trips to the north and essaouira

I have spent the last 2 weeks traveling around Morocco and having the most amazing time. I have seen and experienced too much to try to write here, and I know it would be impossible to fully express everything, but I'll try to give an overview.

Hicham and I took a bus to Chefchaoen, then biked to Oued Lau (very difficult), took a taxi to Tetouan, bus to tangier, biked to Assilah, and took a bus to Rabat. What was supposed to be a 2 day trip to one city spontaneously turned into a 5 day trip to 5 cities, and definitely the highlight of my time in Morocco. Highlights of the 5 days include:

camping and cooking amazing meal by fire in Chefchaoen
finding and swimming to the "Sheltering Sky" Island on the way to Assilah
randomly riding a camel on the beach
exploring the medina in Assilah

Two days after we got back from that trip, we went to Essaouira for the Gnaoua music festival, which was absolutely amazing. The whole weekend was a huge party, playing music, shopping in the medina, seeing music at night. Essaouira is a really cool city, one of my favorites in Morocco, and the festival was absolutely amazing. We stayed for a few days after the festival was over, so we got to see the city without all the tourists, which was cool.


Some things I noticed in these 2 weeks:

We had an hour between buses in Casablanca, so we went to see the huge mosque there. While I stood outside and Hicham went in to see (I wasn't allowed in), I noticed 2 young boys, about 8 years old going in. They both stood at the door and took off their shoes and put them in plastic bags before going in. No one asked them to do it. They weren't with any adults to remind them. I think it says a lot about the culture that kids as young as that have customs like that ingrained in their minds.

Music here is a HUGE part of the culture. It really brings people together here in a much different way than I have ever experienced before. When we were all sitting around the apartment in Essaouira, all the Moroccans were playing Gnaoua music and all of them were singing along. It's very different than the way everyone in the states can sing along to pop music on the radio. This music has a history and plays a huge part in the culture of the people.

At one of the concerts during the festival, I saw a girl shaking her body and her head uncontrollably along to the music. Her mother and relatives were all standing around her for support. I was a little concerned and wondered what was going on, and Hicham told me it's a normal ritual. When a girl comes to a certain age without being married, it's believed that she has bad energy in her body, so they do this to exorcise that bad energy from her body. She would do this until she starts to seizure, and it's believed that this will actually help her to have better luck in finding a husband.