asabackhouse

 

1. Stay at a hotel (more like a hostel if you compare it to European standard) in ”Medina” which means old down, is a scary experience. The first night, we arrived about 12 by night, this guy starts to talk to us and he tells us that he is going to help us to find some food since there was some religious holiday were they slaughter sheep and the restaurants were closed because of that. Nice we think, but a bit strange, who does that in Europe?! He takes us around the filthy and narrow streets of Medina and he stops a couple of times to ask us if a hot dog will do or if we want something else, after a while we surrender our hope of some fancy food and realize that “food on the wall” (as they say in the Neatherlands) is the only food we’ll be able to get. We get these strange hot dogs and some strange minced meat (which I refused to eat) thinking that we all probably die the day after of food poisoning, but it was actually alright.  After that he took us back to our hotel, and it was a really nice gesture of him to take us around. As he said: “I’m the king here, with me no one will touch you” , which felt quite good thinking of all the scary men staring at us…that leads us to point two on the list:
2. The very same little trip into the forgotten streets of Casablanca there were some really nice men shouting at us: “You’re a not welcome here!” Thank you, you lit up my day!!
3. Every man we met wanted to shake hands with us, not what I prefer to do in the dirtiest country I’ve ever been to. Svineflue and everything..
4. We also thought that it was strange that the “guide” Sahid did not charge us for his favors..Might be a good thing though..
5. I never felt so insecure and so unwelcomed at any place at any time in my life.
6. The security check at the airport was ridiculous, we had to show our passports like 5 times and then we even had to fill in some form..Do I look like a terrorist?!
7. At the place where we ate the first night they didn’t sell anything at all that you could drink.
8. At the very same place a man finished my leftovers.
9. We could always go 5 people in a Mercedes taxi but never more than 3 in “Petit taxi”, which were like Renault Clio or similar in size, since it was against the law..
10. We saw at least one man taking a dump in the street… disgusting!
11. We could here the awful sound of the prayers from the mosk at all times, like 5 o’clock in the morning. I prefer to wake up from my alarm clock, please.
12. We saw two dead cats and a lot slum areas.
13. There are only 4 (FOUR) museums in the whole country as it is “a Christian thing”!
14. There were only men in the street by night: what are all the women doing?
15. The second day in Casablanca we went to the mosk, and after that we wanted to find a tourist information place that was open, though it seemed like mission impossible! We asked several people for the way and all of them were very eager to show us the way by walking with us…strange. Finally we meet this guy who said he could show us the way, and we were like: “Is he really going to walk with us all the way there?” but it seemed as if he nothing better to do. So he takes us to the market place and we have a look around, after that we go to McDonald’s and we buy him dinner as a “thank you”, but he says he can show us some other places… We continue on to some park and after that we take a taxi to some other market place. Looking around there for a while we are asked if we want to have some tea and sure why not we think. The strange thing is though that this man we never met before invites us for tea at his aunt’s place: would you do that? I wouldn’t! So we go there at least and have some tea, and after that his friend comes over by car and he drives us around the city. Since he had a normal car it was quite crammed with 5 people in the back seat! We go to a museum that’s closed, then the supermarket and then back to our hotel and the whole trip takes us like 5 hours. So this random man we never met spends 5 hours on strangers, for no reason at all? Not really true, of course we expected it to cost money but we did not expect a lovely argument at the end because he thought we paid too little! I still consider Moroccan people the strangest in the world!
16. We went by train to Marrakech and they didn’t even bother to close the doors of it during the whole trip.
17. Wanted to use the safety belt in taxi: there are none! The taxi driver laughed at us when asking.
18. There were beggars all over the place, a bit disturbing being asked for money 25 times a day.
19. We were not let in the mosk either in Casablanca or in Marrakech: in Marrakech the man in the doorway was incredibly rude.
20. We all know you can’t buy alcohol after 10 in Spain and that we think is silly but compare it to 8.
21. Oh yeah, and you can’t buy wine or beer with your food in the restaurants!!
22. There were a lot of animals in the “Souka”, the big market place in Marrakech, some nicer than others. I preferred the horses because they kept there distance even though there was not a lot joy watching them since they were so skinny they looked sick.
23. The monkeys were nice looking at but I didn’t like when the vendors came up close to you like trying to put them on your shoulder or on your arm. Once one of the evil creatures started to pull my hair!! I did not appreciate that!
24. But those animals were alright if you compare them to the RATTLE SNAKES! I hate snakes and everyone who knows me well, knows how bad my phobia is! Therefore I was not at all impressed by the lingering animals crawling around on the ground way to close to me, even though I found myself a bit fascinated by the whole thing, but they were incredibly scary. Once one of the vendors approached me with one of the snakes in his hand and as a natural reaction I just screamed and ran! These horrible little animals also gave plenty of nightmares this night: thanks for that!
25. They really tried to sell everything at the market: there were even men with silly outfitsand hats trying to sell pictures of them.
26. All people tried to rip you off at all times. Giving you prices way too high or lying of quality or giving you a price and then changing it. Especially taxi drivers.
27. We asked the man of the reception of our “hotel” in Marrakech if he could tell us where to find a nice restaurant, and he told us he could take us there and that sounded alright for us. Though after going in he went with us and ordered food, and we didn’t think very much of that until he ran of and left us with the bill! Sneaky people!!
28. The beds were very strange and only like 50 cm wide, which is nothing, and they had different length!
29. We asked for supermarkets in Marrakech where we lived and the first time they took us to a hole in the wall where you could ask for things. The second time they said it was like a 30-minutes walk that in reality was more or less an hour walk. They don’t seem to have real big supermarkets and just ONE in such a touristic area: very strange!
30. Today we had no hot water in the shower, that you can live with if it’s just once, but when the water stops running it’s worse, especially when you have shampoo in your hair!
31. The arabic keybord is so strange that you can't even imagine!

 

Good things then:

1. Nice breakfast.
2. The cous-cous was the best I ever had and very cheap too.
3. Cheap stuff at the market place.
4. Better weather than Sevilla at the moment.
5. Pink toilet paper: maybe a bit more delightful!
6. No bad stomach during the whole stay: that’s fantastic!
7. And in Morocco you can get served at the table at McDonald’s: that has never ever happened in Sweden at least!!
8. The friendly people, most of the time!
9. First class tickets on the train only 14 euro for a 3,5 hour journey.
10. Relaxed atmosphere at some times at least! Our taxi driver stopped on the way to the airport to get some coffee!

View from the first hotel.

View of the desert on the train.

 

The train station in Marrakech was at least something beautiful!

What you wouldn't do to open a bottle of wine!!

Some work I must say!!:)

 

Moroccan food. All of us but Michael.

 

Bananas are good for you!!