goodbye essaouira

so I'm flying tomorrow to London.
yesterday I said goodbye to Essaouira, where I've spent about 6 weeks and met a lot of people that I'm going to miss.

Originally I had planned to leave a couple of days ago, to go to Chefchaouen. Unfortunately I left all the planning to the last minute and then realized that Chefchaouen is at least 13 hours away from Essaouira, and I only had 4 days till my flight. So much for that.

In addition I met Sergio and Frederico, a couple of wicked Portuguese guys on the terrace of the hotel on what I THOUGHT was my second last night...we wound up partying our faces off for four nights in a row - in bars, in carpet shops, in tiny rooms above carpet shops (with Russians and mice), on the terrace - frequently losing the ability to speak properly somewhere along the way. I am going to miss them but my liver and lungs are probably better off.



That's the crappy thing about planning ahead though...here I was all pleased with myself for getting a cheap flight to london and arranging accommodations in Edinburgh during the festivals there. Then an opportunity presents itself to spontaneously ride off into the sunset (well, into Portugal anyway) with some cool people, and I can't take it!

So I had to say goodbye to them, and to the french girls, Lucie and Stephanie, who were always fun and improved my french a million times and made me laugh and showed me places in Essaouira I never knew about, and to Simo who invited me to the wedding and makes great kefta tagine.







And to Adil who works at the riad, my little Moroccan brother who taught me how to cook tagine and m'semmen (crepes) and zalouk, who gave me a surprise birthday present, and who never ever hit on me.


Also his brother Amine, the slightly older voice of reason in the more fucked up moments (such as the night we - Adil and Frederico and Sergio and I - realized we were out of booze but that some other guests had left a bottle of champagne in the fridge to cool...).



And finally to the craziest looking hotel I have ever seen, it was like living in Wonderland. I would show you a picture of the turtle but unfortunately he died. They buried him on the beach.