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!

Emails once more....

Ever since the beginning of my study abroad experience, I had sent a series of emails recounting all of my trips for family and friends. I'll be in the process of posting these emails in order from the most recent to first email I ever sent out. Enjoy.


The last email recounted my trip home and the final few weeks in Morocco. Sadly, this email contained no pictures unlike the previous emails do to technical problems with my laptop.
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Well, I’m back. Back in Montana that is. I can’t say that it’s not strange, because, well, it is. I’m both happy and sad to be back. I miss all the experiences and people I met while in Morocco. But, I’m happy to be back to my old life. Studying in Morocco was the best decision I’ve ever made and I highly suggest studying and traveling abroad to everyone because it changes how you perceive and interact with the world.

Anyway, I haven’t updated since the middle of November. A lot has happened since then, during the “Thanksgiving Break”, we traveled to Amsterdam, Luxembourg, Brussels and Brugge. It was an amazing trip. Sadly, I don’t have any pictures because my computer is currently being repaired, it decided to start freezing and have other problems. Anyway, back to the update…Amsterdam is a beautiful city; I imagine it’s even better during the summer months. We visited museums and the Anne Frank House on the first day. As well, we enjoyed the beauty and food of Amsterdam. Moreover, we stayed in a boat youth hostel; it was probably one of the most memorable places to stay and highly suggested. Luxembourg is beautiful. Even though we were only there for a day, we visited a beautiful cathedral and spent most of our time in Christmas Markets eating Fondue and drinking Gluhwein (hot spiced wine). The following day we boarded the train again and went to Brussels, Brussels is a huge city; I wish we had more time to visit everything; however, we tried our best to visit as much as possible. One of my friends is a huge fan of the European Union, so we visited a multitude of EU buildings all over the city. I never thought I’d see so much of the European Union in one day. Later that evening, we visited the Brussels Christmas Market and were able to take a ride on the Ferris wheel and have an excellent view of the expanse of the city. The following day, we took a daytrip to Brugge. Brugge is like something out of a fairytale, I’m not sure if anyone actually lives there because it’s so perfect. The buildings are all hundreds of years old and so quaint. There are a multitude of Belgian chocolate shops and Cathedrals and Christmas Markets, all of which we visited. Europe was fun, but by the end, we were all wanting to go back to Morocco.

Our final 2 weeks in Morocco were dominated by finals and papers. It seemed the school plans to assign all of its work within those final 2 weeks. Thus, we didn’t travel very far. We went to Fez on the weekends and Azrou during the week to buy our final gifts and other things. After finals, I left Al Akhawayn and went to the nearby city of Meknes to visit my roommate and her family. It was nice to stay with a Moroccan family and see how they live.

I left Morocco on the 19^th and flew to Paris; I slept in the airport that night and awoke to find that the flight I was supposed to take back to Montana was cancelled. I went to the desk to reschedule and the only flight they could place me on was on the 22^nd. At this point, all I wanted to do was to fly home. So, I left the desk in hysterics because they refused to help me anymore. I called my mom on my phone in confusion and she was able to help me find a hotel. Finally, on the 22^nd I was able to fly from Paris – London – Seattle. When I reached Seattle, I discovered that they had failed to complete my booking to Montana in Paris. Luckily, they were able to find room on the plane for me and I was able to fly home.

And now I’m back.