I’ve become somewhat appreciative of uneventful transit days. Those that don’t involve a broken down bus on the side of the road, trying to hitch-hike in a foreign language, or worse; sitting in a confined space for hours on end with two excited teenagers. Thankfully, this was one of those days. We arrived in Essouira in the late afternoon and found our latest couch-surfers’ apartment with relative ease.
Essouira is a small town along the coast and after walking through so many medinas (old cities) I was elated over walking through the port of Essaouira, the shipyard, and through something of a fish market and even up along the wharf where we braced ourselves against the wind to watch the sea crash into the huge concrete jacks that were placed against the wall breaking the sea.
An “ultras” mural caught my eye on our way to the port. The Ultras are basically THE gang-bangers of Morocco. Although when you think of “gang-bangers” you might b surprised that the ultras are anything but thuggish in their appearance. They are all decked out in black-market athletic gear and are super into soccer. I found them amusing.
The port was right off the medina in town. It used to be the most important port between Africa, Europe, and the Americas, until bigger cities like Casablanca sprang up. I thought it was perfect and no one seemed to be bothered by us walking through it. The ship-yard held big fishing boats along with many many more of these smaller ones that the fishermen take out when the wind is blowing a certain way. I thought the blues were so beautiful.
We stood up on a huge wall breaking the sea from the shore and the shipyard. The wind was so strong that we had to brace ourselves quite a bit for fear of falling into the giant concrete jacks below.
Ok, so about this couch-surfing business. My cousin, Amy wondered if I just knew THAT many people around the world. I had to clarify, and perhaps you might be wondering the same. I know a few- due to teaching English abroad. My TEFL Worldwide class dispersed around the world after we graduated back in 2006 and many have stayed abroad. Various friends Korea have jumped countries to teach… And a few friends (or friends of friends) have moved abroad for various reasons… It’s a mixed blessing having your friends live around the world. Obviously great when you want to travel, but not so great when you wish they all lived in the same country!
When we don’t know someone, we turn to couchsurfing.org. If you don’t know it, it’s going to sound a little bit crazy. It’s basically a social network which allows travelers to network and share free accommodation around the world. So, when we headed to Morocco, we searched for hosts in each city we were planning on visiting and if they had space for two, positive references, and a somewhat fast response rate. Then, we would send them a message asking if they were available to host us for a night or two.
We’ve hosted once before we left Seoul- a Canadian studying at Cambridge on his way back to England from New Zealand. Since we’ve left Korea, we’ve surfed in Kuala Lumpur, Jerusalem, Casablanca, and now Essouira. To be honest- it’s not always the most comfortable- homeboy in KL lived in what I would call a Muslim bachelor pad… But it’s always been interesting and it’s a really great way to meet people (we might not otherwise) living in some of the countries we’re visiting.
Our hosts in Essouira were two young Americans (19) and were absolutely adorable. We stayed up fairly late chatting about our experiences in Korea and their experiences hitch-hiking around the states. It’s really incredible to show up on someone’s doorstep without having met them previously and be welcomed inside for the night. Whenever any of our hosts say that they think what we’re doing is amazing, I always feel the need to tell them that I’m not sure if we could do it without them; without couch-surfing. We haven’t done it as often as we could, but I know we’ll be doing it more and more in the months to come!
