Africa back to Europe

We checked out of the hotel at noon and Mark booked a bed in the nearby hostel.
We had lunch and ice cream and soon was time to head to the airport.

There is a train from city centre Casablanca (both rail stations, Casa port and Casa Voyageurs) to the airport. Mark accompanied me to the airport.
At the airport there was time to say good bye. In general I am really "weak" when it comes to good bye, and this time was Very Very hard. I have been traveling with Mark since March 1 this year sharing the good and the bad, wonderful moments, difficult moments, impressions, emotions. We parted crying.....from that day on our trip had different itineraries.
My flight to Milan was at 8 pm.

I am looking forward to meet Mark again; the latest at the end of the year 2008! we will definitely have the best New Year party.

Rabat to Casablanca

From Rabat we took the train back to Casablanca Post station. We had to got to Casablanca, because my flight to Milan was from Casablanca airport. The train was 5 euros for an hour ride. We got fist class ticket and the train was brand new. It was the most pleasant ride that we had in Morocco, regretfully the shortest one.

We booked hotel Central on Internet; likely the hotel was very close to the rail station; we walked to the hotel and we were happy that we didn't have to deal with the taxi drivers :)

Hotel was nice and we spend the afternoon relaxing and taking care of last minute things. View from the hotel room.

As this was the last dinner of our trip, we decided to go to our favourite place in Casablanca: Rick's cafe.

Food was good, wine was good, we were talking and laughing remembering good and bad parts of our trip, funny, embarrassing, hard, difficult moments, and above all being happy that we have decide to pursue this journey; most important - No regrets.

Visiting Rabat

We were in Rabat for three days. We really liked Rabat, I guess this is our favourite city in Morocco. Our Morocco trip was quite comfortable, but still rough compared to Europe. These three days in Rabat were ending our Moroccan trip and also our five months trip together; good reasons to spoil ourselves, decompress and have a really good time.

We leisurely browsed Rabat. Downtown Rabat had a European flair, buildings are white and well maintained, streets wide and clean.

Rabat has numerous coffee shops, patisseries and book stores. It is the first Moroccan city where we were pleasantly surprised to see many bookstores and many people in the bookstores.

Most Moroccan people on the street were westerly trendy dressed; also we have noticed many expats.

We come across this interesting church.

We visited the Kashba, according to Routard guide the "must see place” in Rabat. It is an interesting place, narrow strets, painted white and blue houses, awesome view of the ocean and the city.


One day we had lunch at Alliance Francaise. Lunch was cooked by French standards and prices same. We paid about 35 euros for 2 entrées, shared dessert and half bottle of wine.

In the evening we walked long ways along the Murrailles. First we passed by numerous impressive houses, all homes of foreign embassies and diplomats.

We ended the evening at Weimar Cafe which is part of the Goethe institute. Restaurant is run by a very nice French couple. Place is very popular with French people and many expats. We were lucky to find a table right away, we had pizza and beer, it was good!

Leaving Marrakech and arrival in Rabat

It is far too hot in Marrakech and 8 days seems good enough to be in this city.
We left our friend’s nice apartment Tuesday at noon.

We had a good time here, made lots of yummy meals, and had nice cold milk, yogurt, and watermelon. The advantage of an apartment over a hotel especially in a hot climate is having a Fridge. Mark had every morning cereal with cold milk. Mark is very particular about his cereal with cold milk. He made such a fuss about having milk really cold. I hope he will eat cereal and cold milk every morning at his home, otherwise he will be in trouble.

Our next and last destination in Morocco is Rabat. We got second class train tickets to save a bit of money; the tickets were 12 Euros each for a 5 hour ride.

The train left half an hour late; the first hour or so of the train ride was very pleasant; in one compartment for 8 people we were just four; Mark and I and 2 ladies, one Moroccan and the other Dutch-Moroccan visiting family. We had a nice conversation in French and English about Morocco, Europe, and travelling in general.

After the train started to get crowded and hotter. There is an air conditioner in the train, but is weak and sporadic. More people came into our compartment and many people stood outside in the corridor. Most people have many, huge luggages and leave them in the corridor, therefore every time the train stops and people have to get on and off there is a big struggle and “bouchon”.

Closer to the end of our train ride I started talking to a guy sitting by me; he was from Agadir and was going to Rabat to get his car registered. He bough his car in Italy and he had all necessary papers from Italy. He showed us the car papers with tons of stamps, but he said that according to Moroccan bureaucracy the papers were not good enough and he has to go to another office and get more stamps. All I could think was that I am really glad that I am not in his shoes! He told us that lots of Moroccan are not happy living here, because of bureaucracy, injustice, bribery, lack of hope for a better life. That is very sad.

He helped us to get off the train in Rabat and after he said “bon voyage”. One of the few people that helped without expecting anything from us.

