casablanca, morocco

wow what an experience. i really wish i could have blogged every day we were there because so much cool stuff happened.

ok so thursday morning we took a bus from salamanca to madrid, then flew to casablanca and arrived at about 4pm their time. it was really weird because even though morocco is basically right under spain, they are 2 hours behind spain, so it got dark super early there. so we went into the airport and one of the first things we saw was a cat just walking around inside. i think that's when we all knew it was going to be a super different experience. btw lizzy if youre reading this..so many times while we were there i wished you were there too because there were sooooooooooooo many cats. you would have gone crazy :)

so we went outside to find a taxi to get us into the city, and found one for 300 DH, which is about $40, and split 5 ways is about $8 each person..and the ride there was probably around 45 minutes, so basically a super cheap cab ride. and this ride was when we first experienced the driving in morocco. its crazy. there are roads and highways just like in the US, but no one really pays attention to the lanes. alot of people just drive in the middle of 2 lanes, right down the line, and if you want to pass someone you just go around them, not paying any attention if there's anyone in the lane you're about to pull in to. it also seems like they park wherever they want also. there were parked cars lining the streets, but there were also some just parking up on the curb or the sidewalk or anywhere else a car would fit. and also there were people just crossing the streets whenever they wanted. there are no walk/don't walk signs, so you just kind of go whenever it seems reasonable. it was kind of madness.

so we experienced all of this on the ride to the hostel, and right before we got there we had to drive across oncoming traffic, and it was definitely a little scary because the driver stuck the car into the traffic and the cars were just driving around him. it definitely seemed like the front of the car was gonna get clipped. so once there was a chance to cross he did, and we went up this hill that looked super sketchy, and it was pretty scary for a few seconds because it looked so sketchy. but once we got to the hostel it seemed fine lol. there were alot of men just sitting around and staring at us, and a few of them said things to us, but thats it. thats what basically happened the whole time we were there. alot of people, mostly men, staring at us and some of them saying things, like one time a guy passed us and said "hey baby" to me, but thats about it. no one came up and touched us or anything like i was kind of expecting. it was definitely alot less creepy than i thought it would be lol.

our hostel was nice. we got pretty lucky, especially for the price we paid. and the guy at the front desk was awesome. he was super weird, and we had a good time with him. 4 of the 5 of us ended up buying bongos, and ann bought 2, so each of us had bongos to play, and we played them a couple times in the lounge area of the hostel, and of course our friend came and danced and played a little with us also haha. it was really great. it also seemed fairly clean, as clean as morocco gets i guess, but on the second night rachel and ann (i shared a room with them) passed out pretty quickly, so i was awake for a few minutes, and i saw a bug crawl across my pillow. i thought/hoped it was just a spider, but i lifted up my sheets and found 3 more in the crease of the matress! there was an adult and 2 babies. it was disgusting. so i turned on the light and killed them, and there was an extra bed in the room so i moved to that one. rachel and ann were still kind of half asleep so they just fell right back to sleep, but i layed there for a few minutes pretty paranoid that there were bugs in that bed too, and when i saw one i knew i couldn't sleep there. i lifted up the sheets and there were 3 more under the sheet. so i thought about just sleeping in ann's bed with her, but then assumed there were also bugs in her bed lol so i slept on the floor. man was that a shitty night! we had like 6 or 7 clean towels in the room, so i made a little bed on the floor with them lol, but it was an effing hard floor, so needless to say i didn't sleep much. but! the next day i told our front desk guy and he just handed us a key to a different room and that was that. and there were no bugs in that room!! but after that experience and the fact that ann had bed bugs in her house here in salamanca, i think i'll always be a little paranoid when i'm sleeping in a different bed that there are bugs in it. i just got chills just thinking about it!

ok so the first night we went to this restaurant by the hostel recommended by our friend, and it was really good food and a super cool place, but it ended up being pretty expensive. our bill said 618.00, which was really funny, but it ended up being about $12ish each person. there were also a few cats in there, which was also pretty funny. they just let the cats roam wherever they want. then it was also recommended to us that we go to this place to get drinks and such, and it also ended up being around $12 each person, just for some wine and a couple beers. ann and i ordered 2 beers, and they were $12 each!! but..we got a taste of casablancan beer, so i do not regret it. there was also a little band there playing traditional music, and it was super cool.

the next day we spent basically just exploring and buying things. the little markets/shops along the streets were really cool, and i think all of us wanted to buy everything we saw. everything was just so pretty and for the most part really cheap. and the coolest thing was the bargaining. everywhere we went there were no price tags. you have to ask how much it costs, and then go down some on the price and go back and forth with them until they agree with a price you give them. it was really cool, but i would not want to do that all the time. 3 days of that was plenty! but it was usually really easy to get the price down really far. for example, i bought bongos for less than $4 and this gorgeous box, which is a pretty good size, for about the same price. i also bought a poof, which is like a foot rest, or i guess you can just use it as a seat too, but it collapses and you have to fill it with something for it to stand up. it super pretty too. they had them everywhere. also that day we were walking through the market and it was time for prayer, and hundreds of men lined this one little street to pray. they all took off their shoes and kneeled on their mats (definitely not what their actually called) and were silent, listening to someone speaking over a speaker from the mosque nearby. they left a small path for people to walk through, and we walked through them. it was probably my favorite part of the trip. it was pretty amazing to be in the middle of that, especially since there were hundreds of them. something else which was cool was most of the women were covered..i forget what it's called when your head is wrapped..but most of them wore those. and you see them sometimes in the US, but it was really cool just to be in a country where most of the women are dressed like that.

