Chellah

Only in Morocco can you climb on and touch Roman ruins!
On Wednesday I ventured out to the Chellah which was about a 45 minute walk from Agdal. It was a beautiful place to get away from city life and enjoy the afternoon sunshine.
The Romans took control of the city in 40AD and abandoned it in 1154 to move to Sale. In the 14th century a sultan took over the site and built a wall around it and an Islamic tower. I'm not sure what happened after that but tour groups and locals seem to enjoy the space. Definitely the prettiest site in Rabat in my opinion.

Le Tour Hassan and Mausoleum of Mohammed V

On Wednesday I took advantage of the sunny skies and tried to make the most out of my last few days in Rabat.
It's kind of funny one of the most iconic parts of the Rabat skyline is a unfinished mosque tower from the 1700s. However finished or not it's an interesting space that shares the same entrance as the Mausoleum of Mohammed V. Apparently the king died before the mosque could be finished and an earthquake in 1755 pretty much sealed the fate of the tower and was structurally abandoned.
During my visit a "guide" offered up some information about the tower. However after 3 weeks in Morocco I am hip to the "guide" culture. Nothing comes free. I thanked him for the random information and offer to take my picture but I had already read all about the tower in my guidebook.

Fun in the Sun

On Monday, MaryAnne and I wandered down to the Rabat Beach after the gym and volunteering.
We joined a gym last week to fend off any detrimental effects of our carb laden diets. The people who work at the gym are super nice. On Friday when we showed up to work out. He asked if we could come back in a half hour so he could go pray. We explained that we lived a tram ride away and might come back the next day. He ended up just letting us work out alone in the gym and locked the door. For as many stories as I post about being swindled and ripped off. I feel it's only right to also tell the stories when people are super nice. : )
On the beach there was a ton of trash. Mostly water bottles and plastic bags. It's really heartbreaking to see because it doesn't need to be that way.
We also ran into a guy walking a tiny puppy. Thankfully he spoke English so I could ask to hold the puppy and assure him I wasn't going to dognap his pup. I also told him the dog was a chic magnet but I think the comment was lost in translation.

Weekend in Fes

Our weekend trip to Fes was a bit of a bust. It rained all day Saturday and MaryAnne caught a 24 hour flu bug. We actually spent more time on the train to Fes than actually walking around the city. On Sunday the sun briefly came out and we had a few photo opportunities. On the way home we stopped at a Pizza Hut which was our first taste of REAL pizza in 3 weeks! Needless to say it was "The best pizza we EVER had!"

Volunteering Pictures

It's recently come to my attention that my blog posts have been light on volunteering. Here are some pictures from our cooking class. Today we taught English using American music and a word search about items around the house. It was our largest class yet- 25 people! Usually we have a good group of 10 students who are all about the same level. Today was a bit challenging because the students were at different points in their language studies.
Tomorrow we are teaching Family words and going over the lyrics of "Hey There Delilah" by the Plain White Ts.

Visit to the Tannery

Our last day in Marrakech was a sad one. Santiago left for his next leg in his adventure to work on a farm in Itay. He had no problem leaving behind the memory of how much couscous and Tangine we eat here. Did I mention the bread? I personally can't wait to leave carb city!
After parting ways with Santiago Nicki and I set out for the tanneries. The tanneries are an experience in themselves. The leather is treated in various solutions in huge vats. The smell is something that will stay with you for a while. Upon entering the tannery each guest is given a few sprigs of mint leaves to disguise the foul smell of the solutions. For example one of the solutions is made of pigeon poop.
The whole experience ended poorly when our guide demanded more money for his services of taking us through the tanneries. In our mind 100 dirham was plenty it would have bought him lunch for at least 2 days. It was one of the handful of experiences that is annoying about Morocco and especially bad in Marrakech. Everyone has a scheme or strategy to get you to part with your money.
Either way we set out for Rabat at 3pm and were back by 7pm.

Intrigued Nicki, Santiago and I decided to spend an extra day in Marrakech to see the sites.
Our day started in the medina which provided lots of great photo opportunities. However in the morning when it wasn't as busy the medina vendors were even more vocal. People generally assume that I'm American or British since they always start off talking English to me. I've recently just started pretending I'm Dutch because I imagine there are a lot less people that speak Dutch here! lol Vendors will also try to get your attention by saying things like "Looking is free", "Hello Shakira, Lady Gaga or Jennifer Lopez". In Marrakech I got called Shakira 3 times and Lady Gaga twice. Not sure if the last one was a compliment or not!
We saw a bucket of snails that I guess people just eat with a toothpick and some courage. Met the cutest little Gecko I've ever seen in my life and passed by many beautiful rugs. I SO wish I could bring one home!
After the medina we set out to find the first of the two palaces that we wanted to visit. Palace Bahia was about a 15 minute walk from the square and was pretty unimpressive. It should be called the View an empty Palace tour. The Palace was completely void of any furnishings so we had to imagine what the place looked like when the king and his 4 wives lived there.
They we set out to find the second palace which turned out to be an adventure.
Since I'm a couple days (or week behind!) on our adventure I'll sum up the rest of the day for you rather quickly. We set out to find the palace which was close by but ended up having lunch, asking police for direction and almost getting my iPhone taken away because I took a picture of the police giving NIcki directions! Thankfully she had time to woo them with her charm and told them I didn't know the rules I was American. We all laughed and eventually I got my phone back after the photo was deleted. I'll never make that mistake again! Despite having directions we spent another hour walking in circles ending up at the palace 5 minutes after it closed. Defeated we headed to the one place we knew of that had a happy hour and just enjoyed the evening. The evening ended with Nicki dancing with a tray of candles and teapot on her head! Ohhhh Nicki! : )

The Long Drive Back to Marrakech

The trouble with doing the camel trek in the middle of my trip here is that the experience will be hard to beat! Day 3 of the tour we spent most of the day in the van stopping every few hours to take some pictures and stretch our legs. After about 12 hours in the car we finally made it back to Marrakech.
Exhausted but hungry we decided to tackle the square and get something to eat. In the evening the square is converted from snake charmer territory to food stall territory. However it's pretty cool seeing how the make shift restaurants come together. I don't even want to know how they get the dishes washed!

Hello Sahara!

Day 3 of our Marrakech Camel trekking adventure finally brought us to the Sahara. Of course we had another 6 hours in the car but who was counting at that point!
Our first stop was a berber village where we learned about the berber lifestyle, farming and carpet making.
It was very interesting to learn what all the colors and shapes in the carpets mean. Some of the carpets can take up to a year to make! Pretty impressive.
After the Berber village we visited a couple more sites before our van broke down in front of a fossil museum. We were all anxious to get on our camels before sunset so we were a little worried about the unexpected set back.
The van was fixed in about 45 minutes which has to be a record in Morocco for the fastest repair EVER!
So we all piled back into the van to listen to 1 of the 2 cds the driver had in the disc player. lol
We finally arrived to the edge of the Sahara and dangerously close to Algeria. I mean we were less than 45 miles away!
The camel ride was amazing and we spent the rest of the evening sitting around a camp fire and stargazing .
It was such an awesome experience it will be hard to top it in the near future!