As I slowly woke up to the sound of birds chirping and the early morning sun peeking under my padlocked bedroom door, I had a moment or two of confusion while the jet-lagged brain cleared from 9 glorious hours of sleep.   Getting to Marrakesh was a blur…we initially feared we were forgotten in the Casablanca airport, but when 2 men in colorful robes finally walked up, we thankfully followed them to their SUV and had a dozing drive along the Moroccan highway. 

The walk to our riad was exhilarating….like stumbling through the stalls of Chinatown in New York, only instead of knock-off handbags and Tiffany jewelry, I was tempted by the aromatic pull of colorful spices sold in barrels and the twinkling Moroccan lanterns as large as my kitchen table I knew I must to find a way to ship home!  

There was no time to stop and shop however–we had to keep moving deeper and deeper into the winding cobblestone streets, following the man and push cart holding all of our worldly possessions for the next 3 months.  When he deposited us outside a small, tiled doorway and made motions for a tip, I handed the husband my wallet…I was much too tired to figure out currency today!

Breakfast was started with fresh squeezed orange juice…and chocolate cake.  And while this picture isn’t of chocolate cake, as I’m a bad blogger and was jet-lagged, it is a representation of the breakfast theme in Morocco: CARBS.   He theorized that the citizens needed to keep their energy up all day to combat the heat.   I simply think that a culture based around saffron, cinnamon and cumin had such a sweet palate they thought nothing of juice, cake, bread, and honey for breakfast each day…with sweet meats and fruits as dessert and dates and mint tea as their mid-day snack!