By the time we got to Rabat we were hot and tired. We had chosen a hotel from the Routard guide and luckily the hotel was walking distance from the rail station and in a nicer part of town. Before we got to the hotel I kept my fingers crossed that we find a room available, I was dreading the idea that we will have to walk around to look for a hotel.

As soon as we stepped in Hotel Splendid the front desk clerk smiled and said, Mais Oui, on a une chambre pour vous!

Hotel is very basic but clean and good shower, this is all we need.

Welcome to us to Rabat.

Marrakech – Osiria water park

As we could barely handle the heat in the city, we had decided on our last day in Marrakech to go to a water park. Yes, somewhere in a suburb of Marrakech in the middle of the dessert there is a water park!

The water park entrance fee is 18 Euros! including the bus from Marrakech to the water park.

There was no exact indication where the shuttle bus will stop to pick us up, just the name: Plaza El Harti. Plaza El Harti is a big place with a roundabout; there are about 5 large streets intersecting into this place and about 5 corners where the shuttle could stop. We had to stand right in the middle of the plaza in the burning morning sun so we can see the water park shuttle. Once we saw the shuttle arriving we started running and guessing where the shuttle will stop. That is easier said than done, traffic in Marrakech is absolutely insane, it took us a while to be able to cross the street and make it to the shuttle, but finally we were on our way.

We knew from the Routard guide that there are restaurants and snack bars in the park; initially, we were thinking to bring some water and snacks, but later on in the morning we changed our mind. When we got to the park we were glad that we did not bring any food or drinks, because the clerk at the gate actually checked our bag! The water park really wants our money, beside the entrance being so expensive they want us to spend extra money on food and drink. It is impossible to be there for the day without buying something, this park is making good money!

But we had fun! It was a hot day, so it was nice to be in the park. The park is big, with a kids area, wave pool, swimming pool, water slides, restaurant and concession areas, even a pool bar with Coca Cola and juice, but to our disappointment no fancy cocktails or beer.

Mark went for the water slides gradually moving on from the gentle ones to the steep ones. Every time he was plunging in the water and coming out he had a very puzzled expression on his face! He was funny, I guess for the moment he didn’t know where he was. I was sitting on the grass listing to some techno funky music and looking at Mark and all the other crazy people sliding down and had a good laugh!

I was scared to go on the slides, but finally seeing how much fun everyone was having I decided to give it a try! After the first time I kept going and going and going, yes it is was lots of fun, even though I have to admit that I slid only on the green slides, the easier ones.

At 6: 30 pm it was time for us to go.
We got out of the gate to wait for the shuttle bus. There are only 2 shuttle buses one for Plaza Jemaa-El-Fna and one for Place El Harti. As it is almost closing time for the water park, many people were waiting for the shuttle. As soon as the shuttle showed up people start running, pushing their way around to get on the shuttle. We looked at this and decided that is no way we can fight like this to get on the bus. But we were tired, hot, hungry and want to make it home. Another shuttle arrives and Mark is getting a seat, but I am still outside and the shuttle is now full. This was absolutely crazy!

We don’t understand why the water park doesn’t have a civilized system to get people on the bus; something like handing people a number so when shuttle arrives people can get on the bus according to the number; or even easier to have 2 signs, and 2 lines (something similar to the airports line ups) one for place Jemaa-El-Fna and one for Place El Harti.

Regretfully after this good day we had a bitter feeling like many other places/business in Morocco the water park cares only about the tourists that brings money in; once they got your money they don’t care about you, customer service, reputation, good will and so on; that is sad for Morocco.

Marrakesh - Jemaa-El-Fna at night

Marrakesh - Jemaa-El-Fna at night
We got to Jemaa-El-Fna around 9 pm – wow what at place, my first reaction – shock and terror! I read about this place before hand on Routard guide, but yet any descriptions of it can not possibly describe reality, the tumult, pulse, vibe, craziness of this place.

There are thousands of people Moroccan and tourists alike and all possible vendors; everything is for sale from “normal” things to all kind of weird looking stuff (we had no idea what they were). Some people just have a small blanket with a few strange things on it and sit there in the middle of crowd trying to make a few pennies. There are women that offer tattoos and henna paintings on hand and feet.

Also there is music, dance performances, monkey wranglers, snake charmers. I couldn’t take pictures at night, this is a picture of the snake charmers in the day time. In the middle there are two cobras.

Right in the middle of the plaza there are many “only at night” small outdoors vendors restaurants and Moroccan patisseries; (these vendors are not there is the day time, only at night); all restaurants and patisseries are pretty much same and they all have numbers.
For restaurants there are long plain tables where everyone can sit as long as there is room. Every restaurant has one or two guys in charge of getting customers to their restaurant. As we walked by many of them come to us showing up the menu right in our face.
That night we had already dinner so we decided to come back and eat here in couple of days mostly because of the atmosphere and “the experience”. The smell of the “grillades, tajines, spices, cakes was very enticing.

