Jardin Majorelle, Marrakech

What a stunning and serene garden nestled within the busy life of Marrakech. I stopped in here while waiting on my 4pm flight to Munich, Germany for Eid break. Eid al-Adha is where Muslim families gather to sacrifice and feast on a sheep. This is a Commemoration of Abraham's willingness to sacrifice his young first-born and only son in obedience of a command from God. 

The gardens were landscaped by Jacques Majorelle, a Frenchman, in 1947. 

It is "one of the 20th century's most mysterious gardens".

The grounds consist of a variety of cactus, agave, and exotic trees that come from 5 continents. 

Yves Saint Laurent restored the property and his work is inspired in the gardens.

He has a memorial here. 

This is where he stayed when he visited Kech:

Some of these plants are very unique...

Some of Laurent's famous postcards are displayed in a gallery here. I especially admired this one as it is my birth year!

Amy's Amazing April Adventure in Africa, part 3

Day 5-This was unfortunately a wasted day due to traveling from Algeciras to Tarifa, missing the early ferry back to Tangier, Morocco, taking a bus to a small city outside Chefchaouen, then riding in a grand taxi with 7 passengers and last but not least walking up Chefchaouen's steep roads to our Riad in the medina with our heavy bags.

 Local house and markets throughout the countryside.










 I booked our 2 nights in the same Riad (hotel Molino) that I had stayed in before because I love the calm and serene garden hidden among the bustling cobblestone paths of the Kasbah. They make an amazingly delicious jus d'orange picked right from their garden.

I finally got to have my favorite smoothie again: avocat fruits secs avec dattes, banane et pommes (basically an avocado smoothie with tons of fruit!) We then had sunset cocktails atop Hotel Atlas and admired the view.

The next morning we hiked to the top of a hill towards the mosque and caught breathtaking views. There are so many hiking trails to try out in and outside of the city. We had a fun time exploring the city before heading out on the bus to Fes. Riding local Moroccan buses are always an adventure, just be sure to sit in the front. We made the mistake of sitting in the very back because of our large bags. A large group of young guys sat in the back, smoked cigarettes and relentlessly stared at us for the entire 3.5 hour drive.

The last stop before heading back to Casablanca was in Fes. Our Riad was close to the medina as well as the Palais Restaurant that I've been to prior with friends. Amy enjoyed all of it and she took home many authentic crafts and souvenir finds from Fes. 

Moroccan wine and an amazing tagine dish: lamb with prunes and almonds!

A little entertainment during our dinner. 

I went to a different tannery this time and learned much more about the tannery process.  There are 4 types of hides that they make into leather at the tannery: camel, goat, cow and sheep. As you can see in the picture, the white "baths" consist  of a bleach type of solution that disinfects the hide. When the hides are ready to be stained a color, they get put into different "baths" according to the chosen color. My guide told me that all of the colors come from natural products:

black- Mascara (bat guano) 
orange- henna
yellow-saffron (the most expensive)
brown- cedar wood
blue-indigo
red- poppy flower
white- jasmine 

What an another amazing trip around Morocco! Shukran (thank you) Amy Helton for coming to visit me :) 

Amy's April Adventure in Africa, part 2

Day 3--arriving in Tangier (Tanger in Francais). Tanger is a bustling tourist attraction for foreign visitors. For centuries, Tanger has been a trading post. The picturesque scenery has influenced many artists and writers in which the 'ville nouvelle' was created. The bars and cafés in this part of town in the 1950s were filled with writers, smugglers and international spies. Such influenced writers were Tennessee Williams, Paul Bowles and William Burroughs.

 We took a teal colored taxi (the  taxis are of different colors in each city) to our hotel at Atlas Rif and Spa. 

Our hotel overlooked the bay and the Strait of Gibraltar. We used my National Geographic guide book to explore the city and the medina. 

Even with the guidebook, google maps and the occasional billboard of a visitor map, we still got lost. We ended up walking way past the Kasbah and into the inner city of Tanger.

Despite it being frustrating for me because of my failure to understand the map, it was an adventure walking around the city. 

Luckily with our little Arabic and French we were able to make it to the top of the Kasbah and overlook the strait of Gibraltar.

Tanger has an 'old city' and a 'ville nouvelle'. We walked along Avenue Mohammed VI that was parallel to the beach and admire the view. 

There were many beach side restaurants that offered dancing, cocktails and Futball watching. We were lured into Palm Beach Club in order to get out of the rain. We ordered a Casablnaca beer and a coke and received this gratuitous meal: 

Day 4-Ferry from Tanger to Tarifa

We booked tickets online for the FRS ferry from Tanger to Tarifa. We originally had booked tickets from Tanger MED to Algeciras (where we were staying), but changed when we heard that the other was was quicker and had a free transit bus from Tarifa to Algeciras. The ferry was one of the biggest I've been on and it was only a 35 minute boat ride. The strait was a little choppy. 

Once in Algeciras, we dropped off our bags at our hotel on the edge of town, Hotel Mirador, and took the local bus to Gibraltar. 

(The view out our hotel window)

Gibraltar is it's own British city in which we had to go through customs before entering. After passing through customs, we walked across the private Tarmac for Gibraltar. This was definitely a first for me!

The town was densely packed with apartments and buildings, but it was very quaint. Cobblestone walkways, Fish and chips pubs, red telephone booths and black wrought-iron gates that adorned the city provided evidence that we were in British territory. We walked around and admired the English language since we both have been away from home for quite awhile.

