Morocco Part I

My latest adventure took place in Marrakesh, Morocco. We spent 4 days in the north west (not the person) of Africa. The days leading up to our trip had me on edge. I am usually so excited to visit a new place but this time, I was SO nervous! I'm not sure what it was that made me feel so unsettled but in the end everything was fine. We had a great time and we didn't have any problems.

I'm not one to look out of plane windows because I'm scared of heights, but its a fear that I'm trying to conquer. While we were flying I noticed how cool the clouds looked. I've never seen clouds look like that before or from that perspective. Unbelievable.

Flying over Africa. For most of the trip I had Toto's Africa stuck in my head. I'm not complaining, I love that song!

Here is the reception area of our hotel. It was actually a really nice hotel with a lot of amenities.

This is was my bed. So fitting for Morocco.

We even had a bidet in our hotel bathroom. Don't mind if I bid-do!

We stayed at the Moroccan House where they greeted us with mint Moroccan Tea. I ABSOLUTELY love that Morocco has so many palm trees! One of the best parts of the trip was seeing palm trees in the skyline.

After we checked in to our rooms, we walked a few buildings away to a great little Moroccan restaurant where I ate some yummy chicken couscous. Our waiter was very friendly and told us riddles and joked with us. He developed such a crush on Katherine, before our meal ended he offered us 200 camels for her! It was creepy.

I really wanted to try McDonald's just to see if it tasted different, but I couldn't convince anyone in the group to partake in the golden arches.

They got some crazy drivers in Marrakesh.

We visited a garden where the Medina Walls are. Morocco is nicknamed "The Red City" because of the orange-red clay/chalk that the walls are made of.

Tree hugger photo bombed.

My travel companions from left to right: Katherine, Amanda, Jonelle and Miguel. Not pictured: Beckah.

More of the gardens. I noticed that in a lot of the pictures I took, I did so from the shadows. Also, I enjoyed taking pictures OF shadows. Its probably just a photography phase, but just be aware.

Katherine's shot above.

The photo I was taking.

This is the Koutoubia Mosque which is the largest in the city.

 Next we visited a Souk. We spent a lot of time shopping, finagling and a little getting lost in the alleyways. My least favorite part of the trip was wondering aimlessly through those alleyways. But we survived. Funny thing, the locals recognized us as being tourist and a lot of the time they would yell: "Lady Gaga". We could not figure out why. Either that is the only English words they know or they thought that since I was blond I resemble her? We are still not sure. We also heard: "Fish and chips!", "Nice!" and "Beautiful".

 The locals really were nice people.

 These ladies are mashing spices.

 The next four photos are courtesy of Katherine:

The girls are looking at lamps trying to pick the prettiest. Jonelle bought one and she did a fine job at talking the guy down in price. The man that ran this stall was such a sweetheart. A few of us bought something from him and since we were the first customers of the day he gave us a free gift which was a necklace charm. He shook my hand twice before we left and told each of us we had a nice smile.

Susan "I live for the applause" B.