TRAVELWITHZOE

My final stop on my one-month Morocco trip before heading back to Marrakesh for my flight was a coastal town called Safi. The reason I had plans to go to Safi was because a Couchsurfing host who lives there had reached out to me on the Couchsurfing app to invite me to stay, and we’d stayed in touch a bit throughout my trip, and it kind of made sense because it wasn’t too much of a diversion to go to Marrakesh afterwards for my flight.

I travelled to Safi on a CTM bus from Rabat which took around 6 hours. I had to change buses in Casablanca which had a decent waiting room, cafes and toilets, and luckily both the buses were quite empty. We stopped at a service station between Casablanca and Safi and I decided to try these peanut crisps which were AMAZING.

I arrived in Safi in the early evening and my host (a guy a few years younger than me) met me at the bus station. We travelled to his house in a taxi as it was on the other side of the town, and I was a bit surprised to find out that it was only him and his dad living at the apartment (maybe I had misunderstood some of the reviews on his page, because for some reason I thought it would be his whole family).

He had already cooked lentils so we ate them with bread and sat talking for a while about my trip so far in Morocco etc. He said he thought we should go for a walk, so I followed him and we ran into his dad coming in as we were walking out. I couldn’t communicate with his dad because of the language barrier but my host translated for us. He said the usual things like “you are welcome” but he also repeated a few times that I’m very beautiful, which I found a bit strange.

It was extremely windy that evening so the walk was a bit unpleasant because the wind was blowing dust into my eyes etc, but my host really loved walking and didn’t seem phased by this so we walked for quite a long time.

When we got back, his dad was drinking wine and beer which was surprising because most people I’d met in Morocco were Muslim and therefore didn’t drink alcohol. We all sat talking again and he repeated again that I’m beautiful, so I felt a tiny bit uncomfortable because I would be sharing the house with an older man who had been drinking alcohol and kept wanting to tell me I’m beautiful, but I figured it would be fine.

The sleeping situation was that I was given my host’s bed, and he slept on the sofa in the same room. It was a big room so it didn’t feel too weird.

The next day my host made me a very surprising breakfast… it was plain porridge (as in oats cooked in water) with a side of salad!!! I am obviously grateful that he made food for me (that definitely isn’t a given when you’re Couchsurfing) but it was definitely a combination that I’d never even imagined before. He then told me he wanted us to walk to the beach, so that’s what we did.

The walk to the beach was super long. I didn’t time it but I’d say it was an hour, in the hot sun. I would have understood if there were nice views on the walk, but it was just random roads. I feel like maybe me and this Couchsurfing host were just two quite different people so we didn’t really understand each other too well. This was also apparent when he made jokes or statements which I was supposed to laugh at but I just didn’t find any of it funny, which was a bit awkward at times.

Anyway, the beach had an upper part with outdoor gym equipment (most of which was broken) and a cafe, and then you could walk down the stairs to the beach itself.

We walked down to the beach and sat down on the sand. Before we left for the beach, my host had said I should bring my swimming stuff to swim in the sea. I had basically told him I didn’t want to swim on a public beach in a local town in Morocco because I’ve been covering my shoulders and knees for the past month to try and respect the modesty culture, so it would feel quite uncomfortable to just throw on a bikini and have men seeing me in a bikini who usually aren’t supposed to see any woman in an outfit like that except their wife. His reaction was kind of weird and he basically blamed me for caring too much what others think of me, whereas in reality it was more an issue of misogyny and pervy men.

So… I didn’t bring my swimming stuff because I wasn’t going to go swimming, and we just sat on the sand while he played music from his phone and we chatted a bit. Something else awkward happened… so he asked what I thought of he music, and to be honest I didn’t particularly like it (I mean, I couldn’t understand a word they were saying and I just didn’t find it particularly catchy, but I also didn’t hate it) so I said “mmmm it’s ok” which was an honest answer.

A few minutes later he asked me what I think about the beach. Again, I didn’t think it was particularly great. I mean it was just a normal beach – it wasn’t particularly beautiful compared to a lot of beaches I’d seen before, for example in the Caribbean and Latin America, so I said “mmmm, it’s ok, it’s kind of a normal beach” which again was an honest answer!! Apparently I’m not supposed to be honest, because he kept searching for justification for why I didn’t give a more positive answer, which was the part I found awkward.

At one point, some police on quad bikes zoomed past so I asked my host what they’re looking out for, and he said they’re probably looking out for anyone drinking alcohol, as that wouldn’t be allowed.

After the beach, we walked back to the house to make lunch (he made a kind of vegetable stew thing). We chilled at the house for a while and later on we went to the souks (markets). Safi is known for being a pottery town – there are lots of people who make plates and mugs etc, so there are whole big sections at the market just for pottery, painted in lots of different patterns.

It was cool seeing the different pottery items, and I was thinking about taking some back to England but I was worried about them breaking in my bag so I decided not to. The prices were definitely lower there than in Marrakesh etc.

For dinner we went to a cafe in the square by the markets and had harira which is a local soup made from lentils, chickpeas, tomatoes and a few other things. It was nice to sit by the square so we stayed there for a while and then (you guessed it) walked for about an hour to get back to the house.

An interesting discussion/debate happened on the walk back to the house. Basically I was looking at Google Maps and I had seen a route that I thought would be the fastest one so I said “I’ll race you”, because he insisted that his way was quicker. I thought it would have genuinely been quite a fun thing to do, to race back to the house and see who knows best (Google Maps or him). His response was basically that he wouldn’t let me walk by myself.

I asked some more questions about this, as I found it a bit strange, and basically he ended up saying that he would let Couchsurfers go out in the town by themselves if they were couples or if it was a man or a group of friends, but he wouldn’t let a single woman Couchsurfer go walking by herself. Usually when I Couchsurf, the host promotes independence quite a lot because they sometimes have things to do so they want you to be able to move around without them sometimes, so this was an odd situation for me!

The next morning I took a shared taxi to go back to Marrakesh for a few nights and then it was time to fly to London.