Morocco Day 3. Heading to the coast!

This morning I am venturing out to my first destination outside of Marrakech, which I am extremely excited about since this city did not leave me with the best impression. 

I didn't have my journey planned in terms I how and when but I knew that I wanted to go to Essaouira a early as possible. After a good night's sleep, I woke up at 6:30 and decided to quickly gather my things, eat breakfast and head out. Once again, I was do pleased with how lightly I packed and since the weather is pretty chilly here, most of the clothes I brought were on me anyway :) excellent! After a quick breakfast and the customary delicious mint tea, I went to try to get a taxi to the bus station. I heard that if they agree to turn the meter on, it would be only about 10 dhyram but of course the five out of five mini taxis I asked were too gready. So then me being the stubborn person I am when it comes to being ripped off, I walked to the local bus stop and got on the local bus heading in the direction of the bus station. The bus came, I paid 4 dhyram and I was on my way and the only tourist on the bus, always a funny situation! :) after a few minutes of riding the bus, I saw a building that said Gare something something so I hopped off thinking it was the train station. It did look a bit small which made me question it and of course it wasn't the train station which was the land mark I was looking for since the bus station was right beside it. Luckily, when I asked a couple people they helped me out and I managed to hop back on the same bus which I took to get there. A few moments later I saw a big, imposing building which was the actual train station. With a smile on my face I leaped out of the bus and almost immediately spotted the bus station. Success! Although the 8:30am bus was full, there was a fancy bus at 9am which was 110 dhyram instead of 80, which is only about a 2 pound difference. Excellent! They were filming an advertisement for the station or something like that when I walked in so that was interesting to see since I've spent quite a bit of time Doug behind the scenes and extra work while living in Boston. 

It's a grey and foggy day, much like London usually is, but here, it all looks exotic and new. On the bus,I am looking out the window to a sea of red clay and mud houses, lots of dry open land and a few people here and there, as well as randomly scattered flocks of sheep with their masters slowly walking along. To the left of the bus, the graceful yet powerful Atlas mountain range is sprawled across where to the right I see some smaller mountains without any snow and more flat land. There are lots of argan trees just growing on the side of the road as well as being cultivated which is why argan oil is a huge export product of Morocco. There are also many desert trees with long spikes which remind me of the ones I saw while being in the Tar desert in Rajasthan, India. I'm guessing the silly camels here dig into those needles on the trees as well.

Funny enough, within the last ten minutes I've been writing this, the sun has come out and it seems like we're heading away from the clouds and into good weather. Hopefully this means a change of pace as well as sunny weather for me! 

After nearly six months of living in London, now being on a bus which drives on the right side of the road feels a bit wrong. It's crazy how we humans adapt and get used to different things like that so quickly. Another thing I noticed in Marrakech city specifically was the ridiculous amount of cats that are just roaming the streets. Most are not aggressive but some will hiss at you as you walk by and some even try to catch your foot. Not the most comfortable feeling but at least they aren't dogs. I've only seen a couple of really sad looking dogs but other than that, only a few strays along the highway on the way to Essaouira now. Mostly loads of sheep, rams, and donkeys pulling something that almost always looks like it will break their poor little bones. But that's the way life is here. And I've only seen a tiny glimpse of it. 

It's funny when people come to places such as Morocco or India and the only thing that comes out of their mouths about the country is how beautiful and lovely it is. However, they completely ignore the despair and sadness in the eyes of the strangers that pass them by and they only focus on the nice things, God forbid, their perfect holiday will be ruined by the sad life of someone else. There are always two sides to the coin, so don't be afraid to see both. 

On a brighter note, we just drove by the funniest phenomenon I've seen so far of being here. Well, me being really into animals AND especially goats, I was super excited to lay my eyes on a few very busy desert trees. Those trees were occupied by acrobat goats which were up on the branches of those trees like little hairy supergoats! What a view! I managed to snap some photos which I will add later. That surely put a smile on my face and everyone else on the bus, was quite excited to see that as well.