Blogs from Casablanca, Grand Casablanca, Morocco, Africa
slums?
The Flight I feel about aeroplanes the way I feel about diets. It seems to me they are wonderful things for other people to go on. (Jean Kerr) Most people do not believe they are on holidays until they reach their destination; in our case first stop Dubai but I like to think the holiday begins the moment I walk out the door. George is taking us to Sydney, left home 12.30am arrived uneventfully Sydney airport 4am. Parked, met Natarsha, checked in, passed through customs and boarded our plane. Perfectly timed. We are flying Emirates, 14hours to Dubai, arrive 1pm Dubai time. Emirates, I guess, is the best of the best. The air hostess’ are immaculately groomed, no middle aged gentleman on this flight. I feel it is necessary for them to be good looking, and ... read more
Morocco 029
Saturday April 30th, 2011 Casablanca, Morocco Latitude 33 degrees 36 minutes’ north- Longitude 07 degrees 36 minutes’ west We took a bus tour along the coast of Morocco today from Casablanca north to the capital of Rabat and back. There were several seaside villages and towns along the way and what struck me the most were the walls. Whether it was small towns, new modern condo complexes, old villages and even family compounds of a few houses; they were all surrounded by walls. They love walls in Morocco. Even the slums had their own enclosed stone wall. We visited the Royal Palace and they had special guards outside the gate and if you look in the picture you can see that there are walls inside of walls in the palace. We saw a huge old cemetery ... read more
Hassan II Mosque
The name of the place just has that classic, romantic ring to it, doesn't it? Maybe it's because it's the name and setting for one of the most famous films of all time. Maybe it's because it sounds like the name of a Spanish lothario. Whatever it is, it might just be the coolest-sounding name for a city ever. Most people's reports of the place are that it is a dirty, run-down, industrial city with not a lot to see - but being a former colonial city with an international past much like Tangier, a visit to a place called Casablanca just had to be done. Back in Fes, the 'five-star' breakfast at my five-star hotel didn't quite live up to its billing, but I appreciated having a hot breakfast with scrambled eggs and grilled tomatoes ... read more
Hi all, Our journey begins this Saturday! We'll be off to Paris for a couple days before flying to our first stop: Kuala Lumpur. We will try to update this blog after every adventure so if you want to keep up with our tour subscribe to the blog to get email notifications whenever we publish an update. This is our first time doing this so should be fun and sloppy :) Stayed tuned for more!! ... read more
Hey everyone, We are in Morocco right now.. tomorrow going to the Sahara desert and hopefully doing a camel tour or something. We went to Egypt and it was awesome... dirty, completely different from home... but awesome. If Quinn wanted to, he could have traded me for camels.. which seemed to be the question of the day when we went to the market. hahaha 4 or 5 days from now we will be heading to Spain and spending some time there and maybe Portugal before heading to Paris to catch a plane to Italy to meet up with mom and dad Findlay.. and then on the Greece and back to Paris where we are planning to meet up with mom and dad Miller for a while!!! Very exciting news, as we miss everyone soooo much!!! we ... read more
Hassan II Mosque
There are two types of taxis here in Casablanca. The larger ones that haul several people and head off to other cities are called Grand Taxis. The smaller ones for around town are called Petit Taxis. I finally discovered what the translation means: Deathtrap. Well, perhaps it isn't the literal translation, but hey, if the shoe fits. The ones I rode in were falling apart, burning oil and driven as if we were in an amusement park bumper car ride. At first I thought the white lines down the street were to indicate lanes, but it seems that the Petit Taxis use them as a guide rail or something, so the cab is driven down the center of the line. Pedestrians are just as bad, darting in and out of traffic, walking down the center of ... read more
Hassan II Mosque
So here's the photos that should have been attached to that first posting. I'm still figuring out how to use this blog - old dog, new tricks, etc.... read more
Feels like more than 5 days since we landed in Casablanca, buts probably because we've covered a lot of this city core on foot. Each day we've headed in a different direction, with a destination in mind and each day we've gone astray and seen more than we intended. Sometimes this was a good thing, and sometimes not. Casablanca is a large modern city with all the same problems of a north American city – air pollution, not enough money to maintain the sidewalks, road construction that increases the traffic jams and lots of people trying to make a living any way they can. There are very few visible tourists like us except when a cruise ship is in town, so we get lots of offers from the taxi drivers and the street vendors, but they ... read more
Central Hotel Door
Off all the gins joints in all the world, I had to walk into Rick's. Then I left, because it was fucking 200 DH for 3 courses. Casablanca. I had the notion in my head that Morocco would be a pastiche of faded colonial glory, and until reaching Casa, I had been a little disappointed, finding it only in places. Casa, too, has its new town and the huge development schemes along the port. However, you can wander the once-lively streets where all the former colonial offices and embassies were, and visit the sites where international intrigues took place during the first and second world wars. Again, there was not much info available locally, so we had to go online to locate such interesting places. Originally, I had planned to have three nights in Casa; as ... read more
