Essaouria

We took a 2 1/2 hour bus west to the port city of Essaouria.   The bus was clean; the trip easy. Passed the time chatting with some very well-traveled and good-humored Australia tourists.

We immediately noticed the change in climate.  The weather is cool and breezy.  The air smells salty and fishy.  The town has an overall chill vibe. 

We walked through the stone arched gate into the old city to find a place to stay.  The medina here is smaller but the streets are wider, and the shopkeepers are less aggressive.  Our charmimg hotel is colorfully decorated in tiles, paintings by local artists, pottery, and woodwork and has Moroccan music playing in the background.  We found it in a back alley off of a back alley for 100 Dirham (11 USD) a night, which was a quarter of the price of the first hotel we tried.  The city has an artsy edge and hosts the annual Gnaoua World Music Festival (dubbed the Moroccan Woodstock) which took place 2 weeks ago.  Something tells us we would have had a very different experience if we were here for the festival.  The old walled city is beautiful with colorful arts and crafts, whitewashed buildings, and large heavy wooden doors often painted in yellow or blue.

We ate lunch across the street.  Kristin had her favorite meal of the entire trip so far - potato and cream cheese gnocchi with crushed almonds.  It was a unique fusion of tastes and artfully presented.  Then we walked passed numerous stalls and art galleries to the port.  We laid out on the sandy beach, and jumped in the surprisingly chilly water.  it is so windy anddidn't take long before we were covered in sand.  It's a public access beach with lots of families and tourists and kite surfers.  Women were either covered head to toe or wearing bikinis.  Many of the men are wearing djellabas, a long loose robe with a pointy hood and pointy soft leather slippers with no heel (often in yellow) called balghas.

Drinking Casablanca beer and Moroccan mint tea near the sea and had a pita picnic for under $1 for dinner with some dessert pasteries from a street stall.