Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
After the desert trip I decided to go to Essaouira, a little seaside town only a three hour drive from Marrakesh. I was planning on going to Fez, but that didn't happen. Next time! I went on my own and was at this point looking forward to getting away on my own for a bit and wandering on the beach, unsociable brooder that I am! On the bus I ended up sitting next to another interesting person, an Australian girl living in Cheltenham who was teaching English in the Atlas Mountains for a year. We had a good chat about Morocco and life in general, and she gave me some tips about Essaouira. She was staying with friends so went off in one direction whilst I turned to the issue of where to stay. I'd been planning on going to Essaouira Backpackers (the only hostel there) but met Manchurian Stu when I got off the bus (he stood out in the crowd of Moroccans). He had his own riad which he owned and lived in with his girlfriend, his dad, his baby and friend. For double the price of the hostel I could have my own en-suite beautiful room and breakfast, so I went for it. They were super friendly and gave me a tour of the town and directions to get back as they seemed to think I'd get lost. Hmm. Which I did, very impressively. I spent a whole hour wandering around in circles down the same streets in the dark, and Stu and family were very concerned when I finally showed up. Still, all part of the experience!
I went for a wander and found Essaouira to be a very different place from Marrakesh. It is a tourist town, so in the main streets you have loads of market stalls selling the obligatory scarves, jewellery, shoes. But it is still primarily a working fishing port, and it's a beautiful place with a fortress and scenic coastline. I arrived in time to see the fishermen hauling in and selling their day's catch, so got some nice photos of fish guts :) One of the best things about Essaouira is the food. Obviously the thing to eat there is fresh fish, and you can go to the market and point to what you want and get it cooked on the spot. And served with bread. No more bread! I was on my own so one of the chefs made friends with me. I found out Essaouira is a very small place as I bumped into him a total of five times over the next two days and every time he asked me on a date.
The people in Morocco are lovely, but it is the kind of place where you get heckled to the extreme and towards the end I was wishing I just had a paper bag I could put over my head. To get anywhere you need to walk past shops and restaurants and every single one will try and attract your attention. You walk down the street and every person you walk past tries to engage you. "Hello.... bonjour.....mademoiselle.... how are you.... ca va.... you like shoes.... you want to eat here? Very good food, very good price". You kind of learn that the best thing to do is ignore them because if you say "hello" back they take that as license to resort to any means to make you buy something. And the men! The men are terrible, especially in Essaouira. And seriously need to get new chat up lines. They literally throw themselves at anything female. I had several men follow me down the street for ten or twenty minutes carrying on an entirely one-sided conversation about how much they wanted to talk to me and "liked my walk". This is why I wanted some peace and quiet!
Anyway, by the next day I felt I'd seen pretty much all there was to see and beginning to get a bit bored. As I sat on a wall eating an orange and trying to decide what to do I heard a "hello stranger" behind me and turned around to see (not the chef) but Sue, who I knew from Marrakesh and the desert trip. She'd decided at the last minute to do a day trip to Essaouira. We had a walk around together and went for lunch, so it was a really nice day in the end.
And that is pretty much my Morocco trip. I travelled back to Marrakesh the next day and spent all my money, only had enough left for the bus fare to the airport. On my way to the bus stop I had my best ever haggling experience and ended up getting a taxi for the same price as the bus and for a fifth of the starting price. I literally held my hand out and said "this is the only money I have" and he said "ok"! Must have been desperate, I'm surprised it covered the cost of the fuel. The only other excitement I had was a mad sprint through central London at rush hour (with big wheelie suitcase) only to miss my bus back to Birmingham by one minute. I was unimpressed.
Until my next travels!
Oh! I forgot about my hammam experience. They don't have showers in their houses in Morocco, so to bathe they go to public bath houses. Which are basically giant steam rooms with vats of boiling water, and you grab your bucket and soap and get on with your business. Most people wash their friends (scratch my back, I'll scratch yours), they have this paste they rub on their bodies and then scrub to get all the dirt off. I had the best cleaning of my life by this elderly Moroccan lady who literally scrubbed me everywhere. It was a very interesting experience, especially given the difference between their culture and ours. They are completely comfortable walking around naked and cleaning each other. I was surprised how comfortable I felt, when in Rome.... It's even more strange because they don't show any skin to the opposite sex and the women wear head to toe clothing and face veils, yet in front of other women they just don't care.
I think that's it, I am writing this a month later :s
- comments