All posts filed under: Travel

Dar les Cigognes, Marrakech

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After our short stay at Four Seasons, we ventured into the old town of Marrakech, the Medina. We were prepared for chaos in Marrakech after reading the guidebooks and listening to friend’s stories, but upon arrival in the Medina, we were subjected to true taste of what it is like to be a tourist in Marrakech. The taxi driver stopped and asked a local lad for directions to Dar les Cigognes, the riad that we were to stay in for two nights. The lad and driver exchanged a few words in Arabic before we were told that we were in capable hands and the lad would show us on our way. We paid the driver, pulled our suitcases out of the boot and followed the lad, down windy alleyways, past a flurry of oncoming mopeds, when we finally arrived at the riad. The boy rang the bell and asked for money for showing us the way. We politely declined and rushed through the door once open. Here we encountered our first problem; we were directed …

Four Seasons, Marrakech

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‘Cabin crew, please take your seats for landing’. The familiar words from the softly spoken pilot woke me up on my early flight to Marrakech. I lifted my blindfold off my eyes and looked out of the window. All I could see was a vast expanse of desert and sandy coloured towns dotted below the flight path. When we came into land, I couldn’t help but think that hadn’t I known otherwise from seeing pictures and footage of this vibrant city, I would have thought the only colours I would be seeing for the next six days would be cream and salmon pink, for all of the buildings in sight were painted in either colour. I came to Marrakech with Jack primarily for the fact that we are going to explore the city and use it for the Moroccan entry for Eat the Olympics. There is no better way of getting to understand a countries cuisine than by actually exploring for yourselves. Our first stop was the Four Seasons. We felt we were stung with …

My Marrakech experience

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As I write this, I am sat on my flight back to London. I have just had a heated discussion with my boyfriend because of the way that I was writing one of my reviews. He (quite rightly) accused me of using flowery language to discuss experiences that, at the time, intimidated, scared or upset me. I have been in Marrakech for the last six days and I can hold my hand up and say that it was the most challenging holiday I have ever had. I was expecting it, I’m not totally naïve, but you can play scenarios over in your head many times and when it comes to the crunch, your feelings can be totally different. I can’t count the amount of times I rehearsed the next few sentences in my head over the last three days that I spent in the Medina, but here they are. I was brought up in England, a country that is world-renowned when it comes to politeness. We Brits will queue anywhere and say sorry at anything, …

Tune hotel – Liverpool Street

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These days you offen hear or see the word ‘budget’ dotted around. Budget flights, budget supermarket products and more. But recently I was introduced to something I thought I’d never sign up to – budget hotels. I was invited to try the newest addition to the Tune hotels portfolio in London’s Liverpool Street. At first I was skeptical but soon realised how handy it could be. I live in Wembley, which is right on the opposite side of London. So going out in East London is not exactly very appealing when you know you’ve got a two hour journey home at the end of the night. I decided to stay at Tune on an evening that I had planned to go to see my favourite DJ, Greg Wilson, play at Hoxton Pony. We were also heading to York the next day from Kings Cross, which is a few stops from Liverpool Street. As with most budget options, there are added extras. Remember that Ryan Air ‘pay to go to the loo’ saga? Well, Tune is …

Shoe making at Bedruthan

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A few months ago I was presented with a little booklet. On the cover was a drawing of a beautiful Cornish beach and the words ‘Bedruthan hotel’. I flicked through and stopped at the sight of a very pretty pair of shoes. Upon closer inspection, I saw that the hotel would be running a two-day shoe making course in March, which was to be hosted by Green Shoes. I surprised myself that I overlooked the baking and pizza oven-making courses in favour of being able to make myself a pair of hand made shoes. Jack has just designed a range of menswear shoes for Hush Puppies so I guess that was in my consciousness and I thought that it would be a nice weekend away together. A few months later, we were boarding an extraordinarily small plane at Gatwick airport en route to Newquay. A mere 50 minutes later, we were off the plane and straight into a taxi for a ten minute drive to the hotel. Upon arrival we were given our room keys …