A Day in Belem

November 13, 2024October 18, 2024 / Maria / Leave a comment

This marks my last post about my Europe Trip! After a week in Morocco, we flew back to Lisbon for 1 more day before returning to Canada. Our flight was delayed, so we didn’t arrive in Lisbon until really late at night and stayed in a hostel right outside Rossi Square. Overall, I felt like we didn’t really have enough time in Lisbon. I would have liked to do a food tour and spend some time exploring the Alfama neighbourhood, but we didn’t have time for everything.

On my first visit to Lisbon (12 years previous), I had regretted not going to Belem. I don’t really think Belem is any more special than any other part of Lisbon, but the Tower of Belem seems to show up on lots of travel bucket lists and I’ve always been a little disappointed I never did it. So we dedicated our last day in Lisbon to exploring the neighbourhood of Belem.

First we got up and had a nice brunch in Lisbon city centre, and then we caught the iconic 15E tram line that runs all the way from City Centre to Belem. It’s supposed to be one of the best routes for tourists and it gets really busy as a result. I didn’t find it too bad on the way there, but we forgot to top up our Metro cards and had a hard time getting tickets. The tram runs right through Belem and we got off at one of the last stops to walk over to the Tower.

Emily had purchased tickets online in advance, but they are not timed entry. We thought the tickets would save us from the worst of the line-up, but talk about a scam! The line-up to buy tickets is really short, but the line-up to get in the tower is still really long. It made me mad because once you buy the ticket online, you’re committed to going. You’ve already spent the money and can’t opt not to go if the line is long (without losing your money). I don’t know why they don’t do timed entry like in Sintra.

The line-up wait was forecasted at 2 hours, but it was moving pretty quickly and we ended up getting in after ~45 minutes of waiting. The downside was that it started to rain while we were waiting in line with no shelter. A few opportunistic vendors came by selling umbrellas, but we opted to wait it out in our rain jackets.

Fortunately, the tower is really cool, and because they only let so many people in at a time, it’s not crowded. The tower is constructed on a rock formation on the beach and was built by the King as a military fortification in the early 1500’s. The structure has been expanded on over the years and it underwent a full restoration in the 1990’s, after which it was added to the list of the seven wonders of Portugal. Also on this list is Pena Palace, which we visited in Sintra, and Jeronimos Monastery, which is located just down the street.

We could have made it a double feature and visited the monastery as well, which in my opinion, was a much larger and more architecturally interesting building. But we wanted to actually relax on our last day of vacation and didn’t want to spend another hour waiting in line. Instead, we spent the afternoon walking along the waterfront, where we saw the Belem Lighthouse, the Padrao dos Descobrimentos (a monument to Portuguese navigators), and did a little bit of shopping at a local market.

We walked along the main road to see the Jeronimos Monastery from the outside, and then decided to visit Pasteis de Belem, which is a famous pastry shop. It is absolutely massive, so we didn’t have trouble getting seated, but we also waited a long time to be served. We enjoyed tea and pastel de nata (Lisbon’s famous egg custard pastry), along with a mille feuille for me and chocolate cake for Em. It was all delicious!

We caught the bus back to Lisbon at rush hour, which was extremely chaotic, but also hilarious because I was seated in front of a Portuguese woman who was emphatically chastising her friend Maria for the entire journey. She said her name approximately 10 dozen times and I couldn’t help but feel I had let her down somehow.

We finally made a trip to the local liquor store to stock up on wine to bring home. I ended up getting more bottles than the duty free allowance (which also happened to me in Patagonia), but like Patagonia, no one questioned me or made me pay duties on the extra wine, so definitely don’t be limited by the allowances when returning to Canada (yes, I did declare it)! We picked a nice restaurant in the City Centre and had a fantastic meal before preparing to return home.

It was a long journey home. We flew through Montreal, where my absolutely massive flight to Vancouver got cancelled. Luckily, I got the notification on my way to the gate and I immediately took off running to customer service to be the second person in line. So I immediately got re-booked for the following morning and booked into a hotel. The bigger problem was that they did not release my luggage. I had (even more) duty free wine that I bought in the airport. It had to go in my checked luggage once I left the terminal, so I had to wait around for 3 hours while they tracked down everyone’s luggage. I seem to have inordinately bad luck flying, but I did get a $1200 Air Canada voucher out of it, which I immediately used on 2 flights to Newfoundland, so I guess it wasn’t the end of the world.

This was the first time me and Emily travelled internationally together since we went to Costa Rica in 2016, so we were long overdue for a sister trip and we had a great time! The Azores were my favourite part of the trip, but Morocco was also a very unique experience and unlike anywhere else I’ve been. The food was also a big highlight, with the seafood in the Azores and the flavours of Marrakesh being particularly memorable. And of course, seeing Taylor Swift in concert is worth every bit of the hype and an experience I hope to repeat one day soon!

