An English Road Trip---Canterbury and Dover

Canterbury Cathedral
at night

Day #4-5 in UK, Day #18-19 traveling

I woke up early on Monday morning in Oxford to meet up with my best friend/big sister/probably the best roommate I'll ever have, Theresa!  She flew from Michigan to spend a bit of time with me as well as her older sister who's studying at Oxford.  They invited me to join them on a road trip to Canterbury, so I agreed.

Walking out of Lady Margaret Hall, Theresa started running up to me.  After a HUGE hug, she quietly announced SHE was driving us around England.  Apparently, since her sister and brother-in-law have lived in the UK for over a year, their American driver licenses aren't valid in England. Sooooo the day after landing in Europe, Theresa's zooming around England on the wrong (left) side of the road with ME in the back seat.  This is one of the travel details I usually avoid telling my mom until after the fact.  The trip involved Jacob (Theresa's brother in law) saying LEFT a lot, all of us actually said LEEEFT quite a bit.

Streets of Canterbury

When we arrived in Canterbury and found our hostel, I was feeling particularly sick.  I didn't get much sleep the night before and my coughing sounded like I smoke ten packs a day.  As much as I wanted to explore the city, I decided to be smart and take a long nap so I could not be sick for the rest of the trip.  It didn't work entirely well, but I woke up feeling a little better and jumped on Facebook to tell my mom I was safe in Canterbury.  That's when I read a few statuses lamenting Pope Benedict's resignation...which I didn't know was a resignation at the time.  I assumed the Pope had died!  Frantically, I jumped onto the Internet and found an article with a bit more information about the resignation and was quite relieved to say the least.  

The young boys wore
these strange outfits to
sing in...and we couldn't take
real pictures, so this is a sign.

The plan was to meet up with Theresa and company at the Canterbury Cathedral for Anglican evensong.  It was way different than the Anglican service I went to the night before, probably merely the difference between a student group and one of the most famous cathedrals in England.  There was an all-male choir that contained many adult men, but also 14 young boys who sang like angels.  I was thoroughly mesmerized by the music and had to conciously close my gaping jaw a few times!

Luckily, I had heard about the pope's resignation already.  Otherwise, four Catholics would have heard about the pope's resignation from a female Anglican priest...that would've been a story to tell!  After evensong, we went to a pub and grabbed some English cuisine.  I had a delicious hunk of lamb with veggies.  Then we went back to the hostel and drank some Moroccan wine and played Euchre!  Being in the company of Michiganders (even yoopers) was fantastic!

Altar place in the cathedral

I woke up the next morning feeling a lot better, but definitely not looking forward to our late night in the airport...Theresa and I had to leave Oxford at 2 am for a 6 am flight to Lisbon.   My complaints though are already well-documented in a blog post I wrote for The Apostolate.

We returned to the Canterbury Cathedral to visit the interior more thoroughly.   The Cathedral is where St. Thomas Becket was murdered in the 12th century.  The famous phrase of the King, "Will no one rid me of this turbulent priest?" supposedly rallied some faithful nights to ride to Canterbury and hack St. Thomas to death with their swords.  Before being appointed archbishop, St. Thomas was a good friend of the king, and (long story short) after being ordained, he found Christ and became a "good" man, not participating in the king's parties anymore.  It's really an interesting story and I suggest you read more here if you're so inclined.  

Big sister and meee!

After wrapping up our visit to the cathedral, we headed back to the car for a trip to Dover.  This part was a surprise to me, as I had just expected an overnight trip to Canterbury.  However, the White Cliffs of Dover were spectacular, even the part where Theresa tried to kill me.  Unfortunately, there is no photo evidence to prove me story, but I promise that she did!!  The White Cliffs of Dover are part of the English coast line, facing France.  It's the narrowest part of the English Channel, and thus where many attacks were started on the English kingdom and launched against opponents.  

It was really cold, so we walked down one path for a ways and then when the mud started getting super bad, returned to the visitors' center and then to Mary and Jacob's house in Oxford.  Before we got to the parking lot though, Theresa and I broke the "no horsing around" rule and climbed up a mini cliff so we can now say we literally climbed on the Cliffs of Dover!  