We went back a few days later; as all restaurants are the same, after shaking off some of the restaurants touts, we choose to sit somewhere not too crowded. I had poulet tajine, and Mark poulet grillades, about 6 Euros, plus French fries and grilled aubergines (eggplant). Before our order arrived the waiter brought a small plate of olives and some spiced sauce. The food was just OK, when we had to pay our bill we realized that the waiter has included also the food that we have not ordered and we have assumed that was free. In Canada if you are given a little something that you have not order before your meal that appetizer is from the restaurant and it is free.

The extra amount was very little, but yet we learned that in Morocco if we ever get food that we have not ordered we will ask first how much is going to cost.

That was our night experience in Jemma-El-Fna. As I recognize that maybe most tourist find this place very exiting, for me was again once in a life time experience. I am not planning to ever go back to this place.

Marrakech, nouvelle ville and Jardin Majorelle

Today we have visited Marrakech “nouvelle ville”. It is the newer part of town, there are many beautiful buildings, trendy restaurants and coffee shops, it seems that is the Yale Town of Marrakesh. Also there is a brand new stretch with a shopping area, there are some store names that I am not familiar but also stores like Zara, Clio, Etam.
There are water fountains and benches, at night the place is packed with people – walking, eating, or just sitting around “people watching”.

Jardin Majorelle is a beautiful little garden right in the middle of city. It costs 3 Euros to get in.

As usually we walked to the garden, after a long walk in the sun, it was sure very nice to be in the garden and in the shade.

This garden used to be home of the painting studio of Jacques Majorelle in 1924, the studio is now a museum.

After Jacques Majorelle died, Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Berge have brought the garden, renovated and maintained. There is a memorial for Yves Saint Laurent in the garden.

The garden is small but very nice with exotic plants, cactus, bamboo trees, palm trees, a small pond with lily pads.

Marrakech is very Hot

Marrakech is Very Hot, I don’t really know the temperature and I rather not know. We can go out early morning and late at night. It is almost impossible to go out between noon and about 8 pm at night.

Marrakech is a big city with large boulevards. Architecture is very interesting, many beautiful buildings. The traffic is very busy and it is a challenge every day we have to cross the street, even at the intersection with lights. There are lots of coffee shops, restaurants and parks. City is relatively clean compared to other cities, the municipally here puts a lot of effort to keep streets and parks clean.

There are lots of constructions going on, it seems that the whole city is under renovation and constructions, it would be interesting to see this city in a couple of years.

We woke up early and headed to the Jemma-El-Fna which is the main plaza in Marrakech. We walked all the way from our place to he medina, about an hour walk. We are ok walking, we just find it difficult to cross any street because here traffic doesn’t have any rules; Especially the motorcycles never stop even at the red light.

Jemma-El-Fna is a big place surrounded by coffee shops, restaurants, hotels.

Right in the middle of the plaza there are many orange juicer stands and dry fruit stands and as soon as someone walks by all vendors start to wave and ask to go to their stand for the juice or fruit.

A glass of orange juice is only 3 Dirham, a glass of grapefruit juice is 10 dirham.
The juice is very good, fresh, we will have lots of orange juices.

After coffee and people watching (there are lots of foreigners) we decided to go to the medina. Wow!!! tons of stuff, everything one can imagine, clothing, jewelry, shoes, bags, carpets……..

I like to look around but as soon as I stop to look I am approached and Invited in the store. I am not used and I don’t like the pressure, this makes me uncomfortable and usually I pull away right away. Also by now we have been in Morocco long enough to know that if someone invited you in the store for tea and to look, is because they want us to buy something.

Finally I found a store that had clothes with price tags and I decided to buy some Moroccan traditional clothes, mostly because I was very hot.

I bought pants (they called pantalon climatise I guess just because the pants are very large and they allow air circulation) and a blouse. I paid 10 Euros for both, not a bad price considering that I have done very little negotiation. BTW – Mark and I hate bargaining, we always like to buy stuff that have a price tag.

This is my Moroccan outfit.

Leaving Essaoiura and arrival in Marrakech

We were in Essaoiura for about 14 days, it was time to move on. We enjoyed our stay in this little town, Essaouira is like Vancouver of Morocco! on the Atlantic ocean coast. Temperature was very pleasant not too hot and always a nice breeze.

Going to the bus stop having our luggage in the push cart.

Bus ride between Essaouira and Marrakesh takes about 3 hours and costs 6.50 Euros. We left Essaoiura at 3:00 pm on a tourist bus with air conditioning, much much better bus trip than the one before.