Ouzoud Waterfall and Camel Riding

November 6, 2024October 18, 2024 / Maria / Leave a comment

After a great day at Ait Benhaddou, we had planned a second excursion to Ouzoud Waterfalls. They are also located outside of Marrakech, but seemed to be slightly closer than Ait Benhaddou. For this tour, we went with a company called Marrakech Desert Trips. I definitely wouldn’t recommend them as much as I would Click Excursions. There was no dedicated tour guide, which was fine because you have a local guide once you arrive in Ouzoud, but more concerning, the bus did not have AC. It is so hot in Morocco and everyone in the bus was quite cranky as it felt like we were being forced into a baking tin can for several hours of driving.

The tour guide meets you right at the bus when you arrive in Ouzoud. It’s optional, but I recommend just taking advantage. They only ask you to pay $2 each for their services for the entire day, so please tip them a little more generously! Our guide shared some fun facts with us about the area, but mostly he just ushered us around the attractions. We started with a view of the falls from the top, where there we’re a ton of monkeys hanging around. They looked a lot more like baboons to us, but we did some research and confirmed that they are in fact, monkeys. You can buy peanuts to feed them from the local kids, but honestly, just take your photo and avoid feeding them. This kind of tourism is never good for the animals and I appreciated that our guide advised us as such.

We hiked down to the falls through some of the local Berber villages and learned that Morocco is one of the biggest exporters of olives and olive oil. There are olive trees everywhere that are tended and harvested by the Berber families. We stopped at a nice viewpoint for photos before finishing the walk to the base. At the base, there are several options. You can pay a few dollars to take a “boat” ride up to the falls, or you can just explore on your own. We were much more interested in swimming, so we decided to forego the boat ride and went for a little dive into the pool instead. The water is actually pretty cold, but not too cold for us Canadians!

The waterfall is quite beautiful. I wondered if going all the way to the waterfall was worth it for one view, but it was a pretty low key day and I actually ended up enjoying it quite a bit (aside from the bus ride). After a refreshing swim, we climbed partway up the cliffside to a restaurant with fabulous views of the waterfall to enjoy lunch. We finished by climbing back to the top and hitting a few more viewpoints (and getting some ice cream), and then we packed aboard the bus again to return to Marrakech.

On our last day in Marrakech, I really wanted to go camel riding. I know it’s a bit cliché, but I’ve never been anywhere that camels are native and I really wanted to cross it off my bucket list. Emily was much less enthusiastic (she has a fear of horses, which she has confirmed extends to camels), but fortunately she agreed to accompany me, while reminding me it was a one time thing!

Emily was more interested in visiting Jardin Majorelle, so we decided to do that in the morning and go for a short camel ride outside the city in the afternoon. Unfortunately, our planning wasn’t great. Jardin Majorelle is a major attraction in Marrakech and we didn’t realize it had timed entry. None of the other sites we visited had timed entry and we arrived at the park to realize that we wouldn’t be able to enter for several more hours, meaning we didn’t have enough time. So unfortunately, we had to skip the attraction, but learn from us if you ever go to Marrakech. It looked really cool and we were sad to miss it.

Emily confirmed that her fear of horses does extend to camels, but she was a trooper and I had a great time on the camel ride! We went 30 minutes outside the city with a small group for a 1 hour camel ride. Going in the afternoon wasn’t the best idea because it was really hot, but I still enjoyed the experience. There was only ~6 of us and we walked around the Palmerie. An hour was honestly a bit long and I was pretty bow legged afterwards, but it definitely ticked the box for the experience. My camel’s name was Scooby-Doo and Emily’s camel was Olivier. We were served cold water and biscuits afterwards before driving back to Marrakech and overall, I thought it was a nice experience.

But that pretty much concluded our time in Morocco. In hindsight, 5 days in Marrakech was a bit too long. I think I would have preferred to have more time, but to explore more of the country. I’m sad we didn’t have time to visit the Sahara, or other cities. I preferred to have a central base because I was a little bit nervous about traveling to Morocco, but I would feel more comfortable returning in the future. The busy-ness of the medina felt overwhelming at times and I didn’t like being out after dark, but otherwise, I never felt unsafe in Morocco. I would definitely love to return to tick sand dunes off my bucket list in the future, though if Emily is involved, I did promise no more camels!

Ait Benhaddou

October 30, 2024October 18, 2024 / Maria / Leave a comment

We had 5 days in Marrakech, so we planned several day trips outside of the city. The first of which was to Ait Benhaddou, a UNESCO world heritage site and cultural landmark in the country. It’s a 3 hour drive from Marrakech, so unfortunately it required a very early rise for our bus shuttle.

We booked our trip with Click Excursions and I would recommend them. Day trips in Morocco are quite cheap, but there are a lot of options to choose from. Most people just pick one off of Get Your Guide, which is by far the most popular platform in Morocco. It can be hard to know which companies are best, so just make sure to read a lot of reviews. We booked directly with Click Excursions to cut out the middleman and it was cheaper that way.

We had a dedicated guide for the day and the first 3 hours of the trip took us through the Atlas Mountains, which are still in the desert and very barren, but beautiful. We had lots of breaks in the morning to pick up food and water and stopped at a few of the mountain viewpoints. One thing I liked about this tour is that we seemed to be one of the first groups to arrive at Ait Benhaddou, so it was not busy (and overall it seemed to have less traffic than other places we visited). This might be due to the fact that we visited in early June, which is not peak tourist season. It get’s really hot in June, but our tour bus had AC, which was really essential.

