Blogs from Rabat, Rabat-Salé-Zemmour-Zaer, Morocco, Africa - page 11
November 28th 2006
After 4 days of not showering, braving turkish toilets, and eating every meal with my right hand, I have to say that my time in Morocco was an absolutely incredible and mind-blowing experience. after an underwhelming thanksgiving dinner (it lacked such essential elements as sweet potatoes and green beans) i ran back to my place to shower and change as well as do a quick chat with the fam on skype. got my 10:30 overnight bus to Algeciras, a port city in the south of Spain, and had a miserable night's sleep crammed into a seat seemingly made for gnomes. a few others on the bus stuck out as americans and sure enough they were part of morocco exchange as well. at 6:30 we got into the station and basically hung around for two hours until ... read more
My first Moroccan everything...
Published: August 13th 2006Africa » Morocco » Rabat-Salé-Zemmour-Zaer » Rabat
August 8th 2006
Rabat is the capital of Morocco (dont worry, I also thought that Casablanca was the capital up until a year ago, and I am Miss Geography...) and is completly underrated as a travel destination. From the moment I arrived, I absolutely fell in love with this city (P.S. as I am typing this, I can hear donkeys eee-awing in the background, complete donkey heaven). Rabat is the most recent imperial city and home to the many palaces of the current king, Mohammed VI. It is a very strange feeling to enter into every single place in the city and see pictures of the King everywhere, and I mean everywhere. From grocery stores, to markets, to restaurants, there is Mohammed VI. And he is very respected amongst Moroccans. On my first night in Rabat, I experienced my ... read more
July 26th 2006
Took a 3hr train ride from Fez to Rabat (stayed in Hotel Royal - great location, price and mgmt). The initial purpose of stopping in Rabat instead of going straight through to Marrakesh was to get a ¨rest¨from the dirt, mayhem and filth that we were supposed to experience in Fez - as we wrote in our previous blog, Fez was a great place and no ¨rest¨was required. Rabat is the capital of Morocco and was a great stop for no other reason that it is complelety opposite from the medina and traditional way of life in Fez. Rabat is a very cosmopolitian city with wide boulevards, large government administration buildings, French cafes and most notably young women dressed looking the part of women in more liberal countires - tank tops, short skirts etc. Like Fez ... read more
June 15th 2006
Salaam and welcome to Rabat the capital of Morocco. According to the Lonely Planet this is a place where you come to undertake essential business and rest from life on the African road. We have found it to be more of a place where you can see how Morocco really works, how people make their money and how rich and poor collide in a city deviod of the tourist scene that dominates both Fes and Marrakech. Alice fell for Rabat almost immediately while I took a while to come around to it's charms. The feeling of being utterly faceless was strange at first, particularly after the interest shown towards us in Fes. Once we got over this we found we could use it very much to our advantage by blending in with the bustling crowds of ... read more
May 10th 2006
I decided to take a day trip to Rabat, the capital, which is only an hour ride by train from Casa. It started out a bit rough as I went to the wrong train station (Voyagers instead of Casa Port) and when I got to Casa Port I missed the train by one second. No worries as they leave every 30 minutes. I planned out my attack on Rabat during the train ride and upon arrival, I bounded up the stairs and out of the Rabat Ville station. And within one minute I was lost! But I gathered myself and found my way to the Chellah ruins. From the ruins, I decided to walk to the mausoleum of Mohammad V. Along the road, I saw a US flag in the distance. As I drew closer to ... read more
Motoring Madness in Rabat
Published: August 21st 2011Africa » Morocco » Rabat-Salé-Zemmour-Zaer » Rabat
March 9th 2006
After a reasonable nights sleep we awoke at 0730 and unanimously decided against having a shower in the toilet. At 0845 we walked back down the hill to the port area, found a small cafe and ordered breakfast. Actually, ordered may be giving ourselves a little too much credit - we held up 3 fingers to the waiter and pointed to some pastries that may or may not have been bread and smiled politely. I also pointed to a coffee that a local punter was enjoying and again raised three fingers. Within a few minutes the food was presented on our table with sides of jams and butter. The breads ranged from a thin pancake style (although not sweet) to a thicker cookie like substance. For the first time in two weeks I also enjoyed a ... read more
Peace Corps Training
Published: September 15th 2005Africa » Morocco » Rabat-Salé-Zemmour-Zaer » Rabat
September 15th 2005
Rabat is an amazing city, I only wish I had more time to visit it. The Peace Corps is keeping us busy all day with training and such. We have to go through safety and PC policies and learn countless acronyms and names which sound very unpronouncable at first. I wish I had more exciting news, but for now it's mostly meetings in a windowless room just like in Philadelphia. They're interesting, but they're still meetings. Instead I'd like to leave you with some of my favorite parts of what we've been talking about. The cover of the PC Morocco Pre-Service Training Handbook has a very appropriate poem by Lao-Tsu (6th century BC). Go to the people Live with the people Start with the people Work with what the people know Learn by doing Teach by ... read more
September 9th 2005
Salaams In a day or 2 Ill leave Rabat. Plan is to go to MEKNES , a small town just before Fes which is called the cultural heart of Morocco. From there onto to FES for a REAL taste of Moroccan Culture. Been to the Tunisian Consul and they assure me that I can get a VISA issued at the Airport. Now I have to find some cheap flights, since the border between Morocco and Algeria is seemingly closed. In the internet cafe to charge the camera which died last night when i wanted to take pics of the medina when busy . I also need to take a pic of the main road on my way out. I changed the reolution of the pics so now they canty be uploaded since they are too small. ... read more
September 7th 2005
Salaams I am typing fro, a strange keyboard , so pls excuse the typo:s. Time since I have left is 5 days and some hours;:seems like 20 days: I have posted some pics in the gallery. 1 for CAIRO , just a glance, A FEW from RABAT , where I am right NOW. I reached Rabat after taking a train directly from the CASABLANCA airport. My flight was 2 hours on paper, more like 6 hours across the TIME ZONES.Almost missed the train stop / SLEEPING. Arrived in RABAT at 5:00am. Everyones sleeping except me. Found a cheap hotel at that time Woke up some time lqte qfternoon qnd went to the beach and then to the market area; And took some pictures . check them out SALAAMS It has stopped raining outside... read more
December 14th 2004
Haven't done a lot today. I've moved from Meknes to Rabat the capital of Morocco. Rabat looks like a very modern city and in many ways it is, but in fact it has a history of 2,500 years. Last nights hotel was a bit of a splurge - I spent 340 Dirhams - that's about 21 Pounds sterling. I went from the sublime to the ridiculous. One night in a 40 Dirham hovel, the next in a 340 Dirham hotel! But the more expensive hotel not only had decent sanitation but also a swimming pool! There was also a big banner welcoming some UN Conference on the Environment and the use of scarce water resources in poor countries, hung across the entrance. I thought the theme of the conference rather ironic considering they had booked a ... read more
