Road of Tajines_6

2008.10.10

I have never intended to visit Essaouira. Yet, after some days of sand and dust, it seemed rather tempting to relax ourselves at a seaside resort by the Atlantic. At the CTM bus station, we encountered a mid-aged Hong Kong couple. Having travelled to almost all nations in Euroasia, they were starting a 3-month journey across North Africa and the Middle East. On the bus, a German woman from a town near Frankfurt sat behind me. She chatted with me about her travel experiences in China and how her nephew had been having a great time studying in Shanghai.

The blue ocean had finally came in sight after almost three hours of bus journey. Immediately after we arrived, we headed southwest towards the old walled city and the harbour. We strolled through many street markets, with vendors selling all kinds of fruits, meat and household goods. A small laneway off the main shopping street led us into a courtyard filled with seafood vendors, selling all sort of fresh catches, from seafish to shellfish. We didn't stay long in the market as loads of tourists flocked in one group after another to take pictures. We found our way to the southern end of the walled city, exited a gate, and reached a junction point between the fishing harbour (a) and a long stretch of beach. At this junction point stood about a dozen of outdoor seafood eateries. We took our time to pick and at last landed on one of them (they all looked the same) to treat ourselves with some local seafood. We enjoyed the process from picking the seafood to filling up our tummies, despite the Moroccans hardly put any effort to prepare the dishes, just by adding some salt and grilling everything in the fire, without even cleaning the fish. At the end, after days of meat and bread, we were all pretty satisfied with a change of taste (c: photos from HC's camera).

After the seafood, we stayed at the harbour to shoot some pictures, lingered at the beach for an hour, toured the old city for another hour and a half where I have done some shopping, before headed back to the bus station for an evening bus to return to Marrakech.