October 16, 2009

I am in Morocco, part II

On Sunday morning we woke up in Casablanca. Rob went downstairs for breakfast, and I used the hot water maker so I could drink the first packet of hot chocolate, and eat the first packet of oatmeal that I brought with me. It's a good thing that I brought my own (one set for every day) because breakfasts here consist of bread, bread, and more bread. In different shapes and sizes, but still all bread. And some olives here and there. There IS fresh squeezed orange juice, and it is delicious. Then we set out to find the train station, which was supposedly just across the street. We couldn't find it on our first try, so we went back to the hotel and asked for directions. It really was just across the street, but down a bit. We bought our train tickets for later in the afternoon, and then went back to our room, rested, checked out, checked our luggage, and flagged a taxi. Rob wanted to see Hussan's mosque. It was huge. We didn't get there until 2, when an English speaking tour was to happen. But we were in line to buy entrance tickets, so we missed the first part of the tour. Things happen in their own time here. No matter. When we into the mosque, we were given bags to hold our shoes. Then we walked quickly from group to group until we found a guide that was speaking English. The mosque is enormous! We went through a lot of beautiful rooms, including one filled with fountains.
We also were taken to see the women's hammam, sort of like a steam room. The guide said that women sometimes go there 2 or 3 times a week for a massage and gossip. After our tour, we set out on foot for a restaurant. We walked for probably half an hour, without finding anything but men only cafes, so we hailed our second taxi of the day (another petit one). Rob asked to be driven to a large park (he had seen it on a map, and was sure there was food there.) But the taxi driver didn't understand, because Rob's French is very limited, and neither of us speaks Arabic (go figure). After driving around for awhile we ended up in an area with several restaurants, so we got out and paid our driver. After eating, we figured out where we were with Rob's cell phone, and then walked back to our hotel, passing the large park on the way. At the hotel we rested in the lobby for awhile and then walked to the train and headed off to Rabat.

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