Honeymoon Blues

After much discussion, Arthur and I picked Morocco as our ideal honeymoon destination. I am sure you might be thinking, "huh. interesting." We chose it because a) neither one of us has ever been there b) it is not a typical honeymoon destination c) there is lots of history and culture d) there is lots to do e) there is still plenty of resort type areas for those days of relaxation.

Marrakesh




Agadir

So Arthur put in his passport application and I put in my renewal. I can almost hear the collective sigh of relief from those of you have seen my passport photo. Twenty-three year old me - uh, not so pretty. We then went on an adventure to Liberty Travel. Once there, we informed a bearded, burly and overly enthusiastic gentleman travel agent that we were thinking about Morocco, but we were open to other ideas. This, apparently, was a mistake. He had just come back from a trip to Argentina you see. He was singularly focused. Don't get me wrong, it looked and sounded amazing. However, we had said we were open to other places, not another place. Our conversation was akin to the World Cup - Argenina vs. Morocco. He would highlight some fabulous aspect of Argentina and then sort of mumble something about Morocco. His enthusiasm was significantly dampened, however, by the mention of our budget. One could practically feel the wind from the slamming of the South American brochure. "You are probably better off looking into Morocco if that's what you want to spend."

Needless to say we left there unsatisfied and with a brochure of Argentina. Arthur and I decided to stop by the travel section of Barnes and Noble to make ourselves feel better. There we found lots of interesting tidbits and renewed our determination. We looked on-line, but did not find anything that seemed like more than 30 person guided tour - not exactly romantic. Finally, I remembered to look up the company I used to travel through Egypt - Imaginative Traveller. They were great then with just the right amount of tour without overdoing it. It turns out that they actually have honeymoon trips to places like India, Kenya and ...gasp...Morocco! I have been in contact with one of their people and she has been very informative. Almost too informative. The bottom line is staggering - at least it is to me.

I guess it has been a while since I went on a full-fledged vacation. This is the only possible explanation as to why I am absolutely blown away by how much it may cost us to go on the honeymoon we want. Fundamentally, I understood that it would be a few grand, but I just didn't imagine that the honeymoon would cost nearly as much as the wedding.

It saddens me to think for practical reasons we may not be able to go on this trip. Logically, I understand that I am a big girl and should be able to get over it. Illogically, I just want us to be able to go on the honeymoon that we want. We don't even have Paris.