Building a routine

I have been back in Canada for a week today, and I apologize for not writing earlier. Between catching up with things, friends, and starting a new position at work, I have been really busy.

I am on my lunch break at work, taking to time to say a quick Hi. I am really enjoying the new position, although I am still in training and not really up and running yet. Three other people have started the same day as me, and we have been training together so it makes it a bit more comfortable to be able to share the learning process with other people. Makes the awkward period shorter!

I had left the previous entry when we were still in Marrakech. From there, we left on the train to Fes for a few days. Fes, we were told, is the best city in Morocco and its medina will get you lost. Still, we made our way to the youth hostel (where we stayed 3 days) and loved the place - even if very cold at night. We met a few people, including an Australian guy, a British guy, a Japanese girl, and two American guys, all of them really nice. Jen, Kyong (our South Korean friend) and I rented a grand taxi on our first day in Fes to take us to Volubilis, an ancient Roman town with plenty of ruins - absolutely stunning! In the evening, we went for dinner with an American girl working outside of Fes with the Peace Corps, who we met while walking around town. She was great! The next day, we joined with Nikole and her missionnary friend Sarah, who lives in Fes, our Polish friend Greg & our friends from the hostel and headed down to the medina. We had a very tiresome, but wonderful day in the labyrinthine medina and managed to not get lost! We were pretty proud...! We visited the tannery - most foul smell you can ever imagine - and bought a few items to bring back home.

The next day, we took the bus with Greg in direction of Chefchaouen, a small laid-back town near Tangier, with medina streets all painted blue. The whole town looks a little cartoonish, because it looks like you step in a child's painting where he's overdone the color blue. The scheduled 3-hour bus ride took us 7-hours, having to stop by the road for hours waiting for the Moroccan king to leave the town, where he had been for the whole week. Traffic was really dense & by the time we made it to Chaouen, found a hotel for Greg for the night (we had to do more than 6 before we found one) & had lunch, we had missed the last bus to Tangier. So we decided to take our time, visit the medina, and buy a taxi to Tangier. Grand taxis are really expensive for tourist for long distances, but we managed to cut down the price by sharing the back seat with another 3 Moroccan men. Nik & Jen were on the front seat and I squished with the guys at the back. What we had dreaded at first turned out to be a really good ride, with a great driver teaching us Arabic & Berber words & a safe trip to Tangier. We booked into the youth hostel there, where we had met Greg on our way in, and settled in for the night.

Anyways, I made it back to Canada safely last Monday night after spending a few days in London before coming back. By the time we left Morocco, I had seen enough. I have thoroughly loved my time there and I am very happy to have had the experience. Nonetheless, as my first big trip, it was very demanding to travel only 3 girls together. We were lucky enough to meet plenty of people to join us on our travels, but Morocco is a demanding environment for female travellers...

In London, I met with my good New Zealand friend Alice, who now lives in London with her husband. Dave, I was very happy to finally meet you. Alice, it was so nice to see you after so many years. Thank you both for the great guided tour of the city, I really appreciated! In two short days, I saw Buckingham Palace, the Changing of the guard, Big Ben, the British Museum, the Tower of London, the London Eye, Leicester Square, Picadilly Circus, Trafalgar Square, the Tower Bridge, the London Bridge and more. I got to see the staples of London condensed and I fell in love with the city. I will certainly return there as soon as I can...

Since London, well, I flew home to Calgary. I had a few days to relax and recuperate, and I started a new position at our company's Head Office. I am a Vacation Planner and book Pan-Canadian vacations for several markets around the world. I am still training but it is looking pretty good so far!

My dad and my sister will be here in a few days and I am very excited to get to see them. I haven't seen my sister for almost a year and I really miss her. I miss my Pops a ton too, although I talk to him more often...!

That's about it for now. You are pretty much up-to-date with Banff news... As I am now in a pretty steady routine, I will make sure to email and post pictures regularly.

P.S. If you would like me to send you pictures from our trip to Morocco, please drop a note on this blog and I will send you some... Cool? Cool.

Love,

Annik