Sunday, September 7, 2008

Back to reality...

I so do not want to be woken by an alarm at 6am tomorrow morning and go to work. But I've got a fabric habit to support, so I've gotta do it.

Thankfully Seattle provided a sunny reception for our return home this weekend. I'm glad to see my cats again. And my bathroom feels ginormous compared to the small spaces we've been using.

I'll share some trip pictures with you, starting with Marrakech.

What a chaotic and captivating city. We just went out and wandered every day. With plenty of breaks though, as daytime temps were around 100F. Once the sun goes down and the temperature cools off, the city really comes alive.

We thought it was remarkable that among all the near-accidents that we witnessed (i.e. scooters almost colliding as they both rounded the same corner) we never saw people get angry at one another, they just went along their ways.

Even the airport has intricate details


We stayed at a riad, which is similar to a bed & breakfast

Breakfast served on the rooftop terrace every morning consisted of fresh fruit, breads, yogurt, mint tea, and fresh squeezed orange juice

View of other buildings in the Medina from the rooftop of our riad


Street just outside our riad

Ali Ben Youssef Medersa (a now-closed religious school from 14th century)

Typical street scene

Arabic and French are the primary languages

One little donkey was pulling this mountain of blankets and pillows

Best gazpacho ever - at the cafe at Jardin Majorelle (where I saw Jake)


More delicious food - assortment of Moroccan salads and vegetable pastilla - at Le Tanjia, a restaurant in the Medina

In the Bahia Palace

One of many nightly food stalls at Jemaa el Fna - we had an assortment of kebabs and couscous here

18 comments:

Gwen said...

Wow! What beautiful pictures! It looks like an incredible trip! :)
--Gwen

cidell said...

Those photos are amazing!
I love that our generation has access to flights and the ability to travel like we can.

I really love the photo from the airport. You've got such a great eye.

Colette said...

Wow! Thankyou for your wonderful photos.

This is another to add to my list of places to visit.

Welcome home.

Colette

Angelia said...

What an awesome trip! I worked for Moroccans for years and I think they are lovely people with great food!

Tany said...

The pictures give a small idea of how much fun you must have had! Fabulous!!!

Meg said...

Looks like an incredible trip. Thanks for sharing your photos with us.

Leslie said...

Look. at. that. food. Amazing, thanks for taking all these wonderful pics! Hope you are settling back into work better than I did. :-)

Anonymous said...

Looks like a fantastic, wonderful trip! As I said before, I'm super envious.

Dei said...

Captivating. How gorgeous and rich in color everything is. What a trip. Glad you had a safe trip.

yaiAnn said...

How fun! I love that airport photo, too! Can't wait to see more.

Sherril said...

Sorry you had to go back to work. Your vacation looks wonderful. Do you have more pictures you're willing to share? I can't get enough of the places you visited. I sure wish I had the $$$ to travel more.

Vicki said...

What fabulous photos! It looks very exotic. And HOT!

lupinbunny said...

Oo... I love Marrakech. I know it's a little too late now, but one thing our tour guide told us (we toured all over) was that it's okay/ good to eat the seafood off the stalls at Jemaa el Fna. But to steer clear of the couscous because it would upset our delicate western tummies. Sort of the opposite to what you'd think. But obviously you survived okay :) (couscous made me sick every time I ate it, even in restaurants and stuff).

rosanne said...

Thanks for the travel report! I love the photos - that airport is lovely. It's so hard to come back to reality, though, isn't it? I always get the post-vaycay blues...But we can always look at photos and relive the trip :)

BCN - UNIQUE designer patterns said...

Christina .- thanks for the photos. I already know this city and I want to return next year, is wonderful. hugs, Paco

Cindy May said...

you have an excellent eye with your photography. an artist's heart for sure!

toy said...

so fabulous, I'm so happy you had a great vacation and thanks for sharing your photos with us

Marita said...

WOW!!! it must've been awesome...and such great pix, you can outlive your trip again and again, as often as you want. I went back to work on monday from 4 weeks vacation, you can pretty much guess, it wasn't very happy return, LOL!!!! Are you already sewing something new? btw, that tunic you made just before you left is really pretty:-)