Here's looking at you Casablanca
Trip Start
Sep 13, 2006
1
3
31
Trip End
Ongoing
Casablanca,
Morocco
Wednesday, September 20, 2006
Stepping off the plane into a comfortable 25 degrees and blue skies I lined up for passport control that barely looked at my passport and automatically gave me a 90 day visa. Had to juggle a couple of trains to make the tip to central Casablanca, population 5 million. Knowing in advance not to expect much hollywoodian sophistication helped, but I have to admit that while use to Asian cities the African Arabic feel took a little getting use to. So while lugging up a hill my overweight backpack I had to take a seat at a café and spend a few hours acclimatizing to the place over a mint tea. Then I realized that, actually the streets resemble a lot like the Arabic part of Paris where I was living previously and everything seemed to come into focus
Church of Sacred Heart
.The finding of hotel, of food, of things to look at all came reasonable easy afterwards. The Moroccan people are incredibly sociable and will at any possible moment stop you for either of two things. Either they want to sell you something or they want to find out your name, where you come from and then sell you something. Actually this is unfair it's just the impression you get because as an obvious tourist you are attacked reasonably often by potential guides, carpet sellers, restaurant waiters and anyone else who has a good or service on offer.
Most time you can smile, say no and wave it off, other times people can be a bit more persistent, and you enter into conversation and most times forced to explain that you don't need a 10˛ meter hand knotted carpet, by pointing to your backpack and asking where he thinks I should put it. Still I was quite surprised at some of the answers.
Nearly all Moroccan cites have what they can a Medina, which is the old city walls that encircles the old town. Morocco was until 1956 a French colony, and during their sejour here the French built new towns outside of the medina with large boulevards dividing geometrically precise residential areas. It's been quite fun entering the Medina at one end and just following your nose around all the tortured alleyways until you are completely lost and eventually finding you way out. Often a bit poorer and a bit heaver as a result.
Apart from the Medina there really is only the great mosque Hassan 2 and a church of any real interest architecturally speaking
Grand Mosque
. So I rocked on up to the Mosque and was immediately taken under the wing by a guide with shifty eyes. He did show me some of the rooms inside, which were superbly decorated and for some reason the men's' shower room with a few men demonstrating, which made me somewhat uncomfortable still I didn't get to see the main prayer room. Ah well, before I knew it the guide had me in the street walking towards what he called the Cuban community. Not wanting to see the Cuban community I took leave of his services and paid him 2 euros of the 30 he reclaimed and stuck him off my Christmas card list. Still a few more experiences like those I thought and I'll have Morocco down pat.Deciding I wanted to go find a beer one evening I hit the streets with my Lonely Planet Africa on a Shoestring in hand started heading for the red light district. I quickly realize the drinking man's problems in an Islamic country two days before Ramadan. Ramadan is an Islamic festival that last for 30 days with a start date that is dependant on the moon seen in a certain state over Saudi Arabia, during which time Muslims get up before first prayers (i.e 4 am) have a snack and then can't eat, drink, smoke or have impure thoughts for the rest of the daylight hours. Then as evening falls some guys start a special chant and this allows them to eat a sort of pastry before digging into dinner. Ramadan should be a time to cleanse the body of excess fat and toxins etc but a lot of people turn it into a big party. The only people who find it really hard are either the manual laborers because working without water in the hot sun is pretty tough and those who sleep through the first call to prayers and have to go through the full day with out anything. Anyway obviously no alcohol for a Muslim at any time of the year so this made my quest even harder, after finding tourist bar after tourist bar closed I resorted to a minuscule Heineken at the Sheraton Hotel at an over inflated price. I think this trip will be pretty dry.
I only spent 3 days in Casablanca to rest over the final effects of jet lag; it was a pretty good introduction to Morocco. I wouldn't necessarily recommend it, but I wouldn't tell people not to bother. Still I'll be back here in a bit because I will have to get my Visa for Mauritania here before I head south.
Next port of call, the capital of Morocco Rabat.
