It is now week 8 and my, isn't time flying! This blog is relatively on time considering that I did the whole "general" thing in my last post to cover the weekdays. As such I'm feeling quite accomplished right now.
My week pretty much consisted of the regular routine (see last post), however before I jump into a detailed description of my weekend (more travel adventures!) I want to describe my Friday night to you.
For those who don't know, I'm a bit of a musician. I play a quite a few instruments and I sing with some of them. So far in Morocco I haven't really done much in the way of music, however there have been occasions wherein a guitar has been available and I have had a bit of play around. One of those occasions happened this week. I was speaking to my friend Soufiane, and I can't remember how it came about but the subject of music and singing and my youtube page came up, and he requested that I link it to him. He had a listen and I assumed the matter to be dropped after he joked that he was "going to find a guitar just so he could hear me sing". I brushed this statement off as a nice compliment (as you do), but on Friday night I got a phone call. It went something like this.
Soufiane: "Hey Clem, do you have 10 minutes?"
Me (innocently): "Yes of course, why?"
Soufiane: "Can you meet me at Bab Bouiba?"
Me (curiousity piqued): "Sure, why?"
Soufiane: "I have something that might be of interest to you."
Me (suspiciously): "What?...Can I know what it is?"
Soufiane: "It's just something that you'll find interesting. Meet me at Bab Bouiba in 10".
Me (suspiciously decided): "Sure"
*hangs up phone*
Me to Lexy: "That was Soufiane; he wants us to meet him at Bab Bouiba in 10 minutes. He has something that might be of interest to me".
*penny drops*
Me to Lexy: "Oh shit. It's a guitar'.
Lexy: "And a table by the beach at sunset for a romantic dinner".
She found this hilarious. I however, was markedly less enthusiatic at her joke about romantic dinners at sunset.
Now, Lexy has this thing for surprises. That is: she LOVES them, and becomes rather excited about them-even more so than me in this situation. This meant that I spent the next 20 minutes (I forgot to ask if it was a Moroccan 10 or a normal 10) saying "stop humming!!" as she mimed playing the drums and hummed the "soundtrack and background music to my life". Hilarious.
After turning up empty handed, Soufiane informed us we had to go to the shop to get "it". It turned out that he indeed had found an old guitar (borrowed from a friend of a friend who was selling-as you do) that I proceeded to tune BY EAR from scratch (Ariella, be proud) and play. It was then decided that the shop wasn't a good place for music; we needed to go to the beach for it to be truly perfect (at which Lexy says "I KNEW IT!!" and laughed). 3 hours later we returned home after playing the guitar and singing and lazing at the beach. It was an awesome night-even after my initial freak out ("Oh God, he's going to give me a guitar and say 'play' in the middle of the Medina and I'm going to be a massive spectacle even more so than usual"). However, it meant that waking at 4:30am the next morning to catch a train was INCREDIBLY difficult.
We had decided to spend the weekend in Essaouira, a city about 8 hours south of Rabat. It is known as the 'wind city', and as soon as we stepped off the bus (after our ridiculously early train ride from Rabat) it was clear why. The Atlantic coast is normally fairly breezy, but Essaouira takes this to new levels. Hair and scarves were flying everywhere, and walking upright at times became a challenge as we were swept off our feet by wind that I as yet hadn't experienced in Morocco.
We were met at the bus stop by no less than 15 people all asking if we needed a riad, and being the mostly sane person that I am, I politely but firmly declined. I had no intention of being taken to a dodgy riad and talked into staying there. Furthermore, we had also already reserved rooms at a hotel in the Medina. However, these plans were derailed after members of our group heard "40 dirhams per person" and we were taken to a somewhat run down and dingy riad. Apart from being very spacious and dirt cheap the riad didn't have much going for it. The front door didn't lock so to sleep we had to lock the bedroom door; the sheets were less than clean and a well as a nasty smell the bathroom apparently had hot water (I wasn't game enough to step into the dirty shower to test it). Needless to say it was not an experience that I am keen to repeat.
After (nervously) leaving our things in the riad, we went to explore the Medina. Essaouira is quite pretty and the Medina consists of fairly wide roads flanked by all manner of shops; both tourist orientated and local. We made our way from one side of the Medina to the other and then walked along the wharf for a time, returning to the Medina at sunset where we met an interesting character whom we nicknamed "Space Cadet", who repeatedly tried to sell us hash cookies (FYI we didn't try any). After meandering the Medina for a while and deciding that the only prerequisite that we had for dinner was that it was out of the wind we ate a lovely meal in a restaurant overlooking a small square.
The next morning the group splintered in girls and guys. Cameron wanted (and had to) go surfing, as he had bought his board all the way from Rabat, so the guys headed off to a beach an hour or so away, and the girls stayed in the Medina. We found a quiet square that had several restaurants around the side and decided that pancakes, a choice of coffee, tea or hot chocolate, a choice of jams and argon oil (which despite it's unusual manufacturing process is delicious) as well as orange juice all for 24 dirhams was quite good value. We followed the breakfast by doing a spot of wandering and shopping before Cassie and I stocked up on some food and headed to the bus station.
The other group of volunteers (minus Lexy who started her two weeks holiday) had decided to bus to Marrakesh and then take the train back to Rabat after a couple of hours rest as they had bought return tickets on the Saturday morning. However after seeing Marrakesh once before Cassie and I decided our time would be better spent doing a long haul bus trip back to Casablanca and then on to Rabat, arriving home by 9. We had a quick sausage sandwich (we were craving savoury food) from the street vendors and laughed at the random music (which had no discernible beat but consisted of drums and click-y things) before returning home for dinner and a long sleep.
