Las Ramblas {Barcelona}

                  

Hello Everyone, please excuse my idleness. The combination of final exams and traveling has forced me to neglect my blog for longer then I liked, but I'm back with a lot of new experiences and stories to tell! Last week I  spent about six days in Spain & Catalonia. Half of my trip was spent in Madrid and the other in Barcelona. Despite the beauty of both cities, Barcelona was undoubtedly my favorite place. I was really amazed at the architecture and the overall vibe of the city. Everywhere you turned there is something new and exciting to capture your attention. I think the video montage that I made to document my time in Barcelona will express this notion. The video is a jumble of food, architecture, and primary sites in Barcelona. Most of it was shot on Las Ramblas which in now my favorite street in the city. Las Ramblas is a long stretch of interconnecting streets that forms one long pedestrian mall. I loved it because of the fact that there was always so much to do and see in this area and you could always find excellent paellas along this street. Anyway, I hope you enjoy my video. Stay tuned for   more pictures from Barcelona & Madrid & check out the new updates on my "people on my travels that "I've met and liked" page. 

The Cities by the Sea: Tangier & Asilah

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This past weekend, I went on a final excursion. I traveled to two gorgeous cities, Tangier & Asilah. The sole purpose of the trip was to relax (i.e. no monuments or tours). Thus, all of us fled to the beautiful beaches of Asilah. After the long weekend, Asilah quickly ended up being my favorite city in Morocco. Not only was the city calm and undeniably peaceful, but it consisted of two of my favorite things, art and water. Art seemed to be one of the unmistakeable themes of the city. Almost every person I met there was artisan. Moreover, the art of Asilah is mostly displayed along the cities sprawling white walls. Large vivid murals cover commonplace residential walls throughout the city. Besides its thriving artistic culture, Asilah is most significantly a beach town. The endless expanse of beach is breathtaking. An entire day could literally be spent relaxing along the ocean. Anyway, here is the video from my last excursion, I hope you enjoy the video as much as I enjoyed making it!

This Side of Wanderlust

One of the hardest parts of running a blog is narrowing down and selecting pictures to post on it. As not to clutter the site I try to limit my picture uploads. However, this presents a conundrum because there are many more pictures that I would love to share. So, I have created a tumblr account as a more efficient forum for my images. Here is a link to my new tumblr page "This Side of Wanderlust," I really hope you enjoy the miscellaneous cluster of images, music, video, and inspiration from my travels.

                                                   
                                                                                               ---CLICK HERE---

Adventures & Wanderlust

 

This past weekend I went on a 1 day excursion to the quiet towns of Ifrane and Azrou. Unlike many of my previous excursions, this trip lacked a lot of the hustle and bustle that has come to define a lot of my time in Morocco. This particular excursion was different. Walking through Ifrane during the early hours of the morning and being surrounded by the wide open space of Azrou was incredibly peaceful. In the video above, all of the footage is from my time in Azrou. My goal was to try and capture some of the memorable moments from my hike. So, hope you enjoy the video! Until next time.

moroccan hammams

{hammam + chefchaouen}

Thus far, one of the most memorable experiences i've had in Morocco has been my visits to the "hammam." First, you might be wondering what exactly is a Moroccan hammam. It is a public bath separated for both men and women. Essentially, imagine a modern steam room combined with a traditional Turkish bath. Hammams are usually visited once a week or based on personal preference.  Moreover, the primary function of it is to cleanse & rehydrate your skin.They are very much apart of the community, meaning that women, children and men of all types frequent the hammams.

Visiting a Hamman: 

Bring all the things that you would normally use in the shower. Also, when going to a hammam one has to bring a plastic bucket for water. Once there, ask for the "black soap"- the soap is made form all natural products and makes it easier to remove dead skin from your body. Lastly, a plastic mat is necessary so that you don't have to sit directly on the marble floor. 

What to Expect: 

So far I have visited two hammans; one in Meknes and Chefchaouen (pictured above). The initial entrance fee is about 10-16 dirhams ($1.13-$2.03 USD). They all have the same basic layout. There is always a changing area, however, it can be private or public. For the actual shower, there is a communal hot room with individual cisterns. 

Also, for a about 25 extra dirhams ($2.83 USD), a hamman attendant will scrub you with a kiis-which is a mitt made of a harsh material meant to remove layers of dead skin from your body. 

Overall, the hammans are so interesting/ and fun because of the fact that it is such a new experience. Once you get over the initial awkwardness it instantly becomes one of the most relaxing places to go after my three hour Arabic class. 

rhapsody in blue

Hopefully, you've all seen my video from Chefchaouen!  While in the city I took a staggering amount of pictures. After weeding out the shots where I was clearly too trigger happy, I narrowed it down to seven of my favorites. Overall, my favorite pictures mostly consist of children in Chefchaouen, blue doorways, and empty streets. However, I think these images do justice to the overall essence I this picturesque city. {enjoy everyone}

The Tale of the Blue City

       

This past weekend I took a two day trip with some friends to the quaint city of Chefchaouen. The city is in the northwest of Morocco and situated around the Rif Mountains. One of the most notable distinctions about Chefchaouen is the various shades of blue that serves as the primary color for nearly every building in the city.  So far this is one of my favorite places in Morocco. The people in the city were incredibly nice and extremely accommodating. I primarily fell in love with the atmosphere of the city. It is nearly impossible to be stressed in such a beautiful place. While on this trip I decided to do a video to capture some parts of Chefchaouen that were most notable to me. This video is entirely dedicated to the friends that I made during my two day visit. {enjoy}