Le Palace D Anfa Casablanca

We had our first presentation/meeting today with the "Oasis" Rotary club in Casablanca. Di talked about her club in Green Bay, and then we showed our video. The Moroccan rotarians seemed to really like the video, especially when Governor Doyle spoke at the end. Once again, we ate a pretty huge lunch. We don't feel too bad, as we aren't eating much for breakfast, and our dinners are ...

Most of the group caught a train to Casablanca. Only 6 of us planned to stay overnight in town and catch the first train back the next morning, Peggy, John, Gwynne, Martin, Lene and I. We searched for a reasonable priced hotel for the night. Our only requirements were electricity to charge cameras and hot showers. John was the French translator and chief negotiator. After about 3 hotels we found ...

... lost a great deal of its flair. Tourism is slowly increasing once more, though; visitors succumbing to the city's proximity to Europe are discovering that its decayed grandeur still has much to offer, from its palm-treed promenade and sandy beach to the old town section, and the outlying villages and resorts. Seasoned Moroccan visitors, however, warn that it is best not to take on Tangier until you are acclimatised to the rest of the country, a stylish café society ...

... of stained glass. It was the most stained glass I think I have ever seen in one place. All the different panels told different stories from the Bible. Afterwards we went to the Royal Palace in Casablanca which is where the king stays when he visits the city twice a year. Otherwise the palace remains closed except for cleaning. We walked next to the palace to the Royal Quarter marketplace to look at the hundreds of barrels of olives of every color for sail and ...

... I needed. By the time I arrived I was ready to explore, however my transfer waited for a few extra passengers which had us hanging around for nearly 3 hours! Waiting outside in the sunshine, it took all of 2 minutes to be asked if I was married...."no" I replied then quickly added that I had a boyfriend (just so I would not be hassled, which did not deter them). So by the time we got to the hotel I was chewing at the bit, ready to get out and explore.. One of the ...

... to where it was, 2nd someone was close - in that it WAS next to the royal palace had we known where that was. The 3rd someone looked to be part of the Royal Palace Security Service who probably didn't like the look of us wandering around the front of the Royal Palace which we accidentally stumbled upon. New Medina was not as good as the old Medina; although it was friday lunchtime and possibly prayer time. Lacking anything else to do, decided ...

... sauce which was given and it was good, but we never got more because it was whisked away so fast. The meal ended with watermelon slices, an anise biscotti-like cookie, and hot mint tea (which was delicious and very refreshing). At the end, a belly dancer came by and we were "sold" our pictures that they had taken. We left the restaurant and boarded the buses to go over by the main mosque which was very old and some parts seemed to be crumbling, but ...

... i got there when i did and he shut up shop right after me. I got a big Mercedes cab and negotiated the fee into town - traffic was great for 1am in the morning and we sped (literally) into town. I asked the cabbie to wait while the hostel doors were opened (from first impressions it doesn't look like a good area) thanking him once i was safely inside. I check in and went upstairs and crashed not long after 1.30am...

... where one tour group member (Jill, English, travelling with her husband Martin) learned the valuable lesson of which way to face when using a hole-in-the-ground toilet (or twoi-let as Jamal would say). Face away from the wall Jill, away from the wall! We then stopped off at Chella - the ruins of a walled arabic city, oddly enough also home to many storks... yeah i mean the birds. Every which way u looked seemed the perfect snapshot... We continued on to Meknes ...

... about the lanes. There were three cars per two lanes everywhere. <br><br>Once we were as far as we could get, I paid the 40 dh fare and left the car. I had been worried about finding my hostel, as it was already very dark because the taxi couldn't drive all the way to the doors, but left me outside the city walls - the medina. So all alone, in a completely new country, new and big city, new culture surrounding me, after dark, I didn't know what to expect. The medina was ...