White Cliffs of Dover

Jacob made homemade pizza for dinner while Theresa and I "took naps."  That meant we talked...a lot.  After dinner though, we did the responsible thing and slept for about three hours before we had to catch our bus to the airport.  Per usual, I found a way to sleep on the bus AND at the airport.  My new suitcase made a fairly comfortable pillow.  Theresa found it hysterical and there's a picture of me floating around on Facebook somewhere.

And thus my time in England came to an end...and I ended up in my last country of this lengthy adventure, Portugal!

To the University! A Day at Oxford...

The pub Tolkien and Lewis
used to meet up at

Since my best friend Theresa was to arrive the next day, she invited me to go along with her sister and brother in law to Canterbury.  Thus, my time in London and Oxford was cut a bit shorter than I had planned.  However, this allowed me to (theoretically) see more of England than originally planned.

My day in Oxford was cold and rainy (hello English weather).  It was kind of a terrible day for sightseeing, but since I only had ONE day, I set out determined to see the highlights of Oxford courtesy of the handy dandy free walking tour guide.  However, before sightseeing, I started the day off with my very first ENGLISH Mass since I moved to Poland in September.

Boolean Library

Apparently Oxford was founded by the Church (not really surprising since most higher education was sponsored by the Catholic Church back in the day).  For some reason, the townsfolk of Oxford and the students didn't really get along so well, so after a few violent run ins, the Oxford City Council passed a curfew and law forcing all students to remain in the halls.  These halls are now the 38 different colleges at Oxford that house over 21,000 students.

Some of these colleges were built by the church, while others were donated by wealthy graduates.  Perhaps the most fascinating origin of a college is Bailey College, which the bishop demanded as penance from a wealthy landowner after a land dispute.  Can you imagine hearing that one in the confessional? Go build an entire college.

Christ Church

I saw Divinity College and Christ Church College, both home to Harry Potter movie scenes.  This was a bit annoying because I was interested in Oxford as a university, not the set of a fictional movie, no matter how popular.  It's kind of unfortunate that parts of Oxford's grandeur are now overshadowed by Harry Potter.  Oddly enough, the Brits call the first Harry Potter book "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone" not "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone."  I do wonder if that would've made a different with the Christian Right in allowing their kids to read the book.

Inside Trinity College

Horrified, I listened as the guide talked about the Bullingdon Club.  It's an exclusive club, with incredibly high prices for membership.  Understandably so when the point of the club is to wear expensive clothes, eat expensive food, drink expensive alcohol, completely trash the establishment you're visiting, and then leave 10k pounds on the table to cover the damages.  Who would be in such a boorish club?  Why the current Prime Minister of the UK, David Cameron, and the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson.

A door that served as part of Lewis's
inspiration for Chronicles of Narnia

The last funny story involves Oliver Cromwell and the Boolean Library.  Cromwell really wanted to borrow a book from the Boolean library, but the library is for reading only.  Understandably so since the library is filled with really old books and college students aren't the most gentle users of reading material.  Disappointed and quite teed off, Cromweel returned to London bookless.  However, he decided to try again and sent a messenger to borrow a book from the library.  After many entreaties, the librarian acquiesced to the persistent messenger.  Victoriously, he headed back to London where he presented Cromwell with a wrapped copy of the library's rules.

The last crazy story centers on one of the colleges.  I don't remember which one it is...however, they don't have students, only fellows.  The college is incredibly difficult to get into.  The entrance exam is one word, and then writing for something like three hours.  Sounds like fun to me...maybe I'll try one day!

To round out the day, I attended my first Anglican service with Anna.  She sings in the choir, and I was a bit curious what Anglicans do.  They're not a very popular denomination in the U.S. so I took the opportunity to learn a bit about them.  The service I went to was pretty similar to Evening Prayer in the Catholic Church.  There was a hymn, readings, and psalms.  A younger, unordained man gave a sermon about helping others.  After the service, there was dinner and I ended up right across from the Anglican priest...aka perfect position to ask strange and probing questions about the Anglican liturgy.  Fortunately, this was before I remembered that there are women priests in the Anglican Church.

After dinner, I skyped my family for the first time in a week or two...and we chatted for a bit.  Then, still not feeling so great, I curled up in bed and went to sleep.  There was an exciting and early morning awaiting me on the other side of dreamland!

