Legally Blonde London: Morocco Part One

Since mid-April, I've had the 'holiday itch'. You all know what I mean – when life all gets a little bit much and you spend your days day-dreaming about lying on a sun lounger, margarita in hand, soaking up the rays. These thoughts were becoming a daily occurrence (oops) and so Katie and I decided to book a week getaway to Morocco.

Morocco…probably not your usual holiday destination? When I told people that's where we were heading, we got the usual 'be careful' and 'their culture is so different' and 'make sure you do this that, the other etc.' However, Katie and I are both travellers and it's a part of the world we hadn't yet explored. Add that to the fact it was GUARANTEED hot weather and we found an incredibly good deal, we went right ahead and booked it.

And I loved EVERY minute of it. We arrived on a Saturday evening to the hotel called La Maison des Oliviers (after a 3.5 hour flight catching up on the latest Glamour mag) and BOY was it beautiful. There were flowers and water features everywhere you looked…

We were taken to our room which was practically palatial. High ceilings, separate living and sleeping quarters, a gorgeous bathroom/shower room and a small patio area with tables and chairs. Plus, it the décor was very traditionally Moroccan, which we loved. The bed was big enough for four! What more could you ask for?

We spent many an hour relaxing on bed-like sun loungers by the pool…

I also managed to catch up on some reading (like many, holiday is the time my book-worm side comes out and I manage to get through a book a day)…

The hotel was about 15 minutes from the centre of Marrakesh, so on nights when we fancied an explore we went into the city centre for some food. People are right that the culture is incredibly different. Despite the 40 degree climate, everyone is quite covered up and it was actually Ramadan when we went so no-one could eat/drink until sundown, which was around 7.45pm. The centre square is full of snake charmers, horses and carts, men on scooters and people trying to sell you their wares (anything from Argan oil to photoframes made from recycled tyres). Whilst the hassling did become a little grating at times, 95% of the people were so friendly and really they just want to make a living!

Moroccan food mainly consists of tagines (a 'one pot dish' usually with meat and vegetables/potatoes etc), cous cous dishes and meat kebabs. One night we headed to Kasbah Café, a restaurant we'd found on the map from Tourist Information, which is in the south of the city near the Saadian tombs (more on them in the next post). It is a small roof-top restaurant, with beautiful views and food to match. We went for the chicken kebabs with hummus and vegetables and were definitely not disappointed!