Here's Lookin' At You, Kid

Up at 3:30am to catch our flight from Seattle to New York, New York to gay Paris and Paris to Casablanca. 15 hours of flight time with very short layovers and no mistakes or delays. Bully for us. Airports are very exciting places. Raakhi can easily pass for a Moroccan so we plan to buy her a jellaba (full length hooded Moroccan traditional robe) at some point. We took a train from the airport to the center of Casablanca and then walked into town as if we knew where we were headed. We did not. Wandered around for an hour and a half without a detailed map and developed these impressions:

Casablanca is dirty.
Our ability to speak French is extremely limited.
Our ability to understand French is pathetically limited.
Moroccans are not patient drivers.
Moroccans are very kind and patient with under-prepared foreigners.

Finally found Hotel Central, located in the heart of the ancient medina. Casablanca's medina is relatively tiny compared to some of the other cities we'll be visiting, but it still felt ramshackle and exciting to us. Many vendors selling various items (clothes, shoes, leather goods, sunglasses, drums, tajine dishes, etc). Very few of the vendors were pushy, which was surprising. Many cafes that seemingly only served coffee and tea and served a strictly male clientele. The people themselves were dressed eclectically, some in traditional Moroccan garb (jellabas and pointy leather shoes), some dressed like Westerners, some in a combination of both. We relaxed at the hotel with our first of many pots of mint tea, scoured the medina for a suitable dining establishment, settled on the Cannebiere and enjoyed a delicious tajine with potatoes, carrots, olives, spiced meatballs and egg. The waiter spoke decent English and taught us some Moroccan Arabic. I taught him the word "spectacular", which he found spectacular. Walked to the imposing Hassan II mosque to take some photos of the grounds at dusk, wandered into an insanely busy night street market and made our way in a roundabout fashion to Rick's Cafe of "Casablanca" fame (the Humphrey Bogart movie!). Super swanky. We each enjoyed a wine based cocktail which we nursed for as long as possible since we could not afford a second round. We finished the evening by walking to La Squala, an old fortress in the medina turned restaurant/performance space. Had a sampler of five Moroccan pastries and consumed more mint tea while listening to a Moroccan band consisting of a doumbek (goblet shaped drum played with hands), violin, a lute-like instrument and a singer. Such an excellent first day! I can't believe we're in Africa. Bizarre in the best way.

Holler (le mime)