Well Im really starting to wish I had updated this more regularly now! We have so much to update you all on! Lets start in Marrakech.....
Brilliant place, it is as the travel books say...a melting pot of cultures, sounds, colours, tastes.....
We caught a taxi (a mercedes) to ´the square´, and got dropped off god knows where, the driver pointed, mumbled and shuffled us out. Luckily there are hordes of locals whose day job is too suss out blank stares on tourists faces and offer them a ´friendly, helping hand´. Someone escorted us to our hostel which was just around the corner and then of course, asked for money....nothing comes free in Marrakech, but thats ok. We stayed at Hotel Assia, which we can now recommend to others, if you are willing to pay for the quality. (perfect location, nice rooms, nice brekky etc) Anywho, we had a squiz at the streets and souks and had our first tagine (chicken and lemon mmmm). The french influence is all around...there is free bread with all meals here as well. I mean, i like carbs, but europe really pushes my bread boundaries...never thought I would say that!
So there wasnt a boat load of things for us to see or do in Marrakech because of our money restraints...you can definitely go and see some nice gardens, mosques etc but I think the majority of the time you would shop here! There is a LOT of nice homewares that I would buy..lamps, tagines, rugs, tea sets etc and also beautiful jewelerry. (Rhonda, I saw some jewellery for around $1-$5 but I was really trying not to look..you and Glen would have a lot of fun in the markets). The one thing that really stood out to me was the quality of mens jeans. They are INCREDIBLE. I think theyre rip offs of every major fashion house in europe..so so stylish. and only around $30. All the men here dress very well actually, again, very stylish.
So for the few days we spent in Marrakech we mainly walked the streets while dodging the traffic (very similiar to Asia, except here there are donkeys and carts that dont move for nobody!) and ate. A perfect few days! We decided to move on and go to the coast for a few days. We chose Essouira and then let the wind take us there. We tried to get on the bus but god sidetracked and eneded up bargaining to ride in a van. And then the waiting began. Waiting for the guy to sucker in 7 other tourists to get in the van with us haha. Then the bargaining again. and again. and again until we got the trip for 100 Dihram each. The country side was desolate, with a few towns (and random people in THE MOSTrandom places) popping up in between destinations.
Essouira was awesome, we got out of the van and just walked around asking about accommodation when a young man helped me and we ran around together looking at rooms. The last one he showed me was epic. We got a little aparment to ourselves with a rooftop terrace and the most lovely owners...It was called Les Bastion and we would definitely reccommend this place (again, more money than we could have paid. oopsy, my bad). Essouira is a laid back town (think offerings of hooch, hash, opium kind of laid back). We walked around the town and the port and got whipped by the wind that is never ending apparently and booked ourselves a horse ride on the beach. WORST MISTAKE...EVER.
Now I love horses (ok I dont ride them, but have an appreciation for them) and was really excited about this. Apparently this excitement and confidence didnt translate to the horse, and the bastard animal tried to kill me. There´s no two ways about it, this horse had a vendetta against me. For what, I do not know, but it did. We strolled leisurely from the complex without so much of a safety/instruction run down (or a hello actually, for that matter, very unhospitable) and went out on to the beach. Trent and I were actually starting to get bored after a while, and I was looking forward to a little trot (maybe telekinetically the horse sensed this) and all of a sudden, my horse LOST HIS SHIT. (His name was Prince by the way) Prince decided he´d had enough and galloped down the beach and tried to go back the way we had came, lucky I had ridden a few times before and actually knew how to TRY and stop the beast (Beast=formerly Prince) but he wouldnt have a bar of it. He kept running and turned again and finally stopped and I relaxed on the reins (mistake) and he reared up and bucked me off! What a shit! I landed hard on my hip, luckily on sand, and was temporarily stunned. Its freakin scary being on a runaway horse! I practically refused to mount Beast again so I rode a different horse. ACtually now that I think of it, Im so greatful it was only trent and I doing it together and not a group....anyway, I rode Zine for approximately 3 minutes until it joined its bastard friend and reared up and HIT our guide! No joke, this horse hit him in the head! ( he was off his horse at this point) And luckily Id become rodeo queen by this stage and I stayed on, god I wish I had a photo of it! So anyway, that was the bulk of the story...I ended up with the most frayed nerves, a painful hip/ass and a disliking of two very beautiful animals. I will ride again, but it will be in Australia, with calm horses, and an english speaking guide. I have totally left Trent out of this story (sorry baby!), but his horse was a legend, only freaking out a little bit instead of a lot. Maybe it was Trents zen persona that kept that horse calm?
Anyway, we left Essouira after 2 nights so we could come back to Marrakech and do a Sahara tour. We made if back to Marrakech and stayed in the grottiest hostel (I think it had the name Palace in it, so dont book here). We left for the Sahara at 7am in the morning and boarded our minibus...Two long days in short...we stopped every now and then to have a look at Berber villages, snow capped mountains, Kasbahs, towns etc. I wasn´t doing brilliantly being on a bus for so long, but eventually we made it to our camels at 5.30pm that afternoon. The camels are cute (when theyre not foaming) and I trusted that they would remain calm for me! We rode out into the desert with our other tourist friends at sunset, and it was a really fun experience. It was one of those ´heh, I´m doing something really random´moments.
