A Very Merry Christmas!

We hope you all had a very Merry Christmas!  We certainly did here in Frankfurt.  We would have loved to join our families back in the States to celebrate our Savior's birth this year, but hopefully next year!  Plus we had our very first visitors here for the holiday... our friends, Chris and Stefanie, arrived from San Diego on the morning of Christmas Eve.  Frankfurt was the first stop on their backpacking trip through Europe, so we tried to show them a good time for the couple days they were in town.  

Shortly after their arrival, the four of us headed toward downtown Frankfurt so we could show them the sights, including the historic city center and the Main River.  We also ensured that they had authentic German bratwurst and the preferred German beverage this time of year, gluhwein, which is basically hot spiced wine.  After enjoying the local cuisine, we decided to try out a cherished winter pastime... ice skating!  None of us had been ice skating in several years, but the cute little ice rink situated right in front of the Old Opera House was hard to pass up.  Is there a better way to spend the afternoon on Christmas Eve?! :)

As you can see, we had a lot of fun skating.  Plus, I actually found something at which I am faster than Daniel!  When it comes to running or other such activities, Daniel is always quicker than me... but not ice skating :)  After a few minutes on the ice, I felt like a natural on those skates... it must have been the endless hours I spent rollerblading in high school.  But like I said, we had a blast skating, and I already look forward to doing it next year.   

Since we had braved the chilly weather all afternoon, it was then time to head home and warm up.  It was also time for Christmas Eve dinner.  When it comes to Christmas, my family has a few traditions we like to follow every year... one such tradition includes making swedish meatballs for Christmas Eve dinner, which I was happily carried on this year.  

Another one of my family's traditions is that we always have swedish pancakes for breakfast Christmas morning, which of course I just had to make as well!  In addition to breakfast and opening presents, thankfully we also had a chance to Skype with both of our families on Christmas Day!  If we couldn't be there in person, video conferencing over the internet was definitely the next best thing!  

The rest of our Christmas Day was spent getting ready for our Christmas dinner party.  Since several of our friends were staying in town for the holiday, we decided to have everyone over for Christmas dinner.  Most of the afternoon was spent getting the food ready... Daniel and Chris fried the turkey while Stef helped me with the rest of the meal.  It felt like most of the holiday revolved around making food... but thankfully everything turned out great!

In total, ten of us enjoyed Christmas dinner together.  It was a very nice meal, and I was happy that our first dinner party here turned out to be a success.  All in all, we had a very Merry Christmas, and now we just can't believe that another year has come and gone!  Like they say, time flies when you are having fun :)  Well, we hope you have a Happy New Year!  Until then...

Kicking off the holiday season!

So by now we are well into the holiday season... but I thought I'd just share a few photos of how we got the season started.

We may have been in Morocco on Thanksgiving Day, but that doesn't mean we weren't going to celebrate it!  The day after we got back to Frankfurt, we had a belated Thanksgiving celebration with some of our friends.  My biggest fear about Thanksgiving is that I will somehow destroy the turkey.  Therefore, in recent years, we have started a new tradition... Daniel fries a turkey!  Frying a turkey is actually much quicker than cooking it the normal way... and it tastes just as good.  I think we will be frying our Thanksgiving turkey for many years to come.  This Thanksgiving, Daniel and the other guys fried up two turkeys for our feast... while all of the gals made the other fixings.  Our friends, Matt and Heather O., hosted the gathering, and the meal was delicious.  As you can see, we enjoyed Thanksgiving, even if it was a few days late!

At the beginning of December, all Naval Academy graduates look forward to another tradition... the Army-Navy football game!  While it may not be one of the "normal" holiday traditions, we look forward to the game every year, especially since in recent years, Navy has quite the streak going.  Daniel's boss is also a Navy grad, so he decided to host an Army-Navy party, and of course, we attended... and we wore our Navy gear too!  It was a great time... and a great win.  Navy 34, Army 0 ... Go Navy!  Here is a picture of the grads and also one with the families.  

Here in Germany, Christmas is huge!  Several Christmas traditions originated in Deutschland, including advent, the Christmas tree, and the nutcracker.  In addition to these Christmas customs, an integral part of celebrating the holiday here is that every single town and city hosts a Christmas Market (Weihnachtsmarkt).  The day after the Army-Navy game, Daniel and I decided to check out the Frankfurt Christmas Market... below are some of the shots I took while we were downtown. 

While all the lights and decorations were beautiful, it was packed!  At some points, it was difficult to walk due to the throngs of people, but we still enjoyed the shopping and food for a little while.  We are also hoping to visit a couple more Christmas markets in some of the nearby small towns... they definitely help kindle the festive spirit!  

