New stories
18 september 2016 - Essaouira, Marokko
Day 37: Taghazout
At the moment the letters in my diary are green, since everything in this hostel disappears magically (my pen, my breakfast, the lighters,...). I'm guessing the attitude is 'We are all one love and we share everything', which would match perfectly with the hippie lifestyle of smoking and surfing all day, and the local advises of 'Go with the flow and don't stop' and 'If you have a good heart, good things will happen, don't worry'. The moments on the rooftopterrace with some music and the sound of the sea on the background make me feel happier than ever.
Day 38:
We tried to go running on the beach in the early morning. When it became clear to us that Inge was locked in her hostel, I went to see the beautiful sunrise instead <3 After 20 minutes the clouds came in and covered the land in a misty veil. Time to go back to bed for a little while.. After my morningnap (hurray for the weird daily rythms! ;)) I went to bananavillage - or Aourir - to get more money and (duh!) bananas.
Day 39:
A good day at Paradise valley. It was beautiful and great, I can only spend good words on this. Despite the lack of water in the rivers I went swimming in the pool with 30 pair of Maroccan guy-eyes burning on my back. In the refreshing water with my clothes on, I felt proud and glad I went in anyway.
Day 40:
My urges of running my own hostel gets stronger with every unused fabulous terrace I encounter.. It could all be so beautiful! I spend my days reading, writing and trying to pick up on some meditation. The desire to join another 10-day Vipassana meditation retraite caught me. In the afternoon I walked along the shore for 12km. I only got bothered by guys 6 times, so every 2 km on average, a good score!!
Day 41:
Just 2 days to go until the arrival of my sweeties :) My day exists of a visit to Agadir (where I visited the neighbourhood Talborstj (which was quiet and a relief) and the beach (which was worse, so I spent my time there mainly declining offers to 'just talk').
Day 42: A journey back to Marrakech
Day 43: Today is the day!
Stella, Anne and Line arrived at 20.00 :D I spent he whole day waiting and after one hour of nervosity and rising tension at the airport we were united. We are facing a good time together and after checking into our riad, they were introduced to the chaotic streets of the medina.
Day 44: Eid al-Adha
Today is the 'feast of the sacrafice'. Which, for us tourists, basically means EVERYTHING is closed. Except for the touristic places at the Jemaa el-Fna square, where we ate the most horrendous pizza (with peas) ever. Meanwhile whole families gathered inside their homes to sacrifice sheep and perform all kinds of other rituals. After the slaughter, the streets were covered in blood, guys were proudly walking around with sheep's heads and on every corner there were sacrificial fires filling the whgole city with a smell of burned meat and bones. The carts riding around with piles of sheepskins made completed our state of shock. The delicious dinner took place in a Jewish restaurant in the Ville Nouvelle, because they were joining us in not celebrating Abraham's willingness to sacrifice his son. The bottle of wine we ordered was soooo welcome ^^
Day 45: Zagora
We got the touristic package. Honestly they didn't do us any favor stopping for too long at Ait Benhaddou, Ouazarzate, the worst lunchspot you could think of and some carpetshop. But maybe it just wasn't our day. After a long busride we mounted our camels. Lots of pictures and hilarious moments later we arrived in the luxury camp. Unfortunately still not the best place for the stomachproblems some of us faced.. The berber men made us dinner (tajine, surprise!) and later they played some music. Lying underneath the stars we enjoyed each others company and together we saw an amazing bright and long shooting star!! Our outside sleep was a little cold, but the best :)
Day 46: Return to Marrakech
There was little time to watch the sunrise and have breakfast. The tight regime made us leave on our camels again. I had the same sweet camel and we felt like one. We were all happy to find out it was only a short camelride today, seen our butpains. Lunch was again a rip-off, but the dinner in no. 1 of the Jemaa el-Fna foodstalls was going to make up for it big time! After the busride back we found our new riad with the help of a little boy (the riads are always impossible to find in the complicated medina maze) and he didn't want anything (money) in return. He asked us to come have dinner in the restaurant where we found him - again Bakchich - and we agreed because it's a nice place. Then 1 hour later he rang our doorbell to ask if we were ready, and we were not. Another hour later we found him in the streets waiting for us and he took us to another expensive restaurant. His parents. This shouldn't surprise us anymore by now.. So a big no it was and luckily we ended up at the square. There were dozens of food stalls waiting for us and guys to get us in. We've heard a lot of 'Skinny; you look starving; neuken in de keuken, maybe pregnant; maybe later; Shakira; Cameron Diaz; herrie in de keuken, Herman den Blijker; Sonja Bakker; Gerard Joling was here (they even had his picture on their menu..); skinny, skinny; you look starving. And that's just in a few minutes walking around! Last thing we did today was some souvenirshopping before Anne had to leave us the next morning.
