Marrakesh-Essouria-Safi-Oualidia!!!!

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Right!! Where to start!
We left Marrakesh 3 nights ago to get to Essouaria. Which is on the coast and has a lovely Medina and harbour. It's also where they filmed scenes for The game of thrones series (for the fans). The Medina smells like fish guts....that's because there is fish guts everywhere. They cut the fish open on the side of the roads to sell they're catch for that day. The place itself is lovely to look at and has a much more laid back and relaxed attitude from Marrakesh. The people aren't trying to put monkeys on your shoulders or ask for money for leading you to places...... Which leads me on to Robert and his map skills again. We got lost when we arrived, we were looking for our hostel but had no clue! Thankfully some hippy travel girl took pity on us and directed us to the winding dark alley it was on.

Essaouira has also been known for its hippy lifestyle back in the 60s and 70s and we were continuously offered hash cakes on the streets. We didn't do a great deal here apart from walk the beautiful beach and watch the windsurfers. The one full day we had there was so windy that we had our fleeces on and retreated back to the hostel with a bottle of red wine, fresh bread and crisps!! Hehe not exactly morrocan cuisine. We did have some chicken kebab though! Which was cooked in lovely spices and slow cooked over heat.

Next stop was Safi further north. Buses don't run on time in morrocco as we found out in Marrakesh We finally got on our supratour bus an hour after it was meant to arrive and got to Safi around time we were meant to arrive ( bus drivers erratic driving!!!) Safi again is another harbour and has spectacular views from the Medina. I didn't feel that welcome in Safi and I don't think they're used to travellers, especially English speaking travellers. I think they'res alot going on with the culture their and I wasn't sure if I was offending people as the women seemed to look at me with distaste. Even though I was covered from head to toe.

We watched the sunset over the sea here whilst drinking morroccan tea in a little cafe in the edge of the Medina. We also spent 10 dirham each to go into what we thought was the remains of an old Portuguese cathedral. It was, but it was one room no bigger than my mum and dads living room!! Hehe.

We stayed in a lovely Riad again called Riad cheval blanc. The woman only spoke French but we managed to understand each other just about. With the help of Google translate!!
We had an amazing breakfast which unfortunately wasn't included in the price (we found this out when we were halfway through it) we also met the Riad owner who jodi thought was a guest and she continued to quiz him about his stay in safi and if he had a good sleep (cringe). We left there this morning and headed for the bus station.

We have never been so confused or stressed!!! Everything was in Arabic. You have to rely and trust the people there waiting for you to get on what you hope is the right bus!! We coincedently got on the wrong one heading south (5 hour journey) thankfully we got off before it headed too far out of the town and the driver put us in a taxi back to the bus station. Not before I put my backpack on and realised fish guts from another bag had leaked all over it!!

We finally got on the right bus and for a mere hour I had to smell like the inside of a sardine! We our now currently in Ouilidia. With a beautiful view of the beach and sea from our balcony in hotel l'initiale. We're staying here for two days and all I'm going to do is swim in the lagoon. Eat BBQ'd fish (not really a fish fan but not many other options apart from sand) and relax in the sun before we ascent to Casablanca.

Peace out

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