September 27, 2017
Today was a looooong drive from Fes to the Sahara just outside of the city of Merzouga. A friend of a friend runs the Sahara Garden. Brahim coordinated everything for us and welcomed us upon our arrival with open arms. Truly an amazing human being. We were welcomed with dinner and singing and dancing around a bonfire.
September 24, 2017
Our second stop in Morocco was the blue city of Chefchaoen. A small city located up on a hill, wandering thru the medina surrounded by so many shades of blue was quite a different experience from Tangier. We stayed at Casa Perleta, a small bed and breakfast recommended by our friend. It was perfectly located within the upper hill area of the medina. The blue hues of the walls of Chefchaoen are believed to have originated when the Jews came while escaping Hilter in the 1930s. The blue is said to serve as a reminder to lead a spiritual life while symbolizing the sky and heaven.
September 11 - 15, 2017
Enroute to our close friends' wedding in Greece we found a cheap flight to Paris via Reykjavik, Iceland and decided to take advantage and do a little stopover in an effort to (fingers crossed) see the northern lights. We decided to restrict our few days to just the southern highlights along the coast. The first thing we noticed was that even though it was supposedly shoulder/low season in Iceland there were significantly more people than when we came the year before in August.
October 1, 2017
After a long drive, we arrived in Marrakech, definitely not a small city. We booked to stay at La Source Du Desert and upon checkin discovered that we were the only people staying there for the two nights we were there. Lucky us, we had the entire Riad to ourselves including the rooftop pool.
October 3, 2017
Sad to say that we didn't really take any photos in Essaouira. We did meet some incredible people who hosted us at Ryad Watier. Essaouira is a small beach side city that has a feel unlike any of the other cities in Morocco that we visited. We found it much more relaxing and less vendors in your face and people trying to sell you things. Upon arrival we met Jean-Gabriel and Hayat who run the riad. JG is a very talkative guy from France and extremely friendly. From the moment we met him we felt like we had known him for quite some time. Hayat basically runs the riad and she was also very helpful and friendly. We shared stories throughout our stay with both of them and definitely wished our stay was longer.
September 30, 2017
To split up the next drive, we stopped in Ouarzazate and stayed at Le Berbere Palace and splurged a little for a relaxing night in a modern hotel. The following day we hopped in another car for the long trek to Marrakech by way of Ksar Aït Ben Haddou. A ksar is defined as a group of earthen buildings surrounded by high walls, which is a traditional Saharan city. Aït Ben Haddou is located in the southern foothills of the Atlas mountains and is a Unesco World Heritage site that represents the architecture of southern Morocco. Much of the ksar is authentic to its original form except for a set of towers along the river that were constructed for the filming of the movie Lawrence of Arabia.
September 27, 2017
Today was a looooong drive from Fes to the Sahara just outside of the city of Merzouga. A friend of a friend runs the Sahara Garden. Brahim coordinated everything for us and welcomed us upon our arrival with open arms. Truly an amazing human being. We were welcomed with dinner and singing and dancing around a bonfire.
September 25, 2017
In Chefchaoen we met two Americans who happened to also be traveling to Fes the following day so we split a private car to save some money. Coincidentally we also ended up having reservations at the same riad, Dar Bensouda. Located fairly deep inside the medina, we were quite thankful that the riad sent someone to meet our car and walk us to the front door. Fes is said to have one of the most complex medinas in Morocco and I can tell you first hand that this is definitely the case. We decided to try to wander around ourselves at first which only led to us feeling quite lost. We were told that this is actually the purpose of the medinas so that if foreigners were to invade that they would become lost in the labyrinth of the medina.
September 24, 2017
Our second stop in Morocco was the blue city of Chefchaoen. A small city located up on a hill, wandering thru the medina surrounded by so many shades of blue was quite a different experience from Tangier. We stayed at Casa Perleta, a small bed and breakfast recommended by our friend. It was perfectly located within the upper hill area of the medina. The blue hues of the walls of Chefchaoen are believed to have originated when the Jews came while escaping Hilter in the 1930s. The blue is said to serve as a reminder to lead a spiritual life while symbolizing the sky and heaven.
September 22, 2017
After an incredible wedding in Santorini, Greece, we stopped over in Paris and caught a flight to Morocco. Over the next two weeks we would travel by car across much of the country. First stop, Tangier. We chose Morocco b/c it was different from any other country we have visited thus far. A friend of a friend used to live in Morocco and provided us with an awesome itinerary for us to follow even including restaurants and accommodations. Tangier was a nice introduction to Morocco allowing us to ease ourselves into the country.
