We took a taxi from the hotel to the bus station; I guess the traffic in Casablanca runs only by one rule: try not to get killed by anything around you. I am really happy that I am in a good health, otherwise I would have got a heart attack by the time we got to the bus station. But at the bus station there is more to take; lots of men running towards us speaking extremely loud trying to sell us bus tickets. Mark is much braver than me, he is quite calm and managed to buy 2 bus tickets for 7 Euros each.
It is 10:30 am, the bus is leaving at 12:00 (noon). There are already people on the bus! Oh, we start to understand, in order to have a seat you have to come early and sit on the bus, it is not even enough to leave something on your seat to reserve.
Mark was sitting on the bus, I was standing outside by the bus because I couldn’t handle the heat and smell. I felt like crying, this trip is 6 hour long! I was panicking thinking “Am I going to last 6 hours on this bus?” In the mean time lots of people are walking around on the bus and by the bus trying to sell all kind of stuff, water, candies, bread, gum, watches, radios, belts, sunglasses, you name it. It bothered me only because they came so close to us, they almost stick the merchandise in front of our noses.
Well, at noon we were off. It was hot and smelly. I am trying really hard not to think about he bus and the trip and enjoy the scenery. The scenery is interesting, but quite depressing, there are little villages with tiny run down houses in the middle of nowhere. It is another world!
The bus stopped at few villages to let people off. In fact the bus didn’t really stopped, just slowed down and people have to get off while bus still moving. There is a guy on the bus in charge of a announcing the name of the villages and the stations and getting people off. Every time the bus slows down he is jumping up, running by the bus and jumping back in; he is wearing flip flops!
The last part of the trip is a bit more enjoyable, the bus is half empty and it seemed that we were getting a bit more air; also the scenery is nicer, there are rugged reddish mountains and wide valleys with green vegetations, small trees, bushes, cactus.
We made it to Essaouira by 6:30 pm.
As soon as we got off the bus we were surroundered by people that offer accommodation. I was scared again, it seems that I get not get used to crowds and people speaking so loud.
The town and the medina are close to the bus station, and no cars are allowed into the medina which is great! The medina is clean and pollution free.
There are “push carts guys”, men that have a little cart and serve the role of the taxi for tourists. We put our languages on the cart and few minutes later we stopped in front of a hotel.
It was a difficult trip, this hotel is beautiful, is called “La maison des coleurs”. Every floor and room is painted in a different color . We made the decision on the spot, we were staying there for the night.
We were very tired, we had a very good night’s sleep.
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