Essaouira

A continuation in the email series....This following email recounts our trip to Essaouira. Click the links to view the pictures. Enjoy.



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Marhaba from sunny Morocco!

I have a little more than a month left here in Morocco; I can’t express how enjoyable and amazing this entire journey has been. There hasn’t been a single moment where I’ve regretted my choice about studying here, well, except for being sick in the beginning. In Morocco, you never know what will happen, everyday is an adventure, you can never predict what will happen on a particular day or when doing a simple task such as going to the Marche( the market) to buy fruit ,it can easily turn into a random language and cultural interaction…I rather enjoy it. There are a few things that I miss having such as toilet paper in public restrooms, actually, restrooms that aren’t Turkish Toilets. As well as, set prices and not bartering over everything. Even though, I find these things as annoyances, I know that when I go back to Montana, I’ll miss them.

Anyway, our adventures in Morocco continue, this past weekend we traveled south once again, but this time we went to Essaouira on the Atlantic Coast. We left right after class on Thursday and took the train to Marrakesh. We arrived right after midnight, after eating dinner at KFC (Yeahhh….it’s much better here than in the states…), we decided to find a hotel, however, finding a hotel on a holiday weekend in Morocco is seemingly difficult so we ended up wandering the streets of Marrakesh trying to find a hotel until 3am when we decided to go to the Bus station instead to see if we could find an earlier bus to Essaouira, as chance had it, there was one leaving at 4am. We arrived in Essaouira at around 10:30am. My first impression of the city was that it reminded me of Chefchaouen yet next to the Ocean. We eventually found the main entrance to the Medina…but it was blocked by construction. It was sort of surreal seeing an excavator in the 18^th century entrance to the Medina, it seemed out of place in a way…

Entrance to the Medina:

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We wandered the streets of the Medina in search of a hotel:

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There are large doors everywhere throughout the city (I’m rather fond of this picture):

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We eventually found our hotel, which was considerably nicer than the other hotels we’ve stayed at in Morocco, this one cost around 10$ a night but it included breakfast. Also, it had a nice terrace which we sat upon and enjoyed the view for a bit before wandering the Medina.

Crumbling building next to our hotel:

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Seagull:

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View of the street below:

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We then wandered around the city and visited the fortifications…

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Rocks, waves and a city in the distance…

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Cannons:

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Essaouira is known for its wood products:

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and Fish Markets:

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We also visited the beach:

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Camels on the beach:

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Man riding on the beach:

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People riding camels on the beach, they probably paid a lot to do this:

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I’m on the beach…ha ha ha:

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A man with camels wanted to take us on a camel ride, but we didn’t want to:

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We crossed a small “river” to walk along the beach to find the place where Jimi Hendrix had found

inspiration for his song “Castles Made of Sand” and when we were coming back the tide had risen, so we had to ford across the river. The water would have reached up to my waist, so, my friend Megan carried me across the “river”:

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Essaouira:

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We left the following morning…and we realized that the bus station is the very essence of what Polychronic means. Our bus tried to go between the other two busses:

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Next week, we have a long break for Eid al Kabir, instead of traveling in Morocco, I’ll be heading off to The Netherlands, Brussels and Luxembourg!