A Lazy Day...Wherein I NEVER Struggle with Understanding or Speaking for the First Time in Six Months

My hair salon

Day #2 in UK, Day #16 traveling
Seeing as how I woke up a bit under the weather my second day in London, I decided to take it easy and soak in the wonderfulness of being in an English speaking country.

I started with a haircut.  It seems a bit silly to fly all the way to England to get a haircut, but when I lived in Warsaw I had I very unfortunate experience with a hair salon that spoke zero English.  Although my Polish has gotten a lot better, since I was where English is spoken fluently, I decided to go for my first trim in six months.   Strangely enough, my hairdresser spoke not so good English, and was Italian.  He gave me quite a bit of sass when I told him I wanted layers (something I've done for like the last ten years).

Crazy dude on a unicycle

On my way to some photo ops with Big Ben, I walked through Covent Gardens.  It used to be the gardens of a convent, but is now a pretty sizeable marketplace.  My wanderings were distracted by a street performer about to mount a six foot unicycle with the help of two strangers from the audience.  The guy was hysterical, so I stuck around for a bit to watch.

Big Ben and me :)

Lunch was at Chipotle!  It's the most American thing I could think of doing while I was in England.  And it was a great decision, until I realized I've never been to Chipotle by myself before.  And thus started the waves of homesickness.  Note to friends...Chipotle is always better with good friends and conversation.  Luckily, the workers were fascinated that I came all the way from Poland to eat Chipotle and chatted with me while I ate.

After lunch, I wandered through a bookstore...and just absorbed the English texts, which was amaaaaazing.  I then proceeded to a massive photo shoot with random people capturing me in little red phone booths with Big Ben in the background.  It took a few passerbys to get a decent shot though.

The London Eye from a
bridge somewhere in London

All in all, I loved London but mostly because people spoke English.  I've enjoyed the life and culture of many other European capitols much more.  I'm probably marginally bitter that I got sick in London and sicker in Oxford and thus was sick when my best friend Theresa arrive...but I just wasn't sold on the magicalness of England.

This evening, I took a bus out to Oxford to meet my friend Anna (the one who spent New Year's Eve in Hungary with me!).  Two nights away from a Theresa (Best Friend)-sighting!

Why I Could Never Be a Palace Guard

My thought process while sightseeing sometimes goes like this...

"Wow, that's a beautiful palace, a bit smaller than I imagined for the Queen of England."
       "Oh man!  There are the guards that I always see pictures of...how awesome!"
             "Dang, I could never be that stoic with all these people staring and me and taking pictures."
                   "Good thing I'm an American and never will have to guard a queen."

Day #1 in UK, Day #15 traveling

This guy made me appreciate
my current career choice.

After falling quite ill in London, I sorely neglected to keep up my blog up to date with my wanderings.  So for my own memory's sake, I'll be filling in the last week of my travels.

Per usual, I started off my London sightseeing with a free walking tour.  The tour covered the City of Westminster part of London.  Westminster is the "royal" side of London, containing Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace, and Big Ben.  However, since the tour didn't start until 11, I amused myself with a stroll through Hyde Park (No, I don't fully comprehend how awesome it is to say "I was bored so I went to Hyde Park").

According to the tour guide, the Queen doesn't really like Buckingham Palace (perhaps the ungodly number of tourists in her backyard on a daily basis?) and usually resides in Windsor.  I was a bit disappointed in the size of Buckingham...I was expecting something a bit grander for the queen of England.

Another day, another palace

Well, my disappointment had an explanation.  The part of Buckingham that's most famous is the backside.  It was built by Queen Victoria as a nursery for her fourteen kids and NEVER meant to be the part everyone saw.  However, as most of us would probably would be annoyed, the queen disliked all the journalists and tourists on her front lawn and banished them from ever photographing the front of the palace...or seeing it ever really for that matter.

Big Ben!

While standing outside of the palace, a bunch of goofy looking guys on horses road by.  Apparently, they're part of the Queen's Guard and are responsible for making sure things stay safe.  It's really weird in England...even police officers don't have guns.  And I'm pretty sure these soldiers were also unarmed.  Unfortunately, during the off-tourist season, the Changing of the Guards only happens every other day so I missed see it.

I was pretty disappointed that 10 Downing Street is mostly blocked by police barricades.  Seeing as two of the greatest politicians of modern times lived there (Churchill and Thatcher), I was hoping to get a cool picture of myself with the house or something.  Alas, Great Britain might be the only European country who rivals the U.S. in security precautions (See: no trash cans near the Palace).  Outside the prime minister's residence, is a giant field...where the beach volleyball competitions in the London Olympics happened!

