djemaa el fna from above

Alex took this picture of Djemma El Fnaa with the lomo fisheye from one of the rooftop restaurants. 

This place was like nothing I'd ever seen.

djemaa el fna

I am unreasonably irritated by the fact that the Arabic names of pretty much everything have no correct English spelling. On our first evening in Marrakech / Marrakesh we visited Djemaa el Fna / Jamaa el Fna / Jemaa el Fna - the main square and souk in the medina. We quickly realized that we could spend a lifetime in this market and never see the entire place. Alex sticks out for obvious reasons whenever we go on vacation and gets harassed by touts who want to make some quick cash. I get harassed for other reasons. This is part of traveling (to certain places) and we've grown accustom to it... and have learned some lessons. But, our guard was down as we entered the market and two ridiculous looking guys grabbed Alex and demanded that I take a picture. It was fine though - I just made sure I told them I wasn't going to pay them more than a dollar to take a photo that they were forcing us to take, and that seemed to satisfy them so I took it and we parted ways. I did want to get a photo of the snake charmers, but had read that they will throw the snakes on you and not take them off until you pay them... so, I kept my distance and ran away squealing whenever I saw one nearby. It's definitely a sensory overload but we obviously enjoyed it, because we ended almost each night with a trip to this maze of a market.

catching a cab

Most of our days in Marrakesh began with a walk down Ave. Mohammad V to hail a taxi.
These are some photos that we took during our walk on that street, on our first day in the hectic city:

first night in marrakech

The not so impressive view from our room.

Our arrival in Marrakesh was late at night, which is always makes me feel slightly more disoriented than I already am when arriving in a foreign country. But, we were lucky that the owner of our accommodations arranged a ride for us, from the train station, and it was quick and comfortable. We discussed staying in a Riad, but decided on a short-term apartment rental instead. It was in Gueliz - the newer, less hectic, part of Marrekech. The apartment was owned by a friendly young guy who owned a few other properties and was very professional. We talked with him awhile about his life, how he lived in Dubai for some years before starting his business in Marrakech, and used the chat as an opportunity to learn the local price for essentials like water (important to know when visiting a country where fixed prices are rare).

A quick perusal of the tv channels included the predictable lineup of Arabic soap operas, camel racing, and dubbed "western" films. After studying the guidebook and charging our camera, we settled into bed looking forward to what Marrakesh had to offer.

thanks!

Thanks for the birthday greetings. You're fabulous. I made this for you.

another year older....

casablanca to marrakech by train

Casablanca sounds like such a romantic place to visit - most likely because of the eponymous film starring Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman. In reality, it's the economic center of Morocco, and not really designed for tourists (apart from cruise ships that dock for a day). Most guide books suggested to skip it, in favour of more scenic places in Morocco. On arrival at Casablanca airport, we decided to take a train straight to Marrakech (we did spend one lovely day in Casablanca on the way back though). An $8 upgrade from the $15 second class fare for the first class seats was recommended by many other travellers and proved to be a useful tip (the second class seats were incredibly crowded and didn't look as comfortable).

When the train finally pulled into Marrakesh, 3 hours later around 11pm, there was a helpful driver waiting to help us with our bags and drive us directly to our short-term apartment rental, giving us our first glimpse at the historic city.

Sorry about the iPhone photo overload. I promise, no more for a little while. 

en route to casablanca

So, I know we're terribly late to the party but we finally caved and got an iPhone. Alex ended up getting one for free and that seemed like a fair deal to me. I was happy with my ancient flip phone and didn't feel it was necessary for me to get another gadget that I didn't absolutely need. But, we'd be out and trying to decide what restaurant we should go to or wondering when the next train was scheduled to arrive and thought that there's likely "an app for that". Why not make our lives a little more convenient? Any app recommendations are much appreciated!

It's probably good that we finally got this thing. I was one step away from becoming your annoying mom who wants you to set up the VCR to record a show. Anyway, we got it right before we left on this trip so I went a little crazy on the plane with instagram. Here's my series of "cloud study" photos ;) ...between Charles de Gaulle and Casablanca. 

I'm still trying to figure out instagram. I forgot the password and barely know how to use it. 

I think our username is alexandmina. 

Next week, I'll be so embarrassed that I admitted to not knowing how to use it and think I'm a pro. 

Until then, I'm on a search to find "Instagram for Dummies".

au revoir, paris.

Well, we couldn't leave Paris without going to Ladurée. I think the one on Rue Royale is really pretty ...and we were finally able to pop into the Maille store that we regretted not checking out during our first time in France (we picked up this fig & coriander grainy dijon that we've been adding adding to everything). Our last evening was spent enjoying a lovely dinner at our friends' home in Chaville.

Well, this is the end of it! Thank you so much for the kind comments about the photos; I love taking them. If you'd like to see more, there's are a few in our Paris flickr set that weren't posted here. I'm really looking forward to going through all of our Morocco stuff over the next little while - such a crazy and beautiful place.

la tour eiffel

Parisians are so lucky to have such a beautiful monument in their skyline. Even though we'd been to Paris before, I couldn't help but get a little excited when we saw it. All this short layover did was whet my appetite and I've been daydreaming about going back ever since. Wouldn't it be lovely to have a picnic, next to La Tour Eiffel, at Champ de Mars, in the summer?

-Mina

musée du thé

While we were waiting for the tea room at Mariage Frères to open for brunch, we walked upstairs to wander around the musée du thé. There was no one else in the museum so we had the place all to ourselves. The best thing we saw: little teacups with mustache protectors built-in. I'm assuming it wasn't a very successful invention because I've never seen a mustachioed man having trouble drinking tea, but perhaps it was more of a concern back in the day.