Magical Morocco
Trip Start
Sep 03, 2007
1
28
70
Trip End
Ongoing
Casablanca,
Morocco
Saturday, December 6, 2008
I was a little apprehensive about flying with Emirates (I don't like the Dubai/Sydney/Dubai route) but was pleasantly surprised, more leg room and space, just what 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 girls on the transfer was also joining our Intrepid tour, so we headed off to checkout what Casablanca had to offer. We headed to the Ancienne Medina, which is the oldest part of the city and jammed packed with stalls selling cheap shoes and clothing, household goods and local produce galore. I was in my element. Browsing stalls selling fresh clementines, pastries, vegetables, the odd butcher, bread stalls and spices. The medina was filled with the associated smells of an old market, with grubby cobbled paths, filthy water running down the streets, donkeys, bikes, poverty, it was the heart and soul of the area.
A local man named Hammad started a conversation with us talking about Argan Oil, a local produce that is used for beauty and eating. He suggested a store to by the product and against our better judgment followed him through the market, to a spice shop. Argan Oil is extracted from an inedible nut and is used in beauty products, skin cream, oil for dipping bread etc ended up buying a small bottle, but I don't think it gave the commission he was hoping for....it turned out that he also enticed 4 other girls on the trip to visit this shop to....(he must have been everywhere in that market!)
We headed back to the hotel to eat our first of many tagines, washed down with local Casablanca beer.
The following morning it was blue skies and sun, and we caught a taxi out to the Ain Diab Corniche overlooking the Atlantic Ocean, lined with beach clubs in between derelict concrete parks and buildings. We sipped hot sweet mint tea and soaked up the sun and admiring the view of the crashing surf and lighthouse.
Arriving back at the hotel at lunchtime to met our tour group, we headed to Hassan II mosque, the third largest mosque in the world, and built on a rocky outcrop. It is said in the Quran that God's throne was built upon the water, hence the mosque location. It can hold 25,000 worshipers inside and another 80,000 in the courtyard. Underneath there is an elaborate ablution rooms with mushroom like fountains to wash, and a Moroccan and Turkish hammams (to show what they look like). It was a huge cost to the Moroccan people to build this mosque, and not just financially. It is believed by many that the money could have been used elsewhere and that many slum dwellers were removed from the area without compensation.
The afternoon was spent sipping sweet mint tea and eating crepe au miel (crepes with honey) at a pavement cafe, watching the locals go about their business. Casablanca may be the main financial hub of the country, but the locals are very friendly, and there is still a feel of long ago.
We dined at a local restaurant as a group and ate marinated olives in oil and chilli, a delicious fresh Moroccan salad and the most divine vegetable tagine and chicken, lemon and olive tagine, followed by a huge platter of bananas and oranges. A few of us headed to a local pub, and when I mean local I mean very local! Definitely dodgy and so cool. Sipping beers and nibbling on olives we watched the locals interact (with the working girls), socialising with the backdrop of a bad sounding band and smoky atmosphere. Locals selling tissues, books and even socks (which my room mate Vivienne ended up buying because her baggage had not arrived from Paris!)
I think I am going to love it here.