The second half of my sightseeing day was in the City of London part of London.  This is where the mayor of London lives and most of the country's banking and financial sector is located.  There's some strange ceremony where the Queen of England has to meet with the mayor before she can enter this area of the country to try to raise funds for different programs.  I was a bit unclear on the whole thing, just remember it sounded very strange.

Marks made by German bombs

One of our first stops here was St. Clement Danes.  It's the one of the only parts of London that still bears the scars of the German blitzkrieg during WWII.  Built in the 9th century by a Danish community, the church was rebuilt on numerous occasions over the course of history.  In 1956, the Royal Air Force adopted the church and to this day care for its upkeep.  They decided to keep the marks on part of the building as a reminder of the horror London underwent as a monument to their fallen ranks.

Perhaps the funnest fact of the day was given during our visit to the Royal Courts.  The lawyers in England still wear white wigs when arguing cases in the court.  It's SO old fashioned and I made the tour guide repeat himself because I wasn't sure I was hearing him correctly.

Royal Courts of Justice

The tour ended at the Tower of London...it was quite dark by this time so I didn't get any great photos.  Most of the interesting sights cost literally an arm and leg to get inside.  So I passed up the $35 entrance fee to the Tower of London and just enjoyed a view from the outside.

After all this walking (around 6 hours of tours) my brain was fried, my feet were wet, and I was cold!  And thus, on this day, London got me sick.

Last Day in Paradise

Day 5 in Morocco, Day 14 travelling

Spice Market

My favorite part of Morocco wasn't the camels (they were surprisingly uncomfortable), but the markets and just wandering through the sunny streets of Marrakech soaking in chaos.  Our last day in Marrakech was filled with more shopping and some solo wandering through the twisting streets.

Understandably, some people get incredibly overwhelmed by the hustle and bustle of the market, uncertainty of the narrow roads and motorcycles, and often touchy shopkeepers.  I was not one of those people.   This meant I had some rather incredible experiences with some of the shopkeepers.  Wandering around, I ran into the man who sold me scarves my first day in Morocco, we chatted for a little bit about Moroccan life and then he pointed me towards the spice market.

In the spice market, I met up with this crazy spice shop owner.  We met him on the first day and he sells the normal spices along with little turtles and a lizard.  I wanted to buy some more "magic" lipstick.  It's a green stick of lipstick that changes colors based on your PH level...and TOTALLY awesome.  I showed it to my mom the other day and she was freaking out about it.

Moroccan Mosque

When I tried to leave, he asked where I was going.  I had to find a specific gift for someone and so he told me to wait, and went to his friend's shop to bring me back some examples.  Since I didn't have enough cash, I had to go to a bankomat.  When I came back, the guy had tea waiting for me and I bought the souvenir.   Customer service in Morocco is fantastic if you're willing to take the time to chat and potentially drink tea.  Moroccans are incredibly friendly and awesome.

After finishing my shopping, I decided to walk through some more of Marrakech because I had about two hours until we had to meet at the hostel to get in our taxi back to the airport.  I ended up in the more residential part of town, which looked exactly the same as the markets, without all the craziness of shopkeepers yelling at you.

When I was heading back to the hostel, a crazy henna lady grabbed my hand.  On our first day, our tour guide warned us that they overcharge and do poor work.  So I politely refused her, and when she said come back to me next time, I (without thinking) said "Insha'Allah" or "God Willing".  She freaked out about how I could speak Arabic (all eight words of it).  And offered me free henna.  Fr. Will's Fourth Rule of Pilgrimage (which I adapted for normal traveling), "if someone offers you something, take it," applied here without a thought.

Car, motorcycle, donkey
ONE ROAD!

One of the craziest parts of Marrakech is transportation and roads.  In one part of the city, there is an open square filled with pedestrians and things like snake charmers and henna ladies.  Vehicles aren't prohibited in this area though, so close to the people sitting on the ground you'll find lots of motorcycles.  Further out in the square, away from the stationary people, motorcycles, cars, vans, pedestrians, donkeys and pushcarts all occupy the same spaces WITHOUT anyone getting hurt.  Makes me wonder if the traffic laws of the west are a bit over the top.  I definitely stopped being surprised when I saw four or five people crowded onto one motorcycle zooming through the narrow side streets.

