Victoria and I dedicated our last two days of Morocco to day trips away from the city of Marrakech.

Day 4 was spent hiking the oasis-like Ourika Valley. Both Victoria and I had barely hiked before (maybe she has some more experience than I do) and quite unsurprisingly, I turned out to be a terrible hiker. I was so bad at following the trails that I had to be babysat all the way up AND down by the guide/riad host (plus random strangers. THANKS EVERYONE who had to pull me up that little cliff! I’m forever grateful) who accompanied us on our hike.

We made stops along the way to the Atlas Mountains: an Argan oil coorperative, a Berber home and one of many wobbly wooden bridges.  

Argan oil is a Moroccan specialty and comes in many forms such as extra virgin oil for cooking, mixed with hazelnut paste for dipping bread, scented hair and skin oil, mud facial mask and bar soap. At the Berber home, I saw an elderly lady baking flat bread in a mud oven. The living room was furnished with low tables and countless cushions and carpets and a tea set sat on top of one of the tables.

There was a river running in the valley area which was flanked by semi-open-air restaurants whose tables perch right on the edge of the riverbanks. We had a Berber-style lunch by the river with lots of slow-cooked vegetables, couscous and fresh fruit.

Overall it was a very nice day and I’m pretty sure I’ve got to get a month’s worth of workout done in just one day.

On our last full day in Morocco, we visited Ouarzazate, which has served as a filming location to popular movies and television shows like Mummy, The Gladiator and Game of Thrones. I haven’t seen Game of Thrones yet (don’t panic. I will get to it, eventually) but even without seeing the show I was mesmerized by its magnificence: the tan mud-brick kasbahs and city walls stacked on top of each other, the cloudless azure sky and the lush green of palm trees. Everything about the place was so beautiful and flawless that every single photo I took came out like postcards.

After returning to the riad, we had a huge dinner prepared by the riad staff. The homemade tagine was great but it was way too big for two girls.

We had minor issues with payment thanks to Hotels.com and Babette’s (the French owner of the riad) inflexibility with credit cards. We ended up going to Djemaa El Fna and use a cash withdrawal machine to pay for the bill which caused Victoria’s card to be blocked by the bank. We had to go back to London stuck with the blocked card but with the help of my dorm neighbor, Victoria was able to get her card to work again.

I still miss Morocco to this day. It’s like a homesick except Morocco is not my home. I would totally love to go back again to buy a large earthware tagine for cooking and a soothing glass of fresh mint tea.

For the pictures, please go to http://krazzykitty.tumblr.com/#51147901164.

Location: London, UK