Day one in Casa

Not great pic but from my bedroom window
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Oh my gosh – where do I begin??? There is so much to take in, see, smell, taste and touch.  All senses are working in overdrive.  My nose is going crazy…. Some good smells, some not so good.  I met the best people today!! Everyone has been so helpful and truly kind.  In my first taxi of the day, the car stalled, come to find out he ran out of gas.  So he asked a different taxi driver to go get him some. Some other taxi driver came back in about 10 minutes with gas, he helped push the car, we popped the clutch and off we went.  My driver told me in broken Arabic, some French and hand gestures that everyone is the same and if someone needs something, someone else will help him/her get it.  It was a lovely moment.  Can you imagine a NY taxi driver asking another one to go get him some gas while the passenger waits patiently?

Mosque of Hassan II
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He dropped me off at the Mosque of Hassan II, which was amazing.  It is the tallest religious structure in the world and is said to have cost more than 800 million….. WOW. It is right on the water and really quite stunning.  It’s hard to even take in how tall it is from standing at the bottom.  I was able to hear the call for prayer– which is a beautiful sound.  Then I went to the Quartier Habbous – the “authentic” shopping area.  Not so touristy – actually I think I was the only tourist while I was there.  I bought some baby shoes for Owen (Mia’s little boy) and two beautiful plates for Steve and I to dine and pretend we are Moroccan royalty.  At the market where I bought the plates, the men were so kind and really wanted to talk.  They asked if I had had any mint tea while I’d been in Casa, I said no and they had some sent from the Café next door.  5 men in the middle of a market shared their mint tea with me.  Two men spoke very good English so they translated for the other men and then they translated for me.  One man spoke Spanish so it was a fabulous mixture of sign and languages. They wanted to know if I was Muslim and Moroccan as the told me my skin color makes me Moroccan.  They told me that life is about balance and being kind to each other.  Not to rush and to have an easy life. I’m paraphrasing of course because we talked about this for over 2 hours – they also said that if I liked Casablanca wait till Marrakech because life is much better there.  So I’m looking forward to seeing Marrakech.

Out of Gas
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Then it was time for lunch so they insisted on taking me to lunch.  What a different experience that was…. I saw a camel head strung up with lettuce hanging out of his mouth (sorry Maria) and then all the meat from the camel cut up on the counter, then a lamb head and all the meat from the lamb – pretty much all kinds of dead animals – people chose what kind of meat, pay for it, take it to a restaurant – they cook it and bring it to you with bread, tomatoes, onions and olives.  And of course mint tea.  I dined on bread and mint tea.  I’m hoping for a better dinner.  We’ll see.  Or I will loose 10 lbs and that wouldn’t be that bad either….

Market
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It was a wonderful day – tomorrow I will take the train for about 3 hours to Marrakech and hope for good internet service there as well.

Ciao