Essaouira, Morocco
Our bus to Essaouira on the Atlantic coast was airconditioned, a nice change from what we had travled in the last three days. When we arrived in the middle of a clusterf***k of what they called a bus station, I realized I had thrown out the directions, but didn´t feel any anxiety. Ryan went into a hotel that he thought was really a brothel and asked for directions to the Medina (square). We headed towards it, started walking around, and I realized we would never find it this way. I popped into an internet cafe, got directions, and we started walking.
I heard Ryan behind me say ‘Hey!’ I turned around and he was talking to a fire engine red haired girl and a dude with surfer style hair, there were talking to us like they knew us-I had no idea who they were, and tried to place them…then the German girl from the Couchsurfing group came up, with the Moroccan host. Aha! He showed us to our hostel and told us to meet him/them at the beach. We were still kind of wierded out by them.
We got to the hostel and Alex and Sophie were there. We realized our reservation was for the next night and night after, the guy told us the place was booked, but said we could sleep on the terrace for half price. Showed us to a room and wanted 200 Durham each, I talked him down. WTF are we doing wrong? Always getting hassled, ripped off, screwed over? We sat on the terrace with Sofie and Alex, who didn´t have a care in the world, and smoked sheesha (flavoured tobacco) with them. I still felt anxious and angry after they left. Ryan asked what I was thinking–‘Jumping off this terrace’ I replied, gravely. We laughed, because we both knew that I was half serious.
We left to get food, but realized Ryan had to make his routine call to Jorge, the handler of his money, to put more in the bank. I sat outside while Ryan contacted his accountant, waiting for someone to step on me or mess with me. I saw Simon and Ursula, called them over, and started chatting. We realized quickly that we all felt the same way, distraught, disgusted, and tired of being taken advantage of. I wanted to hug them and cry at the same time.
We walked together, Ryan and I went to eat, Simon and Ursula said they´d be back, maybe, maybe not. We figured we wouldn´t see them again. We had just finished our food when they came back. They had seen the beach and said the water was crap, dirty, nasty. We walked down to the beach together and Ryan made a quick comparison: this beach looks like Lake Michigan. Except Lake Michigan is bluer. We all walked down the beach, then walked back, fighting the wind. We found a bar, drank a few, then went back to our hostel to drink cheaper beer with Sophie and Alex. Great night.
We met Simon and Ursula the next morning for a breakfast of crepes. We bought bread and cheese (laughing cow) for lunch, had coffee, and made plans to go to the other beach. Back to hostel to switch rooms, and realized we didn´t get screwed over in the room upstairs as we thought we had, since we were charged half price of that room. The new room had 6 beds, and still got charged less than the 10 bed at 10,50 Euros a night. We sat a bit and learned a disgusting thing about this hostel we were really starting to love as our ‘safe haven’ in Morocco: they don´t change the sheets. The woman swept the crumbs off the bottom sheet and folded the top sheet and blanket tightly so they´d look fresh. She even went as far to flip over the pillow. Eww.
We met up with Simon and Ursula again, they didn´t want to go to the other beach, since it was so late, so we went to the Lake Michigan beach. They had a surprise for us-they had met a Slovenian who gave them booze! We went to the beach, ate our feast, Simon hated the wind and the sand, so he and Ryan went to the internet cafe while us girls stayed, lied down, and read. The sun came out and we slowly started taking off our clothes. I realized that if I didn´t look at the men, I wouldn´t know they were staring at me. We would stop reading every once in a while to chat and wipe the ever blowing sand out of our books and off our faces. It was a bit frustrating but we were relaxed, something I hadn´t felt in a while, since we had been in Morocco, in fact…Being with them, being a group of four made it easier, less threatening, besides they were feeling the same way as us. It was a good connection.
The boys came back with Hawai (juicy drink kind of like orange pop-Ryan and I can´t agree if its carbonated or not) and we mixed some of their alcohol. It was homemade and tasted like gasoline. Everybody made faces; I dont see the point in drinking something thats this nasty. I went in the sea, made Ryan go with me. I made a point not to look at the people as I walked by–Ignorance is bliss.
We had dinner as a foursome. They´re so funny, they never agree on anything, but it seems to work for them. It might be uncomfortable if we knew what they were saying, but it´s just funny listening to them debate in Slovenian. We wandered looking at stuff, Ursula buying things, I started looking and touching things, found out telling shopkeepers ‘I have no money’ is pretty effective, until one guy gave me hell and told me I shouldn´t touch because I was wasting him time. I told him I´ve had loads of my time wasted, but walked away as I was saying it. No point in telling him how Moroccan sales tactics don´t work-desperation is not attractive.
We left Simon and Ursula, said goodbye to them, hoping to see them again. They were heading to El Jadida, the Moroccan holiday town and they will facebook us to let us know if its cool or not, and if we should bother coming.
I woke up the next morning early and got out of the room so I wouldn´t disturb Ryan. That boy can surely sleep! I decided to go get food-my first time venturing out alone in Morocco. No problems. Got cheese and 4 circle breads. Saw a mother cat nursing her kittens in a box someone set up for them. Aww, cute. When I came back I heard mewing and saw the kitten wasn´t nursing anymore. An adult cat was going to town on the passed out Mamma. I was heartbroken; those kittens will die. It´s cutthroat out here, in Essaouira kitty world. I was pretty upset and lost my appetite.
I vegged out in front of the TV and watched bad movies until Ryan woke up. We headed out to the beach, where it was extremely hot. After about 20 minutes, we were sweating from all of our pores. There were guys playing ping pong and soccer. Ryan and I took turns going in, and when Ryan left guys started talking to me. Thank god I dont know any French, else I´d probably get mad…I went into the sea on my own, no harassment. We left the beach, walked along the port and got food. I mentioned to Ryan about taking the ferry over to Spain, since we were so confused on where to go in Morocco, since going far was out of the question after I changed all money over and realized I could hardly afford to eat. Spain sounded good, real good. We checked the internet, Simon and Ursula had written, saying that we should come to El Jadida, beause the sea was blue there. Ryan and I were both set on Spain, but once we realized we wanted to meet up with them again, decided to deter our Spain plans back another day. We were going to El Jadida.
Tags: Africa
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