A Beautiful Day

After almost two weeks of rain, we finally got a beautiful day. We met to go to chellah, the old Roman ruins in Rabat at noon, but we had to wait for friends. I decided to go with a friend to a cafe to help her find a lonely Dutch girl she had met and invite her to come with us. Unfortunately, we were too late. We decided to walk because my friend said she knew where it was. We asked for directions and finally we came to a marketplace we had never seen before. We thought we were lost, but then we saw a sign that said "Bab Chellah" and we thought we were there. We ask for directions towards the ruins and come upon the Qasbah (the fort) rather than Roman ruins. A nice guy who spoke English said that we were in the wrong area and had to take a taxi. My friend decided to go home, but I still wanted to meet my other friends at Chellah. I stood there for a while, trying to hail a taxi but there were none going by. Eventually I started walking the beautiful way down beside the river. Suddenly I saw ruins... I was so excited. It was a beautiful garden and had the unfinished miniaret that a 10th century Sultan had commissioned to be built but had never been finished. I called up my friends... was I at the right place? It seemed that I wasn't, so I kept walking. I'm a little annoyed that I'm lost and can't find a taxi around a tourist place where they should be, but it's beautiful and the weather is beautiful and I'm happy all the same. Finally I find a taxi and make it to Chellah. The ruins are beautiful, we could sit on the old stones and just sunbathe. There was an old mosque to explore, and beautiful gardens. To be comfortably relaxing in the sun (with a light sweater) in the beginning of February is amazing.