i love my nephew. look at how ridiculously cute he is:

more pics on flickr.

where to start... first of all, morocco was a great experience. i saw some awesome, great, wonderful things that couldn't be captured by camera. let's start there. everyone thought we were japanese... so literally, every four minutes, people called out, "arigato!" "konichiwa!" at first it seemed harmless. it was somewhat humorous... but you hear that over and over, and it gets tiring. people are constantly on the hustle. you walk down the street and people try to be your guide. you ignore them as saying "no thank you" politely, doesn't seem to work. transport options are endless - we rode trains, we rode taxis, we rode in a limo, we shared a chartered mercedes out to the country with four other strangers... and now, on to the pictures.

we hired guides to help us navigate through the city. here was one of our fes guides, chilling at the royal palace of king mohammed VI:

navigating the medina, the old part of the city, is not easy, therefore the need for a guide. this is a view of the fes medina - and this is only a portion of it.

the fes medina does not allow car traffic, and the streets all look the same. narrow. again, another reason for hiring guides:

we learned pretty quickly that essentially, medinas are just giant marketplaces. there are all sorts of crafts being created and sold. check out this giant leather tannery:

the round pots are actually vats to die the hides - each pot is probably about five feet wide by three feet deep. you can also see hides being laid out to dry in the sun on rooftops (the yellow and brown figures in the bottom of the picture above). you can see the shape of the animal still... likely a cow though they also use camel, lamb and goat often for leather. the smell of the hides and the tanneries in general is pretty horrendous so you are often given mint to mask the smell when near tanneries:

the dies used for leather are generally all natural- plants, flowers and other compounds give the leather their vibrant colors. same goes for silk which morocco produces decent amounts of as well. here are spools of silk being laid out to dry:

within medinas, you can find various places for respite, and they of course, are all beautiful. these two shots are both within schools in the medinas. the latter is a UNESCO world heritage site.

kids run around all over the medina as there are schools and homes within:

everyone speaks arabic, and some of the kids speak french too. but beyond saying bonjour, i couldn't communicate much with them. but they were all curious about me, as i was about them. it was always fun coming upon kids though.

heading north of fes, we went to tangier. this spot is at cap spartel, which is where the atlantic ocean meets the mediterranean sea.

also in tangier, we visited the hercules cave. it's supposed to look like an inverted outline of africa. cool, eh?

here is the area beyond the cave which looks out onto the atlantic:

oh yeah, before tangier though, we went to this area called meknes which is the closest town to a few historic sites. first was moulay idriss, a major muslim pilgrimage site. it is one of five sites a muslim should make in his or her lifetime to reach mecca, i think.

from there, we headed to volubulis, an ancient roman ruins site a few kilometers from the town. this area was build about 40 AD, and it is the furthest known area that the roman empire reached. it was simply amazing.

 

i'm tired just recapping. it was a lot of walking and we were constantly on the go, it seemed. so... that's it for now. more later. these are just highlights for now of the coolest things i saw. 

cheers!

yes, so, i've been running around town shopping for stuff for my morocco trip. mainly, the need was a backpack, or as people call them here, rucksack. (and never say fanny pack here, it's bum bag. apparently, fanny is a vulgar term for the vah-jay-jay.) today, i found the best pack ever, or at least the best pack for the time being:

i kinda look like a rucksack model, don't i? not to say i look like a model like i could be on the cover of vogue, but the stances in these pictures. they are just classic. so, let me introduce you to the karrimor, hot earth rucksack. the sack holds 40 liters, which should be plenty of space for me to be able to fit my belongings for an extended weekend. people in the ether reviewing the sack say that it was: tested with mountaineers, climbers, explorers and high
adrenaline action sport athletes. very good and handy backpack for
those more enduring activities. and now, i own the same darn bag. amazing. i think it's out of my league.

so, 4.5 days worth of stuff is to fit in that backpack. this should be interesting - me, pack light? just one pair of pants for the entire trip? oh yes, and its 70 something degrees there. scratch tank tops and other summer clothes though. as an islamic country, i'm going to try to be respectful and cover up. jeans. long sleeve shirts. i'm not looking forward to that aspect. yes, this should be an interesting trip. 

oh, and i came across this lovely piece of art today on the side of a building on the East End. there was something about her that i  particularly liked...

so... up until recently, i kind of was in a dreamy state. living in london for a few months, all expenses paid... i was on top of the world. but then something happened to put me in a vulnerable state, make me feel uncomfortable to say the least, and then came the reality check. i am in a foreign country, albeit an english speaking one, and i am alone. and that realization, kind of stunk. i mean sure, london is an easy place to navigate- i've gotten settled in pretty quickly and pretty easily. but, this isn't my home. and that means a few things - i really don't know the lay of the land quite yet, and i don't have a network of support here.

the upside of all of this is that i have been able to see the loveliest side of the loveliest people in my life. as with other "crises" i have faced, the good people, the truly good people, they show up when you need it the most. even when thousands of miles apart, people show you who they are.

that's it about that.

this weekend - changing of the guards at buckingham palace - terribly overrated:

other stuff included the sandblast festival at this lovely place on the east end called rich mix, spitalfields market, and some obligatory shopping. it's never fun to shop when you have to. i have learned too much about backpacks this weekend.

it's off to morocco this friday. i can't wait to get out of this place if even for the weekend.