasting or clicking the link below. I would have made a proper link, but all the prompts were in Arabic.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=220171&id=621540006&l=034ca