The best bits of ... Morocco

1. The people
I would not recommend travelling to Morocco solo as a girl - I know plenty of people do but I would not. I went with my boyfriend on a Travel Talk Tours and the first night we arrived in Marrakesh there was a riot. We later were told by two girls that were on our same tour they were practically kidnapped in Marrakesh by a local man who whisked them away on a motorbike and held them ransom until they agreed to buy a 'handmade scarf' for the equivalent of about $70. When they bought the scarf and were released they saw the label said 'MADE IN CHINA'. Regardless, Moroccan people are intriguing.
Our guide, Marwan, was 27 years old, didn't own a car, lived at home, and when he wasn't showing tourists the sites he was working as an optometrist. He'd never been outside Morocco and said it was difficult when the average annual wage was about $260 a month.
Moroccans appear smart and family oriented. Marwan, spoke 6 languages - Moroccan, Berber, English, French, Spanish, and Dutch - and said most Moroccans spoke 3 - 5 languages. When a girl on our tour mentioned she didn't like kids, Marwan told her: "In Morocco, children are life. Parents are the architects of their children's lives. We mould them by the way we act around them and by the way we treat them." He said despite some children acting naughty with their friends (and they do - a couple threw rocks at me while I was riding a camel through their village!), they have the utmost respect for their parents.

Despite first impressions, Marrakesh is stunning. Reminds me of Aladdin.

World-renowned Marrakesh Markets are a hive of activity.

2. Chigaga
The Chigaga desert camp lies at the meeting point of flat desert terrain and endless Moroccan sand dunes. After arriving in 4x4 jeeps and spending the afternoon frolicking (that's the best word for it!) in the sand dunes and watching the sun set over the horizon, we were treated to traditional music (utilising empty fuel containers for drums) and dancing (of which we were encouraged to participate). It was then requested that we, Aussies and Brits, perform a traditional song for our Moroccan hosts. What better compromise of our two nations than a Kylie Minogue number?! Our rendition of the Locomotion was bloody terrible. Sorry Kylie! Anyway, the tents and mud huts were fantastic accommodation, however it was kind of scary going to the toilet (i.e. a hole in the ground behind one of the sand dunes!).
And just on the whole ' I would not recommend travelling to Morocco solo as a girl' thing... Two British girls were travelling around Morocco while we were and we bumped into them quite a lot. They hired themselves a local guide at the last town who brought them out to Chigaga and buried them up to their necks in the sand dunes in the middle of the night. No joke. He did some crazy dance around them under the moonlight and said it was some sort of tradition. We did see them again but I thought that was a little freaky...!

Soften sand found in Sahara Desert

Night time entertainment in the Sahara

3. Nomad life
The Nomads are an amazing, thriving, albeit minority community in Morocco that are truly inspiring people to meet. In the Sahara Desert these people live in houses made of dirt or clay and straw.
Traditionally the Nomads wondered the desert in search of the perfect place to live and housed themselves in tents made of woven goat hair. Some still live  this way, but a few centuries ago most of them came together when bandits got so bad it was necessary to build a great big wall around all their homes to keep the thieves away from what little possessions they owned, like donkeys and vegetable crops. These villages are known as kasbas.
We visited a kasba near M'Hamid that had a population of about 2800, though the place looks deserted. It's so big and the dirt structures are so shielding it's hard to picture what's happening inside. Oh, but they have satellite TV! And fans and refrigerators! It was only in the past 10 years though that this has been possible.
During a regular day, the kids play soccer - barefoot - on a dirt field marked with stones and long sticks are used as goal posts. The men tend to their animals and vegetable crops while the women stick to domestic duties.

4. Argan tree goats
It's the most unusual site. A herd of goats scrambling to get on any branch of the tree they can. What more can I say?

 The goats climb the Argan trees to eat its fruit that the locals use to make oil.

5. Spas
I only tried les massages d'Argan  but OMG... best experience for a bargain price! Read my review.

At les massages d'Argan they even make their own oils and products on site.

The best bits of ... Cyprus

1. Nicosia
One city, two countries, two currencies - the Turkish Lira and the Euro. Nicosia is bbizarrely the capital of both the North and the South of Cyprus (the North is still occupied by the Turks and officially a part of Turkey). On one side - the South - you've got a bustling metropolis with restaurants, paved roads, and shops the likes of Zara and Topshop. On the other side - the North - you'll find hardly anyone on the streets (and I only saw one woman while I was there; she was in a full burqua), dirt roads, abandoned buildings, men playing backgammon outside cafes and smoking cigars. You even have to show your passport to get from one side to the other. It's a lot hotter on the North side too and a relief to get back to the Republic of Cyprus. Perhaps the giant air conditioner that blasts you when cross through the stone gates helps!

2. Jewel Bar and Restaurant, Protaras.
An amazing restaurant on a corner in the heart of the Protaras strip, which you might mistake for just a lounge bar if you didn't take notice. The herb-crusted salmon, sesame pan-seared tuna, panko-chilli encrusted rack of lamb, Angus burger, marinated fillet steak and pork chops were all unbelievable dishes ranging from €6.50 to €11 - amazing prices! And with a range of scrumptious deserts, €3.50 cocktails, large flat screen TVs and the latest dance music, it's a great night out for any occasion.

Jewel Bar and Restaurant - we dined here about 5 out of 10 nights

One of the mouth-watering homemade deserts.

