Medieval sights

To get to Essaouira, I took a train from Casablanca to Marrakech, then a bus to Essaouira. Unfortunately, this meant that it was almost 11 p.m. before I arrived! Fortunately, I met a pair of Scots leaving the bus who were also looking for a place to stay, and we all wandered together to find a place to stay. We ended up in a neat place down a covered street called Casa DiCarlos, which also seemed to be an art gallery. The three of us shared a room the first night since we didn't want to wander around anymore. The next day I changed hotels, to the Hotel Sahara, since Casa DiCarlos had no single rooms.

Thursday I mainly wandered around the city. It's an amazing town. The major (tourist) parts -- the kasbah, medina and port -- were built in the 1700s and haven't changed much since. This has been of economic import to the city, since it's become a filming site -- most famously, it was used in Orson Welles' 'Othello.' The city is quite picturesque, with the ocean, ramparts, cannons, and offshore ruins. The medina is pretty labyrinthine at times, but is small enough to be manageable. It's got a spice bazaar, with pyramids of brightly colored spices; fresh fruit and veggies; and butcher shops with whole chickens and slabs of beef hanging outside (and in the souks behind, they have live chickens, doves and rabbits for even fresher meat). Most of the stores are arts and craft stores though. Woodworking is a specialty of the area, with beautifully inlaid pieces. There are a huge number of paintings here, and the lamps made with stretched skin are also very cool. There are also two Skalas -- fortifications along the shore. Both offer amazing views of both the ocean and the city. I also wandered around the harbor, with hundreds of small blue rowboats, all tied up together in lines like teeth in a zipper. There were also larger boats, which were being built in one section -- some were only wooden skeletons.

Friday was a little more busy. I got up early and did some more wandering, then walked into town to find the bus station, to get a ticket to Agadir for tomorrow. This was a bit tricky because all the maps I have end before the station, and only vaguely indicated where it was (the bus I came in on dropped us off elsewhere). Walking in sort of the right direction I asked a guy which way to go, and he decided to walk there with me (it was only a few blocks). He knew a little English, and actually helped me find the bus company I wanted, figure out the price and times and reserve a seat for the next day. I declined his invitation to guide me around Essaouira, but he declined a tip for his help.

Walking back through the medina I decided to explore some new sections, and then went to the fish grilles for lunch. At one part of the harbor there are open air grill stands with little patios with tables and chairs. Outside is the day's catch: sole, snapper, shrimp, prawns, lobster, urchins, and squid. You pick out what you want and sit down. While you wait for the fish to grill, you get a salad (tomatoes and onions, with lemon and salt) and some bread. It was quite delicious, though very messy to eat; in normal outside-the-U.S. style, the shrimp and prawns were cooked whole.

In the afternoon I went to the Hammam Mounia -- a turkish bath, aimed at tourists (it's a fairly small steam room, and attendants work on one or two people at a time; most hammams are larger, and people take care of themselves). I got the "classic," which included the steam bath, grommage (basically a serious scrubbing, with a special glove that is super scratchy), washing and argan oil massage. It was fantastic! I highly recommend it to anyone visiting Essaouira.

Afterwards, I decided to wander a bit more, and actually bargained for and bought something! I'm sure I still overpaid, but not by as much as the original price. It's a neat sort of abstract painting of an octopus, made up of lots of colored circles; I'll try to get a photo of it, since it's difficult to describe. For those who are reading this that don't know me, I have a fondness for cephalopods, and currently study a symbiosis involving a squid.

Tomorrow I head for Agadir!