Tuesday, 23 October 2012

Twelve hours in Essaouira




From Marrakech we took a three hour bus journey to the beach-side town of Essaouira where we spent two nights.

We had planned on using the time to get some Vitamin D on the beach, but instead spent a couple of days stuck in the bathroom with a nasty bug that we picked up in Marrakech. No sooner had Daniel recovered when almost immediately Monique was struck down with the same bug. As we’re sure you can imagine, three hour bus trips are not much fun in the state that we were in.

Anyway, we were fortunate enough to have about 12 hours between our respective illnesses to see the town…and we loved it!

Where Marrakech was intense, Essaouira was decidedly more calm, chilled out and relaxed. It was just what we needed. We…

> Had a massage at the local hammam…

> Did some hustle-free shopping and purchased some locally made artisan goods…

> Stumbled across Season Three of Game of Thrones being filmed at the Port…

> Ate three consecutive meals at a very clean looking French-Moroccan restaurant because we were feeling too fragile to venture any further afield…

> Enjoyed exploring the beautiful old-town with its white-washed blue-shuttered houses. The medina of Essaouira was the first town that we have ever been that still has dirt roads running through its centre, again making us feel like we really had stepped back in time…

>  Traded a t-shirt for a tiny teapot with a travelling Berber salesman who had come down from the mountains for the season. We gave a fair bit of thought to the morality of trading something that had most likely been made in a developing country back to a developing country, in exchange for a piece that had been hand crafted. However, he was really keen to make the trade so we went for it…it’s not every day that you get to partake in some good old-fashioned trading.

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