From the windy city to the crazy heat in Marrakesh

So here’s my final post on Morocco, we packed in quite a fair bit in our last few days so hopefully I’ll do it justice. Anyhow, so one of my highlights of the tour happened on our journey from the mountains to Essaouira, we saw some goats up some trees. This is something our guide sent us and I honestly thought it was photoshopped but nope they really can be found up the Argan tree munching away on some Argan nuts. They were the cutest things ever, especially the little baby goats, although I got a great laugh out of one very impatient goat head butting another one basically telling him to hurry up down the tree already, so funny. Continue reading “From the windy city to the crazy heat in Marrakesh”

From the luscious oasis to a mountain gite

So it’s been about a week since I last posted and rather than try fit in everything that I did and saw in one post I’m gonna split it into two, especially as I’ve so many photos as well, would be a terrible shame not to put them all up, ha. So in my last post we had just arrived in the Todra Gorge. After an afternoon of relaxation we went for a lovely river walk passing through the oasis that sits in between the mountains. We saw a massive beetle scurry across our path and wild mushrooms of various sizes underneath a fallen tree. We passed under lots of palm trees and by plenty of impressive vegetable lots, it was very peaceful and a little cooler than earlier in the day. We were driven over to another part of the gorge where families were having picnics and children were learning how to rock climb, very brave. We had dinner back at our hotel, I opted for the spaghetti bolognese and we had some mint tea to end our night. Continue reading “From the luscious oasis to a mountain gite”

From the blue city to the Sahara

My second day in Chefchaouen was very chilled. I hiked up to the mosque and was treated to a panoramic blue-tastic view of the Pearl of the North, such a beautiful city. Then I wandered about town, browsing the shops when it was lovely and quiet. I bought a ticket for the Kasbah for 60 dirham (15 dirham for the locals, usual tourist tax). It was lovely and cool inside, turns out their holey walled ventilation system really does wonders. I relaxed there for a while and then got some more lovely city views from the tower. Afterwards I eventually found some safety pins, they are like gold dust around here, haha. Had a mixed juice and chicken skewers for lunch. Continue reading “From the blue city to the Sahara”

A whistle stop tour of Casablanca and falling in love with the blue city

So I arrived safe and sound in Casablanca on Wednesday evening and I was met by my concierge and driver from the Odyssee Hotel, both very welcoming and friendly too. My driver took me the scenic, coastal route to the hotel so I got a chance to see the very busy beachfront, the magnificent Hassam II mosque and the palm lined wide streets which made me feel like I was more in LA than Morocco. My driver also gave me lots of tips on where to go, where the African souk was etc. He was very helpful. Continue reading “A whistle stop tour of Casablanca and falling in love with the blue city”

Ready for a Moroccan adventure

So it has been quite a while since I have written on the blog and although I did head away on a few weekend breaks to European cities the last year (Birmingham, London, Brussels and Koln) I have been very lazy with the blogging. But I’m back on track, well for the next fortnight anyways as I’m heading away on another summer adventure. This time I’m heading to,,,,drum-roll please……..Morocco with G Adventures for a 2 week fast paced tour. Continue reading “Ready for a Moroccan adventure”

Raindrops keep falling on my head….

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I returned home to the lovely Emerald Isle two days ago and already India feels like a distant blur. Suddenly my home town seems very peaceful and quiet after the cacophony of sounds over in India, although we did get a little break from the beeping when we went down south to Goa, so back we go to this day last week.

img_2828-1We grabbed one last coffee in Glenz and did a quick stroll around the humid streets of Delhi before getting an Uber to the Delhi airport, cost INR300 between 3 of us. Once we got to the airport we saw that there were long queues at each entrance, it soon became apparent that we needed a print off of our ticket itinerary to get into the airport. We chatted to one of the security guards and she was very helpful, she told us that we had to go to the first entrance and print off the ticket from the airline desk. INR75 later we had our print outs and we had gotten into the airport, checked in and left our bags and we had some falafel wraps for breakfast. As we were boarding our Air Asia flight we could hear music blaring from the airplane, it was the song ‘On the Beach.’ It was like something out of a club on the plane, between the pumping tunes and the condensation that was so heavy I felt like I was at a concert. Throughout the flight it felt like everyone seemed to know each other on the place, there were big groups of friends and large families all chatting to each other. We landed a few hours later and grabbed a taxi to our hostel, Old Quarter by Hostelcrowd, in the Fontainhas area of Panjim. Continue reading “Raindrops keep falling on my head….”

Beep, beep, beepity, beep

I am back in Delhi, back to the starting point of the tour and it suddenly seems less chaotic now after the last few days in Agra and Varanasi. It even seems less humid too, maybe I’ve gotten used to the heat……doubtful though.

Anyways time to go back to last Saturday morning where we left beautiful Abhaneri by private bus and arrived in Agra. Our hotel, Karan Villas, was on the outskirts of the city but very close to the infamous Taj Mahal. We had the option of getting up to see the Taj at 4.30 for sunrise the next morning or doing it ourselves another time. Claire and I chose to go see it ourselves that afternoon. Continue reading “Beep, beep, beepity, beep”

The last few days in Rajasthan

Where I am sitting at the moment is so very different to the busy cities that we’ve experienced the last week or so. We are out the country, surrounded by nature with exotic birds tweeting and screeching in the trees and the odd peacock showing off it’s feathers. It’s such a peaceful location here in Abhaneri Niwas but let me go back a few days first……back to Pushkar….

The early morning train journey to Ajmer was pretty quick, it was a seater train for a change, plenty of air-com and we drank it plenty of chai to wake us up. We had a little peruse of the brides/grooms section of the Indian newspaper whilst on the train too. Continue reading “The last few days in Rajasthan”

Hustle and bustle vs peace and tranquility

I am currently sitting in my hotel room looking out a bay window to the serene Lake Pichola in Udaipur, it’s a lovely 28 degrees out and at times has even been a little cool. It’s such a beautiful, chilled town with plenty of rooftop cafes and restaurants. There are temptations around every corner, from leather bound notebooks to colourful shoes and scarves of course too. Before I start waxing lyrically about Udaipur I need to talk about our last stop, which was Jodhpur, aka the Blue City.

Jodhpur

We left Jaisalmer at the crack of dawn on the 25th and boarded our sleeper train where I chatted to Alan about different Indian foods and the love for the sweet and salty combination such as salty lemon juices. Continue reading “Hustle and bustle vs peace and tranquility”

The long journey to the Golden City

I’m writing this from the golden city of Jaisalmer, which feels worlds apart from hectic Delhi. It is such a beautiful city, with its windy little streets that are full of colourful clothes, bags and jewellery. It’s hard to believe that I’ve been in India for nearly a week now. It feels much longer, especially as we’ve done a lot in just the last few days, since we started the tour.

First day

We spent most of Friday just relaxing at Hotel Perfect. We ventured out once to brave the metro and discovered the women’s only carriages on the metro, nice to have the choice, especially if you were travelling solo. We were heading to Tadka 4986, a recommendation from a friend who had been to India a few years ago. It was only a few stops away and thanks to google maps we found it within ten minutes or so. Continue reading “The long journey to the Golden City”