Arriving in Morocco

Day 1: March 7
After a 3 hour flight and a couple of cosmos, we reached Menara Airport in Marrakech, Wednesday evening. We were anxious to get out of the airport, and into the city. Luckily, we were able to breeze through immigration and meet our taxi driver holding a sign with our names on it. He spoke very little English and was cross-eyed, but incredibly friendly. We drove through the town looking at signs in Arabic, polished, grand buildings alongside crumbling ones, and locals on motorbikes whizzing in and out of traffic. My boyfriend took my hand and smiled. It was our first time being in a city neither of us had been to before... a new experience together. We arrived at our hotel 20 minutes later. It was a beautiful terracotta building with velvet ropes leading to the entrance and hotel staff to greet guests at the door. Walking through the glass doors we were in awe of the huge, sparkling chandelier suspended from the carved wooden ceiling, full of detail.

After checking in, we went to our room, which was in a traditional riad. It was nice to have a room and living area so we could spread out. We were pretty tired at that point and left our bags unpacked, but managed to change before heading over to the hotel buffet. It was called an "international" buffet, but I think the only food they had from another region was lasagne. That was fine, though, the food was still decent and I love trying new dishes. I had some noodles that may have been traditional, but it was so difficult to communicate with the staff because I don't speak French! Anyway, after dinner we went to the hotel's bar/lounge. I tried a blue lagoon cocktail, that wasn't my favorite, so I stuck with house white wine from that point on. There weren't very many guests partying on the dance floor, but employees of the hotel certainly tried to get the party going. They came around to each table, attempting to lure everyone to the dance floor. I managed to convince le boyfriend for about half a song until he sat down, claiming he wasn't "drunk enough" yet. I gave up after about 30 more seconds and decided to sit and watch the group dance, instead. They moved well. And it was easy to, with the music the DJ was playing. All old school selections, but of the best variety. We drank for a couple of hours and went back to the room around midnight for some much needed rest.

The gorgeous lobby ceiling

A developing garden right outside our room

Entrance to the courtyard of our room

Pretty vines growing around the garden

A peek into our bedroom

Flowers on the steps to the pool

A view of the mountains, while relaxing in the sun