Essaouira

I think I have a thing with visiting cities with the most obscure names to spell. Apart from the strange hotbox in a coach situation on the way back from here and the music band that jumped onto the coach somehow, I loved the city and all the rasta, laid-back  vibe it had. Probably explains the coach, uh, issue. The stay here was short and sweet and to be honest, I only went because my cousin literally raved about it throughout the year whilst I was stuck in shitty London so as soon as I touched down in Casablanca, we got straight to planning the trip so I could see what I missed out.


Okay can we just start with the hotel -Hotel Cap Sim- because it's the cheapest place I've stayed in (£24 for two nights, including breakfast) with regards to the quality of it. The room was amazing and the lobby itself was so quintessentially Moroccan with the warm toned tiles, massive plants and patterned rugs. The rooftop itself was fully tiled with straw parasols and the view was so good,  I loved it. The city itself is quite small so you're essentially close to everything but this hotel is literally a few minutes away from the main square with all the cafes and restaurants. This was very useful after we went clubbing (it was my first time) and all I wanted to do was get back to the hotel and sleep after a long, long night of inhaling cigarette smoke, getting hit on by weird older men, paying extortionate prices for drinks and getting grabbed by my waist and pulled into a guy who I had smiled at earlier out of kindness and nothing else. Seriously, some people really take simple gestures way too far ha. 

Essaouira is a port town so fishing is the main trade there. My cousin and I briefly ventured out into the trading quarter and the amount of sea bass being flung into the air from seller to buyer actually mad. Just bare fish flying. There's a constant smell of salt water and sound of bellowing fishers will envelope you (your ears will be ringing by the time you're out)


My cousin (a fab photographer, might I add) let me borrow her 50mm lens for the photos above and I am in love with them. I never knew I was so fond of people watching but seriously, I might have to invest in this lens very soon. I like the different shades of blue in the first photo (overlooking where  some of Game of Thrones was filmed) where it's like a gradient of vibrancy and then the second photo seems like the man and seagull were in a heated staring contest in which bird trumps human. there goes my imagination again.


Despite solely eating falafel wraps throughout the whole two days (seriously, the guy memorised my order by the end of the trip) the city itself is literally full of vegetarian and vegan restaurants. Literally the most I've ever seen in a Moroccan city with so much choice in the dishes so my fellow plant based people, Essaouira is the place to go. The cafe pictured was my favourite place to go simply because the cream cakes were so cheap and tasted so good (no but seriously, I wish I could bulk buy and export them here) The place itself is such a cool environment with Bob Marley faintly playing in the background and hundreds of framed prints and paintings surrounding you.

Essaouira is known as the windy city so I took advantage of that and casually went and surfed for the first time. I'd like to put spontaneous decision that down to the confidence that my mediocre skateboarding and yoga skills gave me because without them, my balance would be subpar. If you ever get the chance to, surf. It's amazing and I'm so irritated I didn't take any photos during it but it's so exhilarating, the last thing I thought about was taking photos. Honestly my favourite thing ever and may be one of the reasons I applied to a coastal university (although I'm not sure how enjoyable it'd be in England ha)

So yeah. That's another travel post from Morocco done. When I came back to London I was so quick on compiling photos, starting to write them up but I took a moment to think. Instead of speedily trying to post them I thought I'd ration them out for when the days get tough and I want to reminisce on my summer and the comfort of being home. So here we are. With basically a day until my Oxford admissions test, which I feel woefully underprepared for, and literally 7 essays/past papers to complete by this week, I decided to seek refuge in my hazy summer memories and alas, here is the product of that. 

I hope you enjoyed this and the mini anecdotes that came with each photo. If you'd like to see more photos and stories from my summer then here's my summer in film post and also the time when I went to Chefchaoen (I wasn't joking about only visiting with weird names) 

-Dalal