3. Famagusta
Known as the 'Ghost Town', Famugusta is an abandoned city that's been empty and cordoned off since the Turks invaded in 1974 and evacuated thousands of Cypriots, making them refugees in their own country. With prime beachfront location, plenty of buildings and houses (a crane can still be seen in the streets, signalling the city was continuing to grow), it's incomprehensible that the Turks didn't move in when they kicked everyone else out. You can't get there, but you can see the ghost town from the 'Famugusta View Point' in Paralimni for just €3 (also includes a beer or soft drink, binoculars, telescope and entry to the museum.

Famugusta in the 1970s

Famugusta today

A poem written by one of the displaced Cypriot refugees

The perimetre of Famugusta is monitored by the Turkish army and surrounded in warning signs and barbed-wire fences

*Overrated
Larnaca. The markets are slim pickings, the beach is bare dirt - no sand in sight, just raked dirt! - and  they charge €2 to hire the crappy yellow pleather sunbeds. Although the place does have some pretty huge kebabs on offer.

Larnaca beach... if you could could it that!

Biggest kebabs from here tol Poland

The Best Bits Of ... Iceland

1. The Bue Lagoon

The most magical experience you could imagine - and one of the most affordable activities in this notoriously expensive country. This geothermal spring, not far from the capital of Reykjavik, is filled with 60 million litres of water that comes from 2000 metres below the earth's suface where the water boils at 240 degrees Celcius. However, covered in goosebumpbs and standing outside in a bikini in the middle of winter - sub-zero temperatures - you're looking at this milky blue water thinking, 'There's no way I'm going in there'. But, step a little closer and you can see the steam rising of the thick-looking liquid.

2. The Geysirs

Continuing on with the mythological landscpae theme, Iceland is home to some of the world's most amazing geysirs. Meaning a sprouting hot spring, these geysirs start from just a tiny hole in the ground. Then you see the surface begin to bubble and, with almost no warning, a jet-like gush of steam and water errupts from the earth, sometimes up to 70 metres high. We went and saw Strokkur, which errupts every four to eight minutes. It's definietly worth seeing if you're travelling all the way to Iceland.

The best bits of ... London

1. Borough Food Markets

I thought I'd died and gone to heaven when I found this place. Quite unasuming and a little dodgy-feeling under a great big old bridge basically, the Borough Food Markets is a foodies' paradise. My personal favourite are the gooey Borough Market Brownies. Fresh fruit and vegetables, every cheese you could imagine, every type of sausage you could concoct, every baked good under the sun - it's truly a most remarkable place and one I miss every day. It's a great place to go and grab a picnic before heading to Hyde Park or Parliament Hill.

Borough Market Brownies... salivate...

Just a slice?

Best picnic ever at Parliament Hill

2. The buildings

3. Notting Hill and Portobello Road Markets

4. Hyde Park

5. The view at Parliament Hill

6. Camden Markets

7. Hampton Court Palace

8. The shopping

Of course there's the obvious - Oxford Street, Regent Street and Kensington High Street are the go-to shopping centres of London. But there's a few other stores and locations that are definitely worth the visit. You can pick up some really sweet dresses, playsuits, jackets and jewellery at Dahlia in, Fouberts Place near Soho. TK Maxx is a great department store that stocks heavily reduced designer clothing and homewares and can be found in a number of suburbs around London. There are also some great one-off shops with fantastic price tags along Portobello Road in Notting Hill, and the Camden Markets and Spitalfield Markets are definitely the places to go for something a little quirky or a little vintage. Spitalfield Markets is actually where the creator of the All Saints brand started selling her clothes.

Dahlia store in Soho

Unique Shoes London store on Portobello Road

9. The Norweigan Cafe in Great Titchfield Street

Located just off Oxford Street, the red-painted shopfront cafe creates some amazing Norweigan lunch options and snacks and also stocks some of the nation's own food products. The layered traingle sandwiches are must-tries - might I recommend the ham and cheese, or salmon and egg? For desert, the delicious, gooey chocolate cake with whipped cream is the hands-down winner.

The best bits of ... Munich

1. Pork knuckle with potato dumpling

In a word, this is OMG. If you're in western Europe for a while, you'll notice good meat is scarce to get a load of this chunk of a meal while you can. In Bavarian country they do it so well  - the pork is super tender and the crackling is extra crispy. You should be able to find this dish at most beer halls and if you're feeling extra peckish the German's will take care of you. "The Pan" will have you stuffed with a whole pork knuckle, half a roast chicken AND potato dumplings.

2. The beer halls

On just about every corner of Munich you'll find a traditional beer hall - some are bigger and some are smaller than others. When I was in Munich I went to one called Augustiner Brau and, me being a big sook and not being able to handle beer, the bar tenders suggested I have a shandy. Well, why stop at one? In Germany, bigger is better and you have to drink form a 1-litre stein. So I did. In fact, I drank two of them. It's all good - there's no preservatives in German beer (so I'm told) - that's why you don't get hangovers. Now, in Germany when they toast you say "Prost!" And you have to look the person you're toasting in the eye or you're doomed to be cursed with a crappy sex life for seven years. So the story goes.

* Totally overrated:
The Glockenspeil - it's a massive cuckoo clock at the new town hall (which, coincidentally, is right next to the old town hall and looks older than the old town hall). It rings for about 10 minutes  at 11am, 12pm and 5pm every day. How annoying.