Thursday, August 7, 2008

Flying Carpets

After leaving Marrakesh we headed to the heart of Morocco! We drove for hours on this long, windy road and along the way we passed countless mountains which were the most amazing browns and reds and occasionally a hint of orange. We spent the night at this gorgeous hotel which overlooked Gorge du Dades and the scenery was amazing. The next day we climbed up to the top of the gorge and got some amazing views. It was hot and it was very rocky and surprisingly quite an easy walk to the top. I'm not particularly fond of hiking, especially in hot weather but the weather in Morocco is actually quite bearable. The heat is dry and generally there is a breeze which helps keep me cool.

Our tour included a visit to a carpet making place where they showed us how the handmade carpets are weaved and I fell in love with a carpet that I wanted to buy you mum but two reasons stopped me - lack of money and lack of room in my suitcase, so sorry about that! A big Moroccan carpet takes about four months to make. Can you imagine anyone in a big city spending four months trying to make a carpet? We also tried Berber Whisky which unfortunately is just green tea with mint. I was excited - alcohol, I thought - but alas, no, just tea. They showed us how to make it by putting the tea leaves in and then water, mix it up to clean the leaves. Strain the leaves them put them back into the pot and add more water. Place it onto a hot fire, wait for it to boil and then add the mint in at the end. If you want sugar in your tea then you must add this before you put the 'clean' tea leaves back into the pot. I'm not normally a tea drinker but it was really nice actually. I want to start drinking green tea anyway because it is meant to be good for you.

Just a quick side note because it is on my mind - the Polish girl I'm sharing a room with is angry at me because I refused to barter for a bracelet that she wanted. I told her if she wanted to buy the bracelet she needed to barter for it herself. So, now she is having a bit of a teary because she told me "friend's are meant to do stuff for each other" and I thought to myself 'yeah and I've known you for 3 days and you snore like a camel, I'm not exactly sure that qualifies for a D&M friendship right now. Buy your own damn bracelet.' I felt a bit bad thinking that but she is so moody and can't take a joke and takes everything I say too seriously and I just can't be bothered.

Food is amazing! Tagines full of meat and vegetables, cous cous with the most amazing sauces, skewers, Moroccan salads which consist of rice, beetroot, cucumbers, tomato, red onion and a delicious dressing... I never want to leave! They also serve bread like it's going out of fashion! We've also had awesome soup! Speaking of food, it's almost dinner time so I'm going to go find the restaurant. Enjoy your spag bol tonight while I am off to feast on some delicious Moroccan cuisine.

Sim
x

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

hi simone,
thank you for the lovely thought buying a carpet for me lol, glad it did not fit in te case, lol, enjoy all, sounds like you having a great time,
love you
mum
xxx