We rode until we hit our camp and had a fabulous dinner. The dinner tent was beautiful, it was lamp lit and full of rugs and pillows and we sat down and had mint tea, soup, a shared tagine and awesome oranges for dessert. I was stuffed after travelling all day, and we went to sleep in our tent, which were super comfy I thought! We woke early, but not early enough for sunrise unfortunately and had brekky. Another odd moment was brushing our teeth on a sand dune in the Sahara Desert. not everyone gets to do this I guess!
We rode our camels back to our van, jumped in, drove and drove and made a stop for lunch. The tour group split up and ol Trent and Andy went foraging for cheap, local food. WHY?! WHY?! Why couldnt we have eaten at the expensive place they dropped us at?! We ate at some random, back alley, random, lame, random, crap place and at the time were stoked with our meals. But now its hard to even type about them. It took me about 1-2 hours to become terribly sick. I had to ask the bus driver to pull over. At the time I thought it may have been motion sickness because travelling through the mountains is a nightmare, bends and curves everywhere. It wasnt until I had to stop the bus to be sick again that I realised it was food poisoning. We made it back to our grotty hostel that I had stupidly booked for our return and everything just got worse. Trent bought a bucket for me which was a godsend, the communal toilets were horrendous. Then Trent ended up getting sick, and then it was all on. Both of us were sick in more ways than one, all night...and we were supposed to fly the next day! I dont even know how, but we made the flight to Barcelona...
I wish we hadn´t have fallen sick in Morocoo because it has really made me bitter towards the place! I cant even say the word Berber Pizza, Morocco or Tagine without feeling like Im going to munt. Trying to put that aside though, it is a great country to visit. All the unconventionality of some Asian places Ive been to, mixed with European influences too. I have to disagree with some of the advice I received about it before I left. A lot of people tried to say how much of a shock it would be to me, that I wouldnt handle it initially bla bla bla, but I didnt find that at all. The men definitely didnt stare as much as I thought, if you wanted to wear shorts it was fine, everything was great! OH! Except one thing!!! I totally forgot to say....our whole stay in Morocco was sober!! No alcohol in the medinas! Maybe thats why we got sick...and are you changing your mind about visiting now Glen?! hehe.
anyway, Im going to leave this post and start the next one with beautiful Barcelona! and hopefully get some photos up for you all soon.
love you all xoxo
comment or email us lots!
PHOTOS:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=87873&id=699750387&l=d3ac4770e9
Brilliant place, it is as the travel books say...a melting pot of cultures, sounds, colours, tastes.....
We caught a taxi (a mercedes) to ´the square´, and got dropped off god knows where, the driver pointed, mumbled and shuffled us out. Luckily there are hordes of locals whose day job is too suss out blank stares on tourists faces and offer them a ´friendly, helping hand´. Someone escorted us to our hostel which was just around the corner and then of course, asked for money....nothing comes free in Marrakech, but thats ok. We stayed at Hotel Assia, which we can now recommend to others, if you are willing to pay for the quality. (perfect location, nice rooms, nice brekky etc) Anywho, we had a squiz at the streets and souks and had our first tagine (chicken and lemon mmmm). The french influence is all around...there is free bread with all meals here as well. I mean, i like carbs, but europe really pushes my bread boundaries...never thought I would say that!
So there wasnt a boat load of things for us to see or do in Marrakech because of our money restraints...you can definitely go and see some nice gardens, mosques etc but I think the majority of the time you would shop here! There is a LOT of nice homewares that I would buy..lamps, tagines, rugs, tea sets etc and also beautiful jewelerry. (Rhonda, I saw some jewellery for around $1-$5 but I was really trying not to look..you and Glen would have a lot of fun in the markets). The one thing that really stood out to me was the quality of mens jeans. They are INCREDIBLE. I think theyre rip offs of every major fashion house in europe..so so stylish. and only around $30. All the men here dress very well actually, again, very stylish.
So for the few days we spent in Marrakech we mainly walked the streets while dodging the traffic (very similiar to Asia, except here there are donkeys and carts that dont move for nobody!) and ate. A perfect few days! We decided to move on and go to the coast for a few days. We chose Essouira and then let the wind take us there. We tried to get on the bus but god sidetracked and eneded up bargaining to ride in a van. And then the waiting began. Waiting for the guy to sucker in 7 other tourists to get in the van with us haha. Then the bargaining again. and again. and again until we got the trip for 100 Dihram each. The country side was desolate, with a few towns (and random people in THE MOSTrandom places) popping up in between destinations.
Essouira was awesome, we got out of the van and just walked around asking about accommodation when a young man helped me and we ran around together looking at rooms. The last one he showed me was epic. We got a little aparment to ourselves with a rooftop terrace and the most lovely owners...It was called Les Bastion and we would definitely reccommend this place (again, more money than we could have paid. oopsy, my bad). Essouira is a laid back town (think offerings of hooch, hash, opium kind of laid back). We walked around the town and the port and got whipped by the wind that is never ending apparently and booked ourselves a horse ride on the beach. WORST MISTAKE...EVER.
