Marrakesh, Morocco

Morocco was crazy. Pretty much, I could finish the post there and feel like I summed it up rather grandly. We got in around 10 in the morning, but we had been up since 2:30 am. I was feeling good until the bus dropped us off and we walked into our part of the Medina (the walled in 'old city'). We were definitely not in Europe anymore. My first impressions were not good, I won't lie. Our hostel was the sketchiest place I have ever stayed, the streets were lined with markets selling meat and breads covered in flies, and the area we were in definitely did not look anything like the famous Jemaa el Fnaa I had just seen on America's Next Top Model (and that our hotel claimed online was only a five minute walk away). This combined with no sleep and crazy pregnancy hormones equals one lady who wants to spend her two days in Marrakesh watching Alias in her creepy hotel room.

Luckily, things started looking better after we located a supermarket and I found my ultimate comfort food, chocolate milk (seriously wouldn't want to visit a country that doesn't have it). Morocco was totally different than what I expected, but turned out pretty cool and really different from anything I had ever seen(which I hope someday will be really saying something). Hurray for visiting my fourth continent.

one of the MANY mosques

Matt with the snake charmer who tried to charge us 30 bucks for this picture and a few others like it. 'Ha!' was all we said to that.

In front of the main square(it was really cool once we actually found the place... the medina is like a maze from your nightmares)


A famous garden and house, once owned by Yves Saint Laurent. And yes, after who knows how many seasons of Top Model, I still didn't know who the heck he was. Luckily, Matt did.

Just eating some skewers. Eating these made us miss the spiciness of Hunan... strangely, Morocco made me miss China quite a bit.

Duisburg, Germany

Our next stop was to visit Matt's family friend Kathinka (who stayed with them as a foreign exchange student when she was in high school). Matt was super sick when we were there (thanks to whatever Carter brought the 'runny nose of death' to Tahoe), so we took it pretty easy. Duisburg is a pretty city, but not a lot to see... so we just relaxed, took a walk by the canal, took a picture at Lego Land and ate some delicious German food. It was good to finally meet Kathinka, and her parents were excellent hosts!

I would definitely be down with being stationed in Germany w/ the Air Force so I could see more of it!

Oh, and how could I have forgotten to mention that we went to a modern art museum where Lady Gaga had just visited the previous month... riveting, yes? I don' t know why I forgot to mention it above.

Etretat, France

Or, as Matt's family calls it 'the cliffs of insanity'. Whatever you call them, they were gorgeous(this is where I took the picture from the post below). It was a really blustery day, and Matt kept climbing into such precarious places I was afraid he was going to be blown away. Luckily for me, he wasn't. What would I have done in France with no translator?
(Oh, I wish I could have done these cliffs justice, maybe when I have time to sort through them for real and do some editing... but these will have to do for now)




(just in case you missed it on fb, my 20 week baby bump. Hopefully soon my belly will be bigger than my hiney...but we all know I will have to be very pregnant for that to happen)