We had only planned on being in Casablanca for a short while, partially because of time constraints but also because of fear. Casablanca is the 5th largest city in Africa. Nairobi and Guayaquil are huge, and the traffic is horrendous and the risk of being pickpocketed or worse is larger. I didn't want to risk to many opportunities with my kids in tow. The area that we were in was absolutely safe and a little ritzy. We got to visit the largest Mosque in the world. That was really cool. It was neat to have Seth teach my kids how to have respect for other peoples' holy spaces. He explained to us that pictures of people or things are considered idolatry, which explains the beautiful, patterned mosaics that decorate all the buildings. I preferred this building over the elaborate cathedrals. Did you know that the roof of the giant mosque was also designed to be opened? The kids practiced the Arabic phrases for thank you and hello all during our tour. It was cute. After the striking Mosque, we loaded the van and checked out of the Airbnb. Then we found a public parking spot at the edge of a little fort/old wall. We explored that for a minute and then walked to have lunch at Rick's Cafe. It is a recreation of the movie set from the classic 'Casablanca'. It was also some of the best steak we'd had from the whole trip. It was a fun experience and yes, it was very touristy. Ada had a fish with its head attached. You could tell it weirded her out a little and it tasted really fishy, but she wanted to be a gracious traveler and made an attempt to eat as much as she could reasonably stomach.
Next, we headed to Marrakech. It was very glamorous outside the old walls, and very not inside the old walls. We found that the streets were very narrow, and people pegged us as tourists at a glance. We pulled off to the side at a wide part of the street where the Airbnb host had told us to come. Two overly helpful men tried to get us to follow them somewhere random. Seth was able to find a kind of parking complex where we could pay about $10 a night while we were there. I'm not sure which was more stressful to Jer, driving the tiny streets in Gibraltar or the tiny streets in old town Marrakech. The helpful men helped us "stop" traffic long enough to get into the parking area and help us not scratch the van sides on the way in. Lots of motor bikes didn't like us much and one even took time to kick the van on his way by. The helpful men also found a handcart for all our luggage and helped our host escort us to our place. They were tipped after saying, "No, no, we just want to help...." and then saying, "Nope, you have to pay us." I've seen that before, but it was new for the kids. The place we stayed was elaborate. It was 5 rooms, 6 bathrooms, three sitting rooms and the roof rolled back to give air to the courtyard. It was such a beautiful place to end our exploring with. It would not come up on GPS, but we memorized the path in and out of the area. Jer called it Nocturn Alley. It did give the creepy vibes. We had half good interactions and half anxious ones in these streets. One little boy saw our kids and kicked a soccer ball to us. The kids then took 10 minutes to kick it back and forth before we walked on. One of the boys recognized us the next day and brought his friends to have arm wrestling matches with the kids. I loved watching them laugh and play with this big-hearted boy. Once, we had a group of younger teenage boys change their course to follow us down the alley.... so, Uncle Seth and I stepped behind the kids and grouped everyone up. Several people called Seth Ali Babba. They also said that he had a Moroccan face (he has a nice beard). They were all very thrilled the minute that Seth started in with Arabic.
Squatty potty. (Some places did have sitting toilets for visitors, but more were like this. Little Seth was disappointed every time he got a sitting toilet instead of this.)
No comments:
Post a Comment