Renée visits

This past weekend refreshed me entirely for the upcoming weeks in Morocco.  I somehow managed to enjoy the best of food, Moroccan interactions, and daily life in general in Morocco.

As a quick overview, one of my best friends, Renée, flew in from France to visit me for the weekend.  I had visited her in Paris, where she was a perfect host, and I wanted to return the favor.  She flew into Casa airport early on Friday morning, so she did Hassan II Mosque by herself before meeting me in front of Hassan Tower after I got out of class on Friday.

We managed to fit a ton of visiting into one day.  We went to the tower, had two Moroccan tea times, and went to the Syrian restaurant in Rabat to relive the delicious food in Jordan on Friday and headed to Marrakech on Saturday morning.  There we headed to the Saadien Tombs, the Bahia Palace, the Kotoubia Mosque, Djemma al-Fna and the souks, all of which I have done before, but all of which I really enjoyed seeing again.

The biggest highlight, and nobody is surprised, was the food.  I grudgingly promised Renée one truly Moroccan meal, as she knew I was getting very tired of Moroccan cuisine.  The first night we went to the Syrian restaurant to be nostalgic about our regular Jordanian meals, the most important of which was the Sandwich Batata.

Sandwich Batata is a tradition of ours that originated from the first week of studying abroad in Jordan together.  Once we realized that our lunch hour would start at 10:30 and we weren't ready for lunch yet.  We went to a food stand and decided to split what looked like potato wedges.  We ordered "Batata" and were presented with french fries in a sandwich.  Though the first time it was an accident, we have split the same thing at least eight times since.  Our Sandwich Batata lived up to expectations as did the amazing falafal, fatoosh, and hummus.

The next day in Marrakech, we happened upon a vegan/vegetarian restaurant in Marrakech, which, is basically unheard of, considering how much trouble I have had eating vegetarian here.  Renée was nice enough to humor me and I got a spinach, pumpkin and goat cheese filled pastry topped with caramelized apples. Amazing

I agreed to have a Moroccan meal Saturday night because we still hadn't and we lucked out to have found a place with vegetarian pastilla, an innovative take on a Moroccan, non vegetarian delicacy. I could not have been happier.

The hostel we stayed in, Kif Kif, was also a refreshing glass of water.  The hostel manager, who spoke effectively only Darija, insisted on walking us to find a taxi at four in the morning (Renée had an early flight to Paris).  I appreciated his concern after three months of expecting most men I encounter to either try to sell me something or proposition me.  This level of selflessness truly added a beautiful touch on my wonderful weekend.

Cascades d'Ouzoud

This past weekend I took my second journey through the Atlas mountains, though thankfully it was a much less nauseating ride than the last time.  But being prepared to travel through the curved road made it a much better journey.  Rather than the desert, the destination this time was the Cascades d'Ouzoud. We booked our journey through a private travel company who provided us with transport to the falls.  We ended up hiring a guide, though we said we were going to make it on our own.  It ended up being the best decision, as he showed us the smaller waterfall and took us to see some monkeys.

Here is the small waterfall

and a monkey

As expected, the big waterfall was the best of the attractions and had a very calming affect after the stress of living in the Rabat medina.  Even though it was less of a hike than we originally set out to do, we were so in awe of the waterfall that we were not bothered.

Because we had spent the night in Marrakech for the second time, we went to see the Jardin Majorelle in the morning before we headed out.  It was well worth the trip to see everything.  As gorgeous as the plants were, the architecture that accompanied them made the garden ever more beautiful.

One of the most redeeming parts of the trip, however, happened just as we were leaving the garden at the very end of our trip.  We needed to get to the train station and so we inquired about the prices of the taxis right outside this obvious tourist trap.  We were directed immediately to a taxi without notice of the price.  we asked him in Arabic and he quoted us the outrageous but standard tourist price.  We refused it and left, all in arabic, and heard behind us, as we were walking out, the taxi drivers yelling at each other that we spoke arabic, and therefore were not going to pay that huge price.  We walked away laughing and found a metered cab at about a third of the price.

A Vacation from my Vacation

So I just spent the past week travelling around Europe because it’s only a stone’s throw away from Morocco.  And I will try not to make you too jealous by giving you the highlights. 

Food.  Lots and lots of food.  Tapas and Paella from Barcelona.  Gnocci and Gelato from Italy.  Crepes and Cheese from Paris.  And those are just the highlights.  I have never eaten so well in my life. 

And the sights!  I desperately want Gaudi to design my future house after visiting the Segrada Familia and Parc Guell. 

There were too many gorgeous things to see in Rome and I managed to see everything I wanted to! The trevi fountain was by far my favorite, but I saw the colloseum and the Roman forum and so many sites that I have seen in the informational videos substitutes play during Latin class. 

Pantheon

Trevi fountain

Colloseum

As much I loved all of the sites I saw in Paris, my trip was majority revolved around food and my desire to eat as many crepes and cheeses as possible.  It rained the entire time, but I was still able to see some beautiful sites. 

Notre Dame

Another angle

Arc de Triumphe

My last day, I flew into Tangier, so I killed a little time there before returning home.  I spoke more spanish there than in Spain.  

Herculean Caves

Sorry to post so late! I had some trouble with this blog site and it wouldn't publish.