Day 47: Getting some sun
Anne left early in the morning :( We spent the day relaxing and sunbathing on the rooftop terrace. I wrote my English cv in an internetcafe and Line and Stella went shopping. Let the job hunting in China begin! We ate in the same foodstall again, because we didn't get sick and apparently you cannot count on that everywhere.. We went to bed exhausted.
Day 48: Setti-Fatma / Ourika valley
After some searching we found the minivan to Setti-Fatma and after 1,5 hours in a very small minivan without any legspace (we felt like giants at this point) we arrived in a cute valley with couches along a stream. We mainly relaxed and (we didn't know that yet) we prepared for the weirdest busride in the world...
We got into a minivan along the road and as soon as we got in we sat down in a row, facing towards a minivan full of men. To make matters worse, a crazy man right in front of us, with only one slipper and a pigeon, started drumming and asking for money. We didn't give him any since nobody did. Then he talked to the busguy and although we didn't speak his language, the signs of him slicing his throat made it very clear that he was talking about killing us. Awkward. Then more and more people entered the bus, when we thought is was full. A strange girl sat next to Stella and kept grabbing her leg. Then when we thaught again it could never be worse, the girl started throwing up in a plastic back and in the end we were cramped up in that MINIvan with 33 people, being afraid to be killed, puked on or touching the guys in front of us accidently because we could put our legs nowhere. When we encountered the scary costumed men in the streets (afterwards we heard it's a tradition after the holiday of sacrifice) stopping the bus the horror was complete and we were never happier to be in a normal taxi afterwards..
Day 49: Essaouira
To continue the crazy life in Morocco, we had the strangest night. Around 1.00 there was a whole group of people ringing the doorbell, shouting and banging the door of the riad. Line and I were awake but it didn't feel like our job to open the door (and we were obviously still in stressmode). After 20 minutes of this I tried to wake up our hostelguy but he didn't wake up. So there I stood, shaking some random guy in the middle of the night with 10 people banging the door -_- So we opened the door anyway and pointed them to the sleeping guy to figure it out for themselves.
Next morning we said goodbye to Line and as a last Moroccan goodbye to her a guy at the busstation pulled his pants down. That was a clear sign for Stella and me to move and enter the bus to Essaouira.
Essaouira is way more relaxed and the cool seabreeze and quieter streets gives us some space to breathe :)
At the moment the letters in my diary are green, since everything in this hostel disappears magically (my pen, my breakfast, the lighters,...). I'm guessing the attitude is 'We are all one love and we share everything', which would match perfectly with the hippie lifestyle of smoking and surfing all day, and the local advises of 'Go with the flow and don't stop' and 'If you have a good heart, good things will happen, don't worry'. The moments on the rooftopterrace with some music and the sound of the sea on the background make me feel happier than ever.
Day 38:
We tried to go running on the beach in the early morning. When it became clear to us that Inge was locked in her hostel, I went to see the beautiful sunrise instead <3 After 20 minutes the clouds came in and covered the land in a misty veil. Time to go back to bed for a little while.. After my morningnap (hurray for the weird daily rythms! ;)) I went to bananavillage - or Aourir - to get more money and (duh!) bananas.
Day 39:
A good day at Paradise valley. It was beautiful and great, I can only spend good words on this. Despite the lack of water in the rivers I went swimming in the pool with 30 pair of Maroccan guy-eyes burning on my back. In the refreshing water with my clothes on, I felt proud and glad I went in anyway.
Day 40:
My urges of running my own hostel gets stronger with every unused fabulous terrace I encounter.. It could all be so beautiful! I spend my days reading, writing and trying to pick up on some meditation. The desire to join another 10-day Vipassana meditation retraite caught me. In the afternoon I walked along the shore for 12km. I only got bothered by guys 6 times, so every 2 km on average, a good score!!
Day 41:
Just 2 days to go until the arrival of my sweeties :) My day exists of a visit to Agadir (where I visited the neighbourhood Talborstj (which was quiet and a relief) and the beach (which was worse, so I spent my time there mainly declining offers to 'just talk').
Day 42: A journey back to Marrakech
Day 43: Today is the day!
Stella, Anne and Line arrived at 20.00 :D I spent he whole day waiting and after one hour of nervosity and rising tension at the airport we were united. We are facing a good time together and after checking into our riad, they were introduced to the chaotic streets of the medina.
