Wednesday, February 27, 2013

Vacances d'hiver: Marrakech, Day Two (Ouarzazate)

Second day in Marrakech, which wasn't actually spent in Marrakech...much. We went on the one-day excursion to Ouarzazate, which was really beautiful, but most of the trip was spent driving...it was 4 hours each way. Pretty boring. =/ We did get to see a lot of the landscape though, and we saw a few different types of landscape since we had to drive through the mountains to get to Ouarzazate! We didn't actually spend that much time in the city...we spent about half an hour in a small town a little bit away, which had a view of a Berber village (and where I got a beaded necklace on rope hehe--and experienced my first bargaining session! He originally asked for 550 dirham and I got it down to 80 dirham, which is about $9 or 8€), and then we spent about an hour in the actual city of Ouarzazate for lunch. Photos from our trip below!

Berber village
Mountain region
The desert. SO FLAT.
Lunch! Chicken tagine with "chips"
Ouarzazate
Red hills =D
 When we got back to Marrakech, the Place Jamaa El-Fna was seriously hoppin'. Apparently nighttime is when all the real Moroccans come out and get food at the night market food vendors, listen to music, etc. It was amazing; I absolutely love going to night markets and really getting an authentic feel for the location.

Really terrible, blurry picture of the place. But oh well.
Fooooood
Chickpea soup, huge pieces of bread, and olives =D
Grilled Merguez sausage
After dinner we walked around the souks again, and I bought two scarves and a pair of pants, haha. More bargaining! Originally he wanted 80 dirham for the scarves (each) and 130 dirham for the pants. I got it down to 30 each for the scarves and 50 for the pants, so 110 dirham total for 3 items! Not too shabby =D

Beautiful bowls for sale, didn't buy any though.
Anyway, so that was our second day...tomorrow will be our last, and then we'll take the overnight train to Tangier, followed by a bus to Chefchaouen!

Tuesday, February 26, 2013

Vacances d'hiver: Marrakech, Day One

Hey all! Guess what? I am on yet another 2-week vacation (courtesy of the fantastic French Ministry of Education) and this time, I am in...wait for it...MOROCCO!!!!! AHHHHH!!! So. Freaking. Awesome. I got here yesterday around noon with my friend Louise (the same one I went to Belgium with), and we have been basking in the gorgeous 70 degree (Farenheit, of course) weather. We're staying in Marrakech until the night of the 28th, then taking the overnight train to Tangier, where we'll catch a bus to our next stop, Chefchaouen. Chefchaouen is this small but beautiful town where all the houses are blue and white--can't wait!! We'll be there for two days and one night, and then we're going to Fes, where I will stay for two nights and Louise will stay for at least one (possibly two as well) because she has to get back to Marrakech on the 4th to catch her flight to Spain. I'm flying out of Fes so I will most definitely be there two nights. Anyway, onwards!

We're staying in this hostel called Hostel Riad Marrakech Rouge, it's pretty awesome...and we can ask for free tea whenever we want!

Main building
Main building lounge
Door of our building--so colorful! =)
We haven't done too much so far; most of yesterday was spent wandering around Marrakech--our first stop--and exploring the souks. Which was...an experience. Vendors here are definitely the pushiest ones I've ever encountered. Most of them are male, and since it's just me and Louise, 2 girls who stick out like no other (I'm Asian, she's blond...not exactly helpful for blending in), they hassle us a lot by calling us weird things or complimenting our looks (except in a creepy way) and try and get us to buy their goods. Two of my favorite nicknames for Louise so far are "Shakira" and "Lady GaGa." As for me, they constantly ask where I'm from, and for some reason they always assume Japan first...one interaction went like this:
Vendor: Konichiwa!
Me: Je ne suis pas japonaise. Translation: I'm not Japanese.
Vendor: Oh...(is embarrassed) désolé! Translation: Sorry! (runs away)

Haha, yeah. It makes it pretty uncomfortable walking through the souks, but...it's still pretty awesome to see all the beautiful and colorful products! There are so many things I want to buy! Agh! Here are some photos from our exploration:

Louise in front of the Koutubia mosque
There are orange trees everywhere! Almost like Florida!

Place Jamaa El-Fna, the most famous square in Marrakech!
We also got to have a delicious Moroccan lunch at this place called Toubkal in the Place Jamaa el-Fnaa, which is the biggest and most central square of Marrakech. I got couscous with lamb; Louise got lamb tagine. Sooo good! I also got the Moroccan specialty, green tea with mint. Now that stuff is bomb. Definitely planning on buying some of that to take back!

Green tea with mint =D
Couscous with lamb
Anyway, on the books for today is a one-day excursion to Ouarzazate, also known as "the door of the desert," which is pretty damn exciting. Hopefully I'll get to ride a camel! 

