Second and Third in Marrakesh/ First Half Day of Milan , Italy

First of all I would like to apologise, because of the Riad's very bad wi-fi which as a guest is ok but
as a blog writer is not. That is the reason why I haven't been able to get up a post in the last two days
and am now posting this from Bellagio, Italy.

Anyway here is my Second day in Marrakesh, Morocco starting NOW!

This morning we had the same wonderful breakfast as the previous day, followed by a game of Cluedo then Trivial Pursuit before we went into the souqs. Whilst in the souqs my Mum bargained hard and bought some pashminas and also got a kiss from a strange looking man A.K.A the shop owner who wrapped her up in a scarf to look like a Moroccan princess.  Then we walked to the slipper souq where my Mum argued with the shop owner before she bought some fancy Morrocan slippers. My Mum was escorted by a strange man trying to convince her that he was the owner of a special souq somewhere off in fairyland where all the souqs had special prices just for her (OOO How sweet:>) ) of course she payed no attention to this strange, old and toothless man and finally he left her alone. When we reached the textile souq we found a shop (No Duh) selling tassles for keys, We ended up buying some for a very select few *Cough* Family *Cough*.  While we were in the souqs the call to prayer happened and we saw all the people bowing and praying to their God in a special room behind the shops. After leaving the souqs we found a shop selling these toys/instrument things that turned out to be really cool so we bought two one for me and one for someone back in New Zealand or more specifically my school Wellesley. Once we got back to the Riad we stayed there till Dinner or Tea where we went to a Womens co-op called Al Fassia. It's main food speciality was Tagines, I had the meatball tagine and both of my Parents got two lamb Tagines. they were all really tasty.

The next day, after breakfast we caught a taxi into the new/modern town where we found it was a lot alike the old town, only much more dangerous crossing the streets.  well for once there were actually streets to be crossed (not passages).  The streets resembled streets in New Zealand but at intersections there were no traffic lights so everyone had to stop at once if they saw people were on the other side waiting in cars. there were no lanes so you could have three or four crossing at the same time and if you add people also trying to cross at the same time it could be very scary.  As we wandered down the main street sidewalks we recognised for the first time the neatly dressed police offices stationed along the streets.  Further down the sidewalk we found a shop where we bought a top for me for my later journey to Kenya and Zanzibar.  After that we returned to the riad in a rundown taxi that had no seatbelts and the back wheel scrapped the car every time it turned the corner.  We had no form of knowing if we would make it to our riad alive.  After a while of relaxing in the Riad I went into the chilly pool whilst Dad went back into the crazy souqs where he tried to get lost while looking for a bedouin marble board game.  Luckily he returned alive where he told us about how many new "friends" he had made in the souqs - many of whom were toothless.

When we woke up today, I realised that we only had an hour or so left in the Riad before going to Milan, so when we got downstairs we saw the wonderful breakfast Rashid the night watchman had made for us earlier in the morning.  When it got to leaving, I was sad because Rashid was my friend and he and I would talk French together.

When I landed in Milan, I had to admit it was pretty call actually it was one of the best flights by far I had ever taken -  A. Because it was nice reading a book (wow a child likes a book!) and B. Because once we landed the pilots asked if I wanted to go into the cockpit.  I sat down in the pilots seat and my Dad got asked if he would like to sit in the co-pilots seat.  As soon as that happened I knew that he was very very happy and that he would be for the rest of the day.  It was a windy hour trip to Bellagio (which is the town that we are staying in).  Our Hotel room has a great view of the neighbouring lake called Lake Como.  Trust me I have made many jokes about the name on the way to the Hotel.  But to tell you the truth I am very happy about the possibility of me driving a boat around the lake with my parents tomorrow.  And it has an indoor pool which has a water slide  (the word slide is a bit misleading) and in the outdoor pool there is a diving board alongside the lake where I practiced my perfect staple dive, front flips and somersaults.  After dinner we sat on the stairwell and watched and listened to the piano, violin and double bass play music like Grandad plays.

Now I'm a bit tired from the flight and will post photos tomorrow. "Fly easyjet"

Joseph Hewson