A MOROCCAN EXPERIENCE

A typical village
2 Weeks in this very different place was a step back in time. They still cart by donkey & mules, shepherds with their flock living in tents in the fields,water carriers selling in the markets,many beggars in this poor country, people living without running water in their homes & filling containers at the local well, & many, many shops, all the size of a cupboard, vying for the tourist dollar as they all sell the same thing it's just who can entice the tourist through the door to part with their doe?
It was not as hot as I thought it might be, but then that suited me just fine & I considered the weather to be just that. At least for travelling & walking which we did a lot of.
Arriving in Marrakech for 4 days, we then made an eventful overnite stop in the Sahara Desert, with a camel ride, sleeping in tents & a sand storm for the added excitement, which I can assure was no fun going to the toilet in!!! I leave that to your imagination.





The tranquility & silence the next morning was well worth the copious amounts of sand eaten during the nite!
We were entertained & fed by Berber Men of the Sahara in their striking blue turbans & jellabs & which I couldn't resist buying a turban at least.


I got a bargain but it was hard work!

But you need to be carful of the men, they are onto us white women in a second & we received many offers of marriage, I could have got lucky? but I did resist all offers.
From the Desert we headed to Essouira on the coast , where we had a little trouble finding accommodation & were led around & around by a young lad, not too sure of his real motives, until our packs got the better of us & we took the first empty hotel we found, cheap & only a little dodgy.




It was a most relaxing stop provided you stayed out of the souqs, they are torturouse if you can't bargain & so I was tortured constantly, but I tried to have as much fun, although that became my down fall as I would smile at everyone so they took it as an invitation, naturally! I can only say I'm glad I had limited funds so that I couldn't buy all that was on offer. There were some great things I would have loved to have.



We then headed North to the capital Rabat, after a short delay due to the Kings arrival & all buses were comandiered for his soldiers, & then he didn't arrive!
That was the last we heard of him as we travelled in the opposite direction.
Rabat was uneventful except for the Kasbah & its Gretian like streets which were very pretty & enchanting.


Looks just like Greece so I'm told
We then hit Meknes & Fez, an amazing maze of streets, alleys & narrow winding paths, each brimming with goods of every sort for all types, needs & desires.


Fancy an icecream?


Donkeys & motorbikes are the only things that fit in these narrow alleys

Our last stop was Tanger on the tip near Spain, & we were glad we only had one nite here, it was a very uncomfortable place, with men following & learing at you all the time.
We had some great food & I tried to try all different sorts of things that I came upon even cows kidney stuffed with offal & other things which was very tasty.
It was a very cheap place but by the time you pay for every little thing & tip every one that passes you end up spending as much as elsewhere, almost!
But I did discover that Morocco is about 5 things - SHOPPING, EATING TAGINES, SHOPPING, DRINKING MINT TEA (which was delicious) & THEN MORE SHOPPING!
SO IF YOU WANT A BARGAIN MOROCCO IS THE DESTINATION
Some photos to hopfully capture the place


The Atlas Mountains

GUY FAWLKS NITE

A welsh setting

A tranquil moment in London countryside


It is really quite amazing here at the moment. All nite for the past week firworks have been going off everywhere, loud & smelly but oh so pretty!
It's climaxed this weekend with firework displays & festivals & parties all over the place & it doesn't stop. We all walk down the street jumping in our skins as they're going off every second, doesn't matter how used you are to the noise it still gets me.
I have just found Alexandra Palace, close to our area, a huge palace donated to the public in the early 1900's, houses an ice rink, pub, palace rooms, & the BBC broadcasting station & many acres of parkland, it is really beautiful & a nice walk for moi to tackle.
We found a local Farmers Market which is fabulous, so our weekly food budget of 30 pounds has just jumped to 60 pnd, such yummy food & organic produce to keep me happy & healthy. Found a mushroom man with the most amazing different mushys that you never see in shops, so had to try some varieties & we're trying pheasant for the first time!(it was absolutely delicious!) The varieties of cheeses were fab so we grabed some goats & chilli, & then we found the organic chocolate stall, they had run out of chilli choc so we ended up with white raspberry, it's waiting for the taste test.
School is going well, I get French lessons weekly paid for & have just started reflexology weekly, given by the school & I now have a laptop from them, so can't complain.
Still waiting for Kyle to get a job, hope it's soon as things are getting desperate, & I'm getting very stoppy about it all.
It's starting to get very cold now, ice on the windscreen already & it's not even winter yet. Need to get some winter clothes as don't really have much, but I do have a good coat, that counts.
CCCHHHHEEEEESSSSSSEEEEEEEEEEEEEE & chocolate for a happy day, Love to all from us XXX

Castles Galore!!!

What a week we have just had, Wales & Ireland in 6 days! Too fast, but it was fantastic.

