Anna came to visit the other week! She spent the weekend in
Paris, and then we went to Morocco for 6 days.
It was so cold in Paris while she was here – I had to lend her my puffy
coat! We still walked around and did touristy things and took lots of pictures
though. We also had lunch with her family friend and met up with Camille a
couple of times. She was a huge fan of
my cheese shop, so we ate lots of bread and cheese too.
In Morocco, we went to Marrakech and Rabat. Our flight was
delayed from Paris, but eventually we got to Rabat and made it to the train
station to buy tickets to Marrakech.
First class was sold out (the price difference is only a few dollars), so we
said we’d take second class in order to get the next train out. Then we sat at
a cafe and ordered some ice cream while we waited for the train (I got a
sundae! The scoops were so much bigger than in Paris!).
We went down to the platform and were quite nervous because
our train wasn’t listed, but that’s because it was a half hour late, so they
were listing the previous trains that were late. An hour later, our train arrived, and it was
packed. We climbed on, and there were no seats, but two people got up and gave
us their seats, which was really nice. We were not excited about the idea of
standing for four hours. Anyway, the
train was pretty gross…it was sweaty and hot, lots of weird smells from the
tanneries, and no announcements of the stops, so we almost got off at a pretty
deserted one. (Okay, this post will take forever if I keep describing things in
so much detail.)
Eventually we made it, and we stayed in a really nice riad.
A riad is basiacally a house where a rich person used to live that is converted
into a small hotel. It was very cute,
and the people who worked there were so helpful!
In Marrakech, we visited the Jardin Majorelle, which was
owned by Yves Saint-Laurent, the Ben Youssef Medersa Koran school, the souks
(shopping!), went to a hammam and took a Moroccan cooking class. It was very rainy, so it wasn’t ideal for all
the outdoor activities, but we managed okay.
Shopping in the souks was fun but a bit stressful. When we
went shopping in Rabat a few days later, we realized we were really ripped off in
Marrakech. Oh well…we knew it would happen. The person working at the riad told us that we should ask for 1/5 of the price that the shopkeeper asks for!
Sometimes we did (and we were told to go away because we couldn’t be serious),
and sometimes we just aimed for half. The important thing is that we’re happy with
our purchases. : )
The cooking class was also lots of fun! We made a fish
tajine (aren’t you all so proud I eat fish now?). It didn’t taste much like fish because there
were so many spices and tasty vegetables in it.
We also did a spice test where we put on blindfolds (or fake ray bans
painted with black paint) and guessed what the spice was by smelling it. I wasn’t very good at it.
After several days in Marrakech, we took the train back to
Rabat. We had one day there, and we were
planning to go swimming at the beach, but it was overcast and rainy. We walked
around the city, bought some more things, and walked to the beach to people
watch for a while. We had room service one night (so nice to eat in bed) and went out the other night.
People eat so late! We tried to get dinner at 6:30, but they said the
restaurant wouldn't open until 7:30, so we could only drink until then (too
bad…).
Anyway, the trip was lots of fun, and it was great to see
Anna! And everyone else should come visit.
: )
Paris
Anna attempting to touch the top of the pyramid. Her spatial skills are lacking.
Being a tourist.
We both thought it was a great idea to pop out from behind a bush.
What's that!? It's Anna with the Eiffel Tower, of course.
A cute chubby kid all bundled up.
Morocco
We got lost when we first tried to go to the souks. So we took pictures and pretended we knew what we were doing.
In the gardens
Cactus!
Anna is a great photographer. Ashley in between a cactus!
Ashley with a yellow pot! (I still don't know how to rotate pictures on this blog..)
Caught fixin' her hair
Green highlight camera setting
So colorful! Such a pretty background! And a pretty person!
They hung the mannequins by their necks in the souks...
Tourist dinner overlooking the square
Spice test at our cooking class
We even had live music while cooking...
The whole group
Lots of rain while we were there...I don't think this was supposed to be full of water...
Dinner at the riad
At the Koran school
A Spanish gameshow kicked us out early so they could film. Luckily we got to be in the background of the film while they were running through the streets of the market.
Shopping!
Translation?
Nom nom nom. Poor fish.
Pretty impressive.
Room service! I was really sad on the phone when they said they didn't have any more french fries...so the guy asked the kitchen staff to cut up a potato and fry it for us. Quite tasty!