I said it before, and I'll say it again.  Morocco was my favorite stop on this trip.  It wasn't just because it was warm and sunny...or that I got to ride a camel.  It was filled with excitement from the moment you walked out of the hostel door.  Moroccans are welcoming and accommodating.  If you invest time into learning about their culture, they'll talk to you for a solid hour.  Life is entirely different there than anywhere else I've visited and it was spectacular to have to opportunity to learn more about it.

Arabian Niiiiiiiights...My Night in the Sahara Desert

Day #3-4 in Morocco, Day #12-13 traveling
(Like my previous Morocco post, scroll to the bottom for some great pics.)

We woke up waaaaaay early, talking 6 am, to begin our trek to the Sahara desert.  Marrakech is really far from the Sahara, so our bus left at 7 in the morning from the KFC.  Two more Polish Fulbrighters joined us, along with a couple from Brazil.

Driving in Morocco is something else, thank goodness we had a native driver.  There aren't really lanes in the cities, especially in the market places.  Cars, bikes, motorcycles, donkeys, horses, pushcarts, and pedestrians all occupy the same spaces.  I view it as a small miracle that I didn't witness anyone getting hit by a vehicle.  Although, at one point, a guy stopped his bike in front of me (purposefully) causing me to fall on top of him.  All my games of Frogger growing up definitely came in handy, as well as years of fearlessly crossing the streets of Detroit!

The way to the desert goes through the High Atlas Mountains via the Tizi-n-Tichka pass. If I hadn't been frightened of roads in Poland or backwoods Louisiana  I was terrified a few times on this trip.  We'd be barreling up the mountain side on a two lane road that's twisting and turning with numerous blind spots and our guide just zipped around a slower truck in front of us.  Or, a few times a semi truck would be coming the opposite way and our bus would be in ITS lane, and magically we passed each other on the proper sides of the roads without a problem.

We stopped in Ait Benhaddou, a popular site for movie and tv show filming.  The most famous movie filmed in this city was Gladiator and the most recent season of Game of Thrones.  A fortified city slash miniature castle, Ait Benhaddou was built for the children of a Moroccan man who had numerous wives.  Whenever a new child was born, he added onto the city, creating the massive structure that we got to explore.  Borrowing from my sister's adventurous spirit, I explored a few hidden doorways that led out onto thatched roofs, a few of which were not in good shape so I had to turn back.

Arriving in Zagora, a city on the edge of the desert, we met our camels and guides.  Morocco is home to two groups of people, Berbers and Moroccans.  The Berbers are a nomadic people, many of which still live in the mountains and desert.  Morocco is home to around 32 million people, but the majority of them live outside the major cities.   Local guides are Berbers, also called Saharawi, who build camps for tourists on the edge of the Sahara

Mounting the camel was one of the most hysterical moments of my life.   It's an incredibly strange feeling...and since I was the first one, I had NO idea what to expect.  My camel was quite a silly guy...he kept making weird gurgly noises and spitting...the only camel that was doing this.  Also, for future reference, camel tongues are HUGE!  At first, I thought he was just blowing really weirdly colored spit bubbles because it was a giant growth out of the side of his mouth.  I soon realized that it's his tongue though.

After about an hour on a camel (painful but rewarding) as the sun set on the desert, we arrived in our camp.   Since we only had two days, we didn't get to see the "proper" desert with lots of sand dunes and such, but we were still IN the Sahara!  It was dark when we arrived in the camp, but it was kind of easy to make out the circle of tents (permanent tents) situated around a camp fire.  There was one tent designated as the restaurant, and in typical Muslim style, we didn't wear our shoes into the tent.  In terms of roughing it, our accommodation were quite wonderful...we even had proper toilets!

Dinner was prepared in traditional Berber style as a chicken tagine and the most delicious bread in the world.  There are many different types of tagine, but this one was vegetables and chicken.  After dinner, we were treated to some mint tea, which I keep raving about Moroccan tea.  And then the Saharawi men started the fire and we hung out under the stars while they played their drums and sang.  The Arabic singing definitely made me miss my late nights with my Saudi friends at CMU when they'd start singing and dancing randomly at three in the morning after we were done with dinner.