September 11 - 15, 2017
Enroute to our close friends' wedding in Greece we found a cheap flight to Paris via Reykjavik, Iceland and decided to take advantage and do a little stopover in an effort to (fingers crossed) see the northern lights. We decided to restrict our few days to just the southern highlights along the coast. The first thing we noticed was that even though it was supposedly shoulder/low season in Iceland there were significantly more people than when we came the year before in August.
May 28, 2017
Our last stop for this trip was Sapporo. Stephanie wasn't able to make the beginning of the trip so she missed the purple wisteria. Lucky for her, they were still in bloom in Sapporo so we went to visit the oldest wisteria tree in Hokkaido which was donated by its owner due to its significance.
May 26, 2017
Over the next few days we drove around the northern island of Hokkaido in search of shibazakura. The shibazakura may have been past full bloom in the Mt. Fuji area, but in Hokkaido they were at their peak! And the flower parks were absolutely incredible fields of pink and purple flowers. And of course, they had flower flavored soft serve.
May 23, 2017
Today we took the long train ride from Tokyo to Sapporo. After arriving in Sapporo we rented a car and made our way to the small city of Asahikawa. Over the next two days we drove around to check out the sites around nearby Biei and Furano. Unfortunately we were a little too early (by at least a month) for the lavender season and hillsides full of blooming multicolored flowers. Google Biei and you'll see what I'm talking about. We did, however, still get to catch some flowers in bloom and eat some flower flavored soft serve. Let's just say we took in some beautiful flowers and ate a lot. In fact, some of the best ramen we had on this trip was in Asahikawa.
May 22, 2017
From Tokyo, we took about a 2.5 hour train ride to check out the flowers at the Hitachi Seaside Park. When we first arrived, we were a little confused where we were since the entrance seemed kind of drab or like we were entering an airport base or something. Once we entered the park, we found a large amusement park that also had large spaces of grass to hang out and areas dedicated to different types of flowers.
May 20, 2017
From Kagoshima, we made our way to Nagoya for a day of eating and met up with Stef, Jonathan's cousin who lives in Hong Kong. No trip to Japan is complete without her! :) We stopped in Tokyo for a couple days and took some day trips to different flower parks to see what we could find.
We took a train to the Fujii Five Lakes area and took an hour bus from Kawaguchiko to check out the Fuji Shibazakura Festival. Shibazakura is a flower that covers the ground like a lawn and the flower's petals look like that of sakura or cherry blossoms. It didn't hurt to have Mount Fuji in the background. :)
May 17, 2017
Beppu is most famously known for being the home to over 2,000 onsens. Sadly, because I was already pregnant by this time, I couldn't partake in any of the activities, which included mud and sand baths and a visit to the hot springs. So bummed!
Instead, we took a day trip to Oita, visited a museum, and did a little more people watching outside the train station. Can't help but fall in love with all the little kids in their cute school uniforms! :)
May 15 - May 17, 2017
Since we were in the south of Japan, we decided to hop around to different cities, try the local fare and explore a bit since we didn't know when we would be back again.
Our Airbnb host picked us up from the station and took us to a restaurant in Chinatown with what he considered to be the best champon. Champon is a Chinese style of ramen, where the noodles are cooked with the broth then topped with various vegetables and meat. Unlike Japanese ramen, where the broth and noodles are cooked separately and only put together when served.
November 13 - November 15, 2017
We took a two hour train ride from Fukuoka to Arita, a small town known for its porcelain and ceramics. We heard about Koraku Kiln the last time we were in Japan, which was founded in 1865 and has been producing ceramics for the past 150 years. Over time, they've accumulated overstock and have been housing product in warehouses over the years. Just recently they started hosting a "treasure hunt" where visitors can pay 5000 yen to 10000 yen and can spend 90 minutes digging through the different crates and whatever you can fit in your basket is yours to take home.
May 11, 2017
We rented a car in Fukuoka and drove about an hour and a half outside the city to check out Kawachi Fujien, known for their famous wisteria tunnels. I'll have to admit until this trip, I was convinced that photos of the wisteria tunnels were either photoshopped or not real, even the nail salon I go to has photos of the tunnels hanging on the walls.
May 10, 2017
Yatais or food stands in Fukuoka are really popular and are sprinkled all over the city. They usually set up shop in the early evening and stay open until the early morning. We decided to eat at Yatai Mama Chan and it did not disappoint. Mama Chan wasn't there that night but her son and husband held down the fort and prepared our dinner. It was so simple but we quickly fell in love with the fried rice and ramen. So delicious!
December 5, 2016 - December 16, 2016
With plans for our international travel to come to a close soon, we both decided we had to do another trip on theSamambaia. This time we decided to try for a trip thru the Banda Sea. This post has a ton of photos, so we've separated them into different categories below.
