Hello everyone, and welcome back to Morocco for a final evening stroll around Essouira’s old city, a breezy escape along the southwestern coast. I start today’s stroll atop the ramparts, looking out at the old sea fort, Skala du Port. There is a haze in the air, which the sun paints a cool orange. The sea air is thick with salt. You can feel the weight of it on your skin and in each breath.
As is inevitable during any great walk, my stomach began to guide the way. And where did it take me? A local kebab shop, of course! They really do love to load the kebabs up with meat here, and it's been a go-to guilty pleasure snack for me after countless tagines.
After a tasty kebab, the mission became finding some nightlife. This is harder than you might think, as many of the locals are Muslim and do not drink alcohol. After some walking, I found a place with no sign, but a few men standing out front smoking cigarettes. I ask if there is alcohol, and they say yes. Walking in, we find a long, narrow room with exposed stone walls, brightly lit, and sparsely decorated. The place is full of local men, with a few other foreigners, but no women. There are a few others in my group tonight, but nowhere for us all to sit, so we only stay for one drink. Looking up the place later on Google, the bar was called, Unknown But Cheap, which was fitting. Inside is a sign that says no photos, so I didn’t take any in the bar. I did, however, take a photo of these cute dogs that were hanging out a few doors down.
After a bit more wandering, we came to a place called Le Chrysalis, which was the only place in the whole city that seemed to be playing music. When we walked in, the entire place was empty, but all of the disco lights were still strobing across the dancefloor. The few guys working there were really cool and let us choose the music, and even offered us free shisha. We decided to stay for a while and even ended up singing a bit of karaoke here. It was fun to have the place to ourselves.
The time finally came to put down the microphone and say goodbye to our new friends. We took the long way home, of course, and even made a little pit stop for some more snacks. Soon after snacks had been acquired, a gang of cats showed up, purring their way into our good graces with the hope of coaxing a few fries off us.
Spoiler alert - cuteness prevailed and fries were indeed gifted to our new friends.
Everywhere you go in this city, or perhaps even the country as a whole, you will inevitably find some cats. Usually well fed and lounging wherever they please.
Whether it be on bundles of fishing nets.
On top of signs.
Or even in our hearts ...and hats :)
I hope you enjoyed reading about my journey through Morocco. Thank you to everyone who supported my posts along the way. You guys are great!
All photos were taken by me. I hope you have a wonderful day. :)