steveblog

For our Christmas vacation, Jessica and I decided to take a bit of a trip. And by "bit of a trip" I mean "Jessica planned a crazy adventure that somehow managed to work and was pretty dang fun." We flew from Madrid to Marrakech, on to Copenhagen, to Prague, over to Naples, with a final quick jaunt down to Rome.

My legs were ready to fall off after we returned and I slept for about two days straight, but I think it was worth it.

We took a lot of pictures, so I'm going to break this up into a couple different posts. I hope you're ready for VACATION PICTURE OVERLOAD!

Teeny tiny airport

We drank so much sweet mint tea. It was soooo good.

The main square, Djemaa el-Fna during the day

El Badi Palace

There were storks everywhere, for some reason

A portrait of the author deep in contemplation

The absolutely stunning Atlas Mountains

My favorite meal of the trip came from these jars

Whole lambs are put down in this pit and cooked all day long. All I could think about is how terrifying it would be to fall in

Djemaa el-Fna at night. It became a completely different place at about 5 pm

Jardin Majorelle

Some wonderful street meat. See that little metal door with the star on it? That's the only way in or out of this food stall, which is about the size of a bathroom. Not a lot of room. In fact, that shinny thing on top of the glass box where they cooked the meat. Just some coals in a metal box. There were little cozy places like this all over.

The lobby of the riad that we stayed at

Get out of here with those snakes!

Wonderful ground fish sandwiches

Koutoubia mosque

MORE STREET MEAT

I might describe, my relationship with sushi as tolerant. Yes, I've been know to eat some deep fried shrimp and mayo wrapped in rice and enjoy myself, but I've never really had a strong desire for sushi. I'll eat a slice of pizza at any time of any day, and I will seek out a good burger, but sushi has never really excited me.

When Ali started expressing a pretty strong desire for sushi, I initially felt pretty ambivalent; I could take it or leave it. Plus, I mean, come on! This is Spain! You're only supposed to eat pork, bread, potatoes, or a pork/bread/potato combination.

Finally one day Mohammed recommended a sushi place in the basement of a market by his house. The restaurant, I'll admit it, is pretty dang cute. It's an "open air" (despite being completely inside a larger building) stall type of set up, that seats about 10 people on the inside, and has a few seats and a standing bar area around the outside. It's decorated in a kind of wooden Japanese-hut style and the waitress is super nice and speaks maybe 20 languages.

Looking over the menu, we were drawn to the Sushi Fiesta, a plate of almost 40 pieces of various sushi. I mean, there were four of us, so 40 pieces is reasonable, right?

These pictures were taken by my wife, a fact that is mentioned under threat of physical harm from said photographer