Salam Alikum

Well well. On good people's request I will write some news in English.
I have reached my final destination down south in Morocco after five incredible weeks in the country. My mission these days is making new friends who will bring me over the border to Mauritania. I am not shure if it was my look yesterday after the 20 hours bus ride who kept people away or if the army all around affects peoples mood but Western Sahara definitely has a different atmosphere than the rest of Morocco. People seem much more serious and do not try to get in any kind of contact with you which is definitely strange when you have got used to all the attention, good or bad. But the day today already seems brighter and even the Atlantic was calm this morning under the bright morning sun. Temperatures have also risen which is highly appreciated after som incredibly cold desert and mountain nights.
So what have I been up to the last five weeks? Roughly I met this french woman and an English guy (Sylvie and Dan) after only four days in the country and basically I haven't been travelling alone since. We rented a car for eight days and drove down south and visited the desert and the mountains. Morocco has some incredible nature but as cliché it might sound this country is definitely about the people.
After the eight day drive Sylvie went back to France but me and Dan kept on traveling together. After a practical stop in Rabat for getting my Mauritania visa we went to Essouira. A little town by the sea, known for its Gnawa music, rasta people and laid back atmosphere. We hadn't stayed for long when we met Hamid who invited us to stay in his house, a four etage riad (traditional arabic house) whith a roof terrace, he had restored himself. After two days in an hotel we moved to his house and ended up staying there for four days. We would get vegetables at the local market in the evening for a few dirham and make big Tajines "at home" (yes it is incredible how many kitchen I have made my own in Morocco and I am getting pretty expert in making tajine vegiterian). Later at night we would go listen to local live music which, to be honest, in some cases wasn't the restricted, traditional Moroccan idea, one might have before coming to Essouira. Anyhow, during these days we also met Cesar and Elea, a french couple travelling in a van, who also came and stayed with us in the house. More people such as Adil, a young guy who works for Hamid and a musician who has played with Sting at Essaouira music festival, Omar, a proud, young salesman with a big smile, who has a picture with Brad Pitt in his store and Youseff a ghembri player and a son of a respected Berber salesman, spent the evenings with us. They all had their proud story to tell but above all were amazing people to spend time with.
After endless tea drinking in Adels shop, a minimum of sightseeing at the old port and a lot of shisha smoking it was time to move on and me and Dan joyned Cesar and Elea in their van to Marrakech. We spent the first night in their van just outside the city on a ground of a french guy they had met earlyer on their travel, who was building a house there. He also had a riad inside the city we visited. We then spent two days in the city, which had much more relaxed atmosphere than expected, being one of Moroccos most visited places. But the tourist season hasn't started yet to our luck so the salesmen are at there lazyest and let you pass by almost without any hassel.
Though the city was nice we hadn't got enough of mountains yet and ended up renting a car again. This time it was just me and Dan, me being the only one with driving licens which made it an exciting mission. We drove around for four days, passed some incredible mountains and met nice people again and again. We picked Mohammed up in the middle of nowhere and gave him a ride for half an hour. He of course invited us to drink tea at his house after the ride and in the end for a cous cous and a night sleep. His wife and seven children weren't at home while we drank tea but when leaving we met his oldest doughter and his youngest three months old son, who, as many Moroccan babies has much more hair than I do and an incredible smile. We thanked for the offer but felt we had more driving to do for the day and left. We went to visit an important kasbah (mudbrick castle) and arrived late in the afternoon. At the top of the castle we met two italians and Ismahil a guy who turned out to be the cousin of the brothers we had spent five days with in the desert. We spent the night and the next day with him, called the brothers to say hi and at the end got another offer of free night sleep. Mountains called and we went driving again. We past some amazing small towns and visited some, gave old men and young boys a ride every now and then and used ouer basic arabic, which never seems to fail making people smile. We ended up in a city by the see called Agadir where we delivered the car and cought a bus the morning after. And 20 houers later we magically arrived to Dakhla in Werstern Sahara which brings me to where I started writing.
The music at the net café is getting louder and tells me it might be time to move on. Hope it gave a small idea of the first chapter of my travel. I might go and get the last tajine before I leave Morocco tomorrow or the day after tomorrow.
Alots of love.
Margret.