We hope you are all enjoying this holiday season and looking forward to the fast approaching 2009.  Just in case I don't post again, we want to wish you "Frohe Weihnachten und guten Rutsch ins Neue Jahr!" (Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!)  God bless!

The Mazes of Morocco!

Buckle your seatbelts, everyone... since we took over 200 photos in Morocco, I have a feeling this post is gonna be a long one! Don't worry, I won't include all of the pictures :) So our trip to Morocco provided us with two firsts: our first time to the country as well as our first time to Africa. We were both very excited to add another continent to our "travel resumé." Overall, we had a great trip... and it was definitely our most adventurous yet!

On this trip, we were joined by our friends, Matt and Heather O. When the four of us left Frankfurt the Tuesday before Thanksgiving (at 3:30 am in the morning!), there was snow on the ground, so we were looking forward to some warmer weather. After our three and a half hour flight, we arrived in Marrakesh and started a very interesting day. Leaving the airport, we took a taxi to our hotel... on the way there, Daniel's first comment was "It looks a lot like Iraq." Clogging the streets with their mopeds and bicycles, everyone we saw was wearing traditional Middle Eastern garb, which I believe is common for most of northern Africa.

As we approached the wall of the old fortified city, the Medina, our taxi driver stopped and unloaded our bags, which were promptly picked up by an old man and placed in his push cart. He motioned for us to follow him, and so we did, all while wondering what we had gotten ourselves into! We were soon walking the twisting and turning side alleys of the Medina... the locals were out in the midst of their daily grind, tending to their shops. We all quickly realized that we stuck out quite a bit and that we were already fully submersed into the Moroccan culture! After several minutes, we made it to our "hotel," which is actually called a riad and is essentially a Moroccan bed and breakfast. Compared to the bustling Medina just beyond its doors, it is a quiet oasis. Here are some shots of our room and the terrace... and then there is Daniel trying to read the map so we'd be more prepared to re-enter the labyrinth outside!

As you can see, it has a Moroccan flair... as did the relaxing lobby area, where we had breakfast and dinner, and the hot tub. I especially loved all the red!

After getting settled a bit, we decided to venture back out into the Medina. Only a few minutes away, we found the Djemaa el Fna, the largest traditional market in Morocco. Acrobats, dancers, henna tattoo artists, orange juice vendors, and snake charmers fill the square. I was too afraid to get close enough to get a picture of the king cobras, but Matt was brave enough to wear a snake (thankfully not a cobra!) around his neck for a minute.

The market was a bit overwhelming... after taking it all in for a while, we found a cafe on the outskirts of the market and enjoyed the food and the view. The tall structure in the background is the minaret of the Koutoubiya mosque. This mosque is the biggest in Marrakesh and borders the southern edge of the market. Here is a closer shot of it as well as a shot of the market from ground level.

After lunch, we wandered around the Medina the rest of the afternoon. We were looking to visit some of the historic palaces but we never found them... as I alluded to before, the streets of Marrakesh resemble a maze. The lack of street signs and the winding nature of the alleys make it especially hard to navigate. Even though we didn't find the palaces, we did pass another mosque... check out the intricate carvings on its minaret. In general, it was pretty fascinating to explore the Medina and to see the authentic Moroccan way of life.

After an eye-opening first day in Morocco, it was time to head back to the riad. We passed through the market at dusk, which was pretty neat, and then we had an excellent dinner... couscous, chicken, and vegetables. I was surprised how good the food was the whole time we were there... and now I think it is time to find a Moroccan cook book :)

For Wednesday, we had set up an outing to visit the Ourika Valley of the Atlas Mountains, the major mountain chain that stretches from Morocco through Algeria to Tunisia. On the way, we had a chance to stop and meet a Berber family and to see their home... Berbers are the indigenous peoples of North Africa west of the Nile Valley.

As we walked in the door, the first thing we saw was a sheep! There was also a cow and a donkey in the next room... seriously. They were very nice people... we shared some homemade bread and mint tea with them, which the mother of the family prepared for us. Mint tea is all the rage in Morocco... though I don't normally like tea, I actually thought it was pretty good. It must have been all the sugar that they put in it :) We also saw their hammam, which is like a mini-sauna and is an essential part of Moroccan life. It was a pretty tight squeeze in there!

The open-air nature of their home provided a view from every vantage point.

As we continued east toward the mountains, we also stopped at a cooperative for widowed and divorced women. There they use aragon, which is similar to an olive and native only to Morocco, to make a wide range of products from cooking oil to beauty products. There was a nice view of the snow-capped Atlas from just outside of and from the top of their building.

