Casablanca, the modern city

casablanca was the last moroccan city on our tour, and probably my least favorite. though i admit this could be due in part to the fact that i was exhausted after a week's worth of traveling already.

as i've mentioned in my previous blog, we left the desert by bus then by train. what i didn't mention, was that this took all night. we left the sahara at 7pm and arrived in casablanca around 7 am. the bus ride was long and we were lucky to be on a more comfortable bus than we had been on in the past, but this doesn't mean it was great for sleeping. luckily it wasn't full so i was able to take up to seats when i felt like it. unfortunately though, the bus made me feel a little big carsick (which was a bit of a surprise to me since i haven't felt that way in so long), and as i tried to spread myself over two seats, i found that it was a rather slippery ride. once i even fell off the seat! at which point i gave up on sleeping this way and decided to use my mom as a pillow instead. at one stop we got to use the restrooms and even get something to eat. i had these delicious mini hamburgers that i couldn't get enough of. what i couldn't believe is that we had to pay to use a bathroom that was a hole in the ground and didn't even provide toilet paper. oh well. before i knew it we were back on the road. and eventually my dad happened to look out the window at a stop and realize we were at our train connection two hours early! that probably wouldn't have ended well if he hadn't seen that. we got on a train in the next half hour and were soon on our way again.

we finally arrived in casablanca and our first goal was to get some food. we realized that it was probably too early to call our host since we arrive sooner than expected, so we wandered around in search of a cafe. mom seemed to think she knew exactly where she was going, but seeing as we had spent the entire night on public transit, i was a little grumpy and just wanted some food as quickly as possible.

after a couple tries of trying to find a cafe/bar that would actually serve us breakfast, we found one that made us each a delicious omelette, some bread, some orange juice, and of course some tea. with a little food in our stomachs, and a lot of time killed, mom called our host. we hoped that since it was 8:30 at this point he might be awake. wrong. we accidentally woke him up. we agreed to call pack around 10 or 11, and then decided to go visit the large mosque that tourists were actually allowed in to. we found a cab pretty quickly and thought we would be there in no time. turns out that although this mosque is one of the main tourist attractions in casablanca, our driver didn't actually know where it was. he stopped and asked pedestrians for directions twice, and asked another cab driver while we were at a light once.
eventually, however, we did finally make it! it was the biggest mosque i have ever seen, and probably more intricate than most i had seen (though maybe that's because i had a much closer view of this one).

it has even been modernized!

we didn't feel like taking the tour (or paying for it), but i believe we did see end up seeing most of the inside anyways since we accidentally headed in one of the exits at one point. though we got kicked out a couple minutes later, we felt satisfied by our time spent inside.

when we had had our fill of the mosque, we started heading up the beach. (well not technically the beach, which we couldn't really get anywhere near, but we followed the coastline. or maybe down the coast? hm. not the point. anywaysss)

we made a few rest stops since dad was sick, and eventually made it to a little area where we could sit, see the water, and wait for our host to come get us. when we got ahold of him, he said he'd meet us in an hour. that became two. and even a bit longer when we realized that he didn't realize exactly where we were.

it was convenient that it only started raining when we were sure he was already on his way. and that we were able to find cover.
eventually we had to wander closer to the lighthouse when we realized he thought we were next to it instead of past it on the main road, but at least the rain had let up by then. and i did get to see some goats!

finallyyy we met up with our host and started walking back towards town. soon deciding it was probably a better idea to take a cab. though we had to try a couple times since evidently we chose a time when all the cab drivers were finishing up for the day. luckily for me i was able to convince everyone that getting lunch next was a good idea, because i was hungry. we got some seafood, and i liked it, but it just wasn't the same as the rest of the food we had had in morocco. next up we headed to a hotel to drop all our stuff off (our host had a lot of family in town and so staying with him wasn't actually going to work out), before heading out again to wander around town. it was the most modern moroccan city i had seen yet, and also probably the dirtiest. or at least near the water it was. and i just didn't think it was nearly as pretty as marrakesh or the desert had been.
we wandered through the markets which honestly felt a little bit like an outdoor mall in moroccan market style, and saw other sites in the city.

at this point we decided to head back to the hotel to relax for a bit, plus dad was kind of done for the day since he was sick. our host took off to see his family, and said he would see us later that night. mom and i decided after a short rest that we would go explore the markets a little more. i wanted to get a scarf for myself, and maybe a gift for a friend.
i ended up buying two scarves. the first from a guy who was very friendly and did his best to sell me what i might actually buy. when i said i didn't like a particular detail of one, he found me another and told me it would last longer for me anyways. we even got it for a little cheaper than he had originally asked for.
the second though, well, that was kind of a pain. we were walking through the markets, just sort of looking around, when this kid (probably a little older than me), started trying to talk to us. at first i did my best to ignore him, but he just wouldn't go away. eventually i turned when i saw a scarf shop and hoped he would leave, but apparently he was in business with the guy and so i was sort of cornered. i mean i did find a scarf i really liked, but i really wanted to get away from the guy after that.

problem? it started pouring while we were looking at the scarves, so we had to stick around for a little until it let up a bit. then he wanted to show us another store. where we looked around just to make him happy. then he wanted to show us where we would eat when i said we were ready to leave because i was thinking about getting food. he was being wayyyy too helpful and it was driving me nuts. when he brought us to a little cafe, part of me didn't want to eat there simply because i didn't want what was being served, and part of me didn't want to eat there because i didn't want to eat where he wanted me to. man i'm stubborn sometimes lol. but we ended up getting rid of him eventually and heading out of the markets. we wandered outside for a bit and decided we wanted some ice cream because we needed to make it a trip. i mean technically we had been lost when we were with the cab driver, though it wasn't our fault. we found a place called a 'glacier' and went on in assuming there would be ice cream. we were wrong. but we did find a delicious little place nearby and got chocolate plus whatever the flavor of the day was. we figured you can't go wrong with pink ice cream even if you don't know what it is.

we soon found lots of other ice cream places too. we wandered around for awhile huddling under mom's small umbrella since the rain still hadn't let up, when i finally decided i was tired and that if we were going to go out later that night i wanted to get a little food and lie down for a bit, maybe pretend to study since i had midterms in a few days.
so we did just that, even having to ask for directions back to where we knew how to get back to our hotel from since we had gotten ourselves a bit turned around. but we made it back. i ended up taking what i thought would be a short nap before our friend came back at 10pm to take us to some show. well mom ended up waking me up at 1 am and telling me to get in my pj's and actually go to sleep. i was really confused at first, not knowing what time it was and thinking if she told me he was there and we were going to go out soon that i was going to tell her sorry but i'm done for the night. lucky for me i guess that was exactly the plan to stay in. i wasn't entirely disappointed because i was exhausted and ready to return to france the next day.

the next morning we got up, packed, and mom and i headed out to get some breakfast while dad got ready more slowly. it was pretty good. eggs, orange juice, and tea again. though no orange juice will ever compare to the stuff i had in marrakesh. then it was time to get a cab and get to the train station so mom and dad could find out what time their cab would be (they were spending an extra couple days in morocco after me), before getting another cab to get me to the airport.

it was a fun week, but i man was i ready to be back home in lyon (after a night spent in paris of course because that's just how connections worked out)