There is a thing inside of me that likes the beach. It could be the fact that I grew up by one. When I go to the beach I like to swim and every single time I regret it. The salty water, the sea creatures attacking me for invading their home and my swimming attire. I know when I wear my fully covered swimming suit (aka burqini burqa/bikini) I look like a cross between a seal lion and an alien. It takes a while to muster up the courage to wear it and walk in full confidante with it on publicly. I have to give myself a pep talk before every time. I usually get starred down and made unwelcome. To make myself feel better I just imagine those unwelcoming stares of disprovable as looks of praise and aw of how amazing I look even when I am fully covered. You can call me delusional but it works. I do not want to compromise on neither my beliefs nor my fun, so I just make it work. Thankfully, when I wore it on the beach in Agadir in Morocco no one cared. The people who were there wore basically everything from the usual bikini to baggy t-shirts and hijab. I know people assume that this will be the same attitude in every Muslim country, but let me assure you it's not, so when when no one cared or even looked I felt great!
Agadir is three hours drive from Marrakech. The plan was to take a bus, but it was fully booked when my friends and I went the same morning to the bus station. It turned out that people should book the day before at the latest, so we just took a taxi. After a long discussion with the taxi driver, he agreed to charge 700 Moroccan Dirhems per person for a round a trip. It was a ripoff no doubt about it, but my friends really wanted to go, so we did. He turned out to be a cool old guy who kept telling us the most random stories. The way to Agadir was really dusty and bumpy. There was so much hype about Agadir, their beach and how amazing it is. I was a little disappointed when we arrived. Maybe the resort beaches are nicer, but the public one was average and full of teenagers playing football. The water was clean and refreshing, so I guess that was the whole point. The restaurants facing the beach had below average food and they were there just for tourists. Even the fish there wasn't fresh. All the locals ate in places inside town. The drive back was even more tiring. It was a good day trip, but spending a night there would have been more comfortable. It was lovely regardless.
