Breakfast was time to catch up with some of our travelling party and get to know them a bit more. We sat with a couple of young girls from Croatia, one an auditor with PWC and the other a mobile apps software developer. Nice to sit and chat about our respective countries and learn that we have quite a few things in common in our love of the outdoors and travel.
This morning we're heading off by train to Rabat, the capital of Morocco. We'll be staying there for a few hours to explore the city before heading off on another train to Meknes.
I'm writing en route to Rabat which gives me a bit of time to reflect on first impressions of Morocco and Moroccans. Our first impression is of immense frustration with the bag situation, which has probably tainted our perspective.
Apart from visiting the Hassan II Mosque, Casablanca itself isn't a particularly touristy place. It's pretty run down and dirty with nothing much to offer tourists. They do however seem to be investing in the city to make it a better place. The marina project looks like it should add to Casablanca's tourist appeal and they've started a light rail project with one, very modern, light rail train running through the city. It looks great, with plenty of trains running. These are both great projects, but there needs to be significantly more investment in the rest of the city if they want to make it a desirable destination.
Everywhere there are cats and kittens! They seem to roam the streets, filthy and fending for themselves. It is funny to watch the little kittens. They're the same the world over. They just want to play with a piece of string or some other rubbish lying around.
Moroccans are, in general, really nice people. You expect to be confronted on the street by people wanting to sell you all sorts of things from 'genuine' Ray-Bans, Rolex watches and so on, but a polite no thanks and they'll pretty much leave you alone. You get the odd pushy seller, but that's the exception rather than the rule.
The Moroccans are very demonstrative and passionate. You see it and hear it all over the place. Right from our first introduction at the airport, where people were screaming, shouting, gesticulating wildly about lost luggage, it's continued all over the city. People shouting and throwing their hands in the air when one driver doesn't give way to another or a pedestrian gets in the way of a car. Or some random, loud discussions going on on a street corner - about God knows what. To us foreigners it looks like it's a serious argument going on, but maybe they're just communicating with passion???
They also like to touch. As is the custom, it's very common to see two guys walking along the street hand in hand or one holding the arm of another. Or maybe to see people greet each other with the common kiss on each cheek or perhaps a gentle touch of the hand (not a hand shake). It's certainly different to dudes at home where it's "yo bro" or "wassup" and maybe a high five or fist pump!
We arrive in Rabat around midday and we head to a nearby restaurant to drop off our luggage - well everyone else drops off their luggage!!!!
Rabat is a welcome change from Casablanca. The streets are cleaner, the shops seem tidier and far more organised and the traffic, while still busy, seems less crazy! We then head out to explore the town for a few hours. A walk down the road takes us to the Medina, the old town where we walk around the outside wall which leads to the mouth of a river and a small fishing port.
We followed the river until we reach the stunning Oudaya Casbah (Casbah means fortified village). Inside the Casbah there are small cobbled streets and beautiful blue and white stone houses. We wandered through the narrow alleyways until we reach the furthermost point which is high above the beach and the mouth of the river below.
The beach looks VERY inviting - dammit, where are our togs??? Oh, that's right, they're in our bags!!!! There's a decent swell going and the beaches are absolutely crowded with sunbathers and swimmers. The beach is littered with sun umbrellas, squeezed side by side. It looks like a beach scene back home, but on steroids.
After the Casbah we wandered along the river side to the Mausoleum of Moulay Ismail. A walk up the marble stairs and across the marble square, we entered the Mausoleum. Inside is beautifully tiled on all four walls, with a stunning domed ceiling. There is a walkway around the walls which looks into the burial chamber on the floor below. Unlike loads of other places like this, entry is free and photography is welcome - so we go crazy snapping away.
Back outside we head back to our starting point to meet up with the rest of our travelling party for a bite to eat before its time to jump onto the train for our stop for the night - Meknes. We've been booked into first class, with nice wide comfortable seats in a 6-seat compartment. Very spoilt indeed!
We arrived in Meknes around 6:30 and taxied to our hotel - the Hotel Oasis Tafilalet. After checking in to our rooms and freshening up we met up with the rest of the group and headed out for dinner.
Unfortunately during our dinner we found out that our bags aren't where they need to be. Even though our tour leader insists that they are in Barcelona I have no faith in this at all. Sadly we've been given bad information right from the start with no one being able to confirm 100% that our bags have been located.
Even with the fantastic sights, sounds and smells, at this stage we're pretty much over Morocco. So we head back to our hotel to hand wash our clothes again in preparation for tomorrow.
Stay tuned for the next exciting chapter in 'where in the world are Cindy and Simon's bags'
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