the next day we went to the Mosque Hassan II. it is the 3rd largest mosque in the world, with the tallest minaret in the world at 200m tall. it. was. gorgeous. it was right on the Atlantic, and the waves that day were incredibly huge, and it was just a beautiful site. omg it was huuuuuuuuge. we took a tour of the inside of it, and they told us that 25,000 worshipers can fit inside, while 80,000 can fit outside, and during Ramadan it is filled. now that would be an incredible site to see. after the mosque we walked to mcdonald's for lunch (in the pouring rain) and had lunch for super cheap! why can't mcdonald's be that cheap here in spain?? afterward we had a tour of the city planned, and they were to pick us up at our hostel. so we walked back (still in the pouring rain) and the guy was already there, waiting for us in his white unmarked van lol. so we piled in, and started the weird adventure that was to be the next few hours. our guy was another weirdo, asking us weird questions and making weird comments. we started off by driving around a bit, and it was really cool seeing some more of the city, most of it was pretty poor. we stopped along side the ocean twice. once was a gorgeous view of the mosque, with the ocean in the foreground, and oh my goodness the waves were incredible. it was stormy and raining, and they were just gigantic. it was quite a view with the mosque in the background. then we stopped again close to this island. it was really small, but packed with super run down houses on it. he told us that that's where women used to go to give birth, but now just really poor people live on it. it was very cool to see that. after that we just drove around for a while, stopping a few times just to get out and walk around and such, and then he took us to where he said was the jewish area where he lived, and we went into this shop.

at first it was really cool because the room we went into was covered with rugs hanging on the walls, and the guy talking to us gave us some tea (we had so much free tea in morocco!) and showed us so many different beautiful rugs. but then he told us to pick which ones we liked, and we each picked 2 or 3, and then 5 men came in with pads of paper and the guy told us that we were going to bargain with them on the prices. now yes, if we had the money to buy gorgeous moroccan rugs, we would, but we really don't. so my guy took me into a different room with the 3 rugs i picked and said that he was going to make an offer. i saw him writing 850, and i thought he was going to write durhams, which is the currency of morocco, but he wrote euros! like wtf. thats well over $1000. so i just stared at him and he told me to make my best offer! oh lord. so all i am willing to pay / all the money that i really have to spend on a freakin moroccan rug is like 30 bucks, so i just wrote that down. he was not happy haha. and omg these men were pushy. men selling things in morocco were SO PUSHY. you basically either had to buy something or get the hell out of there haha. so after bringing the price down to 200 euros, i finally said i was going to talk to my friends, and saw that ann and rachel were having the same problems, and we just walked out. but omg these men would not leave us alone. they told us that we could go get our credit cards in our hotels and make payments. wtf. they definitely thought that we had a shit ton of money because we were from the US. but even though at the time i was pissed off and just wanted to leave, i'm super glad now that we had that experience. so fiiiiiiiiiinally we left, and our guy took us to this "pharmacy", where a guy showed us all these spices and teas and oils and such. then he asked us what else we wanted to do, and we just wanted to go back to the hostel at that point. it was a super weird "tour", but in reality mainly our guy helping out his friends selling things.

so we had dinner at another restaurant nearby, and decided that it was my birthday haha. last week ann and i went out and met a few guys and talked to them for a while, and they made up new names for us because our names aren't very spanish, and they named me alicia, which i really like. so we told our waiter that it was alicia's birthday haha, and they brought out this cake thing and sang to me and i blew out the candle and everything. it was pretty great. after that we had a drum circle in the lounge area, and met this guy from australia who sat with us for a while. he was super cute! but kinda weird, but super cute, so it was ok. then we had our evening chat in our room and went to bed (this was the night after my bed bug night so i slept like a champ) and the next morning we had a cab come get us and take us back to the airport. our tour guy from the day before actually called this guy to take us, and we're pretty sure it was just one of his friends again. australian guy, aaron, needed to get to the airport also, so he just came with us. so our "cab" was this white car with no markings on it that suggested it was a cab haha. and there were 6 of us, so with no questions asked we all piled in this car..4 crammed in the back and ann in the front with rachel sitting on her lap. it was great. we arrived at the airport, paid 50 DH each with is like 6 bucks..awesome price..and were on our way.

it was such a cool experience and i am so glad we went. so different than anything i've ever seen. yay!

haley