When I first moved to Rabat, I heard whisperings that there was a “pottery village” across the river in Salé and I was intrigued. When I finally checked out Oulja Pottery Village, or as I call it Oulja Artisan Village (because it’s more than pottery), I was gobsmacked. There exists a peaceful complex filled with gorgeous […]
I’ve been reading Mark Twain’s Innocents Abroad, which is a travelogue that recounts a grand voyage by sea and land that Samuel Clemens/Mark Twain embarked upon with some super rich Americans in 1868. The writing is wonderful and Mark Twain is an absolute hoot. I’ve laughed out loud on almost every page. And, as you might […]
Readers, I’m sorry posts have been sparse this past month. The thing with living in a place as cool as Morocco for just nine months is everyone wants to visit! So we’ve had a revolving door of family and friends and it’s been fun (repeat trips to Chefchaouen, Marrakech, Fez) but hasn’t left me much […]
Rabat/Salé is one of those city duos separated by a river, like Minneapolis/St. Paul, or Budapest. The Bou Regreg river divides Rabat and Salé and empties into the Atlantic at the edge of both cities. Here is how novelist Edith Wharton described the two cities in her 1920 guidebook “In Morocco:” Salé the white and […]
I recently read this article about the most common scams on travelers in Morocco and how to avoid them and it got me thinking about how much I hate, loathe, despise and abominate being at the receiving end of an attempted scam. There’s something uniquely sucky when someone tries to scam you when you’re in the open-hearted […]
I can be hard on myself about certain ways in which I handle living abroad. Awkward language-barrier encounters, not being assertive enough, not having local friends. But one thing I’ll say outright that I deserve kudos for: Driving a car in foreign countries. To know why this is especially commendable in my particular case, we’d have […]
(Warning: Major spoilers below for the television show You). In the Netflix show “You” an obsessive serial killer boyfriend locks his procrastinating writer girlfriend in a glass cage located in the the basement of a quaint New York City bookshop. He has to keep her prisoner there because she discovered all his murderous deeds, […]
I’m not quite over Sri Lanka, despite being back in Morocco for more than a week now. Yes, the nature and animal sightings were spectacular. But what has really stuck with me is how damn good Sri Lankan food is. It’s similar to southern Indian food: lots of rice and curries and generous use of […]
For the past few years, we’ve spent New Year’s in Italy. First in Rome, and then in Florence. And I could do that every year. So I tried to push for a chilly European getaway this Christmas and New Year, but Adam wasn’t having it. I’m starting to lean towards wanting to re-visit places I […]
Fez used to be the capital of Morocco but today it’s the country’s artisan capital, which is why it was high on my list for a visit. Many of Morocco’s beautiful goods, like pottery, rugs, leather goods, blankets, baskets, and more that I’ve seen all throughout Morocco are made in Fez. In November, I drove a […]
