Friday morning was another early morning, we were all up at 5:30am. Air Maroc told us to be ready for shuttles to take us back to the airport at 6am…We shuffled down to the lobby still half asleep. The crowds of Marocs had beaten us down there. While we waited; Barry was super gracious and brought me a coffee. Boy, did I need that caffeine!
Back at JFK, we got boarding tickets, and waited another 2-3 hours at the terminal. I believe our flight ended up leaving around 9am…Jon & Barry were both stretching and trying to stay active before the flight, but I just wanted to go back to sleep.
Finally, we got on the plane, and got settled in our seats. Barry’s seat mate was a nice skinny lady, so I was happy that he’d not be bothered during the flight. I took two naps on the 7 hour flight. We had two meals. Neither of which was very good…but it was edible. The first was continental fare, and the second was rice & tofu & veggies.
We arrived in Casa and went through customs without a problem. But, then we were in the terminal and in dire need of a phone. They had some automatic telephones, but none would take our credit cards. Finally, a nice young guy allowed us to talk to Aicha’s brother Mohammed using his cell phone. We tipped the guy, and soon enough, another dude shows up and guides us to the train terminal.
We bought some tickets to get to downtown Casa, and the guy who guided us to the train terminal wanted some money.
Sooo, we gave him some-probably too much-but we were pretty new at this whole system! (I was starting to see a pattern, and we were learning pretty quickly!). In Turkey, only special “certified” people can legally collect money for guiding services…but in Morocco, anything goes!
The next train was scheduled to come in around 20 minutes, so we sat in the terminal and ate some trail mix. We were all quite hungry. Finally, the train came and we boarded. The ride to town took 45 minutes.
In Casa, a large mob of people greeted us at the terminal. There were taxi drivers and hotel reps offering rides. It was insane. We had met a couple on the train, and they did not have a hotel…so when Mohommed finally showed up we offered for them to come with us, but they decided to go their own way. I kinda wondered what they were going to do…it was like sheep in a wolves den!
I think Mohammed was not expecting three of us, because he was just chatting with Barry. He eventually figured out we were all together. We got in his brother in law’s car and made our way to his house. They were kind enough to drive us past the large Mosque in Casa. It was really pretty at night…and Jon got a fabulous shot of it with his fancy wide angle lense and timed exposure…you’ll have to check out his pictures on his blog to see it!
Next up, Mohammed brought us to his house. His Mom had made us a traditional couscous dish, and hareira soup. It was just delish! The inside of their home is really pretty, especially compared to the outside (which looks like a bario). The family was wonderful, and they politely watched us scarf as much of the food as we could…they didn’t speak much English, but Mohammed translated. And, we tried a bit of French but our French was just aweful.
Now, it was getting really late (around 10:30pm) and Mohammed set us up at Hotel Ibis on the outskirts of town. It is a European style hotel, clean and simple. We were all totally tired, and we collapsed in our rooms.
I was excited to be moving along to Marrakech!