We were dying to get on top of the rock, so we took the cable car to the top. It was 11£ and totally worth it. Luckily they took credit card, because we didn't have pounds on us to spare. ;)

Once we got up there, we were astonished by the sheer height of the rock and the beautiful 360 degree scenery!

From one angle we could see the Spanish town of La Linea, another angle showed the bay with Algeciras on the other side, behind us was the strait and the mountainous land of North Africa and then the endless Meditteranean Sea.

Before coming up the rock, we were instructed to not touch or feed the monkey and to keep our bags close at hand because the monkey were notorious for snatching bags. I was shocked to find a dozen or so monkeys playing around and intrigued by us human tourists. 

After a nice walk around the 'top of the rock' we meandered on down through and city and stopped at a pub to enjoy a British staple: fish and chips.

We rode back into Algeciras and enjoyed some wine and tapas in the city center. We went to Lizzaran, which I've been to in Casablanaca, however this one had rotating tapas in that the server came around with a variety of small tapas (appetizers) and you choose which ones you like. This was a great way for us to try new things: Patas Bravas, Brie & marmalade, spinach & ricotta crepes and a variety of fried seafood. Unfortunately, we didn't find any sort of nightlife in the city, but other than that it was a nice, calm town. 

Amy's April Adventure in Africa, part 1

One of my very good friends from college came to visit me in Morocco during our April. She teaches at an American School in Port au Prince, Haiti and luckily we both had the same weeks off in April! So I planned a jam packed adventure through Morocco so that she can see what this beautiful place has to offer.

Day 1 & 2: Casablanca

We walked down Boulevard de la Corniche and had omelettes and jus at a boardwalk cafe facing the beach. We then paid for an English tour through Hassan II Mosque. This Mosque sits beside the sea and contains a special metal, titanium, so that it won't rust.

The building of the mosque began in 1987 and was finished just 6 years later. They had men working 24/7. The guide said that this was the 3rd largest mosque with the other 2 being in Saudia Arabia! It can hold 25,000 people inside and 80,000 in the outside courtyard. This house of worship was astonishingly beautiful on the inside. All the materials came from Morocco with the exception of some white marble and chandeliers deriving from Italy.

Below the prayer room are the gender-segregated wash rooms. Before prayer, Muslims must wash their hands, face and feet 3 times. To prevent mold and mildew the walls were made of a type of plaster made of egg yolks and other fragile materials. Below is a shallow pool, or a Moroccan Hammam, that was built for the use of bathing. Oddly enough it hasn't been used yet by the public and every year they say it'll be open next year.  In other words, inshallah!

I then took Amy to the Habousse, which is the older medina in Casablanca. We bought some comfortable yet funky pants which we ended up wearing throughout our trip! I finally found the famous pastry bakery that was nestled deep inside the habousse. This place was rated #1 best pastry bakery in Casablanca according to Trip Advisor. From there we had sunset cocktails at the top of the Kenzie Twin Towers. The bar has a 360  degree view of the city and it's always interesting to see how big the city actually is. 

For dinner we went to another Trip Advisor favorite, La Squala. We sat outdoors in what it seemed like an oasis and dined on authentic Moroccan cuisine--kebabs and tajine. 

Day 2- Bonne Pacques! (Aka happy Easter) We joined other American teachers and had a delicious American brunch complete with mimosas and Bloody Mary's at Rick's Cafe. If you haven't got a clue about Rick's Cafe, then please do me a favor and watch the movie Casablanaca. From there I showed Amy around the chaotic medina (which means "city" in Arabic) and as we were walking through, we stopped abruptly upon seeing mounds of huge, red fraise (strawberries)! We bought a kilo for 20 dhs which amounts to $2.50! 

All of the medinas in Morocco are enclosed within a high, defensive stone wall. The medina itself is a highly dense maze of narrow alleyways complete with food souks, Moroccan arts and crafts, spice and leather souks, cafés, and small homes and businesses. All medinas have a central mosque. 

I wanted Amy to have the full Moroccan experience, so we went to the Hammam to have a gommage (exfoliating scrub) and a savonagge (soap massage). Read one of my earlier post about the Hammam if you have no idea about what I'm talking about. She was brave and I'm proud of her trying out this new experience! 

After seeing the medina, we visited it's extreme opposite--Morocco Mall. This mall is by far the 2nd largest mall I've been to, with Mall of America ranking first. Morocco Mall is a monstrosity!

It has a large IMAX theatre, Marjane supercenter (almost equivalent to Wal-Mart), Adventure Land theme park for the  kids, a 3-story aquarium and at least a hundred stores.

The floors of the mall were noticably different from level to level.  The first level had tile and contained the average stores and the second level was covered with carpet, crystal chandeliers and high end stores such as Prada, Gucci and Dior. While we couldn't afford these extravagent clothes, we did splurge on some quaint and delicious macaroons from Lauradee, a famous French bakery. 

From the mall, we walked on the boardwalk alongside the ocean. Groups of people were gathered around each other singing and dancing to Gnawa music, a mixture of drum and cymbal beats. Beside them were a group of women who were painting henna tattoos on locals. This was definitely on both of our "to-do list" so we looked through pictures and other tattoos until we found a design that we liked. We decided to get the black ink, rather than the typical red, because it would last longer. 

It took about 10-15 minutes for her to finish the front and back of my hand. It only cost 40 DH ($5)!

Day 3-- How best to endure a 5-hour train ride than to read and sleep?! We did as such on our way to the city of Tanger, in the northern most tip of Morocco. It's inexpensive to have your own cabin in first class, so we decided to splurge on the $22 ticket.