Morocco and Spain!

Hi everyone!

We´re having a ball so far on our travels! Since leaving London on 4th April we headed for Morocco and spent 8 glorious days in the vibrant, bustling, and somewhat chaotic city of Marrakesh and also the charming fishing town on the coast Essouira. Being the seasoned travellers that we now are we had fully prepped ourselves for not getting led astray or ripped off. We did well for about 15 minutes. After having only spent about 30 minutes in Marrakesh we had been seduced into a cup of mint tea in an old man´s shop and had been dressed up as ´Mohammed´and ´Fatima´ in traditional attire and had been attacked and swindled by snake charmers who put cobras all over Col. Oh yes, such wise and seasoned travellers we are! Oh well, we have some quite amusing pics to show for it.

After settling into our ´riad´(family-owned hotel usually built around a central tiled courtyard and with a roof-top terrace) we ventured out to the central market square and the ´souks´(small alley-ways full of stalls selling everything from leather goods to silver, fabric and spices. As in Thailand it was difficult to just look or simply ask the price of something without being pressured into making a purchase. We got some good bargains but on the whole we found that things were not as cheap as we had heard or expected. After a hard day of fighting off snakes and touts we headed to a restaurant for our first taste of real moroccan food. The typical dishes include tagines of many descriptions, cous cous, and pastillas. All the food we tried was gorgeous!

After the third day of being in Marrakesh we felt as though we needed a break from the chaos and decided to head for the seaside town of Essouira. We tried to get tickets for the bus company recommended in all the travel guides but were only able to get tickets for the local (and very dodgy) bus service. For starters we wer coerced into paying an additional fee for our luggage not only once but twice! (And they even attempted a third). The bus looked and sounded like it would probably explode, and well... we had a tyre blow-out on the way. ´Conveniently´it happened outside a carpet warehouse in the middle of the desert! On the bus we met a young mother travelling with her two gorgeous little girls, one 5 and one 8. We fell in love with the girls and got on really well with their mum so we met up on a few occasions once we arrived in Essouira.

Essouira was lovely. It had a really long and nice beach (ok, not quite queensland standard but close!) and a quaint town within ancient city walls with narrow winding paved streets. It was a lot more relaxed than Marrakesh and was a great spot to relax. After spending a few days there we headed back to Marrakesh to get our flight to Madrid. Although we had an amazing time in Morocco we must admit we did breathe a sigh of relief when the plane took off.

We arrived in Madrid late at night and headed straight to our backpackers hostel which was quite centrally located. The next morning we headed to the Reina Sofia gallery which was amazing. We focused on the permanent collection which features Salvadore Dali and Picasso (including his most famous work, ´Guernica´). In the afternoon we met up with our good friend Nats (Natalie) who was able to come and visit us for the weekend from London. We had a great couple of days with Nats, enjoying tapas and drinks, several historical sights, and especially the amazing music and nightlife of Madrid.

On Sunday we embarked on the trip out to the Gredos mountains to take part in the program where we helped Spaniards to improve their conversational English. In exchange for our time we received our accomodation and food in an absolutely beautiful hotel in a picturesque part of the countryside. A typical day involved about 6 one to one sessions with different Spaniards as well as group activities and entertainment (provided by group members). It was a really great way to learn a little about Spanish culture and also to meet heaps of people from many different backgrounds. The week flew by and we feel very positive about the experience!

Now we are back in Madrid and will be flying to Paris tomorrow evening! We hope that you are all going well back at home and are keen to hear from you!

Lots and lots of love,
Ang and Col, xoxox.

PS - We will post some pictures soon when we get the time.