Winter Africa

Hello!
Today is Wednesday. And as promised I will take you for a little adventure to Morocco.

Everything started with the idea of some warm vacations in winter. Just before New Years Eve we found cheap tickets. After that, there was no doubt - we are going to Morocco. Me and Tomek, my good friend. We have travelled together for a while now, so wild trips was nothing new for us. Just this time there was only two of us.
Spontaneous run to Africa. As Morocco actually is in Africa.



As our trip started in Poland, we get the bus to Katowice to get on the plane to Paris and then take another one to Nador.
Bus to the airport took 2 hours, so we decided to get some vodka. This way time is going faster. At the gates was waiting first surprise for me. They where checking really hard on cosmetics. So all of the liquids had to be placed in one (just one) zip bag of 1L capacity. Because of that I had to leave some of the cosmetics at the airport. But nothing that can't be replaced.

Second surprise was not that easy to deal with. In Paris Bouvais they took all our food. The one in cans. Which was emergency food in case we got stuck in the middle of nowhere. Lady said that they are too big, and there are restrictions to 125 grams per item only. This got me pretty angry. But as I was a bit drunk so I just waved my hand and moved along. After all there have to be any shops in Morocco to buy some food to replace what was taken. (We were soon to find out that there was no need for that. Food from the street was just awesome!)

                                     

When we finally get to Nador (North of Morocco) at about 5 P.M. we needed to get to Fes as fast as possible. I heard the nights are dangerous. So why taking the risk?
In the beginning the idea was, that Fes is about hour and a half away (100KM). But we were to be proven wrong soon.

First Moroccan that we met was middle aged guy in old Volkswagen Bora. His english was terrible, so we were speaking in spanish. In the beginning he said that he will take us to Fes for 100 dirhams (10 dirhams = 1 euro). At this point we already knew, that all given prices are doubled just for the idea of trade negotiations. Finally we stopped at price of 70 dirhams. As it was clear from the map that Fes is about 350KM from Nador.
After about 5 min ride our misunderstanding became clear. As the driver was talking euros, not dirhams. So we just get out of the car and continued on foot trying to catch a car to Fes.
It was already dark and started raining. So weather was not nice for walking. But there was no other way. We had to get somewhere.

During one hour walk this same guy was following us and twice tried to get us to Fes for 70 euros. Finally we found perfect spot for hitch-hiking. Now it was heavy raining. And without the sun it was cold as well.
After the two hours of no car stopping at all, we started to lose our hope to get out of Nador. But then to our saving stopped the bus. Bus to Fes. And this time it was only 75 dirhams for one person.

About 5 hours later we were in Fes. Middle of the night. Just few taxi drivers in the bus stations, lots of homeless dogs. The city was sleeping. We went to Medina (city center) which in the night looked like slums. A bit scared we entered the city gates and went to the first hotel we encountered. 2 minutes talk with owner about price and we have our room with warm blankets, tv, hot water and of course chocolate ( ;) ). It is Morocco after all. The owner was so nice that he gave us small piece before we went to sleep.
                                       
Next day was raining all the time. So we did quick tour in the city center, and stayed in hotel heaving chocolate and drinking Berber tea (Berber Whisky - but it is just the name. There is no alcohol inside). Local tea with mint and lots of sugar - it was really great and tasty :)

In the evening we took night bus to Marrakesh, as the road to desert (Merzouga) was closed because of the heavy rain. So we decided to go to Legzira to see Stone Arches.
In the half way, bus stopped for about 20 min for a break. So we went out to eat something warm.
I wasn't sure what it was, as nobody really spoke english there. It was kind of the kebab with meat only. But it was really good :)

                                          

In the night Marrakesh was empty and disturbingly quiet, but at the same time really nice to walk through.
We almost got used to all the small streets in the Medina in Fes. But here 'Old city' was much bigger. Just like the maze. Of course we got lost few times. Even with gps (witch got lost as well).

At the picture above you can see regular street in the old city. Empty during night.

After spending day and night in this really nice city at Couchsurfing. We were heading straight to Legzira.
First car stopped after about 15 min. And in short time we found out how lucky this one was.
Moroccan guy and his Tunisian girlfriend were going to Agadir. Almost 370 KM in one car - not bad. There was more good news. They were going through the Essaouira (city of winds). So we got to see another city on the way, and the sunset.
Because of this happiness we actually lost one day. We have arrived in Agadir at 10 P.M. So there was no way to get any closer to Legzira. We had to stay for the night. But there was no worries, we had some "chocolate bars' left with us. So time was pleasure. And even in the night Agadir was quite warm.

