As planned, we flew back to Marrakech in October 2008. In the meantime we had learned that a bus company drives several times a day from Marrakech to Essaouira and have also directly bought two tickets for the equivalent of 7€ per person.
When we arrived in Essaouira we first went to our rented accommodation and then went to buy towels for the beach. Since we always fly with hand luggage only, it is cheaper to buy towels locally than to take them in a big suitcase.
So we strolled through the alleys and looked in every store to look for towels. Everywhere we were of course greeted friendly and as soon as the eager traders found out that we were from Germany we were also addressed in German: “welcome, you don’t have to buy anything, just look”, or “I know your mother-in-law” and of course “come in, just have a tea”. In contrast to Marrakech, however, in Essaouira you are neither pulled by the sleeve nor encouraged obtrusively to buy. A friendly shake of the head or saying “no thanks” is enough to continue on your way unmolested. Most dealers also know only a few of these German phrases, so you are more likely to get into conversation with French or English.
When we passed by Driss he also called out to us, “come in and feel free to look around”. Of course, I assumed that this was the only German sentence he knew by heart and answered cheekily: “You don’t understand us anyway. To this Driss replied, “of course I understand you, what do you need?” Oops, he really understands me. But Bernhard dragged me on with the words: “he has no towels, let’s go on”. I, on the other hand, had become curious because Driss spoke German so well and convinced Bernhard to go with me to the store to at least talk to Driss. Maybe he could also tell us where to get towels here.
In the store, Driss asked us directly to the “back room” and offered us a tea. We got to talking and to both of our amazement Driss could not only speak German very well but he even knew most of the German politicians because he likes to watch German TV. It became a long and intensive conversation with many different topics and also with Bernhard the ice was quickly broken. After we finished our tea, Driss even offered us several towels to choose from, which he had gotten from another store in the meantime. We then bought two of the towels at a really fair price and went to the beach, not without promising Driss to come back for tea the next day.
We then repeated this on further days and always talked about new interesting topics. We were also able to learn a lot about Morocco through Driss, which made us even more curious about this great country.
Apart from the pleasant meeting with Driss, this second visit to Essaouira allowed us to get to know this enchanting city a little better. On the first visit, the many sights had passed us by more like time-lapse during the guided tour, but this time we really took our time for each attraction and were able to discover a lot of new things.
We loved the long walks on the beach, the visit to the old fortress with the rusty cannons, the winding alleys with their small cafes, hotels or stores of all kinds.
Since I had also started to search for Essaouira in internet forums after our first visit, I met a lovely woman from Germany with whom we arranged to meet on our second visit. She showed us an appealing little hotel called Cap Sim and delightful restaurants which we then visited together.
Of course we came directly back to Essaouira in spring 2009 to see Driss and all the little treasures again. This time we had then also booked the hotel Cap Sim.
