Tea Time in Morocco - Paula Gardner

Welcome to my 1st guest blogger, Paula Gardner from Soothed in the city.
I hope you enjoy Paula recounting her time in Marrakesh.

Tea Time in Morocco

 

I can’t pretend that I found Morocco a particularly relaxing destination. To be frank, it was loud, intense and an assault to the senses. This was all in a good way but I definitely needed somewhere to retreat, recover and reground myself every day. This came to be a courtyard garden in our hotel: nothing fancy, it was a collection of mismatched orange plastic chairs set in lush greenery, with the occasional flowering cactus, but this tiled oasis became my hideaway in the middle of Marrakesh.

We were in a new relationship: the time that paved the way for “those” conversations, you know, the ones where you’re feeling each other out, to see if you are an ideal fit. The talks where it feels like someone wants to understand your very soul. And they all took part in this garden.

Here, over the sweetest of mint teas we discussed what we had seen that day: the sights, the sounds, the smells, from the scent of aromatic freshly squeezed orange juice in the Jamaa el Fna square to the cacophony of street kids as they followed us around, offering to guide us.  And the delicious tea kept on coming.

I thought about digging through my photos to find one of this garden, taken long before we had phones on our cameras. But I don’t need to. I merely have to close my eyes and I can feel the coolness of the air around me, see the richness of the tiles on the walls and floor, and hear the chink of the teapot as yet another glass was poured.

A space to retreat and unwind has become important to me over the years. Virginia Woolf called it having a room of your own, but I think the real ability is to find that space anywhere, even if you’re far from home, which is why I’ve created Soothed in the City, to help people find those sweet spots that they’ll always remember.

Now, with a garden of my own, I am growing my own mint, brewing up my own fresh tea, creating yet another retreat, of sorts: one that was inspired by a little courtyard in Marrakesh.

 

By Paula Gardner of www.soothedinthecity.com