Rabat the Capital

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  Rabat, Morocco
Saturday, September 23, 2006

For some reason the Rabat bus station is four kilometers from the city center, but instead of taking a taxi I strolled into town with my pack on my back. Sweating under the hot sun I presented myself at the youth hostel, making a change from cheap hotels.

5 euros a night to sleep in a dormitory and sit around sharing travel stories with other travelers and breakfast thrown in for free. What more could you want?

Diving into the local Medina I managed to try out some more local cuisine, this time a chicken Tajine which is effectively chicken vegetables slowly cooked in earth ware with a great spicy source. It was very nice but not as nice as the Tajines made for the locals, it turns out you need to know where to go to get a really good Tajine

Guards guarding the guards

.

Later found myself back at the hostel where I met up with a young French guy called Alexia with whom I roamed further a field and checked out still more forts and mosques, always under siege by carpet sellers.

Morocco is a kingdom with Mohammed VI as its' current king. Strange but still the population loves the dude and his photo is all over the place. He is very much a modernizer but still retains all the control over the governance of the country. While walking around we got a look at his old man's tomb guarded by no less then 12 guards who all had to stand around in uniforms or sit on horses having their photos taken. Later we saw the royal palace which while big wasn't really very interesting.

Strolling through a park we were attacked by girls wielding Henna who forced us to stand still long enough to draw a scorpion some squiggles and the word love on our forearms. Henna is this type of paste that dyes your skin after contact of about an hour, it also stings a bit. They wanted 6 € for the masterpiece so I gave them 1 € instead, they all seemed very disappointed, with a lot of eye rolling and sighing, but immediately got over it and we managed to have a reasonable conversation, which is good because in general, if I believe the stories of my fellow travelers, foreigners should never go and talk to Muslim women, especially if they are not married

Looking over to Salé

. You can't help but wonder why, but rather then guess at the reasons I'll have to ask the next Moroccan guy a meet.

Ramadan is in full swing here and it's not easy remembering to try and limit the amount of eating and drinking of anything in public. Here in Morocco as a tourist I shouldn't offend anyone by doing so, unlike in Dubai. But I feel slightly self-conscious doing so.

Back at the youth hostel I met a Peruvian dude who is planning to do the same trip as I further south so hopefully we might join forces in a couple of weeks.

I only spent a full day in Rabat the capital which was very modern and cosmopolitan and would have like to spend another visiting the museums here, but I really wanted to get away from the big cities.

Next port of call up north to Tangier.

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Rabat Surf Club

Royal guard, guarding the tomb of Mohammid V

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