Room for one!
WALES
I have been totally enchanted by Wales, what a magnificently beautiful place. The countryside is lush & picturesque and the villages are quaint & tranquil.
It is Autumn over here which adds to the beauty with the changing colours of the trees and the greeness of the fields dotted with white sheep & grey, handbuilt stone walls, eons old & adding to the charm of the scenery. We only saw a few Castles as we had more time in Ireland for that sort of adventuring, but what we did see of the Castles in Wales were impressive reminders of a once powerful & romantic history. Well romantic as we see it today but definitely a harsh, cold existence & certainly very difficult for women in those long, bulky dresses, no matter how glam they must have looked!
src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/5402/2715/320/Conwy%20Castle%20King%20Henry%201%201200%27s%20Wales.jpg" border="0" alt="" />




We travelled the back roads as they are prettier, less traffic & a better view, even though it is a slower pace, (which I don't mind) & the roads are a little hairy at times & there's no-where to go if you do come across another car or tractor, but nothing compares to the charm of this countryside. And dare I say to my fellow Tasmanians, it is far prettier with the tree canopied roads & old houses & farms & elegant manors with little streams running by, the open fields with many trees & hedges dotted throughout the undulating landscape.
I will definitely return to this place with more time to explore & stay in the many B&B's & dine in the country pubs!
IRELAND
An expensive ferry ride to get there, so a few more days would have been desirable, but we had to get there & with all the other places to explore we wanted to get there sooner than later.
Definitely a place to visit in summer, it was cold & wet the whole 4 days & naturally we had to sleep in the car as we never have enough money, & at 4am it was pretty freezing, so winter must be quite harsh.
Everyone wears gumboots & they have some pretty fancy ones too, & no-one bothers about the rain, just get on with it anyway, out doing what you have to do.
We don't like the big cities, you need a few days to be able to explore them properly although we did find a park in the middle of Dublin that was huge, with reindeer wandering free, a zoo, a fort, a farm, huge monument, a lake & many playing fields that you could drive all the way around & through it.
We set off west to Galway & then around the south to Cork, Kilkenny & back to Dublin, there was a lot of driving & one day was so wet we couldn't even get out of the car so the photos were taken from the front seat & the exploring done in our head.
The country side was still lush & green like in Wales & properties lined with rock fences which give the place such character & charm & many villages are surrounded with the original stone walls from medieval times which is fantastic but makes it impossible to see over the tops & the roadsides are lined with trees & hedges that you can't see through, so much of the sightseeing is of rock walls, trees & hedges which we found quite amusing, every now & then you'd get a glimps of an old ruin or castle or something interesting & we'd say to each other, 'Did you see that?' only to have it hidden again before you could actually see what it was!
We did see quite a lot of old ruins, mostly on properties now neglected or too old to bother with, the roof fallen in & overgrown with vines & replaced with new buildings. We saw many Castles, they are everywhere, mostly old ruins, some privately owned & in peoples' backyards, (now that's fab, owning your own castle & ruins). Some turned into hotels & B&B's & pubs, shops built onto old ruin walls & a few have been restored which we managed to see inside, these were the bigger, well preserved ones, but we were quite amazed at the many small castles that were just one tower with a small walled off garden, not at all like the magnificent, huge castles we see in the movies, & they were dotted all over the landscape.
I loved the villages & towns with the shops & house fronts right on the footpath, all closely packed together & all exactly the same only painted different colours, which didn't take us long to figure out why, 'Which house is mine? The red with white trimmings or the white with red trimmings?'
But we soon discovered that 'Everything is better in Ireland!' The Guiness is truley superb, even I could drink it, (with a drop of blackcurrant, although some consider it a scralige, it is a popular ladies way to drink it). The coffee & hot choc were better, the food, the cafes, the friendliness. And the name RYAN, so popular we are, there was not a village anywhere without the name associated with some thing or other, Ryans' deli, Ryans' solicitors, Ryans' pharmacy etc. etc....
Yes we hope to get back here for more exploring & Castle spotting one day.

Globe Theatre at last!

