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Published: February 11th 2008
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We had a slight sleep in today and got up at ten for breakfast. Our primary goal for today was figuring out the onward part of our journey. We knew that Essaouira was our next stop, so we walked to the bus station to get the tickets. Lonely Planet said that there were nine daily buses there with a company called CTM who charged 60dh. Just as soon as we stepped foot in the entrance of the station, a guy came over and asked where we were going. He told us his company went there for 45dh and went at a good time whilst CTM only appeared to do one a day. I agreed and we bought the tickets, but as we were leaving Rob voiced his concern that the guy had just pocketed 10dh each on our tickets. We don't know for sure either way, but I guess that's just the way it is when you can't speak the language.
There is a supermarket right next to the bus station so we nipped in there to get some bread to top off our picnic lunch. We then walked to the Cyber Park in the medina and found a bench
in the shade. We enjoyed a picnic which used up our accumulated food for the week. We even shared some with three kittens that were prowling around. Rob found it strange that cats like cheese...
Whilst eating we flicked through our guidebook trying to figure out a route or a plan for the south of Morocco. Trouble is that we keep on finding lovely sounding places but the only way get to them is by car. Also, many places we want to visit are described in the guidebook as "a great base for trekking" which doesn't really sound like our kind of thing.
We decided to spend some time in an internet café getting blogs up to date etc., but once we had sat down Rob realised that he hadn't packed any of the wires we needed. (Typical, you ask him to remember one thing.) We used the minimum time and left for the hostel.
The weather here is nice and warm during the day, but drops to around 8°C in the evening, so a change of attire is always needed. We changed and grabbed the necessary wires and headed off to a nearby internet café. We
successfully uploaded some blogs with pictures although we only made it to Barcelona. Once we had finished, we phoned Hicham and arranged to meet in Djemaa el-fna at half seven. That gave us forty minutes to get there which we only just managed. It makes me wonder how much time we have spent walking to and fro this last week.
We wanted to take Hicham for a meal, so we went to a place on the main square for tagines all round. Whilst we were eating, his friend Mohammad joined us. When we had all finished we got on a bus to the new part of town.
We walked into a café that Lonely Planet would describe as male dominated and not recommended for female travelers. There are a lot of these types of places which usually show football and serve alcohol and sound great, but really are men only domains. Women appear to only frequent the bars and nightclubs. I definitely got a few funny looks as we walked past everyone to the stairs. Upstairs was a beautiful room which was heavily decorated. It was the first time I have seen a carpet in Morocco and there
were long sofas with plenty of cushions. The room was fairly empty and therefore comfortable. Hicham ordered a round of Flag special which is apparently the Best of the locally brewed beers. The bottles were tiny (24cl) and not particularly cheap but it was pretty good beer. We spent a while chatting and watching the football and eating weird lentil things which accompany the beer.
On the way back to the hotel, we walked past a nightclub and we were dragged inside to have a look. It was nothing like an English club but it looked so much fun. The dancing was strange and involved a lot of shaking that I’m not entirely sure I could physically do and the range of ages was huge. There was a section for people smoking Nargiles (I am unsure of the Moroccan name) which was decked out with sofas and loungers etc. It looked fun, however Rob disagreed entirely.
We said our goodbyes and promised to try and return to Marrakech before leaving. There are a few things we would like to do, so we will try.
I am now writing this after gathering our stuff together for an early
start tomorrow. Night Night. Stob.
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