Essaouira
My first order of business: bee line it to wherever they sell fresh fish. We were, after all, right on the Atlantic Ocean. After a 
bit of haggling (the prices are fixed and published, but apparently the math often favors the vendors), we sat down and awaited our grilled selections. There's nothing quite like tucking into a pile of super super fresh seafood. And that's all it was: simply grilled, lemon wedges on the side.
I didn't do much more than here than eat and sleep and bum around. I did go to the bus station in search of my ticket out of this place, and was struck by immediate deja vu. Still, I needed a way out, and bought a relatively inexpensive (this always comes back to haunt you in Morocco) ticket north to Rabat. And inexpensive is what I got. The bus, though I was promised a modern, air-conditioned coach, was definitely out of date, if otherwise according to the man's description. The "direct/express" ride to Rabat was anything but--stopping in at least 30 small towns along the way to let people and animals on and off. Animals? Yep, we had a goat and a turkey on board. Really? Yep, really. The goat was tied around the horns and the turkey simply had his feet bound, both secured in the cargo hold below (no man down there this time). Sometimes we need a few tries until we get it right: Lesson re-learned: bus travel with anyone other than CTM (the national bus service) is to be avoided.
1 comment:
Essaouira has almost a thousand nicknames: "the Pearl of the Atlantic", "the sleeping beauty” etc...they can all be traced back to the beautiful Arab word “Souirah”.The word Essaouira means image. Behind its purple ramparts and inside its whitewashed medina with blue doors lies a city that has been influenced by various cultures (Berber, Carthaginian, Portuguese, English, Bambara and others). It was the Jewish traders that once formed the majority of the population and it was they who transformed Essaouira into what became Morocco's most prosperous city in the 17th and 18th centuries. . A cosmopolitan city where houses prices are cheaper than Europe has fuelled a drive in demand for Morocco property due to such a big amount of tourists and foreigners. Essaouira has been classed as a World Heritage site by UNESCO.
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