Ait Benhaddou is basically a very old, fortified village that is maintained using all the traditional methods of adobe house construction. It was originally settled in the 11th century and was a key location on the caravan route between Marrakech and the Sahara Desert. Most people actually visit it on the way to the Sahara, but we didn’t do the Sahara on this trip because of time constraints. It became a UNESCO world heritage site in 1987 and since then most of the families who used to live in the village have moved to the modern town across the highway.

We were met by a local Berber guide whose family grew up in the village and he explained that since they’d received UNESCO status, they had to maintain all the traditional construction methods and can’t change anything in the village. So all but 5 families have moved out of the village to enjoy more modern comforts, but they all continue to maintain it and opt to keep their world heritage status because of tourism. Unfortunately, parts of the village were destroyed in the 2023 earthquake and they are waiting on financial assistance from the government to re-construct. So even though many of the Berber families don’t live in the village proper, there’s still a great sense of ownership and heritage. Make sure to tip your guide and participate in commerce while you’re there because it’s one of their main sources of revenue.

The other main revenue source is the film industry. Ait Benhaddou features in many films and the locals often participate in constructing the sets or as extras. Some of the more popular films shot there include Gladiator 1 and 2 (they were really excited about this one because Gladiator 2 comes out this Fall), and Game of Thrones.

To get to the village, you have to cross a small stream and a large dry river bed. Our guide, Mohammad, told us that it hadn’t rained in 15 months! We walked through the village and started climbing up towards the top, stopping for a break in one of the buildings to learn about some of the local artwork techniques. Historically, the Berber people in this area would use tea to send secret messages to each other, because when you write on parchment with tea, it is invisible, but when you pass the backside of the parchment over a flame, the tea burns onto the paper and becomes legible. The tea is no longer used to pass messages, but artists have adopted the practice and use saffron and indigo to paint landscapes of the city.

It was extremely hot out, but we persisted to climb to the top of the hill to see the view. It is quite a beautiful place and we marveled at the expanse of the desert. We had tajine and skewers in a local restaurant for lunch and then continued on to Atlas Studios in Ouarzazate. I booked the tour to see Ait Benhaddou and didn’t really read up on the rest of the tour. I thought we were going to the city of Ouarzazate, but we were actually going to the film studio outside the city. It seemed super random to us, but it was interesting enough.

We had a very energetic and eccentric tour guide at the studio and he was definitely passionate about movies. He told us that Atlas Studios is one of the biggest studios in Africa – I don’t know how it could compete with the film industry in Nigeria, but from a Western perspective, it’s definitely a popular place for Hollywood movies with desert scenes. Many movies have been filmed there, including The Mummy, Prince of Persia, Gladiator, Cleopatra, Kingdom of Heaven, Aladdin, and some TV shows like Game of Thrones and Prison Break. They have a ton of the movie sets and props preserved, and while we didn’t recognize most of them, it was still a cool experience.

The most unbelievable thing that happened is that while we are on the tour, it started to rain! So after 15 months of no rain, it rained on the one day we visited. It only sprinkled while we are the tour, but then it poured for about 15 minutes on the bus, before completely clearing up again. It felt like a long bus ride back to Marrakech, because we did it mostly in one shot, arriving in the city around 7pm. It’s definitely a full day event. We went out for a quick dinner and then returned to our riad to relax in the pool.

We’d planned another day trip for the next day, but it fell through and we were happy to take it easy in Marrakesh instead. We returned to the markets and made some purchases, but focused more on visiting some of the local attractions. We picked 3 for the day: Medersa Ben Youssef, le Jardin Secret, and the Bahia Palace.

Medersa Ben Youssef is a historic Islamic college that is now a UNESCO world heritage site. It was my favourite of the 3 sites because of the beautiful colours, design, and architecture throughout the building. There’s a large main courtyard and prayer room in the centre, and then it’s surrounded by small rooms for the students.

The Bahia Palace was much more extravagant, but both spaces no longer have any furniture in them, so it’s hard to get a sense of how the space was really used. The Palace also has really beautiful colours and architecture, but it felt a lot like I was just walking through empty room after empty room. The history of the Palace was less apparent as a result, but still a neat experience and there were many beautiful courtyards and gardens.

Finally, le Jardin Secret was the smallest site, but was one of the best spaces from an educational perspective. The garden is really just a restored riad, but it’s very old and large and would have been owned by someone quite wealthy when it was first constructed. It fell into disrepair over the years and was bought by a private owner around 2008 and restored for the public. It didn’t receive any funding, so it’s just the entry cost that pays for the refurbishment.

What makes the space so unique is it’s hydraulic irrigation system. Water was piped to the garden from outside the city, and is dispersed throughout the entire garden using hydraulics and gravity fed channels. It’s a really cool feat of engineering and I’m glad the new owners recognized it and included a lot of information about the system. The water engineer in me definitely geeked out!

We finished the day with another really nice rooftop meal in the medina. I’m not sure what Marrakech is like in peak season, but in June, it’s really easy to get into pretty much any restaurant and we had some delicious meals while we were there!