The man who works at the desk is the sweetest guy, though. It pained us to check out, but we had to. To where, though. Elena had her heart set on the Central Hotel just by the Grand Mosque in the Medina. So we set out midmorning to snag a room before the checkout time on our current hotel. Since it was Wednesday, we didn't anticipate too much problem. We walked along, then I did something dumb. Rather than continue following the streets, I thought I saw the minaret of the Grand Mosque so I started leading us toward it. Bad strategy. It led us into the medina and once in a medina, minarets become harder to follow the closer you get to them. Anyway, we eventually worked our way to the mosque. Then we realized we had found the wrong mosque--we had found the Hassan II Grand Mosque which is the second largest in the world after Mecca. We soon recovered and found ourselves at the Central Hotel. Booked up. Completely.
Elena, for some reason, liked the area though, so we decided to check out the youth hostel which was just on the same square. The manager od the place seemed to regard us as suspeicious characters and had us come back in a bit. The rooms that met her paper criteria, had no windows. I thought they would be hot, but Elena was worried about her clausterphobic fears. So we decided to go back and maybe check out a hotel we had seen the day before, the Mon Reve. We had a bit of the problem--the guy didn't want to show us the room until afternoon. But we didn't want to wait. Oh well. We waited right next door at a sort of Cafe Yamine annex where we got a Salad Niçoise for 10 dh, a plate of fries for 5 dh and 2 drink for about 8 dh for a total of 35 dh. If the math doesn't seem to add up, it's because they have "plat de frites" and "friture á plat" or something. The first is 5 dh and is what we wanted. The second was 50 dh and not what we wanted. The guy asked us "fish? fish?" Elena said yes. I wanted to figure out what he was asking but Elena insisted he was trying to tell us the the salad has tuna. So when the wrong plate showed up, it wasn't a surpise. That's why I let him rip us off.
Anyway, we got our room, 23. I thought it would be cool to get 22 in Casablanca, but even 22 isn't exactly a winner. The rooms are OK, but not air conditioned. The windows open to a non-street area, but mosquitos come in.
We took a needed nap and went out to eat. There is a pizza place around the corner from our hotel, between La Bodega and Brasserie Bavaroise, that serves pizza cooked in wood-fired ovens. Elena wanted meat so she got chicken kebabs (grillade), and I got a the second most expensive pizza on the menu weighing it a 38 dh. It was supposed to have salami and stuff. But when our food arrived, I didn't get the pizza I thought I had ordered. Maybe she misunderstood me? I was curious to see what the bill would say. If the bill had my pizza, then they were trying to rip me off. If it had the vegetarian pizza, then she just misunderstood. Her tip depended on it. The bill came, I looked, and the 38 dh pizza was on there. So no tip for her. The difference in price of the pizzas was her tip. It goes to the owner, I guess. Too bad, because I liked the pizza and would have tipped her, but the place is as honest as the day is long.
With our stomachs satisfied, it was time for a drink at Rick's Cafe. Rick's Cafe is near the water in a three or our story building. It has a few Casablanca posters, but mostly tries to create a bar/restaurant like Rick's Cafe Americaine--very formal wait staff, clean, etc. Though, I do think that I would be shocked to find gambling going on there. We got there just as the sun was going down behind the medina. Next time we should leave a half hour later when the sun is already behind the buildings, oh well. So we got there and the guy at the door opened it for us. Then we asked for a table for 2. We got the best table (I am descended from Germans and would have taken it anyway). Unfortunately, it was not close to the ladies--there was only one other party in the place. We had gone all the way up to the top floor where there was a terrasse. Sitting on the terrasse, enjoying a (finally) cool ocean breeze, we ordered a 50 dh Budweiser and a 75 dh half bottle of wine. I can't remember the last time I paid €5 for a beer. Sheesh. But the waiter brought over lots of little beer snacks, nuts, little pate on puff pastries, raisins, etc. It sort of took the sting out of getting ripped off.
When we were almost done with our wine, we got a €4 chocolate mousse. (Actually Elena wants me to point out that "we" didn't order it--but that "she" ordered it and I ate half of it. Because she is always willing to share unlike me who gets mad when she drinks one of my expsensive beers even though she doesn't like beer.)
Here I am ready to eat it.
We snapped this shot with the self timer. Very nice, eh?
As we paid and left and descended through the floors, we saw that in the mean time, it had filled up. The even had music that we weren't aware of. They were apparently filming something that night as well--so said a sign at the reception. I think it was an anniversary since the opening of Rick's which itself was opened, I think, on the 60th anniversary of the release of the movie.
So we went back to our room where we tried to sleep. Not easy. The choice was between open window with cool air and mosquitos and closed window with dead air and no mosquitos. We chose mosquitos (an easy choice for me as they only bite Elena). At least it was quiet, but the sleep itself was pretty bad, unsatisfying, and tiring. Elena had me kill a mosquito who was quickly replaced. Elena will disagree strongly with me on this point, but it is good to stay in a mosquito infested room with Elena because there is something about her that makes them flock to her. I didn't get bitten at all. Elena got several bites.
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