Saturday, February 2, 2013

Vacances de Noël: Paris

After spending 4 days in Belgium, we headed to Paris to say goodbye to 2012. We were lucky and got to stay in the apartment of Louise's friend, who was away for the holidays (and so were her roommates). We left Brussels in the morning and stopped in Lille on our way to Paris because our friend Marie is from there. So we went to lunch with Marie, her sister Sabrina, and their friend. They took us to lunch in a really popular restaurant in the center of town called La Chicorée, where we got to try some typical northern French dishes!
I got the dish called "L'assiette du Nord" which included: a piece of savory tart, aspic, charcuterie, and toasted bread with cheese on top
After lunch, they took us to one of the most famous pastry shop in the north of France, called Aux Merveilleux de Fred, where they specialize in this one pastry called a "merveilleux" (literally translates into "wonderful"), and it was absolutely FANTASTIC. It's made of two meringues, one on top of the other, and they swath them in delicious amounts of buttercream until they're in the shape of a large gumdrop, and then they coat in chocolate flakes...So. Delicious. It actually melted in my mouth when I bet into it. I've never had meringues that good.

The outside
The inside was so fancy!
My white chocolate merveilleux
Once we bought our merveilleux, we parted ways from Marie and I headed to the train station with Louise and Natalie, where I devoured my merveilleux.

Since we got to Paris at night, our first night there was pretty uneventful. We just had dinner at a restaurant close to the apartment and watched some TV. However, in the middle of watching TV, we hear this slight cracking sound, so Natalie looks into the dining room, and her face drops. Then she says, "Was the ceiling...always like that?" Louise and I look and our mouths fall open, because the ceiling literally had dropped down a little, as in, it had cracked and part of it was dipping below the level it was supposed to be at. So basically...it was barely clinging on. We didn't really know what to do, so we just moved everything from underneath it and hoped that it wouldn't completely fall in. Unfortunately, that night while we slept, it did. Well, okay, Louise woke up when it did, but I kind of slept through it...haha. Anyway, that was pretty crazy. Couldn't really do much about it though.

On the 31st (New Year's Eve!), we headed into the city (the apartment was technically outside of Paris) and did some sightseeing. We went to the Louvre (but didn't go in because we didn't have enough time), the Pont des Arts, Montmartre and Sacre Coeur, the Red Light District and the Moulin Rouge, and the Tour Montparnasse because that's basically where the club we were going to was.

In front of the Louvre
Guy playing ukelele on the Pont des Arts
Pretty self-explanatory lol
Tour Montparnasse
We actually found out in Belgium that the three other American girls were going to be in Paris for New Year's, so they ended up buying tickets to the same club that we had chosen and we spent New Year's Eve with them! We went to Mix Club, and...well, basically spent the entire night there. We didn't leave until 6 in the morning, haha...that's NYE for you. It was a lot of fun, but exhausting...needless to say, we didn't wake up until very, very late the next day.

Yes, we got there when it opened...because we're cool that way.
Full!
Us and the other girls (left to right): Ayla, Louise, Natalie, Sarah, Maile, me!
On the first day of 2013, however, we did still go into the city to do a little more sightseeing. We had dinner in Saint Michel at a place called Crêperie des Pêcheurs, which was pretty good, and then "flâner"-ed (strolled) around some more. Here are some places we hit:

Notre Dame, of course
Hôtel de Ville with the ice skating rink!
Centre Pompidou
Look who we found! =D
We also found this AMAZING gelato place called Pozzetto...I think it's actually supposed to be one of the best ones in Paris.
Place de la Bastille
The next morning, we went and had a good ol' American breakfast at this diner called Breakfast in America. It was pretty amazing, considering I hadn't had real American food in quite some time. Then we went and actually saw the inside of the Louvre!

The esteemed lady herself, of course.
With the Winged Victory of Samothrace!
The Da Vinci Code, anyone? Haha...
We bumped into our friend Sebastien there, who is also a teaching assistant in Nîmes. Small world, right? We went to the Musée d'Orsay afterwards but he didn't join us because he had to meet his Colombian friends.  We actually got to see this really cool exhibit called "Impressionism and Fashion", but they didn't allow pictures so I don't have that many from the Musée d'Orsay, unfortunately.
Got this one though! Isn't the roof so gorgeous?
Well, that was the end of our Paris excursion, and I went back to the apartment once we had finished with the Musée d'Orsay to get my bag (Natalie had brought hers with her), and then went back into the city to catch the train. Louise stayed an extra day so that she could actually see her friend. But yes, quite the vacation! I definitely had a blast. =)