The campfire was necessary because it was FREEZING outside.  I couldn't believe how cold the desert got at night.  Our guide, Andy, said that during the summer, it stays warm enough to just sleep on a dune.  While I wouldn't want to deal with the heat during the afternoon, sleeping on a sand dune sounds like great fun.  Perhaps the best part of the night was looking at the stars.  It's so dark, the stars just sparkle so brightly.  It's absolutely incredible...and I even saw a shooting star.

It was a long day, so everyone went to bed pretty early.  I stayed up chatting with a Moroccan guide, two Spanish girls, and two of the Berber guides (although the Berbers didn't speak English very well).  The Berber guys let me play with their drums, which was fun even though I wasn't anywhere near as good as they are.  We talked about a lot of different things.  The Spanish girls visited the U.S. last year and talked about how much they loved different parts of the states, which was nice to hear.

Sleeping was hard because it was so cold.  It's probably one of the worst nights of sleep I got on my trip (which is saying a lot seeing as how there were guys in Vienna stumbling into my hostel room at four in the morning wasted out of their minds and turning on the lights and whatnot).  There were a ton of super thick, soft blankets so once you snuggled up it wasn't so bad except for my poor nose!

I rolled out of bed early the next morning to watch the sunrise over the desert, which was beautiful.  Everything on this trip was spectacularly beautiful and stunning.  My pictures capture a fraction of the real life image, and looking through the pictures my breath was still taken away.  So you will have to imagine what it was like in real life.

After the sunrise, we grabbed a quick breakfast prepared by the Berbers and were off to the camels again.  This time, I mounted the camel beautifully!  But...my camel was a bit more stubborn this time and slipped out of the rope holding it in line, stopping in the middle of the desert as the rest of the group continued on!  Since I was the last one, it took a second for them to notice me calling out that the left me.  The Berber guide shouted, "Bye bye!" from the front of the group, which concerned me a little bit because last night, he told me I should come live in the desert to have babies.  At this point, I was already convinced that I want to come back to Morocco, but I definitely didn't want a solo camel ride in the desert!  He eventually came and retrieved my camel, tying me back up to the group.

My camel really didn't want me to leave the desert though.  When we got back to the city to get in our buses, everyone dismounted their camels...except me.  My guy wouldn't sit down for the guide and I was stuck up on the camel for a good five minutes waiting for the obnoxious camel to acquiesce to the guide's demands for him to lay down.

Another six hour drive back to Marrakech awaited us.  It was a really long time to sit in a van, but definitely worth the camel ride and night in the Sahara.  Next time I come to Morocco, I'll do at least a three day trip so I can go deeper into the desert.  Our guide told us there are entire Berber cities scattered throughout the desert and we stay at one of those.

The crazy windy mountain pass

The beginnings of the Atlas Mountains

This kid snuck into my picture...his traditional outfit was great
especially after I noticed he had an I-Pod cord sneaking out of it.

Seeing snow when I was wearing a t-shirt was rather odd

I don't know why I'm so obsessed with palm trees...but I think they're awesome!

The film location for Gladiator, and a great place to explore

Another shot through a missing door in the city

Photo from the top of the fortified city

I'm almost to the desert!

Zagora, an oasis of palm trees right before the desert starts

My camel!  Right before the Berber guide told me to jump on!

Sunset in the desert

Sunset in the desert part 2

A sing-a-long, except I didn't know the words OR the language.
So it was more like a listen-a-long

The sun's sneaking up the mountains

Found it!

Our small camp nestled in the edge of the Sahara

The fire pit surrounded by our sleeping tents

CAMEL ON THE LOOSE!
That's me on his back...

This guy's riding a motorcycle with one hand and using the other one
to hold onto his new television set.

Camel tongue...I saw a lot of them on the trip!

Camel kisses anyone?!?

"Hey lady, You Want a Boyfriend?"

Day #2 in Morocco, Day #11 traveling
(Pictures at the end because there are WAY more than fit artistically into my written words)

The streets of Marrakech are full of vendors shouting various things at us to get us into their shops.  My favorite thus far has been offers for a boyfriend and the claim that "Everything is free for you beautiful."  I'm fairly certain that the store is NOT free, but I'm curious what would happen if I ever followed through on the offer.

