Embracing life - tj style: Day 21

Up early for breakfast then Mardi and I went to the local market to explore and take photos. I am so amazed how friendly the people are...more so than any other place I have been to so far I think. Bought some fruit (sweetest strawberries!), then back to the hotel to say goodbye before taking a train to Rabat.

Arrived in Rabat and the first thing we did was get lunch - kefta sandwich (meatballs, tomato, onion in a roll) with chips and a fabulous coffee (nous nous - coffee with half milk). From there we went on a self-guided walking tour ie our leader did not come with us, we walked through the market, past amazing buildings, food stalls, tiled entrances and gorgeous doors, to a cemetery which we could walked through to the Atlantic ocean beach (reminds me of Clovelly!). People were out surfing. A group of us followed the beach around to the kasbah (walled city full of white and blue washed buildings - reminded me of Greece), through narrow lane ways like a rabbit warren.

The group headed to meet the train at Meknes - 15 of us, tourists and locals packed into a kitchen-sized room with only 1 table to sit on, for a 2.5 hour journey. If we didn't keep our sense of humour it could've been a disaster as we were sitting on the floor; it was dirty and limited air but we had the locals and ourselves laughing: Taxis took us from Meknes to Moulay Idris - 45 min drive through the night: Moulay is a whitewashed town that sits on the cradle of a mountain: There are stairs to walk thru the narrow lane ways to enter the homes - just as well I have a backpack: We had a traditional home-made Moroccan meal with birthday cake as one of the ladies on the tour turns 50 tomorrow (NZ time). The meal was huge and we ate cous cous cooked the traditional way:

Weather was about 27 degrees so lovely to be out in it.