My travels to Morocco proved to be much
smoother than I had anticipated. I slept through most of my flights
and woke up just in time for each meal. For some reason all of the
stewardesses assumed I was vegetarian and provided me with that meal
option (you know how much I enjoyed that). Immigration was also a
breeze and I was through in 10 minutes. At this point I should have
known that things were going too well.
I headed for the train station and
bought a ticket to Rabat as I am saving Casablanca for the end of my
journey. I got a window seat and everything was going great. Then we
started passing stations and I discovered what is awesome about
Moroccan trains.
1: The trains are so loud that you cannot hear the
station announcements
2: A number of stations have trains
sitting right in front of the station sign so you cant see where you
are
3: None of the trains are marked with
their destination
4: None of them are on time
5: I don't know French or Arabic.
(Okay, really this is my fault but I am going to blame the trains on
this one)
Items 1 and 2 caused me to reach the
end of the line which is in the middle of nowhere. Once I gathered
myself and back tracked a bit I found the correct station to make my
connection. Then items 3-5 kicked in and covered me in a bad stage of befuddlement. As trains pulled into the station, I had no idea
where they were going, and really neither did a lot of the other
passengers. I found many others running up to the train and asking
the current passengers for information on where it was going. I like
to think I am pretty good with this kind of thing but I failed hard
today.
After longer than id care to admit I
finally found a guy who spoke pretty good English. It turns out he
had lived in Boston and was working in a restaurant where he picked
up pretty decent English. My guardian seu chef informed me that I
needed to go to another station despite what my ticket said. After
setting me straight and getting me to the correct platform he shook
my hand and said 'Welcome to Morocco'.
I fumbled my way to Rabat and was
surprised with how nice everything was compared to the sights I had
been seeing from the train window. There are a lot of shanty towns
lining the rails. Its a pretty nice city all things considered and
had a very modern feel. It was also full of authentic Moroccan
restaurants.
Still needing a hotel I set out to find
my lodging for the night. This did not take long as many hotels line
the main street by the train station. I walked into the first one I
saw and they happened to have a vacancy! Not only that, it was only
100 dh a night (roughly a dousen dollars). Ill let the pictures do
the talking on this bad boy.
At least I have a nice view. Wifi, a
shower, or even toilet paper are another matter. I set my things in
my room and went to walk around the city a bit. I was super tired at
this point but needed to stay awake to beat the jet lag. The city had
a lot of what I expected to see when I was looking into Morocco as a
destination.
After my walk I found a small
restaurant and went to town on some tajine de kefta. I hadn’t eaten all day
so it was much needed.
All and all I am pretty exhausted and
probably going to pass out for 10-12 hours. We will see if I get
anything done tomorrow.
