Casablanca--Second Full Day

We woke up feeling far from refreshed. The long and short of it is that we woke up tired. We went to get some coffee and even then we were tired. But Elena always wants to push on. So we headed down to see the Arab League Park and the Sacred Heart Church. The park is nothing special. The courthouse and some government buildings are there. But pretty unexciting. A lot of pigeons and a demonstration of some sort (the signs, placards and banners were all in Arabic). The church was interesting. It is apparently no longer a church. The architecture is a mix of Christian and Muslim. It looks like a church but with all the geometric patterns adored by the Muslims. A very un-Christian following of the second commandment. Then when we got inside, no pews--a Coca Cola vendor instead. And the wings held an exhibit of Rembrandt reproductions. It was nice to see the high quality photographs of Rembrandt's works. But certainly a bit outside what I had originally expected.

Next we went to a place in Routard where Elena got a fried egg tagine. I was feeling pretty tired so we headed home. On the way home, we found a nice street with all kinds of nice shops and, more importantly an internet cafe. We took a nap, but Elena wasn't keen on staying in the room. So we went out to the internet cafe and spent 2 hours just surfing.

We had a not so nice siesta. It seemed like we had no choice but to just wait in Casablanca. And wait. And wait. For what? To eat again, I guess.

Then it was time to head to eat again. We wanted to eat at a an Italian place called Le Trica. They supposedly had big salads and wine. Sounds good to us. We couldn't find it though. We're not sure if it's gone or what because the locations of the icons on the ROutard map in that area are all off a bit (including the Cup's Café and East-West Hotel). I wanted to eat at another slightly more expensive looking Italian place with no other customers and Elena wanted to eat a packed cafe. So we went to the packed cafe--the Cup's Café. I wasn't happy because they didn't have beer or wine and they didn't have my first choice on the menu. So instead of cheese lasagna (45 dh), I had the spaghetti Bolognaise (38 dh). Then we found out why it was so crowded. They had a TV and Germany was about to play Portugal in the Euro 2008 soccer tournament or something. So we watched a bit of soccer including 2 German scores--cheered by half the room. I spent the first 10 minutes thinking that the red team was the Germans and the White team was the Portuguese.

I wasn't happy. Neither was Elena. We planned to get some ice cream at the Venetzia ice creamery. But we ultimately had to return to our grungy hotel in a Casablanca downtown that is dirty, run down, old, and smelly. Then I remembered that one of the cities people often visit is Essaouira. I never brought it up because I didn't have any idea how to say it, but I looked it up in the guide. According to the guide, there are no vehicles allowed in the medina--i.e. no pollution. I handed the book to Elena and told her to read. She read and started to look happier and refreshed. "OK! I want to go here!" she said with a smile. OK. We paid about 100 dh and headed through a veritable Little Italy for ice cream. Along the way we found the Casablanca twin towers.

The ice cream shop is in a part of Casablanca that doesn't look a thing like where our hotel was. You could say our hotel is in Harlem and the ice cream shop is on Park Avenue. The people are completely different. You would have a hard time placing them in the Morocco we've visited. The head scarfs almost completely gone--replaced by sexy girls in tight sexy jeans and shirts from Zara and all the big name stores. Elena couldn't constrain herself and got 2 balls--chocolate and strawberry. I got one ball of créme brûlée (but it was a big ball. Excellent! Delicious. We were high on ice cream and the notion that the next day we would go to a new city with hopefully more to offer.

A stop at the internet cafe to try to check schedules was needed. The train was convenient but 380 dh for a ticket. Another site showed 3 buses taking 6 hours to get there--one at 7am and the other two at 5pm--all costing about 110 dh. I didn't feel up to waking up that early and I didn't want to show up in a city on Friday night with no reservations at 11pm at night. As far as where we would be tomorrow, we don't make plans that far ahead. But all was not lost, there is another bus station that has the buses used by the locals. The buses aren't as good or comfortable, but they are cheaper and run about every hour to Essaouira. So we went to bed. As far as where we would be tomorrow, we don't make plans that far ahead. We had the same choices again on the window. We let the mosquitos in to get the cool air. We slept horribly. One more night like this, and it will be the end of a beautiful friendship.