Cat Nap

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Not to be outdone, I was compelled to show off my leg as well. Sure, my hairy legs aren't that attractive, but at least they aren't all swollen like lotus roots!

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Definitely artsy, Essaouira had a few incredible pieces of graffiti art.

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This one wasn't bad, either.

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Cute little lamps.

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Cool - there were a few kebab shops around town, and they all placed vegetables atop the roasting meat. I wonder if it was also to baste the meat, in addition to looking good? One place had tomatoes and bell peppers skewered atop.

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I feel compelled to take a photo like this every time I come across a cactus - it's a tribute to John's infamous incident, where he grabbed a cactus fruit, thinking that it didn't have needles like the rest of the plant. He was wrong.

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Salad - onions, green peppers, tomatoes, with vinegar and some good crunchy sea salt. Perhaps a bit salty, but nice.

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Mushy prawns, whose meat stuck to the inside of the shells, making it easier to just eat the entire thing, rather than try and peel them.

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The first type of fish was quite dry and surprisingly, made me realize that even the Spaniards can do a better fish than this! The second plate of fish improved, with the larger one being fairly juicy. The tiny little ones had a sweet flavour to their flesh and might have been the best of the three types, had they not had so many tiny little bones to contend with. After so much fish, we tired of eating the same thing over and over. A plate of calamari was supposed to have been part of the meal but was forgotten; we didn't care because there was already more than enough food.

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We ran out of room on our plates, because there was so much leftover skin and bones.

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Asians! We're not so alone here!!!

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Riad Nakhla's courtyard.

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Wandering through the streets of Morocco, you come across shops selling all kinds of little pastries - very tempting, I picked up a bunch for the later bus ride back to Marrakech. Going clockwise from the top: the first one was chosen because it slightly resembled baklava. It was crunchy with nuts, and slightly fragrant; perhaps it's the orange rose water they use here. OK. The flute-like one - sweet and crunchy, filled with nuts. It seems that every type of cookie here is made with nuts, whether it be almonds, hazelnuts, or peanuts. The next one - a soft and powdery cookie, it dissolved in my mouth almost like shortbread. With a tiny bit of chocolate inside, it was the best of the bunch. I think the last one is called a Gazelle Horn - filled with marzipan, it was too sweet and not very memorable.

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A bench at Essaouira's bus station - we noted that the floor was actually much cleaner.

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On board the bus - it was a veritable China town, with four other Asians sitting across from us! It's reminiscent of the Baltic trip, where we stuck out like sore thumbs and laughed every time we saw any other Asians around.

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Papaya juice - more like a smoothie or a milk shake, it didn't taste much of papaya, because so much orange juice was mixed in with it.

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On the left, a lamb and vegetable tajine - tender lamb that wasn't too overpowering in flavour. The veggies were a little tasteless, since they had been cooked over top of everything, outside of the sauce. The quality and selection of veggies was good - carrots, green beans, zucchini, along with some potatoes. A decent meal, where the quality of the ingredients stood out rather than the taste of the overall dish. We found Mary's chicken tajine a bit odd, since there were fries placed atop of it. For dessert, I suggested Mary try and find some chocolate-covered Imodium, but she ignored me.

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Mary didn't seem to overly enjoy her chicken tajine, because she tried feeding a lot of it to a stray cat. It seemed to be gagging and choking on the chicken cartilage that Mary also offered it. Luckily, this cat didn't meet the same fate as the one we earlier saw "napping" in Essaouira.

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The Riad Lakhdar's courtyard.