Over the (honey)moon!

Time for my last blog – tomorrow I will be on a plane back to Melbourne. I can’t believe how quickly these 6 weeks have gone, but I guess I’m leaving just in time; Ramadan starts tomorrow or the day after! 

So after the stress and excitement of the wedding, Karim and I managed to get away for a few days for a second honeymoon! First we went to chefchaouen, a quaint blue and white medina up in the mountains. Luckily, we both had been there before so we didn’t have to waste time sightseeing – we spent the whole time at the hotel pool! Mum, Dad and 2 friends came too, so we were able to spend a bit more time with them before saying final goodbyes. 

We then travelled onto Assilah, a seaside town near Tangier. It was obviously the place to be, according to the thousands of Moroccan families who were also there! We spent 2 glorious days at the beach – reading books, getting a tan (Karim), getting sunburnt (Phoebe), swimming, putting mysterious blue/grey mud on our bodies and eating freshly caught fish. You could even get freshly squeezed orange juice! Nat and Blake joined us for the second day before we had to say goodbye to them too. 

But all too soon it was back to Fes. For Karim that meant back to work, and for me it meant time to start packing. Even with a 30kg luggage limit, I may still have too much stuff – my second carpet doesn’t help! I’ve had to leave quite a bit behind, for next time, insh’allah. And then of course I had to say my goodbyes. Only having 2 sisters growing up, I have suddenly found myself with a whole city full of brothers that look out for me, so goodbye to all of them. Then goodbye to Wally, my tortoise, who went back to the petshop. He’s so little that it was tempting to tuck him into my pocket, but I’ve seen what happens on border security. Then goodbye to Karim’s family, which is always the hardest. That day they had bought and slaughtered a sheep as further celebration of our marriage, so we ate it for lunch! But then the unavoidable question – When will you come back?  

With Karim’s visa approved, it has dawned on me that I won’t be back for some time. It’s a hard realisation – for nearly 4 years I’ve been coming to Fes, and every time I fall more and more in love with the city and the Moroccan way of life. And each time I left, I knew when I’d be coming back. But now, if all goes well in Australia, I might not be back for a year or two. I’m really going to miss it. But for once, I’m not that sad to be saying goodbye to Karim. 4 weeks is nothing compared to what we have been through, and then insh’allah he will be in Australia! It has been my dream ever since we met and I am over the moon to start this new stage of our journey together!

So until next time, whenever that may be…

Relaxing by the pool in chaouen

honeymoon!

meeting some locals

OJ at the beach

Weird grey mud, made our skin nice and soft!

Our beach

Sharing our honeymoon with friends!

Fresh fish tagine

Wally - who finally started eating after a few weeks of fasting

The sheep that was slaughtered for us