The bus was almost full, mostly tourists and few Moroccans. When Mark and I got to our seats we could not even get to sit because the people, father and daughter in front of us leaned their chairs back to the maximum. I asked politely to be so kind to put the chair in the up right position so we can get in and sit comfortably. In a very defensive voice the father said that he wants to be comfortable and he is entitled to lean the chair back. Whereas I agreed with him I tired to explain that it would be nice for us to feel comfortable as well and is that particular situation it was not possible. He was really mad and rude, I decided not to carry the conversation anymore. Also in the same time a girl who was sitting across of me went to the back of the bus and waved at me to come over.

I end up sitting by her on the only 2 empty back seats on the bus. She was Moroccan and she spoke English very well as she studied Business in Philadelphia for 3 years. She went to visit friends in Essaouira and now she was going back home to Marrakesh. We talked about Morocco and travel, people, climates, Marrakech, food. She offered me very yummy Moroccan home made cookies.

At the end the bus ride was very pleasant. Mark sat in our seats and he told me that the father told the daughter that we are rude because we are “Americans”!

Sometimes we wonder why people travel and what in fact they learn from travel. Most people learn to happily agree to make a bit of adjustment on their comfort to accommodate fellow travelers – win , win situation, everyone is happy. Also most travelers learn and treat others with planet earth human respect that doesn’t have anything to do with one “place of birth”.

We were sad for this man and father and especially for his wife and kids. We don’t know where the man was from and where he was travelling but to us so far he is been wasting his family money.

We got to Marrakech around 6:30 pm. It was Hot!

I called Maria in Marrakech (Maria is the neighbor and friend of our friend from Montpellier) and the key for the apartment has arrived just that morning. We were so happy, we have an apartment to stay in Marrakech.

We took a taxi (again we were cheated and charged more) and moved in the apartment. The apartment is beautiful!

It did not take too long to settle in!

This is the view from the apartment.
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Essaouira and the hamman experience

Mark got me a little gift for Canada Day, but I know that in fact he was a bit worried about me getting so home sick and he was thinking that I needed a pick me up; so he bought me a “Moroccan beauty” at the “hammam” = that means a facial and body exfoliation and massage with Moroccan special “savon noir” and oil d’argan.

Savon noir is not really a soap but a black paste; can be bought only in a hammam and kept for a month or so, after which it cannot be used anymore. It is an exfoliator and it is supposed to be the best.

Oil D’argan is an oil that we ever heard of before--in Essaouira it is famous and everywhere; apparently this oil can be bought only here and it is considered a “miracle oil”. It can be bought as a cooking oil and as cosmetical oil; also used as main ingredient for many cosmetic products.

I am really curious about this oil’s properties so got myself a small oil bottle and a soap.
1824
Back to the hammam = bath, the one I went to is was called Lalla Mira.

Hammam is a made of stone, small, low ceiling, dark, steamy hot room. The room is completely empty besides a water troughs and a few very thin white mats on the floor.

I lied on the mattress on the floor; this woman came up and poured a bucket of warm water on me. After she started rubbing me with a glove dipped in savon noir; she is not very gentle, she flips me around rather abruptly. She is not talking just concentrating on her “work”; despite the abruptness the rubbing feels good. At the end another bucket of water is thrown on me.

Now there is the wrapping in something muddy. Once I am all wrapped up she leaves me lying there on the mat for about half hour. It feels really good all wrapped up lying motionless in a quite hot room.

Another bucket of water; then there is washing – hair, body, oooo that feels really good.
At the end there is massage with the d’argan oil. That is the best part, I could have been there for a longgggg time.

An hour and something later I am perfectly clean and stress free; my skin is oily and soft.
Oooooo I really enjoyed the hammam. I will have to do it one more time before I leave Morocco.

In the dressing room I struck up a conversation with a woman; she was my “bath mate”. Her name is Elisabeth and she is from United States, just visiting Morocco for a week. We made plans to meet for dinner.

At 8pm we met Elisabeth and her friend Joe; we went to Sirocco restaurant. Everything on the menu looked really yummy, hmmmm hard to decide what to eat.

I had Moroccan salad, Tajine Sardines and Chocolate cake, lots of food, but I managed to eat everything because it was too good to leave on the plate.
Tanjine Sardines

During our dinner a magician came to show us tricks; he was very good, he did all the tricks asking us to help, we looked at him in wonder as he was so close to us, but yet we did not see how he was able to manage the tricks.

July 3 was a good day! the trip goes on :)

Essaouira, on July 1

Today is Canada day, also 4 month anniversary of our trip! We left Vancouver on March 1. I can’t believe that it has been already 4 months, we have done soooo much in this time.

Today I am sad, I miss home, it is one of these days that I just wanted to be home. I want to go to the airport and buy a ticket to Vancouver.

If I was in Vancouver, I would have had a long weekend and most likely I would have been hiking or biking in the mountains I love. I miss everything about Vancouver, the air, the rain, the sun, mountain, ocean, English Bay, Stanley Park, my street, my place, my friends.