While food trucks seem to be gaining popularity in the US (they even had a food truck park in Fort Worth when I was visited), the 'mobile' food market in London remains thoroughly in the hands of the markets. We have visited Portobello Market countless times (let's call it familiarity not laziness), I've checked out the market at Southwark and around Brick Lane. Despite this, I always recommend Borough Market first to visiting friends and family. Each time, people would come back with rave reviews, further cementing its spot at the top of the list of markets to visit. Yet, I myself had never visited it!

I'll blame it on the size of London and the public transit - if it's not a direct shot on the tube or bus for me, I may be less likely to visit. Again, laziness and I have so many things to visit that fall into one of these two categories or even WALKING distance from my flat. Portobello Road, Kensington Gardens, Natural History Museum, Victoria & Albert Museum, British Library, British Museum, the list goes on and on.

Then, one day I was going a scavenger hunt through the City of London, which included a pit stop in the Borough Market. It was the end of the day, the market was beginning to shut down and yet, I saw enough to want to come back for more.

So, a few Saturday's later and my lazy self became a little less lazy and trekked across to the market South of the Thames.

I didn't have anything in mind other than finding something to eat for lunch. After I walked up, I knew I wouldn't walk away hungry. There is something for everyone - from the true market goods like cheeses, wines and breads, to food that's prepared like pies, thai food, Turkish food, brauts and lots of sweets.

We wandered by stall after stall, our eyes bigger than our stomachs. Paul ended up with a curry and I of course chose my favorite British food, a pie, with a chocolate tart & macaroon to satisfy our dessert cravings.

Not only is it a great market, it's just another great example of London's history and how Londoners have worked to keep their city great (or even perhaps a little weird just like back in Austin, TX). Food trading can be traced back to 1014, where locals brought fresh produce to trade. And it's still got many of those people today, which locally made cheeses or vegetables. In 1755, the market was threatened when it was closed because of the congestion caused by traffic around the market. Luckily for us, local residents bought up land and re-opened the market.

Like any good market, it's an eat and walk experience. Be prepared to eat on your feet, or take it home with you. We opted for the former and strolled around more, planning our next meal when we venture out to the South side of the Thames - which I'm sure will be sooner rather than later!

After a day exploring & shopping all around Marrakech, we wanted to see more of the landscape of Morocco. The Atlas Mountains not only gave us a look into a different terrain than the dusty city streets of Marrakech, but also gave us more insight into the history and different cultures of Morocco.

The Atlas Mountains are home to many Berber people, who while are originally indigenous to all of North Africa now reside in large numbers in Morocco and Algeria. The Berbers maintain their own language, which has recently been added as one of Morocco's national language in order to help preserve it.

 So, we set out on an easy hike up to one of the villages on the mountains to visit a village home, have some traditional Moroccan mint tea, and have what turned out to be a feast. Since you can't drive up to the higher villages, we were dropped off somewhere not too far down the road from Richard Branson's Moroccan retreat. The roads aren't paved, rather large rocks & dust, so we walked carefully for 20 minutes or so before we reached our destination.

It was worth every step - the view from the balcony of our afternoon rest point was beautiful. Mountains and villages in the background, and oh so much sun which I have been missing as autumn & winter have come to London.

Our first order of business was making our own tea. After a quick lesson, we had the first batch around. It was delicious, but they certainly do like their tea sweet. We sat and enjoyed (and napped), then were fed copious amounts of food. Lots of veggies to start, followed up tagines full of more vegetables and chicken. When you're in Morocco, it's hard to find dishes not from the tagine, but they are certainly good.

 With full stomachs, it was time to finish our hike, walking around the rest of the village and a bit further along the mountain. Despite the arid climate, there were trees and plants everywhere, and streams running like life springs through the mountain. With the fall foliage just starting to appear on the trees, it was like a Bob Ross painting waiting to be painted. An oasis nestled between the peaks.

Then, just like that, we found ourselves back on a dusty road headed towards Marrakech.

This year appears to have been the year of Africa. While we did lots of Europe, I'd done Europe before. But Africa had only been a trip to Egypt until 2013.  We did our Kenya safari, then a work trip to Cape Town turned up, and finally a girls weekend in Marrakech.