Villa Blanca Casablanca

... pharmacy," where they showed us a lot of natural oils, herbs, lotions, etc. and told us what they believed they helped with. That was cool. Then we had about an hour of free time to roam around these shops and barter and buy things. That was fun but very overwhelming, everyone there is so aggressive and in your face and it’s much different than shopping in America. Most of it is junk anyways, and Tommy and I got some ridiculous fake watches ...

I arrived in Morroco not really knowing the first thing about the country. What I did know, had a bit of Sahara in it and was mostly arabic led me to believe it would be a lot like Egypt. I was right in lots of ways ut also really wrong. But we shall ...

... to take a break and come back later, or come back later with a drink. and for those of you already likening my use of punctuation to that of a 2nd grader, i say, "good day, sir!" i've always found myself to be more esthetical than functional when it comes to punctuation (especially those pretty; pretty parenthesis). the challenge of reading this could only be possibly met by the challenge of writing it on this freakish keyboard (qnd when i say ...

... and higher into the peaks, getting out occasionally for amazing photo opportunities. After driving for hours and I do mean hours, we finally made it to this really old Berber village on the edge of the Atlas Mountains (yes, we really were that close to Algeria) and had a kind of tour of the village. We visited one of the oldest castles in all of Africa and that was really awesome because the inside was gorgeous. Oh my gosh, so intricate and beautiful. The architecture in ...

... out and it was time to navigate the daunting taxi ride into the city. Armed with the Frommers Morocco guide book, we eyed the first driver suspiciously and tried to negotiate his initial offer of 300 DM (Exch rate 8.1:1), as the book said it should be 250. After seeing nothing budge, we decided that we'd suck up the extra $1.6 each and just take this guy. Fairly soon it was apparent that this guy wasn't that bad, with passable English and ...

... was lamb because of my knowledge of the saints-St. Agnes's attribute is the lamb and she is associated with sheep-shearing time. And of course I already knew the words for chicken and beef. We had to do the requisite carpet store demonstration. We were ushered into a carpet store and there we were sat down in cushy seats and served mint tea. The display is choreographed like a dance, with the main guy talking about the history and the varieties of carpets as ...

... vorbeigefahren - in einer Stadt von der Groesse Berlins! Nach zwei Stunden Warten ist dann schliesslich bei stroemendem Regen Yassine, ein wirklich total witziger Typ von Lillys Couchsurfing-Kram, vorbeigekommen und hat mich abgeholt. Die naechste Station war dann die Ueberraschung des Tages: Das Sadion Casablancas zum Ligaspiel Raja Casa gegen Tetouan!! Das Spiel selber war zwar nur mittelmaessig, dafuer war die Stimmung in der Fankurve die absolute Bombe. Auch nach dem 0:1 ...

... restaurant recommended to us called Squall in a beautiful building in the old city. Gorgeous nooks with tables and vine covered trellises. Food was ok too. Wow what a great city. People everywhere, and such a huge convergence of cultures. There were traditional dressed Muslims walking side by side with those dressed in fashionable western clothes. The city was dynamic with numerous coffee bars along the street side and amazing markets that were woven into the narrow ...

... Edward Island converging on the Mosque at call to prayers! Inside, the Mosque is a feast for the eyes -- marble from the Middle Atlas, granite ...

... with much shouting, crying and scuffling amongst the Algerian passengers but everything was kept in control by the armed officers who escorted them off the concourse. It was during these long hours that I began chatting with Kim, an amiable Aussie who I happily discovered, was on the same trip as me. Finally, the check in staff appeared to a huge cheer and we were on the plane and on the way to Casablanca. Over 6 hours delayed but we ...