Don't you ever wonder what we did before cell phones? Well, I found out this weekend it means you lose entire people for days at a time. The plan seemed simple enough. Twelve of us had planned to go to Essaouira and enjoy some sun at the beach. In hindsight, traveling in such a big group was certainly the first mistake. Then, five of us (myself included) were going to go to Marrakesh on Saturday night to see what was going on there. Problem 2. Everyone gets out of work at different times so I agreed to take the luggage of my two roommates that get out of work later. Problem 3. Let's just say I never saw those 2 ladies until Sunday evening on the train back. They missed the train we all were on and we both spent the whole weekend leaving messages that never got delivered for the other. I'm sure this story is confusing to you because it is still slightly confusing to me. Everyone got home safely and had a fun trip so I suppose that is all that matters.
Essaouira is a cool, hippy-ish beach town in the south of Morocco. It's a 5 hour train ride to Marrakesh and then a 3 hour bus ride. Long, I know, but sooooo worth it! It's beautiful and the people are really chill and friendly. We arrived Friday night and stayed at the Hostel Essaouira. For a hostel it was pretty nice but I think my hostel-ing days are about finished. It is a pretty cool place though. They have a room dedicated to Bob Marley and Jimi Hendrix, both of whom took a liking to and visited Essaouira. However, despite a common misconception, Jimi Hendrix's song "Castles Made of Sand" was written two years before he visited Essaouira. The main things Essaouira is known for are gnawa music, thuya wood, argan oil and some leather products. Oh, and for just chillin. We woke up Saturday morning, went to have breakfast and just sat around for the better part of the morning enjoying the scenery. This is a place where tea time is any time and can last for hours. Essaouira is also known as the "wind city" and is supposed to be good for windsurfing and kitesurfing. It was only in the 60s though, so the water was just admired from afar. My absolute favorite part about Essaouira was the fish cafe. You go to the fish market, pick a fish and then take it to any of these little hole in the wall restaurants who cook it up for you. DELICIOUS!!! We had eel and some sort of white fish, eaten with our hands Moroccan style with bread.
After a day of shopping in the medina of Essaouira it was off to Marrakesh. Leaving such a peaceful place for a large city was jarring to say the least. I felt like Eddie Murphy when he gets dropped off in Queens in Coming to America. 3 or 4 cab drivers were fighting to take us to the hotel (a game to see who can overcharge the foreigners). The cab we did end up getting just dropped us off outside the medina. It's hard to explain this but the medinas are all walled in. So outside the medina you have regular streets like in any other city. But inside the medina it's like a labyrinth. There is just no way to find where you are going, even with the best map. Many of the streets are either not named or dirt is covering the name or the name is only written in Arabic. Luckily, my roll buddy Kiesel speaks pretty good French was able to enlist the help of a nice guy to take us to the riad (similar to a B&B) we were staying in, Dar Slam. [Just to connect the beginning of this blog with this part, while in Essaouira, we got a message saying that the 2 friends (Ayah and Saara) who missed the train were going to meet us in Marrakesh. So, we finally found the riad and knocked on the door thinking the girls would be there waiting for us. Not only were they not there, the proprietor seemed as if he had never heard of them. ] Anywho, this riad was AWESOME! We had a tent room on the roof, pictures will be posted soon. It was a bit cold because we were pretty much outside in the elements with a thick piece of fabric as a roof but it was so cool and we had tons of blankets. The proprietor, Mohammed, was interesting to say the least... He was definitely drunk when we arrived, and we ended up talking to him and drinking tea/ wine until 2am. The next day we explored the Marrakesh medina, which really takes an entire day. While in Essaouira, we met some guy who took a liking to Kiesel so he showed us around the whole city. Then, he liked her so much he came to meet us in Marrakesh at 10AM to show us around there too! Man, what can you not find in Marrakesh? The main square, Djemma el Fna, has snake charmers, acrobats, spices, fresh squeezed orange juice (for less than 50 cents!), chained monkeys, henna artists, musicians. And that is just the square. In the souk part you can shop for leather, argan oil, fresh produce, meat, clothes, scarves, rams heads, turtles... the list goes on and on. Make sure to check out the forthcoming photo album and this will make more sense. We also went to the Palace Bahia. The architecture in this palace was amazing. It is all so intricate and done by hand, of course.
By the time we finished at the palace, it was time to head back to Rabat. I was definitely ready to come back to the home base and take part in the great food they make for us every day. Now, the conclusion of the missing persons saga... When we arrived at Marrakesh train station, we finally found Ayah and Saara. Here is what happened: They missed the train to Marrakesh, which meant they also missed the connecting bus to Essaouira. They stayed the night in Marrakesh AT THE SAME RIAD WE STAYED AT SATURDAY!!! They explained to Mohammed that they had 3 friends and we were all supposed to come on Saturday but the missed the bus to Essaouira so they were going to stay with Friday night. Now, mind you, when we arrived Saturday we told Mohammed how we had two friends who we couldn't find and were supposed to come from Essaouira with us. How he did not reconcile these two, I will never know. Next piece that got lost in translation... We got a message in Essaouira that they were meeting us in Marrakesh. Not true. They told the guy they were in Marrakesh and COMING to Essaouira. So they hoped to meet us at the bus station, retrieve their bags, and hang out in Essaouira with the part of the group that stayed behind. Big misunderstanding. It doesn't help that all these conversations are happening in a mixture of broken English, French and Arabic. Ah well, c'est la vie.
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