Next day after breakfast and few joints we spend all day travelling to Legzira. First stop in the way was Tiznit. So we took a piece of paper, marker and tried to stop any car.
5 minutes later we were sitting in one. He got us 20 km from Agadir to next small city. From there we tried to catch a bus to get just outside the centre. But there was no need. One guy in tricycle pick-up motorcycle took us just where we wanted to go.

                                    

Sadly to Legzira we got after the sunset. But with flash-lights we found the perfect spot to sleep easily. We left there our bags, and went for a walk to the beach.
After a while we saw some lights between the cliffs. I was thinking that maybe this are some tourists. But no one came to the beach. In the few minutes there was this light again. We were really curious who is that. So we went to check this out.

After about 50 meters walking towards cliff we saw a Cave. But not ordinary cave, this one was with stone house build in the one corner. A bit scared we came to the entrance. There were people inside. As they saw us, we have been invited to the dinner. There was 5 guys about same age as we are. After a short conversations we found out that they are doing lifeguard course, and one of them is fisherman. They are staying for few months in this house they have build just from rocks.

                                 

When they finished the dinner, we went outside where the fireplace was prepared. Because of the ocean winds, night was pretty cold. They started the fire and put some music on. After a while they prepared a Shisha and the only guy speaking english started to prepare famous Berber Whisky - Tea. It was the first time we actually saw someone making this tea. The whole process took about 10 minutes. He was just pouring tea from one cup to another. At this point he explained that to serve this tea in the right way, it needs to have a foam. Just like in the beer, 2 fingers, right? This was the same.

Here is a video, just so you know how this process looks.

                                                 
It was really amazing to sit in the cave, handmade stone home, in front of the fire with local people, local tea - smoking shisha.

After a while we went back to our 'secret' place to sleep.

Whole next day we spent on walking underneath cave arches. At this point I have to say, that during daytime in Morocco it was really, really warm (about 25-30 C). Don't forget that this is January.

Now we just needed to get back to Marrakesh for the air plane back to Poland.
Because we lost on day to get to Legzira, we had to take the bus from Tiznit to Marrakesh to make it on time.
We thought that our journey is going to end soon, so we just took it easy, relaxed, and slept most of the night in the bus.
But we couldn't be more wrong...

At about 2 A.M. as we were driving through the Agadir I heard sound that seemed like a burst shot from Kalashnikov or any other rifle.
My first thought was, that we are under attack of something (I was few years ago in Colombia, and this would be no surprise as in there I was waking up with the sound of the gunshots).
Bus was half full of people. Almost everyone was laying on the ground or were with there head between the legs (just like an emergency position in the air plane, if you know what I mean).
At this point i notices that but has two windows completely destroyed. So my thoughts about shooting could be right.
After some of the passengers calmed down I tried to ask what is going on. Everything became clear after they explained. That evening was football match between Agadir and Casablanca. Agadir lost that one. And sadly for us our bus had licence plate from Casablanca. we were hit with rocks by 'Agadir hooligans'.
As we came to the CTM (bus company) car park, we saw more buses with broken windows.

Happy that nobody got harmed we get to Marrakesh and got on the plane. We still had to spend night over in Paris as we had more than 12 hours to wait for the plain to Katowice.

We decided not to waste this time, and went to Paris itself by hitch-hiking. It was near 8 P.M. so we waited for a miracle to catch a car. We were two guys after all. And it was already dark.
To our surprise after not more than 15 minutes one guys pulled over. Guy from Poland as we soon found out. He took us right to the city centre.
So we made some photos with the Eiffel Tower, went for few cheap bottles of wine and just started wondering around the Champs Elysees.

This night was rather warm.
There was a little shock for us when we landed in Poland the everywhere was really lots of snow.
And just one day before we were on the beach in the really hot weather.

But every journey comes to the end. And every end is the beginning. Beginning of the new journey, new story, new adventure.

Thank you for reading. I hope you liked it and I'm waiting for your comments below :)


Few more photos here:
 https://plus.google.com/photos/107733929767352163818/albums/6111981811513218193?authkey=CN3iq-aykdeA7QE

Soon there will be short film from this trip :)

https://www.youtube.com/c/arturszklarski