Agadir Excursion

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I apologize for not making a post sooner but to be honest there hasn't been anything post worthy in Rabat, probably because I am used to being here so it feels "normal" to me, well as "normal" as Rabat can be. Anyways, here goes...

After class on Thursday (7/9) MSJ took a train from Rabat to Marrakesh. We shared a cabin on the train with a family who had a little girl The girl really liked playing with my watch so I took it off and let her play with it for a while.

When we arrived in Marrakesh it was oppressively hot, like 110 Fahrenheit. No taxi really wanted to pick us up so we got a ride from a random guy with a van. Jess was pretty sketched out but he turned out to be legit and he got us to the hotel.

At the hotel I realized that I forgot a copy of my passport and so I called AmidEast and they reluctantly faxed me a copy. The only catch was they faxed it to a restaurant affiliated with the hotel, which is located in the Medina, a couple miles from the hotel.

We started walking towards the general direction of the Medina and along the way we met a creeper named Abdul. He said he would show us how to get to the restaurant, we reluctantly agreed but to be honest we didn't really have a choice he kind of just started walking while semi holding onto Sara. We walked for a while and it was starting to get dark and it seemed like we were on back streets so we bailed on him and frantically hailed a cab who told us that we were within a block of the restaurant. Turns out Abdul was being a good guy and actually taking us there. Too bad his body language was super creepy and we had to ditch him like that, oh well.

After we got the copy of my passport we were all exhausted so we got drinks (large pepsi and fanta for the win) and snacks and crashed in the hotel, it was fun.

The next morning we got on a bus in Marrakesh headed for Agadir. The bus ride was long and uncomfortable but we got there in one piece. I had more passport issues though because the copy AmidEast gave me didn't have my entry number into Morocco on it. Sara had to call my host family and tell them in French where my passport was and what we needed. After that was resolved we swam in the pool for a bit and then had dinner. After that we went to the beach and watched the sunset.

The next day we went to the beach and stayed the entire day. We rented some beach chairs and umbrellas and traded off between watching the stuff/sleeping/reading and swimming in the ocean. We all got pretty sunburned but it was a fun day, we ate Pizza Hut on the beach too. Me and Jess also went jet skiing which was awesome but run by a totally sketchy operation. They didn't ask for any ID and it was a cash only business. Anytime Sara and Jess went anywhere without me they were harassed they said, and even when I was with them we still had creepers follow us or say stuff.

The next day (7/12) we got up at 4am and headed to the bus station to catch a 6:00am bus back to Marrakesh. Turns out the tickets we were sold - by a legit company(ONCF, I think it is partly run by the government even) - were for a bus that doesn't exist! We had to buy tickets on the spot for a different bus at 6:30am and so we all lost around 100 dirhams (like $12). The bus ride back went faster than the one down, even though at one point our driver stopped the bus so he could buy some watermelons...

Back in Marrakesh we had a feast at McDonalds and rode a long train back to Rabat. Near Rabat the train had to stop for quite some time so we were a little late getting back in. I crashed that night at 8pm and didn't even get to eat dinner - oh well.

The excursion was full of mishaps and adrenaline rushes and sketchiness and creepers but it was fun. The only thing that sucked was we were told (by multiple guidebooks) that Agadir had camel rides on the beach, and there weren't any...which was one main reason of why we went there. Oh well. Five days and I'll be home. I can't believe how fast time has gone.

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