Leaving the rain in Spain, we flew to Morocco for the second part of our Christmas holidays. Of course it was beautiful and sunny the morning we left Spain.

We flew into Marrakesh, grabbed our transfer to the medina, and were promptly faced with tackling the maze.

Homeopathy pharmacies were you could find a cure for anything.

Kelly above the craziness of Djemaa el Fna, the main square in the medina. An amazing spectacle of snake-charmers, acrobats, story-tellers and dancers. In the right background you can see them setting up the food stalls for dinner.

The best restaurant in town.

Seriously! The street vendors were a great place to eat. Their skewers were delicious, you could see all of the ingredients layed out in front of you, and you know that it would be fully cooked, and it was cheap!

Our Riad (traditional Moroccan house with internal garden) was in the medina, a maze of streets, lanes, and tiny pathways brought us to a true sanctuary away from the chaos.

Our rooftop terrace where we could unwind with a glass of wine after wandering the bazaars. It was always a little bit of relief to find the riad at the end of the day.

Kelly drawing a map to get us back to the riad. Most necessary!!

You could wander and watch the artisans at their work.

Caution needed to be used as most people were extremely aversive to getting their photo taken.

We had a nice visit with this woodworker.

I couldn't get enough of the delicious street food.

We spent an afternoon at a fairly posh hammam. We both got mudded, scrubbed, cleaned, and massaged. Very nice indeed!

We also spent some quality time with the carpet sellers. We found an antique Berber carpet that we bartered very successfully for! (Not one of the ones in the photo)

After a few days we left Marrakech to head to the mountains with intentions to ski for a few days.

Villages in the hills on our way up to Oukaimeden, the "ski resort".

The base of the chairlift. Notice the absence of snow...

Which made me quite sour.

Riding the chairlift (in running shoes and capris) all Kelly and I wanted was a few hundred meters of snow that we could do some laps on.

Again, notice the absence of snow...

But we found our 200 meters (plus about another 200m)!!

She really is a fast skier.

Killer boots man!

A Moroccan ski lesson.

Kelly and the ski technician/rental shop manager

Since there was no snow, we were the only people in town, our crappy little hotel was extremely expensive and the owner treated us like garbage we decided to move on after a night (2 days earlier than planned). In the morning we quickly packed up the car, paid our bill (to the second in charge) and got out of town before we had to face the witch owner.

We headed to another town that was considered the hub for trekkers heading into the Atlas mountains. The drive through rural Morocco was really nice!

When we arrived our town of Asni we found a great guesthouse about 800m from town, up a steep hill. They were so friendly and even offered to take our bags up.

We had the house (and it's enormous terrace) all to ourselves. It was great for enjoying the sunshine, wine and views. The guesthouse had a great hammam that we could have a soak and scrub it.

A women's cooperative where they were making oil, soap, and other cosmetics.

Here we had the opportunity to get out for some hiking. We took the trail up towards the highest mountain in Morocco, Jebel Toubkal (4167m). The conditions were too icy for us to consider an ascent, full ice climbing gear would have been necessary.

The infrastructure for trekking in Morocco is quite extensive; lots of trails, refuges, and guides available to explore the Atlas Range.

A great place for an orange pop!

A refuge near the top of the pass.

From Asni, the road across the high passes to southern Morocco was pretty hairy. Tons of elevation gain/loss with no shoulder, just drop offs.

But on the other side of the pass we saw "GOATS IN TREES!!!!" (as Kelly screamed)

The Shepard.

We made our way a few hundred kilometers south of Agadir to spend our last few days on the beach.

Kelly and Dogs

We took a random road down to the coast and found hese women picking sea snails

Kelly and Octopuses

They were using rocks to smash the shell and putting the snails in a bucket to rinse off. I bent down to try my hand at it; when I had gotten the snail out the woman popped it into her mouth and ate it. She then shelled one for me...not very delicious...(Kelly had just warned me about eating shellfish in Morocco and that was racing through my head but couldn't turn her offer down) It was pretty gross.

The sun setting on our final day in North Africa.

Christmas 2009 - Our Spanish/Moroccan Adventure

Due to horrible flight connections, fares and Kelly's short Christmas break, we decided to stay on this side of the Atlantic for Christmas 2009

Our friend Anuca lent us her family's condo on the beach in southern Spain in the small town of Mazarron. This was our view from the balcony.

Sunrise on our first morning of our holiday.

Our first day happened to be the day of their big Sunday market. Lots to see. This would be the busiest we'd see Mazarron. As it's more of a summer destination, there were very few people around and many of the shops and restaurants were closed.

Kelly shopping for boats at the marina.

We decided to get out of town and check out some of the secluded beaches and try to get in a hike. If rental car companies saw how we treated their cars we'd be blacklisted.

Hiking up to an old pueblo overlooking the Mediterranean.

This would be the last time we saw the sun in Spain.

Off to Granada!

Out of our 7 days in Spain it rained 5 and a half. This really crushed our hopes of skiing if there was snow or hiking if it was dry. We really could do neither.

So we ate tapas.

And went to the baths.

We went to the Alhambra. (The last Moorish stronghold on the Iberian peninsula, a UNESCO world heritage site)

From the Alhambra you could look across to the Albaycyn. Our restaurant for Christmas Eve was right in front of the church at the top of the picture. GREAT views during dinner. (Special thanks to my friends (and sort-of students) Guillermo (from Granada) and Salvador who arranged and booked our dinners and provided us with customized maps of the city of Granada)

Begging the rain to stop!

The view of the Alhambra from our Christmas Eve restaurant.

Christmas morning we woke up and exchanged stockings and gifts. We quickly ate breakfast after hearing that the ski hill had just reopened after 5 days of closure. (Due to high winds and rain)

There was very little snow at the base of the resort but we decided to go for a ski anyway. There was only 1 lift running but they were doing safety checks with hopes to open another one.

They opened the other lift for about an hour before having to shut down the whole resort because of more high winds. We got about 6 runs in. Total. Burn.
What do you do on Christmas Day when the ski hill shuts down?

You go for shots in the local ski shop.

Even though we only skied for an afternoon it was still nice to get out of the city and up to the mountains.

Because of the rain, our visit to Granada mainly consisted of walking, shopping, and eating tapas.

Mmmmm. Sizzling tapas and beer....

Mmmm. Olives and wine...

Really nice Christmas markets.

Our Christmas Dinner starters. Lettuce hearts with walnuts and calamari.

The city was really beautiful with all the Christmas lights set up!

More Awards
Remember the awards that Kelly won a couple years ago? Well she won them again. She won the Henry Hutchinson Scholarship awards for Medical Microbiology and Public Health.

The awards were in the Royal Hospital Kilmainham.

For the awards, 3 of the top students from each university in Ireland (in a range of faculties) are required to write extra exams in each subject. The awards are given based on the results of these exams. She had to study for these exams on top of her "normal" coursework so needless to say she's been working ridiculously hard!!

Sushi Party!
In December we had 3 of my long-term students over for dinner. I had been teaching them for the past 3 months, as they were preparing to write an important English exam.

Yukari, Magda, Kelly (not writing the English exam) preparing the sushi. Magda had make Polish pastry rolls filled with cabbage and spinach that were delicious.

and Cristina!

Cristina making German Christmas cookies. We had to lend her a t-shirt as she was getting covered in flour.

A real feast! (I ate sushi for about 6 straight meals)

Such a great evening, nice to get together outside of the classroom before everyone departed back to their respective homes.