"This one for your wife... no, husband!"

I'm well aware that this is a late entry and my trip to Marrakech was never fully documented. Equally, I didn't actually finish my travel journey either, but it is working as a memory aid!

So the day after the waterfalls, we took the shuttle bus into Marrakech city centre. Using my trusty guidebook, I had a plan. Strolling through the cyber park, purely as way to our destination. It's not an impressive park, but scattered around there are screens from which you can supposedly use the internet. Failed to see one in working order though. Perhaps they didn't like the heat.
Our first stop was Jardin Marjorelle, with its homage to Yves Saint-Lauren. This is a beautifully shady and therefore cool oasis in the summer. Putting this in the afternoon would have been a better idea, giving the option to shelter from the heat.
It is in fact a beautiful garden, striking blue features stand out from amongst the greenery. Although you're never far away from another tourist, it feels incredibly peaceful and so far removed from the rest of the crowded, busy city. I could have stayed for hours, if it weren't for the tummy rumblings. We left the gardens and found ourselves a wonderful Italian ice-cream parlour called Dino's. No idea any more where that is, but the banana split ice-cream was amazing. Well worth the elevenses stop.
Post ice-cream we followed the roads back towards the souks, past the far side of the Koutoubia gardens, home to the landmark minaret.
We never did make it into those gardens or to the minaret, but something in the back of my mind says we might not have been allowed anyway. Still, we got to admire from afar.
From there we made our way to Bab Agnau, which is one of the gates in the city's walls. It's a smaller gate, which a cannon sitting just to the left. There might be a reason for its location, equally there may not be.
The gate lead us into the medina, but away from the depths of the souks. There were a number of open shop fronts selling and making their wares. My pretend husband had his heart set of a hand-crafted wooden chess piece. We watched the artisan carpenter make some extra pieces. He seemed so delighted by the purchase and the French that he made us a necklace each with a chess piece. It's impressive how quickly he made something that is rather intricate.
By this point it was most definitely lunch time. We graced a small rooftop restaurant with our presence. Sitting in the shade, we had a great view of the city. You can really tell apart the affluent areas even when all you can see is roof top.

There's a monkey on my head

Marrakech. It's a place that's been on my hit list for a while now. It notched up a tick next to continent number 5 - Africa.

It's difficult to explain my first impressions. I'd been so hazy on what I expected that simply drinking in the crazy traffic the yo-yo scenery (palm trees, desert shrubbery, pristine golf greens, shabby house, extravagent new villas) it seems to be a place of extremes. The journey from the airport to the hotel allowed plenty of watching as we were staying far out in the Palmeraies in a rather nice hotel. Makes a change from the usual hostelling!
It took a day to get settled in, soaking up some of the beautiful sunshine (playing chess by the pool) for us to make the most of our trip. And by make the most of, I definitely stayed up to watch Andy Murray in the US open final. Shame I fell asleep 2 games from the end!
The following day we booked ourselves onto an excursion to the Ouzoud waterfalls. This was quite the drive away from our hotel, but we shared the trip with a German couple. We hired a guide once we arrived, who took us on a walking tour up to the top and around the whole falls and pools. The guide loved that my boyfriend and I both speak French and tried to conduct the tour in French, ignoring the poor German couple! I've never tried French > German interpreting before, so that was a new experience.

It was a hot day and I wish I'd had swimwear so I could take a dive into the pools as many people were. However the scenery was beautiful and it was followed by a delicious goat tagine lunch overlooking the falls. On the way back to the car, we finally found the wild monkeys we'd heard about. I got to feed them! One jumped on my head which wasn't quite so cool. So whilst the German lady and I were cooing over wild monkeys, the men were backing away, obediently taking photos and waiting with hand sanitiser.
The day was rounded off by the driver forgetting his phone and rushing back down to the restaurant and the car being double parked. So not the smoothest end to the day but a very nice trip indeed. Summarised perhaps by a quote from the guide "In Winter the falls are bigger because there's more water". Logical.

Finn McCool was a bit half-hearted really

I'm told flying into Belfast City is quite something with the runway being so close to the waterfront. Or something. It was pitch black when my plane was landing so I guess I shall never know.
This trip is in that grey area of abroad, with Northern Ireland being part of the UK (I now have the full set!), but it felt like a proper weekend getaway. With the rather large exception that it wasn't a weekend. It was short and compact. Amazingly it didn't rain. Just as well, given that I'd insisted upon visiting Giant's Causeway. It's N.I's most notable tourist attraction, I couldn't miss it. So we started the day with a solid breakfast before heading cross-country at moderate pace (new drivers aren't allowed to drive at over 45mph. Ever. How stupid) But we made it, handed our parking fees over and strolled down to the Causeway.
My first though was definitely "I love the sea!" It's in my blood. I have to love it. There's just something about the smell of the sea breeze. It's refreshing, tiring, and well... salty. I love it. I think I repeated the aforementioned thought numerous times. It probably got a bit boring for my companion.
My second thought was possibly "Wow. I wanna climb that big pile of rocks!" That was a recurring thought. It was the causeway. There are many, many rocks to be climbing. And while many people may marvel at the unique shape and formation of the causeway, the order of the day for all the but the old lady with a walking stick, seemed to be simply climb to the top of a pile of rocks and pose for a photo. Guess that's the inner child coming out of all of us.
After soaking up the view, climbing our little hearts out and meandering back to the car park on a less that direct route, we headed a little East towards Carrick-A-Rede rope bridge. The views are actually better here than at the causeway. The rope bridge is shorter than I had expected. We crossed over to the little island (if that's what you would call it) where there was a smidgen of commotion going on. There were whispers between visitors "Did you see the proposal?" which all became clear after rounding a corner and hearing a young Australian woman shout excitedly down the phone "Mom, we just got engaged!" Of course there was lots of fussing and photographs. I just wanted to know whether he'd actually proposed on the bridge. You can't deny that it's a picturesque setting for a proposal. Crossing back again was held up by an elderly couple trying to recreate a photo from the 1930's of his dad on the same bridge. Very sweet, but I do think they probably should have mastered using a camera before the attempt.
Our day was rounded off by heading back into Belfast, settling into the hotel. By settling in, I do in fact mean sampling the cocktails in the bar and a 3 course meal in the restaurant. (TIP: try a Kiwi meanie from the Fitzwilliam Hotel bar. It was delicious) Staying in a beautiful hotel certainly makes a difference to staying in a hostel.
The next morning was spent taking advantage of the hotel's amenities and breakfast before check-out. The rest of the day was spent ambling around the city centre. I'll be quite honest, we didn't really take in a didn't any sights. I lie, we walked past a few things - perhaps city hall? It was just a nice, slow amble around town, interrupted by stopping for coffee and a bagel. Belfast is quite small and I'm not actually sure what there is to do there. I saw a giant fish installation by the river and the giant lady with a hoop. To be quite frank and just a little bit un-PC, from the side you cannot tell that it's a hoop and it just looks like she's doing a "Heil, Hitler". It has quite the nice message behind it though. The day was concluded by a long, if early dinner at Made In Belfast, complete with staff meeting on the other side of the room. The pudding was amazing and the décor was delightfully quirky.
That made up all of my little trip and before I knew it I was back at the airport (in the dark again) waiting for my flight home. I'm still thinking about how much I love the sea :)