Our first day in Marrakech, we were met by Marcie, one of the tour guides from the company we booked our desert tour through.  She showed up to give us some guidelines for Moroccan life...always barter, ask before taking pictures (Islam forbids photos, but not everyone is a strict follower), and watch out for the motorcycles (I almost died a handful of times).  Marcie offered to show us around the city, which was wonderful because Marrakech is this crazy maze of clay buildings and pathways.

We started off at a shoe store...but with my large American feet, I couldn't fit into any of the little Moroccan shoes so it wasn't too exciting.  The fun part started with a visit to a pharmacy where we learned about all the different Moroccan spices, herbs, and natural remedies.  The first thing we learned about is Moroccan oil, apparently something very popular back home.  There are two ways to harvest the oils from the nuts.  First, you shell the nut, then roast it, and then grind it into a paste.  The second way is to let the goats eat the nuts and then harvest the oil from their poop (GROSS!)

Morocco is well-known for its oil and saffron.  Saffron is apparently this magical herb that is incredibly expensive almost everywhere else in the world.  I didn't buy any of it though because I don't know what I'd do with it!  The pharmacy had all sorts of cool things...herbal "Vicks Vapor Rub", orange blossom headache oils, almond creme for dry skin, and lots of Moroccan spices.  I bought three bags of mint green tea from the store because it tasted delicious.

The pharmacy also offered a few different services.  One was a quick massage using arnica oil.  That was awesome...but even better was the henna I got.  My sister Amanda turned me onto henna so this is one thing I really wanted to do in Morocco.  I figured I'd have to sit for a while because they do very intricate patterns and usually it takes Amanda a while to finish one.  The henna lady finished my entire hand in about two minutes.  It was CRAZY!

After the pharmacy, we headed to a giant store of Moroccan stuff...jewelry, bags, tea sets.  The tea sets really got me...they're gorgeous.  So, I walked out of the store with my first tea set...a beautiful tin and silver Moroccan tea set.  Part of the fun of the markets is haggling, I definitely got better at it as the vacation wore on.  This first store though, the prize goes to my friend Laura who haggled her own price so low, the owner just knocked my price down too.

When we left the shop, Marcie (tour guide) shouted "Harry Potter!" and ran up to this Moroccan guy and started chatting with him.  Habib (his real name) invited us into his friend's shop for some tea.  Marcie said this is what her life is like since she doesn't have an office.  She gets to hang out in cafes and work, which also means she can wander around some during the day and just hang out with her friends.  I can't say enough times how delicious Moroccan tea is.  

On our way back to the hostel, we swung back to the spice market to get some magic lipstick.  This lipstick is green in the tube, but it reacts with your PH level to turn into a unique color on each person's lips.  Maria's color is a light Barbie pink, while Alison's is more magenta, and mine is bright red.    The guy who we bought the lipstick from was craaaazy, but super awesome.  Most Moroccan people are incredibly friendly, especially when you're interested in their culture. He owned a chameleon and sold turtles, which we took some pictures of.  

After this, we went back to the hostel to freshen up for dinner. We took a pit stop on the roof of our hostel to watch the sun set over Marrakech (GASP, we could see the sun!).  It was amazing because shortly after the sun sets, the call to prayer starts.  Each mosque in Marrakech has its own time because the call to prayer happens at a certain amount of time after the sun sets and obviously if you're further west, the sun sets later.  So as the sun set, the city is just filled with rounds of the Muslim call to prayer and it's really pretty.

One of the things in Morocco that surprised me were the mosques.  I'm used to seeing mosques in the U.S. that are more dome-shaped, similar to the giant mosques in Istanbul.  However, Morocco has never been ruled by a wealthy empire, so their mosques were much simpler.  The shape and size of the mosques were much smaller than I expected for a Muslim country.  Although quite numerous, they didn't seem to have enough space for the number of people living in each city.

Instead of getting lost looking for another restaurant outside the medina (city wall), we decided to go up to the same restaurant as the night before.  When we were done eating, Alison and I went back to the hostel because I needed to figure out all my stuff for the desert and the other two girls stayed for some drinks at the restaurant.  It was an early night because we had to wake up at 6 am to meet our guide for the desert tour!

Overlooking the spice market 

Moroccan spices and herbs

My two minute henna!

Similar to the tea set I purchased

One of the mosques in Marrakech

Sun setting over Marrakech