MOROCCO. certainly blogworthy.

As our 10 day trip to Morocco with our tow Moroccan friends, Tarik and Hassane, was fast approaching, Kaitlin and I quickly realized that it was not all that easy to prepare for a trip that we had not planned and organized ourselves. Truth is, we’ve gotten very comfortable with OUR way of doing things, and all the more comfortable with being in control of our travel plans and decisions. Giving up that control would prove to be a good test of patience over the next week and a half…
That being said, let me start again by saying that the trip was incredible – unforgettable, eye opening, educational (for everyone involved I think), and eventually even relaxing. The four of us had a great time together, and Kaitlin and I couldn’t have been more lucky to be traveling with Tarik and Hassane in their ‘home’. They made great ‘guides’, although they didn’t like us calling them that… ☺

The two nights of the trip were spent at Tarik’s home in Casablanca. His family was amazing and hospitable, we felt right at home from the moment we walked in the door. Tarik’s mother cooked for us continually, delicious meal after delicious meal just kept appearing… so we kept eating! Kaitlin and I tried to help out in the kitchen, and his mom let us... occasionally. Tarik’s dad spent one day taking us on a great tour of the city, hitting some of the greatest spots – ancient and modern alike – in Casablanca.
tarik's dad

mosque hassane II

trik's family

After two nights, we headed to Rabat to spend some time with Hassane’s family and to attend a wedding of one of Hassane’s high school friends. Upon arrival to his home we were fed (of course) and shortly after the amazing meal, the dress-up festivities began. (Kaitlin and I had NOTHING to wear to a traditional Moroccan wedding. So, Hassane’s sister and family took on the challenge of outfitting us completely – and then proceeded to take the liberty of dressing us up in all kinds of traditional clothing… just for fun? They were so very gracious with us, and let us take LOTS of pictures.) After a good hour of dress up and photo shoots, we got back in our normal clothes, hopped in a car, and headed out to a forested area outside the city where Hassane’s family and a lot of the Berber community in Rabat gather every Sunday to practice traditional music (the Berber people of Morocco could be compared to the Native Americans – they were the tribal cultures that existed long before the Arabs arrived in Morocco. Although many families have moved away from their rural villages and into the cities, they still gather to practice and celebrate their traditional culture.) There was tons to do and see, and the music (a drum beat with singing and chanting performed by a circle of men doing all kinds of crazy shoulder dances) was incredible.

hassane's family

dress up time!

berber dancing

heating the drums

Hassane's friend, sister, and cousin

all wedding ready

can you guess which one is the bride??
(she's wearing orange..)

little girls dancing

The next day, we were off to Marrakesh. This was by far the most touristy city I have seen in Morocco, but it was still great to see all it had to offer. The main plaza in the heart of the ancient Medina was full of stands selling fresh squeezed orange juice and dried fruit and nuts of all kinds. At night the square came alive with hundreds of smaller food stands (hassane ate some snails… we weren’t sure our stomachs could have handled it…), snake charmers, people with monkeys, musicians, henna artists… the WORKS. It was like Morocco’s Disneyland. And the coolest part to me was that the plaza wasn’t full of ‘white’ people! The crowds were mostly Moroccans who had come out for dinner or a bit of entertainment. A very cool setting, even more beautiful at night. The markets of Marrakesh were beautiful as well, but we soon learned to save our shopping for another town since most of the prices in Marrakesh were at least double the prices elsewhere.

lunch in Marrakesh

MONKEYS!

Marrakesh markets

our orange juice guy. just 30 cents a glass.

After two nights, we hopped on a bus and headed down to Essaouira, a small city located right on the ocean. Our seaside apartment was beautiful, complete with breakfast on the terrace each morning. Pictures give a better descrptian that I could…

Our Terrace

view from the apartment

essouaira port

We found a great café, went back twice to enjoy their mint tea ☺

playing with kitties

We spent one whole day on a beach about 20 km outside of town where we ate an amazing lunch of fresh seafood and got to take a stroll on a couple of camels – a very great day.

our lunch spot on the beach

LOTS of shopping in Essaouira, the wood artisans were amazing – really beautiful stuff!

Essaouira sunset
AND, after three nights on the beach, we hopped back on a bus and made our way all the way back to Casablanca where we spent another two nights with Tarik’s family before flying back to paris.

Mailbox in casablanca. a bit confusing...

a couple lengthy busrides

traveling joys: miniature taxis.

Interlaken, Switzerland

The start of something new…
So I feel like blogging, let’s see how long I keep it up this time. Not making any lofty promises though…
Last weekend I went to Interlaken, Switzerland. Alone. Toute seule. ALLLLL BYYYY MYYYYSELLLLLLLFFFF. And it was perfect – entirely peaceful and relaxing. I had a beautiful weekend with just enough snow and plenty of sunshine. Felt a little bit like home.
I got into town after a 5 hour train ride in the mid afternoon on Friday. Spent the day wandering around town a bit, found a great market and bought some fresh gnocchi stuffed with pesto and fetta which I made for dinner at the hostel. It was delicious. Rented myself some snowshoes, and had a quiet night to rest up for Saturday’s adventures.

the red roofed building is my hostel.

The next morning I got a good early start, and was on the mountain by about 10:00am (mind you, this was after a short walk, a bus ride, a train ride, and a tram up the cliffs… a bit more work than just rolling over midmorning in room number 10 at the worst western and deciding to go skiing. Getting to the mountain in Interlaken was a bit more involved…) When I finally made it to the trailhead, I was ready to strap on my snowshoes and start my day. But the trail was well packed… there wasn’t much need for snowshoes, so I found myself just hiking for most of the morning (which made me think of the words of wisdom from my cousin, Brendan: “of course I need snowshoes. If I weren’t wearing snowshoes, I would just be SHOEing. And that would just be… unprofessional.” I felt a little silly with snowshoes strapped to my backpack… but soon found the occaision to use them…) I stopped for lunch at a café that was at the top of a lift on the mountain (as it turns out I had been traversing over towards the skiers domain.) Reminded me a lot of sunspot… Just as I sat down, there was a great snowboard competition starting up – so I ended up sitting around for almost two hours to watch. Pretty talented kids… made me wish I had gotten to see my cousins compete more! Someday… And after lunch I took off again, decided to go off the trail for a little while to actually put my snowshoes to good use. It was beautiful, breathtaking, peaceful… just what I was looking for. And after a long day of hiking, I took the gondola back down to the train, to the bus, to the hostel. My feet were tired, but happy.

Sunday, I got another early start but went up the hills in the other direction from town to explore around some of the mountain villages. Ended up meeting two guys on the bus: Mark from Switzerland and Mario from Portugal. They invited me to join them on their hike, and seeing the opportunity for decent company, I obliged. We ended up romping through various villages together for about four hours, in and out of snow. They were great… entertainment. Characters, for sure. But they made for great memories, and I’m glad I have a couple pictures.
Sunday night was quiet, made some friends in the hostel and watched a movie together over dinner. And got on a train early Monday morning to head back to Paris! Being back in the city makes the whole weekend feel like a dream. It’s hard to believe that places of solitude and tranquility could possibly exist anywhere near this busy city. But I’m glad I got to experience that type of retreat for a weekend…