posted by Ashalah on africa, destinations, My Great Adventure of 2009, travel

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Do you remember how I went to Europe a few months ago? I bet you do. How could you forget? I haven’t told any stories recently but feel like I need to start telling them again, lest you feel all left out.

One of the funniest moments of the entire trip was when I was in Essaouira (essa-weerrah) in Morocco. A little backstory: this Morocco trip was kind of one of those domino moments. It would never have happened if I had not been pranked by The Messenger who I dragged out for drinks who then followed me to London and who, in turn, dragged me to Amsterdam. I was only supposed to stay in Amsterdam for two days but I fell in love with the place and decided to spend the extra money to change my flight to leave from Brussels on Sunday, instead of from London on Thursday. Seeing that hostels were pretty damn pricey in Amsterdam, I needed a cheap way to stay there. That’s when the Messenger suggested I try Couchsurfing.

I had heard of it from previous people I had met along my travels, but I had never really pursued it. It seemed like a good option, seeing how now that I had made the change to stay there, I needed to be able to actually sleep somewhere–outside of a park bench. I started emailing people and heard back from this girl, Anneke. I ended up staying with her for a few nights and had a great time. In the middle of all this, I was also babysitting The Messenger who was suffering from a really bad hit off of a special brownie. That’s another story for you, though.

One evening we were chatting about our travels and she mentions she was going to Morocco. She didn’t have anyone to go with and she was worried about traveling by herself. I asked her when she was going and when I heard it aligned with my travels in southern Spain, I mentioned that I’d love to join her. And that’s how Morocco came about.

I do want to talk about the entire Morocco trip and experience but since this is longer than I had already planned, I will just discuss this one event. It was at the tail end of our trip and it was just Anneke and I, having shed our third traveling companion, Richard. We had just been in Marrakesh where we indulged in freshly squeezed fruit juices, fruit smoothies and excellent shopping. We also had a bit of a bad experience on the last night there with the couchsurfer we were staying with but that wasn’t stopping Anneke and I from enjoying the last of our stay.

We took this ridiculously hot, local bus that took 5 hours to get us out there and we pledged NEVER to take a local bus in Morocco EVER again. (Seriously. If you go to Morocco only take the CTM buses. Air Conditioning is your best friend.) We stepped off the bus in Essaouira and were instantly met with a cold breeze. Not just a breeze but a strong wind. We quickly learned that based on it’s location on the coast, it had some pretty strong winds and was a major mecca for wind surfers. The cool air was a welcome refresher and the fact that we were staying in an AMAZING hotel, with separate beds, a sit down toilet and a hot water shower, all things that were terribly exciting at that stage in our trip.

We ate dinner at this little shack on the beach where you could pick out whatever super fresh seafood you wanted and afterwards took a walk on the extremely windy beach. We watched the wind surfers and the kite surfers playing in the waves and then started noticing these three local boys trying to learn to kite surf on the sand.

I’d seen this done at my parent’s lake house on lake michigan but it was by professionals. The guy learning clearly had no idea what he was doing. In fact, he had absolutely no control over the kite whatsoever. The wind was intense and it was just dragging him around the beach.

To help him out one of his friends grabbed him to ground him more. When that didn’t work and the two of them were being dragged around, the third guy grabbed the two of them and eventually they were sitting on the sand.

At this point we had stopped and were watching them from a distance. The kite was literally hitting the ground at all sides and we feared for our lives. We also didn’t want them to hear us laughing, which we were doing plenty of.

They’re all sitting there, just like that, and all of a sudden a gust of wind comes along and the kite TAKES OFF.

They all lose control and the two anchor guys are shed like kleenexes. It drags the poor guy who is attached to this kite face first along the beach and meanwhile, the two guys who were shed at the initial take off are running after him.

Anneke and I are on the ground laughing so hard we are CRYING. (I’m not kidding. We had to sit down.) My stomach muscles were hurting by the time we managed to control it to a slight giggle and it was by far the funniest moment of my entire trip to Europe.  We kept walking down the beach after that and passed them again, as they were putting away the kite, and couldn’t help but laugh just a little more. Hopefully they hadn’t heard us cackling at them, or at least realized just how amusing the situation was.

Essaouira was probably one of my favorite stops on this trip and one of the few places in Morocco I would actually visit again. It’s very chill, laid back and a lot less stressful than the bigger cities. If you get a chance, go to this blue, windy city on the coast and stop by the beach. Maybe you’ll see some locals losing their battle to the wind.

Tags: Oh Look a Funny!, The time I laughed so hard I cried