A final coffee and tea was required before we excused ourselves from Morocco. At a cafe down the street Tim attempted to order a coffee but received a cup full of steamed milk. Fearing confrontation he sipped on his hot beverage until the waitress eventually returned. Casually pointing out the miscue the server left slightly embarrassed then returned with a something that resembled coffee. It was fitting that our last transaction was complete with language barrier issues.
As we left I spotted the soccer ball in the back of the car. We had parked near the medina gate and there was a group of children near by so we opened the window and handed them the ball. A young boy went to grab it but then his older sister pushed him to the side and took the ball. They thanked us and we were on our way.
We left Casablanca 4 ours before our plane departed. As we pulled onto the main street we were presented with the traffic jam to end all traffic jams.
This ended up sucking up a huge amount of the time we had allotted. Tim was not the calmest I have ever seen him and was yelling at the other cars. I was still fairly confident we would make it with time to spare.
Sure enough we finally poked our way through the congestion and were on our way to the airport with just enough time to return the car. This turned out to be a confusing process as the rental agent blamed Tim for loosing the papers he was never given. Even without the papers we were able to return the car fairly quickly.
The lines to check in were fairly short and we got our travel documents in no time. I had 3 flights and 27 hours of travel. Tim had 4 with 30 hours of travel.
A third of these hours were attributed to an 11 hour layover we both were to have in Paris. Not wanting to spend the night in the airport Tim attempted to arrange plans with his friend Kealan who currently resides in the city of love. The plan was to meet Kealan at 10 pm at his workplace. Being that we were to land at 8:30 and had no way of contacting him once we landed we had to move quickly. The flight was pretty smooth and we didn't have a lot of issues other than Tim's small bladder.
After landing we quickly made it through customs and found our way to the metro. We figured out the correct train and ticket combination but when we attempted to make our purchase we were denied. Turns out that these ticket machines only accept European credit cards or coins so our paper Euros were worthless.
A small voice emerged from behind us and a young Asian woman took the helm and purchased the tickets for us. We handed her mother our paper Euros to compensate. As we walked away I noticed they were speaking Japanese. This turns out to be the only time my Japanese has become useful outside of the country of Japan. They not only told us which gate to go to but where to get off and how to take the metro to our desired location.
We thanked them and made our way to the next train connection. It is about this time that Tim discovered he has had lost his train ticket. A little frazzled I drag him through turnstiles as he piggy backs on my ticket until we arrive at our destination; at 10:10 pm.
Kealan's bar is right at the metro exit and we inquire to the bouncer of his whereabouts. He nods and waves us in. Tim then asks server at the bar if she knows where he is but it is only her second day and she had never heard of him. We turn around a little discouraged only to find Kealan walking out the door to leave work for the day. We had achieved the improbable as Tim and Kealan jumped up and down in an awkward man embrace.
We swiftly walked back to Kealan's place and dropped off our luggage. Along the way caught a gimps of the Eiffel Tower.
With our things safely in Kealan's apartment it was time to hit the town.
We got an hour or so of sleep before our 4 am cab was waiting outside. He got us to the airport in around 30 minutes. With train rides, 3 rounds of drinks, and a cab back our night in Paris was achieved with only 90 Euros between the two of us. The airport was still closed when we arrived so we got to sleep on the floor.
Paris was where our paths split. Our goodbye and was sealed with an awkward handshake. Bon voyage.
