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| @ Albakech House, Marrakech, Morocco |
It has been a hectic few weeks.. we have finally moved out of our crappy little flat with super awful landlords/letting agency and into our own place!
I am officially a home owner! Waheyy!! Bit of a scary process, buying a house/flat/apartment/dwelling..!! But the estate agent was brilliant and The Mister is related to a solicitor, so it all went rather easily and somewhat according to plan!
Apart from the bit where The Mister had booked flights for the weekend that we were supposed to move house!! Yeah... that part... not so much with the good... But alas, we got everything moved from one place to the other with the help of a couple of fabulous friends.. I stayed up until 3am scrubbing the fridge and cabinets in the kitchen so we could get at least some stuff unpacked.. we had 3 hours sleep before the alarm went off and we had to be up to get to the train station..
My plans to nap on the train were largely thwarted by the sun rising right into my face.. then the mad hustle bustle of peeps squeezing onto the train to (I can only assume) go and get their Xmas shopping done. Why people don't just do their shopping online..! (tho that's another post altogether!)
The flight from Manchester to Marrakesh was fairly uneventful.. we were picked up at the airport and brought to the riad. We chilled out in the room for a while then went out for a late dinner.
The next day we caught a bus out to Essaouira, on the coast and spent 4 nights at the Riad-Al-Medina which was owned by Jimi Hendrix. We had a great time exploring the little port town and even managed a 2 hour kitesurfing lesson, which was more kiting than surfing! We didn't even get near the water!! It's hard work learning to fly those kites tho, I'll tell ya!
I really loved Essaouira, it's so much more laid back and relaxed than the madness which is Marrakech.. I actually managed to get some shopping done which I failed at miserably last time while we were in Marrakech as I just got sick and tired of all the touts and people yelling at you, trying to "help" you or "guide: you etc etc. Ugh!
We've really only used Marrakech as a transfer point this trip as it was mainly to go out to Essaouira, but one place I had wanted to go last time but never made it was the Majorelle Gardens also known as the Yves Saint Laurent Gardens.. Well, we finally managed to get ourselves there yesterday and it was well worth the effort.
The gardens are gorgeous and filled with all sorts of plants from around the world. I believe Yves Saint Laurent actually has his ashes scattered there.. Within the grounds is also a Berber Museum as well as a cafe, boutique and mini gallery of some of YSL's collage cards which he used to send to his friends & clients.
We missed breakfast this morning as The Mister's alarm didn't go off and have resigned ourselves to enjoying the Moroccan sun for the last few hours before we're back off to the airport and to the land of cold & grey.
We probably could have squeezed in a quick trip to the Medina but we are out of cash and I'd rather just chillax than face the frantic souk.
I always promise photos and posts of my trips away and I've yet to actually get any of them up.. I've started quite a few posts about my trip to Turkey but somehow just not found the time to finish them and get them in any coherent order. Hopefully once the new flat is unpacked and I feel more settled, I'll get into a routine and a headspace which is conducive to writing rather than ranting....
We shall see! We have no internet at home until the engineer comes on the 17th, so maybe without the distraction of facebook and its games, I'll be more productive as well.... HA! I can only hope....
I hope this post finds you all well... until next time..