Next we headed toward the village of Setti Fatma, where we would be having lunch and hiking to see two waterfalls up in the Atlas. The farther we went into the mountains we went, the colder it got... so much for warmer weather! But at least it was very scenic on the way to the village and while we were hiking.

Soon we walked by the lower falls and kept heading toward the upper falls. Both falls were very pretty and peaceful. When we were crossing over to get closer to the upper falls to take a group photo, Matt almost fell in the freezing water... thankfully he didn't!

As we started back down to the valley, I thought I might fall into the water too, but thankfully I didn't either... I just love rickety bridges! We goofed around a bit on the way back while also enjoying the scenery and the fresh mountain air. As we neared the village, we passed some men who were busily carving figurines out of alabaster from the High Atlas. They were pretty impressive... we ended up buying a camel figurine. Then we went back down to Setti Fatma, enjoyed lunch, and finally headed back to Marrakesh.

That evening for dinner, we went to a traditional Moroccan restaurant called Dar Essalam. While it didn't look like much from the outside, inside there were mosaics and carvings everywhere. And the food was fantastic... all five courses of it! During dinner, some dancers came out... the first one danced with a plate full off candles on her head. Next up was a belly dancer... the picture I took of her didn't turn out. Oh darn :) There was also a three piece band playing traditional Moroccan music. At the end of the meal, of course we had mint tea... they all pour it from high above but our waiter was especially good. The whole setting seemed like the quintessential Moroccan experience.

Our third day in Morocco was Thanksgiving Day. It seemed a bit strange to be spending an American holiday in Morocco... but then again, if we weren't in Morocco, we'd still wouldn't be in the States... we'd be in Germany! We decided to spend the day in and around Marrakesh, starting out with a bus tour through the modern part of the city. Beyond the walls of the Medina, it seemed pretty metropolitan. Then again, at one point, we did see some camels just chillin' on a street corner.

We passed by the Royal Theatre and thought we'd just get a quick peek at the place, but we were lucky enough to get a backstage tour. Although it is currently under renovation, it was still neat to see.

So you are probably wondering what we did for our Thanksgiving meal... well, we ate it at KFC! It was the most American place we could find, and we were hoping to at least have some mashed potatoes, but no such luck. Besides, we had a belated Thanksgiving celebration when we got back to Frankfurt... but for now, back to Morocco.

After KFC, it was time to head back to the Medina and do some shopping. Lining all of the side alleys and streets are a multitude of shops with wares of all kinds... hand-painted plates, baskets, mirrors, daggers, lanterns, leather goods, and much more. It really was some great shopping... especially since you can bargain for the price you want. While most Moroccans primarily speak Arabic or French, the shopkeepers know just enough English to get your attention as you walk by and then to haggle with you about the price. Daniel is quite the skilled bargainer... and I got a little better at it during our trip. We definitely bought more than we intended, but we still managed somehow to fit all of it into our suitcases!

For dinner we decided to check out the market at night... it transforms into quite the party. There are drum circles, story tellers, and a myriad of food stalls. Similar to the shopkeepers, all of the food stalls want you to come to theirs and they definitely try to entice you. Despite this, we decided to eat dinner in a nearby cafe and enjoy the view and a little less commotion.

For our last day in Morocco we headed west to the beach town of Essaouira. It was kind of a long bus ride (three hours one-way), but we had heard it was a cool place. It definitely had a laid back vibe to it and it was great to see the ocean again... though it was a bit strange taking in the Atlantic when looking west!

Essaouira is an active fishing town, so the harbor was packed with fishermen. It was pretty interesting... and pretty smelly too! The bright blue boats were also striking.

While we were meandering around Essaouira, we once again found ourselves in the midst of a jumble of side alleys... apparently, the streets in all Moroccan towns resemble a maze! So why not just do some more shopping and enjoy wandering around :)

We spent the remainder of our time just soaking up the sun at a cafe right on the shore... and of course, Daniel and Matt just had to try out the water. I definitely miss living near the beach, so it was nice to enjoy the view for a little while... plus we finally got to experience some warmer weather!

All too soon it was time to catch the bus back to Marrakesh and then get ready to head back to Frankfurt. Overall, we had an awesome trip... on top of some great sightseeing, shopping, and food, we also felt that we truly experienced the Moroccan culture, which is really what it is all about. I apologize for this post being such a novel, but we had a lot to share... thanks for reading this far! We've been busy since we got back, so I do have more to post about, but I am a bit blogged out right now... no worries though, I am sure I will be posting again in no time :) Bye for now!