Happy 2012!
Starting 2012 off right with a weekend getaway
Mohamed and I started our year off with a semi-bang. I had some frequent flyer miles from American Airlines that had to be used or they would expire, so I was able to book two nights in a Marrakech hotel! The hotel, Le Caspian, was decent, but not thrilling.
View of Gueliz (Kech's new, trendier area) from our room
The room was tiny, but had a great balcony overlooking the city. The bathroom was functional, but extremely overcrowded. You couldn't open the door all the way because it smashed into a bidet. Now, I understand bidet's have their purpose, but is it really necessary to have a shower/bathtub, toilet, sink and bidet in approximately one square meter? I think not.
Also, I was excited because the hotel had a pool and was idiotic enough to think that maybe they heated it in the winter. Nope, it was completely drained. Oh well.
Awesome, fresh-squeezed orange juice for 50 cents
Over the weekend we visited some of the major sites- Jemaa el-Fnaa, The Marjorelle Gardens, Ben Youssef Medersa and the Museum of Marrakech, but we mostly walked around exploring the city, taking photos and eating yummy foods.
Mohamed in the Marjorelle Gardens. There was also an AMAZING exhibit in the museum about Morocco's Amazigh (Berber) heritage
Street scene from the souk
While the weekend was overall wonderful, our actual New Year's Eve would be considered by some to be a bit lacking. I guess it's time to just admit it- I'm an old, married lady. Don't worry, I don't think this is a bad thing.
In our excitement we didn't really plan well enough. On the 31st we woke up at 6:30 in order to get our things together and hop on the 7:45 train. After the four hour train ride, we walked to our hotel and then walked another 3ish kilometers to Jemaa el-Fnaa in search of lunch. After lunch we were tired, so we walked the 3 kilometers back to our hotel and relaxed there for a bit.
One of the bizillion beautiful shops in the market
In addition, Mohamed doesn't drink, so paying lots of money to get into a bar wasn't exactly enticing. The "party" being hosted by our hotel was around $60 per person. Yikes! Needless to say, we made the 3 kilometer hike one last time and were in the hotel room by 9 pm.
Jemaa el-Fnaa at night aka 8pm
I still had planned to make it until midnight though. We just relaxed, read, watched some TV. By 11 pm, Mohamed was watching TV as I laid half asleep next to him. Despite the very upbeat celebration happening on TV, by 11:45 we were both unable to hold out any longer. Argh. With 15 minutes until the new year, we kissed and went to sleep.
Does part of me wish I would have been out having a wild time? Sure. Still another part of me would have settled for a mini-party of our own in the room. But in the end, I had a long, exhausting and fun day with my husband and have no regrets that we conked out a bit early. Plenty of years to make up for it, right?
I think 2012 is gonna be a good one!
So now here we are in 2012. I still have one week until work starts up again and I'm thinking about all of the things that are in store for us. For starters, we'll be having our wedding party in March and I have three international guests with tickets purchased! In the summer I'm hoping to return to Switzerland for fun and to save up some cash for our future move to the States. Lots of excitement indeed.
As for resolutions- I have none. Why make a resolution and then break it? As a general life goal though, I do hope that I can continue on a path that I've clumsily started over this long vacation-
1) Update the blog more frequently
2) Exercise more often, even if it's just a long walk
3) Cut back on sugar- this is by far the most difficult for me.
Speaking of sugar, I'm currently making a Chai Cake with Honey-Ginger Cream from Whisk Kid. I'll be posting tomorrow with the details.
photo by Whisk Kid
1 comment:
I like the point about resolutions. Great entry, we love reading about your life. PS. Who is the third guest?
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