Essaouira... 'nuff said

     It's taken me a while to get around to writing about my time in Essaouria because I knew this post would be a doozy to write... for someone who doesn't write too frequently, the task of putting the experience of completely falling in love with a place was kind of daunting.  I was also pretty sick for a while and down and out for about a week after the southern excursion. Now that I'm finally up and running and almost eating real food again I'm determined to sit down and write all this out.

    My last post left off with Marrakech. When we left Merrakech and headed to Essaouira we got to stop at an Argan Oil Cooperative. Argan Oil is huge in Morocco and essentially is used for everything, i.e. hair, body, acne, scars, muscle soreness, cooking, etc.  For those of you who have seen "My Big Fat Greek Wedding", its the windex of Morocco. The Argan Oil Cooperative that we visited gave the Berber women in local villages work for a fair share of pay and produced the oil and products by hand. My camera died during this leg of the journey but this is a picture of how they extract the oil from the argan seeds. I got to try and it takes some pretty strong arms to turn those stones that crush the oil! After the spending way more money than we intended to we were on our way to Essaouria. Our first day included fresh fish for lunch, and then we walked through the Medina and shopped. What makes the medina of Essaouria different than every other medina in Morocco that I've been in so far, is the people and just the overall feeling and vibe. The shop keepers and all the locals all took time out of their day to ask  us where we were from and how we were doing. There, everyone is so relaxed and laid back, yet quick to smile. Even when we were bargaining down a product with the shop keepers they would laugh at my attempts to speak Arabic. My two friends and I at one point found ourselves in an old jewelry shop where the shop keeper invited us to sit down. He then pulled out bags and bags of old rings, bracelets, and necklaces and invited us to look through them. The jewelry was absolutely beautiful and included a lot of Berber traditional symbols such as a compass that when aligned with the north star and the three stars around it can point north. The shop keeper told us about the different kinds of compasses he had such as the Saharian, and Berber, and Tuareg. He also told us about how he is a guide for treks through the Merzouga dessert and that his village is close to where we stayed in the desert. He got us tea and invited us to his village in the future in a perfect display of Moroccan hospitality. When we finally decided to continue on through the medina, we found the mellah, the walled ghetto where the Jews lived. At one point there were as many Jews as there were Arabs, making Essaouria the only city to not have a Jewish minority. Presently, there are only about 50 Jews left and they all still live in the mellah. We toured the home, and synagogue of Rabbi Chaim Pinot which is currently cared for by an old muslim lady who was incredibly kind. Her story is pretty incredible because when many of the Jews fled her family remained and took care of the synagogue and now it is open as a museum. This kind of story is part of the large amounts of  inspirations for my decision to do my independent study on interfaith in Morocco (more on that later). After walking around a bit more we headed back to meet our group to play a game of soccer on the beach before dinner. I am clearly not a soccer player but it was nice to be able to run around. I didn't even get hurt...that bad! After dinner everyone kind of went their separate ways but some of my friends and I headed to the beach to see the stars at night.

      The next morning most of our group caught the bus back with the program to return home to Rabat but me and the same group from last night opted to stay and travel the weekend. The next day was an absolutely perfect day from start to finish. Everything just seem to magically work out It started with a free breakfast in the morning then we all headed over to the hotel in the medina we were staying in. At that moment  I was so happy to be in Morocco, walking along the beach, with my backpack on my back, surrounded by close friends. It felt like I was doing the right thing with my life to be in that moment, at that exact instant. That feeling stuck with me the whole day, everything kind of seemed to work out like one big happy coincidence. For instance, once we checked into our hotel, we went down to the lobby to give them our passport information. When we returned to our room we couldn't unlock the door. Everyone tried. Eventually they got a maid to try and she couldn't open it, and then they got a man who worked there and he couldn't do it. A that point he sent us up to the terrace to hang out wait. The terrace by the way had a view of the entire median and the sea and the weather was perfect. So what did we do? We tanned on the terrace in our bathing suits that we conveniently had put on in the morning, while below us the man could be heard hammering away at our door.

Finally we came and got us after breaking down the door and we got moved into a much nicer room with 2 queens instead of 3 singles. While my two friends went to drum lesson at a local trance music store, the rest of us went through the souk searching for a picnic lunch to bring to the beach. The beach and lunch that afternoon was perfect and we sampled some of the local culture and got to relax. Later that evening we went to to a restaurant and cafe called Three Birds Place because it advertised live Gnawa music. There we had  tea, and tajines. The live music was literally a father and his two young sons. The father played the string instrument while the boys played the castanets. It was absolutely incredible. At one point in the middle of a song, the younger boy got a phone call and just walked out of the restaurant to take the call in the middle of the performance which was pretty hilarious. Between the songs, the cafe would play music off a mixed cd that was just perfect. The songs were a perfect mix of jazz, funk, oldies and remixed pop. We were all so taken with the music (both the live and the cd) that we asked the owners of the cafe if we could get the mix from them. They agreed to hook us up if we came back the next morning. (They graciously gave us 4 different mixed CDs the next morning, which now make up the most amazing play list on my iTunes.) Between all the music, food, and getting to know the musicians we were all riding such a natural high that night that we couldn't wipe the smiles of our faces. That perfect night continued with some nutella, banana, almond crepes (no joke.)  and some roof top drumming and singing impromptu blues at our hotel until we were asked to quiet down by some of the grumpier guests. oops. ( Germans need their sleep) The next morning we woke up early and though we all didn't want to leave Essaouria,  half of us continued on to Marrakech the next day to split up the 8 hour travel time back to Rabat. One of our readings by Mohamed Salhi who is a Moroccan poet, captures the city perfectly.

 "Essaouira’s magic lies in its transparent mystery. It teaches you one lesson after another in love of life and embrace of its lethal mirage. It is a carnival city; whoever visits it wears a mask and is immediately immersed in the carnival. The drums are beaten and the senses speak; everything moves away from itself and roves. In Essaouira, you don’t need to have an ID card. Here there is no identity but Essaouira. It is as though this city has split itself into many bodies; it is one city in the plural. It encompasses the charms and beauty of each and every Moroccan city." 

This city is the perfect blend of Arab, and Berber culture. Although there is western influenc just like Rabat and Merrakech, this city incorporated it in a different way than just tourist attractions. The western culture came though in a sort of jazzy, and soulful way, like the way the mixed cds at the cafe that had lots of blues and funk on it, or the way every single local loves Jimi Hendrix and Bob Marley. My heart was stolen that weekend by the people who are all so kind and genuine, the sea and perfect accompanying breeze, the gnawa music full of culture and tradition, and the very soul and funk of the city itself. As Salhi put it, "Whoever visits Essaouira certainly comes back to it, lives in it, or dreams of coming back to it".
     Merrakech the next was not quite the perfect day but we all kind of rolled with it since the day before was so great. The bus ride was long and hot and stuffy and it took us a while to find our hotel but when we finally did we had a nice night in the square with more shopping and some good food. the next day we had to catch a 5 hour train ride back to Rabat. We were supposed to have a daylight saving time that morning and gain an hour, however some minister in Morocco decided not to have it. He actually changed his mind. Good to know.  That morning we were incredibly confused because when we go to the train station we were a little disoriented to find the clock and trains running an hour later than what we thought the time was. Classic Morocco for ya. The train ride back was the perfect amount of time to sit and enjoy and reflect on the amazing week we all had and make a new Moroccan friend who sat in our compartment. I just felt such a piece of mind because of the continuing feeling that I was supposed to be in Morocco, and on that train at that moment. It was a great end to the southern excursion.