After breakfast we headed out to take a look at the medina. Many of the shops and galleries...this is an art community...were still closed at 11:00am, so we headed to the beach area.
Beautiful views of the surf rolling in and the coastline of Asilah were seen from the shore...I love the sound of the water! The sun was just coming out so it was the perfect time to take in the views of the Atlantic Ocean.
From here we wondered around the small streets seeing very few people, but lots of different colours on the walls, including unique murals along the way.
We stopped outside a school where an elderly woman happened to come out of her home and we shared some morning chit chat with her...love the friendliness of the people here.
With all the artists in residence, you never know what you will find in Asilah, from wall murals, to musicians on street corners, to people walking the streets selling art.
While we were stopped trying to figure out where we were, we were approached by a guy selling his art...or so he said. They were interesting paintings that depicted men and women, typically playing instruments and included scenes of Morocco...they were even painted on recycled cement bags! We had a long conversation with him about the painting process and the art work itself, and ended up buying some to take home. Who knows if what he told us was true or not, but it was fun either way.
I love all the different coloured doors, art galleries and murals...can't stop taking pictures! Around mid afternoon we decided to check out a seafood restaurant recommended by our Riad. Along the way we took the promenade by the beach...nice sand, but a lot of garbage and of course sheep!
Lunch was nice, but not what we expected...fish soup with almost no fish. The most interesting part was seeing how the restaurant filled up with Spaniards after 3:00pm for lunch...very European here.
After lunch we wandered back through a local park and bought some peanuts...peanut stands all around here...and finally ended up at the Centre Hassan II des Rencontres Internationales.
We heard there was a nice art gallery there and it was worth taking a look. To our surprise when we arrived, we were ushered into the auditorium to listen to some live Arabic music...for about 30 seconds! Before we knew it, the recital was over and we ended up in a reception...not sure what for though. It appeared there was a ribbon cutting ceremony and then everyone moved in a group as someone at the front was being shown all the works of art.
There were lots of photos being taken and I finally asked a young girl who the gentlemen was...all we could determine was that he was someone famous and an artist. After the art viewing and pictures were taken, there was a small reception. Some lovely man came over and brought us tea and made sure we were served chocolate croissants...I guess this is what it's like to be a party crashers in Morocco!!
We never found out who the man was, but got some close up photos...we could have actually met him we were that close...and enjoyed some treats, before viewing the art. Love Morocco!!
We did a bit more touring around...bought some things...and even had a cobbler turn his music up for us while we were taking photos of some of his shoes.. He was funny and I'm sure got a kick out of us as we did a little jig for him before we moved on.
While trying to find our way back to the Riad, we came across a shop our Riad told us about where they did Arabic calligraphy...wow!
I loved watching the gentleman work...we had a great chat with him about Asilah as well. This area is definitely a summer vacation spot and extremely quiet right now.
We finally found our Riad and took a quick break from walking to recharge our batteries...literally. We then headed back out for dinner around 8:00pm....people eat very late here. In fact the night is when all the locals are out and about...kids playing, women walking around socialization get with one another, and lots of men at the local restaurants with TV's watching football. Everywhere we went it was mostly men watching sports...very similar to home when a big game is on.
We finally decided on a restaurant and feasted on some fish tagine...must eat fish while on the coast...including some Moroccan wine. It was so interesting to sit and watch as the locals got into the football game...Morocco vs. Spain...shouting for their team, high fiving and waiters getting distracted from time time as something exciting took place.
It was an interesting day and evening in Asilah and so nice to be back on the coast. Looking forward to seeing what transpires tomorrow as we take the train to Casablanca.
Until then...
Lisa & Lisa
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