Well Hi there all you back home, we've been pretty busy getting settled, but not really doing a great deal, although I have been to the markets & we did get to see Shakespeare, 'Comedy of Errors' at the fabulous Globe Theatre, £5 for standing in the slums/peasants arena, & sore feet after the 2 hour show, but worth the effort. It was so grande to be there at last & see this famous & magnificent place & the play was well done, with good acting, a comedy with some laughs, pleasant weather, (luckily!) and amazing history. We went with our new house mate who is an actor & played one of the roles in Spain, so she really enjoyed it for many other reasons. We'll be back there for more I hope, but with everything else we want to do we're pushing it!
The markets are fabulous & even though I don't/can't spend too much money, (saving for the bigger trips), I enjoy just walking around watching everyone & checking out the stalls. They have great Punk/Gothic/cyberdog/funkerelic/alternative spaces & it's a hoot just checking it all out. The cyberdog place was really amazing & the clothes, music & effects are a sight not to miss, expensive, but looking like that doesn't come cheap!
I ran into an expo, London New Designers Awards, & saw some amazing, interesting, inventive, crazy, different, bizzare & clever stuff. Lamp shade made out of wooden pegs which looked really good, a plastic trolly which folded into a carry bag, all sorts of fancy designed chairs out of any material imaginable, innovative furniture & clothes & some great art work, some from glass that really caught the eye & imagination. So that was a great avo without Kyle as he can't cope when I spent hours looking at this stuff.
We got to Cambridge, but found it a bit uneventful, lots of people shopping & lots of universities, but not much else.
We've got a couple of weekends at home while we buy a few essentials, (at the market!) & catch up with our lovely freeloaders who put us up & say thanks. We're also saving as we want to head to Ireland when I get my first break in a couple of weeks, looking forward to that big time!
We love the area we're living in, great cheap shopping with Greek & Turkish bakeries, delies & groceries, a few good cafes, close to a huge park, (Finsbury Park), & 30 mins by bus to the city & 30 mins to my work, I drive now as it takes heaps less time than the bus & is even a bit cheaper, (hard to believe but yes!).
Work is going well & settling in ok, lots of work to organise now that I've worked it out a bit but we're doing some great things in the class which also make it nice for us staff: we've set up a breakfast club & a cafe in our room so we get to chill out sometimes with a cuppa, all part of teaching living &social skills & communication, that's the way to enjoy work!
Couldn't post our pictures of The Globe Theatre for some unknown reason, try again later.
Until next time take care, HAPPY 80th BIRTHDAY DADDY, HAVE FUN!!! Love Mazz & Kyle XXX

Living In London

Well it's been a while as we've been busy returning to Melb for visas, which was great to see everyone again & catch up & tell stories!
Now we're back in London living the lifestyle which is expensive, but we'll manage. As long as I can save so that we can travel as much as possible, which is the whole idea of being in this place.
So far so good, we're loving it & plan to be off every weekend possible to explore a new place, I really hope so, or we may as well be living back home.
Finding a place to live proved a little difficult, as Mother & son we didn't really endear ourselves to many vacancies, especially wanting to live in the same room together? Eye brows raised & silent questions not asked, but we know what they were thinking, (& me a teacher with a reputation to uphod!).
It took 10 days of searching, ringing & talking (or refraising my language to make us sound better), but we managed to end up in a really nice share house where they understood our plight, at last. So we're in Manor House, half way between my work & the city, so not bad. there are 7 of us living together & a great mix from all over the world, Spain, the Panama, Portugal, France, & us 2 Aussies, & a mix of proffessions as well, an actor, opera singer, cartoonist, chef, events manager & teacher & one unemployed youngster, (but he is looking - a bit half hartedly, but it's a start). And I can't be too hard on him as it's really his first experience & in a new country, but he wants to do so much & it all requires £.
My job is fantastic so far, I have 9 really high functioning young teenagers, who are all lovely & no real behaviour problems, so that's nice, 2 aids, now that's hard to get used to, we don't get that in Australia, & a teaching program that's already been set out in the curriculum so all I have to do is follow the steps basically, & add a bit here & there, so we should get through the year ok.
This weekend we're off to check out Camridge, not too far away, so at least we're putting our theory into practice & actually getting out to see the place, I'm happy about that.
Kyle has found his card group, (Yugio or whatever it is he plays) so at least he's starting to get involved & out as he's a bit bored, until he gets a job!!!
Out of time, so until I get back, take care all XXX

Person Anonymous!

What can I say to you except WHAT IS YOUR ISSUE?
Are you bored or are you just a dick!
3 pages of comments all saying pretty much the same is a bit ridiculous, even for the most liberally minded!
Nice comments about our blog, but what are you actually trying to do or say?
But mostly what I'm pissed off about is why are you using our blog to post links?
Do you realise that it's really easy to set up your own blog which you can use for this sort of thing.
Our blog is not for your advertising so please refrain from doing this, we also do not advocate gambling & do not wish this sort of thing to be on our site.
I ask you in the most couteous manner possible on a public site, PLEASE GO AWAY & DO YOUR SHIT SOMEWHERE ELSE!

To all my friens who this blog is intended for while we are travelling I ask you to ingnore these links & sites that are being posted on our comment page & to know that this has nothing to do with us & we are not connected in any way to this person nor do we approve or accept their using of our blog in this formate.
This blog is set up & intended for those interested in our travels & to keep those close to us informed of our adventures, not for any commercial or advertising use.
HAVE A GOOD DAY!

We've done it all now, Well almost!

It's been a fast 10 days wizzing around Europe & we've seen heaps but feels like we've just skimmed the surface in such a short time.
But I got there & I've done it & I'm happy & now I know a bit more about the world & where I want to come back to & explore some more with more time & heaps more money.
We got to Germany & Ramstein for Kyle so he was happy, although there's nothing special there he got his photo taken under the RAMSTEIN sign to prove he made it. We loved Germany, friendly, clean & picturesque, with the most amazing food & the only place we found swimming holes to cool us in this icreadible heat wave we've struck here in Europe.
We got to Luxembourg, Belgium, Amsterdam, the Holland coast & back to France for our ferry back to London.
Gotta go out of time, catch you all soon, Cheers