774. Morocco Part 1 | Arriving in Fes!

We are now in Fes!! Morocco is my 32nd visited country and my first time in Africa. They currently has some entry restrictions due to COVID which I was stressing about for weeks but we made it in without any issues. A couple nights ago we arrived at Casablanca and spent a night at the airport hotel. The following morning, we had a private driver bring us to Fes which is about 3 hours away but I couldn't get any good photos or videos (since it would have passed by the time I got my camera out).

We are staying in the medina which is literally a labyrinth of 9000+ little (pedestrian-only) streets and alleyways. It's inevitable to get lost as Google Maps doesn't work in there. It's also supposed to be quite dangerous for tourists (with pick-pocketing and scams) so we are advised not to go out at night on our own and to be super careful on the streets. It's quite overwhelming as we are the only tourists here that we know of so far lol. We didn't see any others yet. I find the locals quite friendly so far though. We haven't had any bad experiences yet but I will definitely remain cautious. I will post about our first exploration in the medina in my next post.

So yesterday afternoon, we arrived at our new home which is an incredibly beautiful riad. We have it all to ourselves which may be a bit more space than we will use. There's two full floors and two "half" floors. We have a housekeeper who will come to clean a couple days a week and cook for us (upon request). We also have a cat to keep us company. He is already very comfortable with us and likes to sleep on our laps. The main downside is that the Internet is very very slow and even the data roaming I use from Rogers is a bit slow in the medina. Since we both work online it is a bit of an issue. It also takes a really long time to make this blog post so I may not update as often but we'll see.


I'm in love with the kitchen! The owner of the house works in the food industry so it's very well-stocked.


It also has a lot of unique decor pieces. There was a lot of thought put into designing every aspect of the place.


The rooftop and view from the terrace:


Our first lunch. We went to the closest place we found and I got a couscous tagine and mint tea. For sure they will be the first of countless tagines and mint teas lol. So far, all the food we've had have been amazing (and super cheap). I LOVED the vegetables in this couscous. So tender and flavourful.

Our housekeeper is an amazing cook. Everything we've had from her so far have been really good (well one dinner and one breakfast). Even the orange slices she cut for us last night - I have no idea what she put on them but she added something to make them sweeter (not sugar though) and kind of fizzy. I don't know how to describe it..like the fizz sensation you get on your tongue from a soda but more lol. Last night she made a Welcome Dinner for us which was chicken tagine, beans and fried sardines. I loved everything. She also makes bread from scratch which I didn't show in this photo but I will next time:



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652. Renovations | Part 10

Its been a pretty long time since my renovations were complete so I don't really know if this will still count as a "renovations update" post. But it did take me a really long time to get some essential decor/furniture pieces which I finally have now. So here is another update. I think my place is now 90% complete. I am really happy with the results so far and I loved the process so much. I really want to do some more interior designing/decorating.

Here are some photos of the new additions. For all the previous renovations posts, starting from the very beginning..Click Here!











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644. Recent Life

This past weekend was pretty eventful and a lot of fun! Anouk came to visit Toronto for a few days. Last time we saw each other was during our Rockies Roadtrip. We always have a great time together and I really do hope to visit her sometime this year in Luxembourg! I'm way overdue for a trip there.

On Friday she arrived and we met for a prawn spaghattini lunch at Cactus Club which is like our tradition now. Then in the evening we went out together (her and my boyfriend - it was their first time meeting after hearing a lot about each other over the months) for dinner and Pravda. It was so much fun and one of my favourite times at Pravda! On Saturday I met up with her again where we just had a relaxing day eating and lounging around. Then Sunday we went for afternoon tea at the Windsor Arms Hotel. Then I met my boyfriend to celebrate our '6 month anniversary' that night and Monday as well. I guess it is technically a milestone but every day feels like it. This past half year has flown by the fastest. It only feels like a few short months since we met but also that we knew each other a lot longer than that. It has been the best months of my life so far and I'm so excited for our future together!

So here are the photos from the weekend and also some random ones prior to then (as I am quite behind on my blog as usual):



Last night we went to watch A Quiet Place. I had been very excited for this movie since I love horror/thriller movies, and it's rare for those types to be so well-rated. It was really good - a unique story and quite suspenseful. Most of the movie is silent. I didn't find it as scary as I hoped it would be but I jumped at a few parts when there was a sudden loud sound. An extremely embarrassing moment for me was when I forgot to turn off an alarm on my phone and it went off during a silent part - and my ringtone is Despacito!! hahaha.



My sleep schedule has been becoming slightly more "normal" in the recent weeks which means I'm able to wake up in time for breakfast more often now.






So this was Friday afternoon right after Anouk arrived. We went for lunch at Cactus Club. We both love the prawn spaghattini and order it every time. During our trip to the Rockies last year we visited pretty much all the Cactus Club locations on the west coast so it felt right to go there again hahah. Looking back on these photos now makes me want to go back and relive that weekend..

Then at night for dinner we went with my boyfriend to Carisma for dinner where Anouk and I ordered the same dish we had for lunch. This one was so delicious! Afterwards we spent the rest of the night at Pravda:



Breakfast at Sunset Grill the morning after

We stopped by Louis Vuitton where I discovered this Damier Cobalt Keepall!!! It's so beautiful. I can't really capture the colour in a photograph but it's like a dark navy blue (which is my favourite colour).

After a quick walk around Eaton Centre we went for tea at the King Edward Hotel. Then dinner a few hours later at Earls, which is another one of our usual places (that we visited all the locations of in the Rockies)



The next afternoon - tea at the Windsor Arms Hotel!











Finally, our dinner at Scaramouche! It was my first time here. It's located a bit outside of downtown, inside a residential apartment which I didn't know before. It was really nice and cozy inside. The food was really good and I loved everything. This was the smoked salmon amuse bouche. For the appetizer we got the crab ravioli. I got the venison as my main. & dessert was the apple and sage cheesecake.






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