Beach Time and a Hammam in Essaouira

    This morning, our family woke up and had a hotel breakfast which consisted of crepes, hard boiled eggs, mint tea, coffee, and orange juice. After breakfast, we split up. I walked with mom, Dagny, and Magnolia to the beach for some lounging in the sun. Dad took a walk through the medina and along the ocean while smoking a cigar. I think he may have been looking for some wall where part of Game of Thrones was filmed. 

    Alastair hung out at the hotel for a little while and then took himself on a walk to find lunch. Along the way, he met a Moroccan man named Mohamed who was standing out front of his carpet shop. Mohamed offered him a "special gift" and ended up giving him a hand massage. Alastair bought ice cream for the both of them and they ate and talked. 

    Meanwhile, Dad joined us girls at the beach, and we all swam, read our books in the shade of umbrellas, and ordered lunch from a beachside hotel. I had spinach and ricotta ravioli but scooped out most of the spinach. Magnolia and Dagny met a girl while swimming. She just graduated from high school in Marrakech, Morocco. 

    Around 2pm, we met up with Alastair at the hotel. 5 of us (everyone except for Dad) walked 5 minutes from the hotel to a local Hammam. We were given robes and a private sauna room. Two Moroccan women dumped buckets of water on us as we lay flat on marble slabs that lined the walls. We were scrubbed down with black soap and then they used special, rough gloves to scrub off all of our dead skin. We all had massive amounts of skin peeling off of our bodies which was gross and cool at the same time. They washed our hair and then we were led to massage rooms. The four of us girls had one room and Alastair had another. Our massages were lovely and then we had some down time at the hotel to shower and get the oil out of our hair. 

    We all had dinner together at a restaurant in the medina. I had a mediocre burger and lost at Rook with Alastair as my partner while we ate. We spent the rest of the night at the hotel repacking and sorting through laundry that the hotel had done for us. Looking forward to experiencing a new city tomorrow!

Adelaide