Morocco

The summer started off with a trip to Morocco with three friends from school - was an amazing trip - started out in Marrakesh for three days and then went to the beach town of Essourira for four nights. The Moroccans weren´t what I expected - not pushy, helpful for the most part and very laid back. Luckily I was with three French so getting around and bargaining for the lowest prices came as a breeze since I did absolutely none of the talking. We actually agreed that I wouldn´t talk at all when trying to get a cab or buy anything since prices pretty much double if they hear english spoken. We took a day trip to one of the villages about an hour away and if you´ve seen Babel, it really reminded me of the sights in that movie. We went on a short hike thru the mountains and the kid we hired to take us said that they have had trouble with young kids standing on the mountain throwing rocks at tourists below - so the events in Babel weren´t all that far from the truth of reality I suppose. Marrakesh was great but with 105+ temps the whole time I was ready to get to the coast.

We took a bus to Essourira, one of the coolest places I´ve ever been. A laid back atmosphere on the sea with great seafood and really nice, chilled restaurants and lounges. I´ll have to put some pics on cuz it isn´t possible to describe (my computer is locked up until I get moved). The days went something like this: wake up around 11, breakfast at 11:30, surfing, kite surfing and body surfing all day, shower and dinner at night. It was a nice change to get in by midnight and have more of a normal schedule for a bit as compared to dinner at 11pm and staying up til at least 3 in the morning as things go in Spain...but its always good to get back to the Spanish routine. Kite surfing is the most amazing sport I´ve ever done - a mix between surfing, wake boarding, flying a kite and parachuting. At first it was quite freightening to be attached to an object that literally could drag you down the beach on your face if you´re not careful...but then I got comfortable with the feel and see how I could become addicted to it. Just another expensive hobby to add to diving, skiing, .....