Summary of events Marrakech to Oualidia

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Just a few notes about the journey so far. Generally the whole experience has been amazing. I think our anxiety and nervousness is starting to subside. We have realised that our grasp of the English language is starting to fade quickly, this blog has been a nightmare to spell for both of us.
I usually am the most confident at speaking French (Grade C GCSE 15 years ago) although I do seem to speak a combination of French, English and German which is confusing for everyone involved i.e. Je voudrais two crepe, danke.

Marrakech is so busy. Our first experience was when our driver from the airport tailgated everyone the whole way to the hotel. Mopeds and motorbikes snake wherever there is space. And at junctions everyone wants to get to the stop line, so you usually have 5 cars a breast trying to turn into each other. The Medina is worse. It's only as wide as one and a half cars; but cars, bikes and people somehow manage so survive and speed and chaos.
The highlight for me was the Riad romance which was paradise in the city life. The badia palace was pretty good too. It was built to impress the French when they visited. The French loved it so much they kicked their hosts out and kept it for themselves. Nice.
The lowlights included being talked into sitting on a rickety old table, in the main square, with other people with fly covered bread in front of us (thanks jodi). I ordered grilled chicken and jodi ordered chips. I got a tiny burnt chicken leg and jodi got no chips. We got up and left with no intention of leaving a tip but I didn't have change and he said he hadn't either (very strange!?). I was so annoyed we didn't wait to see the fire dancers (I'm sure I'll get to see them somewhere else :/)

Essouaria was nice once we found our hostel. We had a local on our tail telling us we would never find our hostel (very helpful) I was determined to prove him wrong. The hostel directions were terrible and I was scared of getting them out at the risk of getting my phone nabbed. I pretty much had it sussed when some hippies confirmed my thoughts. :-)
The food that night was amazing. I only trusted the kababs as I could see it was properly cooked with no flies on it. We got a sample and we're hooked. We headed up stairs to what looked like a McDonald's kids area with bars on the windows. We got meat, salad, rice and bread. All tasted good and I had no surprises the next morning which was good as there was never any toilet roll.
The beach was lovely but not for surfing. Only kite surfing and wind surfing. The water was so cold anyway I don't think we would have ventured in.

By the way I have had the man flu since Gatwick and it's so annoying. I have been avoiding cold water the whole time and on nose is still running. It better be fixed before dubai!!

Safi was ok. It had an amazing sea view from the top of the riad and it had an impressive railway. I do love a good train. We drank Moroccan mint tea as the sun set. When I say drunk I mean gulped. The longer you left it in the tea pot the stronger it got. So with tiny glasses we had to drink it fast before it was undrinkable. I ate a tuna pizza and half of jodi's cheese pizza (I love it when jodi doesn't like her food lol). there was also a youngish woman arguing in Arabic with the waiter which was good entertainment for a while.
This morning the breakfast was good. We hadn't booked it but we agreed it would be much cheaper than buying something on the street. I loved it when jodi mistook the owner for another guest even though it was obvious who he was. He asked us if we slept well and jodi replied 'yes, did you have a good sleep?'. Lol

We are now in oualidia. Pronounce walidiya. Unfortunately I didn't know this when I booked tickets for a town 5 hours in the opposite direction. We had a frantic rush to stop the driver when we noticed. Thankfully the driver flagged us down a taxi back to the bus station. They were so helpful even though it was our (my) mistake. Jodi's bag now smells of year old dead fish. I will be avoiding her for a while.lol
We have yet to explore this town but it has a beautiful Lagune at its centre. On our way it a man on a moped stopped to talk to us. I instantly thought this guy is like the hundreds before who have tried to guide, direct, show up his shop, or follow him for some unknown fee. But if just wanted to chat and tell us about his fish barbecue cafe shop on the beach which sounds really nice. I think we will try this tonight.
Laters...

Robert

PS it is too difficult to upload photos to this blog on my phone. So until I get to a computer all my photos will be on my Google drive. If you subscribe to the blog i'll add you to the drive so you can view them :-)

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[Jane mehaffy]

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Lucky you are somewhere sunny we are 3o here. Enjoy x