Leprechauns and Snake Charmers

Fáilte Ireland!

Welcome to Ireland! Steve and Daniel explored the Emerald Isle a week and a half ago and had a grand 'ole time. I wasn't present for this trip - a boys only adventure - but I told Steve I would include a few of his pics from the trip to share with family and friends back home. Steve asked me what I wanted him to bring me from Ireland and I quickly responded, "a leprechaun, of course!" The leprechaun has yet to appear, but if I couldn't find one myself back in 2005 I wasn't holding out much hope that Steve would have any more luck in 2010.

River Liffey - runs right through the middle of Dublin.

Christ's Church Cathedral

Dublin. Castle. Eighteenth century (most of it, anyway). Beautiful.

View of the church interior inside Dublin castle. The stone vaulting/carving reminds me of Westminster Abbey. Exquisite.

مرحبا بكم في المغرب

What a crazy adventure Morocco turned out to be! I loved it. Some aspects of our time in Marrakech transported me right back to the Old City in Jerusalem (however, no one can re-create falafel and chicken schawarma like the vendors in Jeru....simply not possible no matter how hard I wish it). Cultures like that of Marrakech are hard for me to explain. It's just so different from what I am used to having grown up in Bountiful, Utah, USA. Besides seeing new sights, tasting new foods, and doing all kinds of crazy things that I wouldn't ordinarily do, one thing that stands out to me after a trip like this is how grateful I am to be an American. I try not to take that for granted, especially after five days in Africa. We almost got stuck there for who knows how long thanks to the volcano in Iceland! Yikes. Luckily, on Saturday morning we checked the internet and saw that our flight had been canceled due to the ash cloud over Portugal/Spain air space, so we immediately booked a flight on EasyJet, which thankfully wasn't canceling their flights. It was a very long trip home (started at 3:00pm on Saturday and finished Sunday afternoon at 4:00pm), but we were anxious to be on UK soil in order to make flights back to the States this week. Prayers to silence the Eye-a-whatchamacallit volcano would be greatly appreciated. =) Enough about that though - enjoy the pictures from an enchanting city...

Can't even begin to describe how wonderful the 80-degree weather felt! No jacket! Amazing.

We made it! Come to find out, they closed the Edinburgh airport after our flight took off. So, not only were we lucky to get out in the end, we were lucky to even get to Morocco in the first place.

We stayed at a Riad in the heart of the Medina (Old City) and had a five minute walk to get to Jemaa el Fna (main square).

Another picture of our Riad. Very cool.

You can't take a photograph without the snake charmers swarming around you placing snakes on your neck, which is their way of insuring that you pay them money for the pictures you take. Shady! I think Steve enjoyed the experience though.

Example of the poverty you see once you get off the beaten path.

Marrakech is full of amazing architecture - it's impossible to get tired of it.

You can be walking down a rundown street, turn a corner, and bam! there's a sweet archway.

Doors to one of the palaces in Marrakech - inside is off limits to visitors.

Koutoubia Mosque. This is the Eiffel Tower of Marrakech. It dominates the skyline in every direction and is really good for figuring out where you are when you get lost in the maze known as the Medina. =)

One of the doorways at the Saadian Tombs. Exquisite wood carvings are everywhere!

Tombstones. I loved these. The inscription of the deceased is written in arabic around the circumference of the stone. I couldn't understand any of it, but it was so interesting. Arabic has to be one of the most beautiful written languages in the world.

Apparently we still have a thing for cemeteries....

Most of the tombs are covered in large halls like the one behind us, but there are some graves outside as well.

My henna tattoo. Where do I even begin? As strange as this may sound, this dermatological motif was forced upon me by a crazy lady in the Jemaa el Fna. I was planning on getting one at some point, but I wanted an indiscreet, small design on the back of my wrist in brown ink, so as not to be obvious at my sister's upcoming wedding. NOPE! I shouldn't have even asked questions. The lady grabbed my hand to give me "a small token for luck." Yeah right. Once again, she was out for mi dinero. I asked her to stop, but she would not let go - iron grip for sure. She wanted an extraordinary amount of money for the design she made, but in the end, I gave her about 5 bucks.

A little blue glitter bling to top it all off. How kind of her to make it match my outfit that day! Good thing I got permission from Lindsay to show up in Utah with henna.

A view of the Medina from the rooftop of our Riad.

Jemaa el Fna ('La Place') at dusk. This place is packed in the evenings - everyone comes to shop, eat, hear stories & fortunes told by the locals.

Magic carpets! Good for floor & wall decor.

We spent a lot of time in this position in order to soak in all the ceiling decoration inside the Bahia Palace.

Dark brown cabinet woodwork with colorful inlay. Very white 27-year old American with colorful overlay. =)

We were happy to see the sun on this vacation

Daniel and Steve reenacting nomadic life inside a private collection detailing the African heritage of Moroccan culture.

Taking a break and soaking it all in inside a Riad courtyard. We had a fun conversation here with one of the museum workers that gave us the scoop on Moroccan life. I felt much better about how much I paid for my henna after talking with him - he said 25-35 Dirhams was plenty. Anything more is extortion. Excellent.

We wandered outside the city wall for dinner one night and enjoyed a lovely stroll during the sunset. Weather was perfect.

Even in Marrakech. We didn't eat here, but I have to admit, I was curious to see what the McArabia looked like.

Fruit/Vegetable market. I learned a very valuable lesson from advice given to me in Cairo - never eat produce. Ever. If you do, well, your insides will explode. =)

Not exactly the Khan el-Khalili in Cairo, but the various souks in Marrakech were a blast to wander through.

Daniel and Shauna souking it up. Shauna tried her hand at bartering and came away with a lovely silver bracelet that went from 600 down to 150 Dirhams in under 20 minutes. Nice work!

These guys were my favorite. They totally ripped me off (and when I say that, I mean I ended up paying 2 bucks more than I should have) but it was worth it for how much fun it was talking with them. Steve and I collect ornaments from all the places we've traveled to for our Christmas tree and I found a really cool hand of Fatima decoration that has Morocco written all over it. The owner (guy on the right) asked if I wanted to purchase 100 of them so that he could make me a really great deal. Daniel's reply, "Sure, why not? We'll just open up our own store across from yours and sell them ourselves!" Lots of back-and-forth joking like that. They were hilarious. I turned down the offer to buy the whole store, but ended up buying a couple carved decorations to represent Marrakech on our tree.

I love this picture. When I think of Marrakech, this image will always come to mind. A view from the souk of a mosque entryway.

Huge expanse of landscaped gardens on our walk to La Manara (another garden)

Camels! Not as tall as the Cairo variety, but still fun to ride. Shauna got the bucking bronco - that camel was not happy to be on duty. I've never seen a biting camel until I met this guy. Luckily, he calmed down and let Shauna ride on him for awhile.

Another view of Koutoubia Mosque.

Fruit and nut stands in Jemaa el Fna. Once again, look with your eyes but not your hands (and certainly not your mouth)!

Steve liked the guys with the crazy hats.

Hour two of our journey home. Good thing we travel with playing cards.

Hour 15 of our journey home. We're at least back in the UK now (Manchester airport to be specific). I have one rockstar of a husband. I've never been a fan of facial hair, but I have to admit, Steve pulls off a ruggedly handsome look after four days of not shaving. Impressive.

And that is a taste of our trip to Marrakech. An amazing place with a lot of culture and a lot of beautiful sights to be explored and stories to be told.

شكرا لإصغائكم