Marrakech: El-Badi Palace, Cyber Gardens,

El-Badi Palace is right outside the Marrakech city walls, so I walked over one morning not knowing at all what to expect. It is basically a ruin at this point, but was built in the 1570's and it is HUGE. All homes in Marrakech are centered around a courtyard and this palace is as well, with the rooms situated around it. The courtyard of this palace is enormous, with a sunken pool and even sunken gardens for lemon and orange trees-

I bet when it was built it was completely amazing, I thought it was still really beautiful and impressive just imagining what it must have been like.

& how cute is this kitten that I saw right outside the palace-

I also visited the "Cyber Gardens" by accident, and yes it is a park sponsored by IBM, Intel, etc. right in the middle of the city-

so random in the middle of this giant, dry, hot and dusty city to have a gorgeous green park. 

Morocco: shopping in the Medina

The first time I went to the Medina (the giant shopping area of Marrakech) I went with these awesome girls, on my 2nd day:

They are all exchange students from UC schools that and are spending a year in France-jealous! All of them were super nice and I hung out with them till they left that night. It was SO NICE to hang out with girls from America again, especially Californians who talked just like me!!
SHOES! I did not buy any, I am happy to report. I am sure my Mom is thrilled -when I went to Korea in 2010 I came back with 10 pairs of shoes- and I thought she was going to have a heart attack! :)
The 2nd time I really went shopping in the Medina was my last day. I was supposed to go to a cooking class which I was super excited for... But it fell thru at the last minute Literally at 1130 pm I got an email canceling. So that sucked because it was too late to figure out another day trip and I was kinda stuck with an extra day that I did not know what to do with .

To console myself I decided to go shopping-I had only bought a teapot, glasses & pillow covers at this point- and I really wanted some of the awesome bracelets I had seen. Some girls had told me they got 9 bracelets for 350 dirham (around $40 total, or 40 dirham a bracelet-about $5USD). But I wanted to to better: my goal was 20 dirham a bracket (about $2.50). My first step was finding someone to go bracelet shopping with me, and I hit the jackpot with a guy I had met briefly before named Martin. Why so awesome? Because Martin was an English guy...who spoke Arabic. Perfect! 

According to everyone, speaking English will get you the worst prices, speaking French is better and speaking Arabic is the best. After luring him out into the Medina with me with promises of going to the tannery (which we never found) I quickly charmed him into negotiating for brackets for me. I don't think he minded, it actually ended up being pretty good fun (and I bought him lunch as a thank you!). I ended up getting 17 bracelets for about 300 dirham, which all my beat my original goal! (and absolutely beat the girls I had met, not that it's a competition... except that sometimes it kind of is.) The shop keepers lovvveeeddd that Martin spoke Arabic, I would assume its odd for a white guy to speak it? Just a guess :) And I think I got much better prices as a result-actually I know I did. And I spent an average of 17 dirham ($2) a bracelet, beating my goal an giving me a life time supply of bracelets... Martin, thank you! :) I'm pretty sure he had a good time since he told all the shop keepers we were married and I was his stingy wife!
Here are some pictures of the main square in Marrakech. It can be hard to take pictures because a lot of people do not like their picture to be taken OR will demand money if you take a picture of them, so I tried to be quick and discreet :)

see the man with the monkey?

Snake charmers... they are EVERYWHERE. A girl told me she was walking and a guy put a snake around her neck and would not take it off till she paid him. The same thing gets done with monkeys.... Whenever I walked thru the main square I was so paranoid about this being done to me, but it never did, thank God. Also right after I took this picture, a bunch of guys came up and tried to get me to pay them, but I pretended like I didn't speak english (or spanish or french).

& here are some pictures of the deserted Medina I took as I left the city at 7am-

Morocco: Atlas Mountains Waterfall

After all our stops, we finally reached an adorable little town which clearly catered to tourists-

Still super cute though! :)

Although we had all been promised a "leisurely stroll" to a waterfall it ended up landing more in the "strenuous hike" category...to the point where I wondered if two older people in our group would actually make it. We were climbing up boulders and crossing some less-then-safe looking bridges-

NOT leisurely strolling by any stretch of the imagination. Still I loved it and had a great time (and I am notorious in my family for my hatred of hiking!) We reached the first waterfall-

Then we kept going for waterfall #2, which was more impressive (it's no Multnomah Falls though) and perhaps MOST impressive had a little store next to it. I don't know who carried up the tea and soda that they sell there, but I bet they are in really good shape!

I would say the way down was even harder then the way up, but we managed to make it down without any incidents. :)

 Of course there are still stores even on the way up a mountain-

 But we at last made it down! Success!

Morocco: Bedouin village, ceramic shop & camels

I figured it would be pretty easy to hook up with a day trip from Marrakech to the Atlas Mountains, which was a "must do" for me, but ended up being somewhat more difficult then I expected. I ended up meeting a lady who pointed me in the direction of a company she had gone with, so I felt comfortable with. I paid my 250 dirham ($30-ish) and was picked up the next morning at 9am on the back of a motorcycle- the very ones I swore never to get on. They zoom thru the Mendina at terrifying speeds.... As my mom would say, its a "danger!" (actually my mom would have said that about many things I did on this day trip!) ... I did thankfully survive and scored a prime front seat space (benefit of being a single) in our tour van.

Our first stop was a very touristy Bedouin village, which was somewhat cool:

And our next stop had an amazing view...and was a combination cafe, rug shop an clay/pottery shop.
Rug shop:

Clay/Pottery shop:

THEN, we got back in the van and headed to this place, which I am not at all sure what it was (honestly) but it was cool, none the less and had an AMAZING view-

and there were some kids playing on the side of the road that were adorable-

 but we had to cross this bridge...sorry mom...

and ended up here, which, like I said, I have no idea what it is, what the purpose was but it was a cool building and the bridge was fun, too! 

Needless to say the people on the tour (there were 6 others + me) were quite put out that we kept stopping at stores... Obviously they were in with the tour guide somehow. But no one bought anything and they didn't hassle us as we took loads of pictures so I guess it was okay.

Lastly, we stopped at a camel ride on the side of the road: camel rides were a mere 200 dirham ($23-ish)!! Needless to say no one got on a camel and we were on our way again. I was slightly bummed that I never got on a camel, but I was not about to pay $23 for the privilege. I even tried to negotiate to just get on the camel, take a picture and get down, but that was not happening for less then maybe $10... So I declined. On the bright side this totally inspires me to go back to Morocco for a Sahara tour someday, which I will absolutely be doing- hopefully someday soon! I met loads of people who were in Morocco for like 4-6 weeks and I would love to do that in some upcoming summer, it would jut be so cheap and amazing. Anyway here are some camel pictures, isn't the baby the cutest?!

I guess if I am being honest I kind of regret not getting on the camel for a picture but honestly I also did feel bad about how they were treated so I am glad that I didn't contribute to that. :/

And, thankfully, that was our last stop before the Atlas Mountains!
Whew. Long post. Josh (my wah wah baby brother) told me the other day that it was "difficult" to keep up with my blog because there are so many posts! Yeah well just imagine how DIFFICULT it is to post this much! Especially when I have a measly TWO followers (love you mom & Erin) and feel that it is completely unappreciated. Seriously! If you love me, follow the blog it's like totally the validation that I need. Honestly when your own Dad, Aunts, Uncles, siblings, and BFFs aren't following it's PATHETIC. Almost as pathetic as me trying to guilt them into following just so I don't look pathetic with my 2 followers on my google thing. HOWEVER, for the record, I am also making this blog so I can prove someday to my kids/grandkids that I was (AM) awesome :)