In pursuit of pomegranates: Our New Home!

On Monday Karim and I said our final goodbyes to our palace. It was sad to leave – we had a lot of good memories there. It was where we celebrated my birthday party and where we got engaged. I’ll also miss the neighbourhood; the supermarket within walking the distance, the patisserie shop that was even closer and the waiters at the local cafe that would automatically bring me my orange juice. I will miss you Santa Rosa Cafe!

So my last few days there were filled with frantic packing. We had so much stuff we had to order a small truck to help us move! (How I’m going to get my things back to Australia I have no idea!) And then I had to unpack it all at the other end! We are still getting things organised in our new place. It is a lot smaller than the palace, but perfectly adequate for us two. There is a living room, bedroom, small kitchen and bathroom. Again it is on the top floor but now only 31 stairs instead of 70. The number of cushions has also been downgraded from 50+ to 4. We have hot water (one of my prerequisites) but no TV and no fridge. We are thinking of buying a small fridge, but we’re not sure we will be able to fit it down our street and up the stairs! (Remember, our street is one of the skinny people streets!) Again there is glitter on the walls and we have replaced our flashing disco light in the old bedroom with a red light bulb in this one. It looks like a brothel!

So we are on the top floor, but it’s not really an apartment building, it’s more like one traditional old house. Each floor is a separate apartment, but being the one house they are all sort of connected by the central open space. When I look down in the middle, I can see into their apartments and they can see up into ours. It’s like we’re living in the same house as 2 other families. And we can hear everything! Music, TV shows, every word of every conversation, screaming children. When someone opens or closes a door, it feels like it’s in our apartment! And Moroccans are generally not known for their quietness! On the brighter side (literally), this central space is open to the sky. During the day we get heaps of natural sunlight and at night time I can stand in my apartment and look at the moon and the stars! I just hope there is a cover for it when it rains!

The best part about our new place is that we walk outside and we are immediately in the midst of the medina bustle. I can hear the roosters and donkeys from our house! Everything we need is literally at our doorstep, and Karim’s work is about 2 minutes down the street. We are here for the next 2 months, and I think we will be very happy! So that is our new place and I have included a few photos as well. And again, if anyone wants to see it in person, you are of course more than welcome!