Day 44: Eid al-Adha
Today is the 'feast of the sacrafice'. Which, for us tourists, basically means EVERYTHING is closed. Except for the touristic places at the Jemaa el-Fna square, where we ate the most horrendous pizza (with peas) ever. Meanwhile whole families gathered inside their homes to sacrifice sheep and perform all kinds of other rituals. After the slaughter, the streets were covered in blood, guys were proudly walking around with sheep's heads and on every corner there were sacrificial fires filling the whgole city with a smell of burned meat and bones. The carts riding around with piles of sheepskins made completed our state of shock. The delicious dinner took place in a Jewish restaurant in the Ville Nouvelle, because they were joining us in not celebrating Abraham's willingness to sacrifice his son. The bottle of wine we ordered was soooo welcome ^^
Day 45: Zagora
We got the touristic package. Honestly they didn't do us any favor stopping for too long at Ait Benhaddou, Ouazarzate, the worst lunchspot you could think of and some carpetshop. But maybe it just wasn't our day. After a long busride we mounted our camels. Lots of pictures and hilarious moments later we arrived in the luxury camp. Unfortunately still not the best place for the stomachproblems some of us faced.. The berber men made us dinner (tajine, surprise!) and later they played some music. Lying underneath the stars we enjoyed each others company and together we saw an amazing bright and long shooting star!! Our outside sleep was a little cold, but the best :)
Day 46: Return to Marrakech
There was little time to watch the sunrise and have breakfast. The tight regime made us leave on our camels again. I had the same sweet camel and we felt like one. We were all happy to find out it was only a short camelride today, seen our butpains. Lunch was again a rip-off, but the dinner in no. 1 of the Jemaa el-Fna foodstalls was going to make up for it big time! After the busride back we found our new riad with the help of a little boy (the riads are always impossible to find in the complicated medina maze) and he didn't want anything (money) in return. He asked us to come have dinner in the restaurant where we found him - again Bakchich - and we agreed because it's a nice place. Then 1 hour later he rang our doorbell to ask if we were ready, and we were not. Another hour later we found him in the streets waiting for us and he took us to another expensive restaurant. His parents. This shouldn't surprise us anymore by now.. So a big no it was and luckily we ended up at the square. There were dozens of food stalls waiting for us and guys to get us in. We've heard a lot of 'Skinny; you look starving; neuken in de keuken, maybe pregnant; maybe later; Shakira; Cameron Diaz; herrie in de keuken, Herman den Blijker; Sonja Bakker; Gerard Joling was here (they even had his picture on their menu..); skinny, skinny; you look starving. And that's just in a few minutes walking around! Last thing we did today was some souvenirshopping before Anne had to leave us the next morning.
Day 47: Getting some sun
Anne left early in the morning :( We spent the day relaxing and sunbathing on the rooftop terrace. I wrote my English cv in an internetcafe and Line and Stella went shopping. Let the job hunting in China begin! We ate in the same foodstall again, because we didn't get sick and apparently you cannot count on that everywhere.. We went to bed exhausted.
Day 48: Setti-Fatma / Ourika valley
After some searching we found the minivan to Setti-Fatma and after 1,5 hours in a very small minivan without any legspace (we felt like giants at this point) we arrived in a cute valley with couches along a stream. We mainly relaxed and (we didn't know that yet) we prepared for the weirdest busride in the world...
We got into a minivan along the road and as soon as we got in we sat down in a row, facing towards a minivan full of men. To make matters worse, a crazy man right in front of us, with only one slipper and a pigeon, started drumming and asking for money. We didn't give him any since nobody did. Then he talked to the busguy and although we didn't speak his language, the signs of him slicing his throat made it very clear that he was talking about killing us. Awkward. Then more and more people entered the bus, when we thought is was full. A strange girl sat next to Stella and kept grabbing her leg. Then when we thaught again it could never be worse, the girl started throwing up in a plastic back and in the end we were cramped up in that MINIvan with 33 people, being afraid to be killed, puked on or touching the guys in front of us accidently because we could put our legs nowhere. When we encountered the scary costumed men in the streets (afterwards we heard it's a tradition after the holiday of sacrifice) stopping the bus the horror was complete and we were never happier to be in a normal taxi afterwards..
Day 49: Essaouira
To continue the crazy life in Morocco, we had the strangest night. Around 1.00 there was a whole group of people ringing the doorbell, shouting and banging the door of the riad. Line and I were awake but it didn't feel like our job to open the door (and we were obviously still in stressmode). After 20 minutes of this I tried to wake up our hostelguy but he didn't wake up. So there I stood, shaking some random guy in the middle of the night with 10 people banging the door -_- So we opened the door anyway and pointed them to the sleeping guy to figure it out for themselves.
Next morning we said goodbye to Line and as a last Moroccan goodbye to her a guy at the busstation pulled his pants down. That was a clear sign for Stella and me to move and enter the bus to Essaouira.
Essaouira is way more relaxed and the cool seabreeze and quieter streets gives us some space to breathe :)
En leuk hoor, de tijd met je vriendinnen doorbrengen..
Ik wens je nog een fijne tijd verder. Geniet ervan