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 […]
Several blog posts ago marked my 200th post, yay! And while no one really liked those montages that sitcoms from the 90s would air when they hit the 100-episode mark, I didn’t want the occasion to go unmarked, so humor me as I present a wee little blogtage. I’ve been writing this blog since 2012, […]
Sometimes you don’t even realize you weren’t feeling like yourself until you begin to feel like yourself again. A few weeks ago, I started reading books again and cut back slightly on the nighttime Netflix. I downloaded my novel-editing software to my new laptop and began to finally read comments from my novel’s “beta readers” […]
The first view of Chefchaouen is a stunner — pale blue structures with terra cotta tiled roofs situated at the base of the Rif mountain range. And once you’re in this otherworldly town, walking around narrow streets and up uneven stairs, you’ll find it to be just as stunning. Old men dressed in wizard robes […]
