Morocco Day 1 and 2

It's been pretty difficult picking and choosing photographs of my trip but here is a rather picture heavy one of the first two days!

Morocco is only a short 3 hour journey from the UK with no time difference which makes it a great place for a long weekend. My classmates and I were there from Monday night to Friday morning and it's definitely a world away from the UK. The landscape was definitely very alien to me and I was quite excited to be out of Europe and landing in North Africa!

The airport was pretty snazzy too and it's no wonder that SATC2 was filmed here...

Upon arrival we were met by a guy who would take us to our hostel which was a Riad, a traditional Moroccon house. The Riad was in a residential area and we soon found out that by choosing to stay in a Riad, we were definitely gaining a more authentic experience and following the guy from the hostel, we began our first trip of many down the maze of alleys to our Riad. More on this later! When we finally reached our Riad we were greeted with traditional Moroccon mint tea which is delicious!

After leaving our things in the Riad we ventured outdoors and our first venture into Jemaa l-Fna Square which is always thriving with food stalls and street entertainers.

The orange juice is absolutely amazing. You'd expect nothing less when you realise how abundant orange trees are in the city. Returning back home to Tropicana is simply not the same.

We ended up having dinner at a rooftop restaurant and had some traditional tagine dishes, some of which you'll see later! It had a great view of the square (the camera simply couldn't catch it) , with the smell of the BBQs from the food stalls and music from the street entertainers.

All in all, the first day left us all excited for the following day where we would have all day to see the sights and explore this fantastic city!
The next morning we woke up and had breakfast in the Riad. All riads have a central courtyard...and this is the view from the breakfast room.

As there were so many of us, we had to have separate sittings for breakfast.

After breakfast we sat in the courtyard and this is the view up...

My friend taking a sneaky photo of me while I got the shot...

So off we went for our first day of sightseeing!

Tee (UO) Shorts (Miss Selfridge) Hat (Accessorize) Sandals (Carvela)

Making our way from the Riad down the winding alleys to the square!

Passing some souks (covered market stalls) on the way...

I wish I could take credit for this photo but my friend took it...

Onwards to the taxi rank and a shot of the Mosque on the way...

Marrakesh is the land of bargaining and our taxi journey was the first of many! Soon we arrived at Jardin Marjorelle which is a beautiful garden, once owned by Yves Saint Laurent.

Bamboo graffiti

Almost the entire Marrakesh crew! There were 11 of us all together and an incredibly international one at that too!

We hopped onto a Caleche (horse drawn carriage) to our next destination...

The roads were also very different to the UK. Crossing the road was a terrifying experience and we had to do as the locals do and bite the bullet and cross...because cars don't stop for you at the pedestrian crossing.

We arrived at the Musee de Marrakech which is a museum housed in a 19th century palace. We bought a combined ticket which allowed us to get into three separate attractions.

It was a really beautiful and tranquil space which housed contemporary art and other exhibits.

The detail of the palace was simply stunning.

Soon we moved on to the next place and on the way, my friend took some more amazing shots!

Tagine pots stacked high...

We arrived at Mederessa Ben Youssef which used to be a religious college in the 14th century.

Words can't describe how beautiful it was !

We were excited to get some fun shots of us peering out of the little windows of the rooms upstairs.

We stopped for lunch and I had chicken pastilla which is a chicken in yummy flaky pasty. Lots of sugar and cinammon!

After lunch we went to our final attraction, Almoravid Koubba which was some old ruins of an 11th century mosque which was round the corner from the school.

The last thing we did was a quick wander through the souks where we attempted more bargaining among the stalls that sold shoes, jewellery, lanterns, leather bags and silver items.

We had a very late dinner at a lovely restaurant...

Beautiful lamps!

For our second dinner I had a Moroccon tomato soup with sweet cake!

Part 2 coming soon!