Now I love horses (ok I dont ride them, but have an appreciation for them) and was really excited about this. Apparently this excitement and confidence didnt translate to the horse, and the bastard animal tried to kill me. There´s no two ways about it, this horse had a vendetta against me. For what, I do not know, but it did. We strolled leisurely from the complex without so much of a safety/instruction run down (or a hello actually, for that matter, very unhospitable) and went out on to the beach. Trent and I were actually starting to get bored after a while, and I was looking forward to a little trot (maybe telekinetically the horse sensed this) and all of a sudden, my horse LOST HIS SHIT. (His name was Prince by the way) Prince decided he´d had enough and galloped down the beach and tried to go back the way we had came, lucky I had ridden a few times before and actually knew how to TRY and stop the beast (Beast=formerly Prince) but he wouldnt have a bar of it. He kept running and turned again and finally stopped and I relaxed on the reins (mistake) and he reared up and bucked me off! What a shit! I landed hard on my hip, luckily on sand, and was temporarily stunned. Its freakin scary being on a runaway horse! I practically refused to mount Beast again so I rode a different horse. ACtually now that I think of it, Im so greatful it was only trent and I doing it together and not a group....anyway, I rode Zine for approximately 3 minutes until it joined its bastard friend and reared up and HIT our guide! No joke, this horse hit him in the head! ( he was off his horse at this point) And luckily Id become rodeo queen by this stage and I stayed on, god I wish I had a photo of it! So anyway, that was the bulk of the story...I ended up with the most frayed nerves, a painful hip/ass and a disliking of two very beautiful animals. I will ride again, but it will be in Australia, with calm horses, and an english speaking guide. I have totally left Trent out of this story (sorry baby!), but his horse was a legend, only freaking out a little bit instead of a lot. Maybe it was Trents zen persona that kept that horse calm?
Anyway, we left Essouira after 2 nights so we could come back to Marrakech and do a Sahara tour. We made if back to Marrakech and stayed in the grottiest hostel (I think it had the name Palace in it, so dont book here). We left for the Sahara at 7am in the morning and boarded our minibus...Two long days in short...we stopped every now and then to have a look at Berber villages, snow capped mountains, Kasbahs, towns etc. I wasn´t doing brilliantly being on a bus for so long, but eventually we made it to our camels at 5.30pm that afternoon. The camels are cute (when theyre not foaming) and I trusted that they would remain calm for me! We rode out into the desert with our other tourist friends at sunset, and it was a really fun experience. It was one of those ´heh, I´m doing something really random´moments.
We rode until we hit our camp and had a fabulous dinner. The dinner tent was beautiful, it was lamp lit and full of rugs and pillows and we sat down and had mint tea, soup, a shared tagine and awesome oranges for dessert. I was stuffed after travelling all day, and we went to sleep in our tent, which were super comfy I thought! We woke early, but not early enough for sunrise unfortunately and had brekky. Another odd moment was brushing our teeth on a sand dune in the Sahara Desert. not everyone gets to do this I guess!
We rode our camels back to our van, jumped in, drove and drove and made a stop for lunch. The tour group split up and ol Trent and Andy went foraging for cheap, local food. WHY?! WHY?! Why couldnt we have eaten at the expensive place they dropped us at?! We ate at some random, back alley, random, lame, random, crap place and at the time were stoked with our meals. But now its hard to even type about them. It took me about 1-2 hours to become terribly sick. I had to ask the bus driver to pull over. At the time I thought it may have been motion sickness because travelling through the mountains is a nightmare, bends and curves everywhere. It wasnt until I had to stop the bus to be sick again that I realised it was food poisoning. We made it back to our grotty hostel that I had stupidly booked for our return and everything just got worse. Trent bought a bucket for me which was a godsend, the communal toilets were horrendous. Then Trent ended up getting sick, and then it was all on. Both of us were sick in more ways than one, all night...and we were supposed to fly the next day! I dont even know how, but we made the flight to Barcelona...
I wish we hadn´t have fallen sick in Morocoo because it has really made me bitter towards the place! I cant even say the word Berber Pizza, Morocco or Tagine without feeling like Im going to munt. Trying to put that aside though, it is a great country to visit. All the unconventionality of some Asian places Ive been to, mixed with European influences too. I have to disagree with some of the advice I received about it before I left. A lot of people tried to say how much of a shock it would be to me, that I wouldnt handle it initially bla bla bla, but I didnt find that at all. The men definitely didnt stare as much as I thought, if you wanted to wear shorts it was fine, everything was great! OH! Except one thing!!! I totally forgot to say....our whole stay in Morocco was sober!! No alcohol in the medinas! Maybe thats why we got sick...and are you changing your mind about visiting now Glen?! hehe.
anyway, Im going to leave this post and start the next one with beautiful Barcelona! and hopefully get some photos up for you all soon.
love you all xoxo
comment or email us lots!
PHOTOS:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=87873&id=699750387&l=d3ac4770e9
haha that is a horrible title!! I wish there were photos of you falling!!
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