"Here's lookin' at you kid..."

The next day, let’s see, that would be Tuesday, we wandered back out to Marrakech for our last tour of the market and wandering through the now familiar streets. We found some cool paintings that we really wanted, so we managed to bargain him down from 160 Dirhams for each to 60 D. each; he said we were bargaining like Berbers : ) After that we had to RUN to get out of the market to catch a cab to get to the train station to catch a train to Casablanca to meet our friend.


After a nice relaxing ride, we got into Casablanca, spent way too much on a pay phone that ate the money you popped in there faster than a child popping candy in their mouth on Halloween. Here is a picture of Leah looking way too happy and cute for how angry we were at the phone. She was talking to Renaud, figuring out where we could meet him, while I watched the phone and kept feeding money into it so she didn’t get cut off for a fourth time. Then we tried to find a cheap taxi. Not an easy thing to do in a country full of scam artists hungry for obvious tourists like ourselves. We knew it shouldn’t cost more than 15 D. where we were going, but the first guy said it shouldn’t cost less than 50, which we knew was bogus. We finally found the cheapest one we could for 25, only to discover after meeting our friend it should have cost no more than 7. Oh the lessons we learn. More to follow about this taxi experience, stay tuned.


We finally met up with our friend. Let me explain a bit who he is. He is this quiet man in his 50s or 60s who eats at our caf everyday. No one had any idea who he was or what he was doing there. Then one day before our trip, he turns to Leah and me and says, “so I hear you’re going to Morocco.” This started a whole conversation, turns out he was a teacher at a local high school, and didn’t feel like cooking for himself, so he came to our caf to eat. He was actually from Casablanca, was going at the same time as us, and invited us to spend a night at his house. It was SO funny to see him in his own element and get to know this random little man better. He knew Casablanca quite well, so he showed us around the town, pointing out the oddest things. For example, we’d be walking along the street and he’d stop us and say, “regard! Les Palmiers…!” (look! At the palm trees!) and then he’d launch into this whole discussion about how there were different types of palm trees and did we see the difference etc. We’d walk a little further and he would stop and say “Regard! Cette Maison…” (look at this house). Then he would talk about how much he loved this house and the whole history of it.


We dropped our stuff off at his house and collapsed on our beds for a minute before heading out to see the town. We went to the Mosque of Hussein II , the most modern mosque in Morocco I think, and the only one you can go inside (though it was too late for us to). Right on the east coast of the Atlantic, nestled in the beautiful backdrop of the setting sun, the mosque stood out against the vivid shades, where we took many pictures. And though Renaud said we took too many : ) , he kindly obliged by taking many pictures for Leah and I. Afterwards, we went to the mythical restaurant of the true Casablanca (one from when the Spanish settled there), followed by dessert at the true restaurant of the mythical Casablanca, aka Rick’s Café (from the movie.) There wasn’t even such as thing as Rick’s Café until I think 2001, since the movie was filmed long ago in Hollywood, but many tourists came to Casablanca looking for the Café, so finally a woman decided to create one. It’s now a very fancy restaurant, a favorite for the locals, and a place where the movie is always playing in the upstairs lounge. So we had our fancy desserts (mine was grilled pineapple with little pieces of biscuit and ice-cream). We took a few pictures, and then headed home.