Essaouira

Djenna el-Fna in Marrakech

Our classic Moroccan breakfast with bread, olive oil, and Amlou

After a long day painting and fixing up the center, Terry and I caught the 8:50pm train to Marrakech, destination: Essaouira.

We got in at Djenna el-Fna around 12:30am. There were still grills packed with people engulfed in smoke and dozens of orange juice lines flanked the grills. All the owners beckon you over, so that the only way to choose is eeny meeny miny mo. We slept in the cheapest hotel we could find called Hotel des Amis.

The next day we woke up early to go to a beach town, Essauoaira. Although it is fairly small in size, it is not the small town it used to be. Instead, it's turned into a tourist destination like most cities in Morocco. In the day there are Europeans and Americans buying cactus fruit and wooden souvenir boxes, but at night the Moroccans come out. The streets are packed, there are men throwing out djlellabas yelling "ashreen, ashreen!" "twenty, twenty!" which is quite a good deal. Alex and I finally bought snails from a vendor, after putting off this more adventurous food experience for 6 weeks. We regretted waiting instantly. It was delicious! It comes in a soup that is filled with spices that Whalid, our Moroccan friend who Alex came with, said changes depending on the vendor. This soup was overwhelmingly ginger, which was fine by me. Afterwards, we walked around the medina, spotting a shop making fresh insimin. I couldn't resist, so I bought one with cheezy and honey. It was good. It was sooo good. It was probably the best insimin I've had. So needless to say, I bought another one. I wanted one more after that as well.

Later on we went to a couch surfing meeting, where we met people from Germany, Morocco, Ireland, and France. After much conversation, Whalid, Terry, Alex and I went home with one of the couch surfers, a bubbly Moroccan man named Rachid. I fell asleep that night listening to Whalid play the gimbri and sing.