So there we have it; I'm up-to-date with my blogs, you're up-to-date with my Moroccan adventures, I feel I've accomplished something to start the week and I can move on to looking forward to the rest of the week and our upcoming trip next weekend to Chefchaouen. You should probably strap yourselves in before that one though, it's going to get interesting.
Until next time,
Love Love!
Clem x
My week pretty much consisted of the regular routine (see last post), however before I jump into a detailed description of my weekend (more travel adventures!) I want to describe my Friday night to you.
For those who don't know, I'm a bit of a musician. I play a quite a few instruments and I sing with some of them. So far in Morocco I haven't really done much in the way of music, however there have been occasions wherein a guitar has been available and I have had a bit of play around. One of those occasions happened this week. I was speaking to my friend Soufiane, and I can't remember how it came about but the subject of music and singing and my youtube page came up, and he requested that I link it to him. He had a listen and I assumed the matter to be dropped after he joked that he was "going to find a guitar just so he could hear me sing". I brushed this statement off as a nice compliment (as you do), but on Friday night I got a phone call. It went something like this.
Soufiane: "Hey Clem, do you have 10 minutes?"
Me (innocently): "Yes of course, why?"
Soufiane: "Can you meet me at Bab Bouiba?"
Me (curiousity piqued): "Sure, why?"
Soufiane: "I have something that might be of interest to you."
Me (suspiciously): "What?...Can I know what it is?"
Soufiane: "It's just something that you'll find interesting. Meet me at Bab Bouiba in 10".
Me (suspiciously decided): "Sure"
*hangs up phone*
Me to Lexy: "That was Soufiane; he wants us to meet him at Bab Bouiba in 10 minutes. He has something that might be of interest to me".
*penny drops*
Me to Lexy: "Oh shit. It's a guitar'.
Lexy: "And a table by the beach at sunset for a romantic dinner".
She found this hilarious. I however, was markedly less enthusiatic at her joke about romantic dinners at sunset.
Now, Lexy has this thing for surprises. That is: she LOVES them, and becomes rather excited about them-even more so than me in this situation. This meant that I spent the next 20 minutes (I forgot to ask if it was a Moroccan 10 or a normal 10) saying "stop humming!!" as she mimed playing the drums and hummed the "soundtrack and background music to my life". Hilarious.
 |
| The destination at the end of said train and bus journey: Essaouira |
After turning up empty handed, Soufiane informed us we had to go to the shop to get "it". It turned out that he indeed had found an old guitar (borrowed from a friend of a friend who was selling-as you do) that I proceeded to tune BY EAR from scratch (Ariella, be proud) and play. It was then decided that the shop wasn't a good place for music; we needed to go to the beach for it to be truly perfect (at which Lexy says "I KNEW IT!!" and laughed). 3 hours later we returned home after playing the guitar and singing and lazing at the beach. It was an awesome night-even after my initial freak out ("Oh God, he's going to give me a guitar and say 'play' in the middle of the Medina and I'm going to be a massive spectacle even more so than usual"). However, it meant that waking at 4:30am the next morning to catch a train was INCREDIBLY difficult.
 |
| Andi and Lexy in one of the Riad bedrooms |
We were met at the bus stop by no less than 15 people all asking if we needed a riad, and being the mostly sane person that I am, I politely but firmly declined. I had no intention of being taken to a dodgy riad and talked into staying there. Furthermore, we had also already reserved rooms at a hotel in the Medina. However, these plans were derailed after members of our group heard "40 dirhams per person" and we were taken to a somewhat run down and dingy riad. Apart from being very spacious and dirt cheap the riad didn't have much going for it. The front door didn't lock so to sleep we had to lock the bedroom door; the sheets were less than clean and a well as a nasty smell the bathroom apparently had hot water (I wasn't game enough to step into the dirty shower to test it). Needless to say it was not an experience that I am keen to repeat.
 |
| Outside the Medina |
After (nervously) leaving our things in the riad, we went to explore the Medina. Essaouira is quite pretty and the Medina consists of fairly wide roads flanked by all manner of shops; both tourist orientated and local. We made our way from one side of the Medina to the other and then walked along the wharf for a time, returning to the Medina at sunset where we met an interesting character whom we nicknamed "Space Cadet", who repeatedly tried to sell us hash cookies (FYI we didn't try any). After meandering the Medina for a while and deciding that the only prerequisite that we had for dinner was that it was out of the wind we ate a lovely meal in a restaurant overlooking a small square.
 |
| The girls and I at dinner |
The next morning the group splintered in girls and guys. Cameron wanted (and had to) go surfing, as he had bought his board all the way from Rabat, so the guys headed off to a beach an hour or so away, and the girls stayed in the Medina. We found a quiet square that had several restaurants around the side and decided that pancakes, a choice of coffee, tea or hot chocolate, a choice of jams and argon oil (which despite it's unusual manufacturing process is delicious) as well as orange juice all for 24 dirhams was quite good value. We followed the breakfast by doing a spot of wandering and shopping before Cassie and I stocked up on some food and headed to the bus station.
 |
| Breakfast. So good. |
So there we have it; I'm up-to-date with my blogs, you're up-to-date with my Moroccan adventures, I feel I've accomplished something to start the week and I can move on to looking forward to the rest of the week and our upcoming trip next weekend to Chefchaouen. You should probably strap yourselves in before that one though, it's going to get interesting.
Until next time,
Love Love!
Clem x
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