A Couple of Days making Big Decisions and Lunch with some Ladies

First off - big decisions were made in Marrakesh. After purchasing tickets for Tunis back in Fès, went back to Royal Air Maroc, paid a few more Durhams and changed our December 15th destination to Cairo.

Backpacking through Tunisia, as we discovered, would require us to prove that we are married in order to stay in the same room and we didn't really want to spend Christmas and New Years cooped up in gender specific rooms. On top of that, Libya was going to be not only a pain to get across, but also far too expensive for us. Egypt, on the other hand, has been entertaining budget travellers for decades, so the inexpensive travel there was looking far too appealing for us to resist. So, that is it, we are now researching just what we want to see and how long we want to stay, oh as well as looking forward to the armer weather.

Prior to us finding out that it was a very simple process to change the destination of a flight, we spent a good part of yesterday afternoon being served tea, biscuts, a massive plate of chicken with couscous, more tea, more biscuits, and finally very strong coffee. All of this was done while we watched Mexican soap operas dubded into Arabic. The henna also made an appearance - Katie now looks like she has been drawn on with orange felt marker.

We were invited, we could also say forced, to have lunch by a lady, Khayou, who had helped us to our Riad when we arrived in Marrakesh. We had run into her our second day in the city and she would not take no for an answer. So we met her at 12:30pm and did not leave until afternoon prayers around 3pm. A very intersting afternoon to say the least.

Spent the evening then with some Peace Corp volunteers, one currently working in Morocco and two heading home to the States after two years in Togo, we met at the Café des Livres in the Ville Nouvelle. All were excited that they had actually found a place to enjoy huge mugs of beer, including Tom of course.