Marrakesh - Essaouira

Our time in Marrakesh is running out, we pack our things and a guy from the riad's staff carries them to the parking lot where our bikes rested for a couple of days:

About to leave Marrakesh behind I knew I had a lot of impressions from this place to digest later. Like the one I got viewing a pre school little girl selling desserts alone sitting down at a muddy corner of a backstreet. She also had a couple of spoons in a small container of water. Was it for people to try first? No idea. Local business as usual, definitely not what we experienced as kids. Don't expect images, I don't chase clicks no matter what. I didn't even dare to picture her.

I did picture another one, in a much better environment, who kept looking at us when we stopped for a drink on our way to Essaouira:

At the same place we spotted ways of transporting stuff that still survive around there:

We didn't say no to our fleet anxiously waiting to hit the road again:

Boring straights on the way so at some point I reach 180 km/h to make them less boring (not recommended):

Close to Essaouira we make a stop on the R207 at Point de Vue Azlef to have an overview. We disappointed the guys who expected us to fancy picturing ourselves with their camel:

Soon we arrive at Essaouira. What a totally different world this city is compared to other ones in Morocco so far. Bright colours, mainly shades of white and blue, laid back, store owners are MUCH more cool and you can have a look at things taking your time without any frustrating behaviour from them, much more pleasant in general. Imagine that I was able to walk the main market and only one guy stepped out trying to sell me stuff. Additionally, the prices are (finally!) real. In my excitement I really want to buy one of their traditional shirts but unfortunately they make them in one size which is not even close to mine.

Have a look at the city:

We stop for a drink at a cafe and I am quite attracted by its walls:

We were like just 2 minutes in there waiting for our order when a woman steps in comes straight to us out of the blue and starts shouting:
"All you tourist, you come here, you say mathafacka and fack you, all the time mathafacka"
She kept repeating this loop in a more hilarious than Borat accent enhancing her performance with full body language and I am literally asking myself what the f is this? Pete turns at her in the most demeaning way and tells her to "bugger off, go back to the desert". While I was not totally convinced this was exactly the right way to avoid any further escalation, after that she repeats the loop a couple more times and leaves. We also did after we finished our drinks and continued walking the city:

The market of Essaouira is responsible for the next ones:

A tree too cute to miss:

It was time to walk by the sea - here's how it looks like:

Unfortunately except from lots of seagulls this place has guys trying to sell hash cakes. From day 1 in Morocco I got that the way to get rid off such guys is to either ignore them or say a clear NO only once. A lady from the group in her naivety was quite verbal to the dealer refusing to buy - a mistake as regardless how negative you are the more you talk the more they find it as a chance to continue. At the end we literally had to push him off her - she just couldn't escape him. Another thing good to know is this: The king has made tourist harassment illegal long ago hence if you are trapped in an uncomfortable situation you can start talking about police. Well, at least if there is any around, if they're not corrupted... you know how it goes :)

With a dealer less we continue to enjoy the view of old fish boats:

Docked at "Borj El Barmil":

And also these much larger ones at the fish market:

By looking at them I effortlessly I wondered how many waves have they climbed?

And all of them together - new, old, small and big ones:

Want some more?

Essaouira has a long beach at the Atlantic - interesting for surfers I guess but I wasn't attracted to swim there:

Later in the evening we decide to visit a pizza house, some short of stomach recovery celebration as all of us (except Pete) were fine. He might have got the least sever symptoms but he suffered for the longest time. Glad I almost died but was OK in a day or two. He was like this for a week. On our way I couldn't skip picturing that cat:

Morocco's cities are flooded by stray cats. What impressed me more was the amount of kittens. It feels like there's millions of millions of them.

I hope I managed to give you an idea about my favourite Moroccan city so far. Stay tuned as I make my way North in this country in my next part - soon to be published ;)