Morocco! Sunday 10/24/21

 

This really is a dream, the two of us being in Morocco -- on the African continent -- in Casablanca!  Right off the bat, I can tell you that their traditions and culture are completely unfamiliar to us as westerners; as in, a total turnabout from our smooth and comfortable lives in the US.  And I know we are going to be in for the ride of our life!  Holy cannoli, yes! 

As I entered our hotel restaurant in Casablanca for breakfast Sunday morning, my eyes barely open, I was stunned by brilliance!  Senegalese ladies dressed to the nines in colorful clothes or costumes -- wow!  I didn't want to offend, so this was a surreptitious photo that doesn't show the entire crew of ladies.  In fact, I've taken a number of off-the-cuff photos so as to not be in-someone's-face.  Can you spot the American toward the right?  Hi Jimmy.  Unfortunately for me and Jimmy and Bernice and Ibby, those ladies were hungry and left hardly a shred of food.

This one floored me.  Don't drink the bidet water.

The Saturday evening traffic from the airport was insane, roads choked with drivers jockeying for position.  Our taxi driver suggested that we "turn right as you exit your hotel" Sunday morning, and we'd find the weekly market.  We were game.  Oh gosh.  First we were aghast at the garbage on the streets, the unsafe and broken sidewalks, and cats.  Cats everywhere.  Kittens, too.  OK, we can deal with it.  We turned right and had our eyeballs opened some more.

Olives of every description, plus more.

Meat sellers.

And fish.  Geez.  Big ones, little ones, many kinds lined up like soldiers.  This lady offered me a sea urchin, which I declined.

This guy was sliced open after the picture, blood all over the place.  We tiptoed around the grossest parts of the floor and continued on.  I tried to avoid getting in anyone's way because these fishmongers were all business, setting up and getting ready for their day.  

We moved on to fruits and veggies.

Aw, it was fun.  A couple of facts for you here:  Arabic and Berber are the official Moroccan languages and none of us speaks either.  The country is a monarchy, with a king:  King Mohamed VI, who most seem to like.  They also have a parliament whose 500+ members are elected every five years.  Rabat is the capital and second largest city, and the four of us (Bernice and Ibby, Jimmy and I) had first-class tickets to take us there on the 1:30pm train.

Not much doing on a Sunday morning in Casablanca.  We were leaving the market for our hotel, and then the short, couple of blocks, taxi drive to the train station.

We made it on the train (always little challenges) and kind of enjoyed the roughly one hour ride.  The train follows the coast, north from Casablanca to Rabat.  You know trains don't take you through McMansion backyards, so you get to see some seedy areas along with the decent ones.  The complex above is next to a cemetery.

Kind of rundown here.

We did pass by quite a bit of farmland.

Every town has a mosque with a minaret (the tall building, center to left).  Muslims are called to prayer five times a day, and most minarets have broadcast speakers so all can hear the call.  We have heard the calls ....

We four checked into our ONOMO Rabat Terminus Hotel, ready to begin our next Road Scholar journey which will take us throughout Morocco for over two weeks, ending November 8th. We're really excited about the whole program. Speaking of mosques, Jimmy and I decided to go exploring after we were checked in, and walked toward a nearby tall minaret and the mosque entrance.

 

Oops.  Only Muslims can enter.

OK to take a picture, tho.

And maybe one more.  Well, that's our first day in Morocco.  Full of new and interesting experiences.  Stay turned for a whole lot more!