Sin City?

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Alas, unfortunately our last morning in Marrakesh had arrived. Had I the opportunity to re-plan this trip I might have stayed in our Riad another night and done a day-trip to the coastal town of Essaouria, but the cheaper flight out of Casablanca was enticing and would allow us to see the infamous city. I had enough Euro on me to pay the hotel, but we would need to take our more cash to pay for the taxi to the train station and whatnot, so after breakfast we took a quick walk back to the square before our taxi arrived at 10:15.

We got to the station in no time and had ourselves an espresso at the station while waiting for the train to come. The train itself was nice enough and brought back memories of summer 2006 when Kasia and I took trains all over Eastern Europe. We each got a window seat in our compartment and were eventually joined by two young Moroccan women. Three and a half hours we were in Casablanca, Africa’s second largest city after Cairo.

Leaving the train station we were of course assaulted by cab drivers who didn’t seem to understand “no” in any language, but eventually we gave in and took a 4 Euro cab to our hotel. The hotel ended up being a lot further away than I thought, so it was worth being driven. The place itself was decent - decorated nicely enough and attached to a café in a plaza, but certainly a step or twenty down from the Marrakesh riad.

We hadn’t eaten for six hours so food was obviously our next objective. We left the medina ancienne for the modern, westernized city, which accounts for almost all of Casablanca. Now I say modern and western, but that doesn’t mean I like it - overall the city is dirty, congested, and lacks the charm, mystique, and culture that Morocco’s other major cities are teeming with. Casablanca, with its some 8 million inhabitants, is a major sea port and the economic hub of the country but not much else. At times, with its French architecture and palm trees I felt like I was in Nice, but overall it just felt like somewhere I didn’t want to be.

Anyway, returning to happy things like food…we somehow ended up on the one street we read had a good, cheap restaurant, and so settled on Le restaurant de l’etoile marocaine. There I enjoyed another good harira soup and a lamb tajine, while Chris got a chicken pastilla. The pastilla was delicious, but a little on the greasy side and not as pretty as the one from La Fassia in Marrakesh. Nice and full we continued on our way.

The next stop was the renowned Hassan II Mosque. Inaugurated in 1993, the stunning and costly ($750 million) building is complete with a library, museum, steam baths, Koranic school, and conference facilities. The roof is even retractable like a modern sports stadium allowing worshippers to pray in the open air in good weather. Jutting out into the ocean, the mosque complies nicely with the Koranic saying “Allah has His throne on the water.” It is the largest mosque in the world outside Medina and Mecca and the westernmost monument of Islam. Despite the throngs of rowdy Moroccan schoolchildren everywhere, I really was blown away with how magnificent the place was.

Leaving the mosque we headed south down Boulevard Moulay until we eventually hit the city’s major park, the Parc de la ligue arabe. First taking a look at the former French cathedral now closed to the public, La Cathedrale du Sacre Coeur, we decided it was time for a rest at a café within the park. It was nice to kick back and relax while sipping some ever-delicious mint tea and people-watching. This was also nice given that my heels were bloody from walking so much in my converse.

Once rested up we continued trolling about the city as it became dark and started to rain. We popped into a nice artisan shop before heading north through the Medina to attempt to find our hotel. This medina is just as confusing and congested as that of Marrakesh, except that it is not geared for tourists and, just as throughout the rest of the day, we were the only non-Moroccans in sight. It was a bit “too authentic” for my tastes as we were clearly lost and it was dark and everyone started to look scary. To make matters worse some punk tried to pull some crap with me as he spotted us, started walking alongside us, and then deliberately jabbed me in the back saying “Oh, pardon! Blah blah blah blah Hey! Hey!” I don’t know if he was trying to get my wallet or what but we just kept briskly walking.

Finally we reached the edge of the Medina, except that somehow we weren’t on the big street along the port from which I knew how to get to our hotel, and we were much too further west. Great. Since we somehow ended up fairly close to the Hassan II Mosque again, I took the opportunity to take some night shots before we headed back to the hotel. Absolutely exhausted we bought some snacks from a shop in the plaza and called it an evening, packing our things for the flight back to Barcelona and watching “Starsky and Hutch” with Arabic subtitles. Brilliant.

As to day two in Casablanca...I don't even want to talk about it. In a nutshell, after arriving at the airport we were informed that Vueling, our carrier, no longer had flights out of Casablanca. PERFECT, considering we BOUGHT tickets from Casablanca to Barcelona. I'm really happy my horrendous luck with air travel didn't fail me in Africa. After an hour of bickering in pidgin French with all kinds of worthless individuals, we had no choice but to buy tickets on Royal Air Maroc for a flight a few hours later. After all, Christopher had a flight out of Barcelona to Boston the next morning and we needed to get out of Morocco that day. Our initial flight cost 80some Euros for both of us. Our new flight? FOUR HUNDRED. I wanted to die, and continue to feel that way. Once we finally got to Barcelona, I spoke with employees at Vueling and filed my complaint/reimbursement papers. They of course claimed to have attempted to contact me as to the change via phone and e-mail but honest to god I have no record of any such information. I would not have just gone to the airport like an idiot for fun when I knew my flight actually didn't exist. By 10:30 pm we were settled at our hotel in Barcelona, went out for some wine and tapas, and called it a night after QUITE the day...

Stay tuned for Santander (Spain), Berlin, and Vienna all next month!

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Photos

Are we in Nice?
Hell no

Looking down the street
in the old medina