Today was our second day in Casablanca, Morocco.
We had a later start this morning so everyone could get a little bit extra sleep before we set out. My friends and I left the ship around noon (but 11am Moroccan time!) and caught the shuttle to take us out of the port since it's over a 20 minute walk! Once we got off the shuttle and out of the port, we set out to find this place called the "Seaman's Center" which we heard was close to the port gate and has good burgers and fries, so we wanted to go there for lunch. We wandered around the city for a little over an hour before we finally found the place. At the front of the restaurant, there was a big gate and a sign that said it was a "private club" so we were confused, but a man came to the gate and asked us if we were Seamen, which we didn't really know what that was, so we showed him our SAS ID cards, and he let us in. The big sign said it was some sort of US Seaman's Center.. so I think we had to show him our ID's so he could see that we were American and from a ship.. I don't really know though.
That same man led us in, and this place was so cool. It was themed like the Casablanca Movie (I was told, since I haven't seen it yet!) and there was an inside, outside, and second floor, all with free WiFi, which I wish I would have know before going there! We sat outside under an umbrella and right in front of a big waterfall, it was really pretty. Everyone there was so nice and spoke fairly good English. It was nice to have a good burger and fries finally!! Our waitress when she first gave us our menu's looked at me, smiled, and touched my arm and told me I had very nice skin, over and over again. haha.
We spent awhile at that place and then we were headed back into the center of town to walk around the Bazaar again. We did a little shopping and starting talking to this one Moroccan man who had met some of the people off our ship the day before. He had 'MV EXPLORER' written on a piece of paper that he pulled out of his pocket. Then he asked us if he could take us to his shop.. since there were five of us, we said sure and followed him. We got to his shop, which was a clothing store and we all didn't really want to buy clothes, but we thought we'd be nice and look around. But as soon as we got in there, he pulled out six chairs and told us all to sit.. and then he just talked to us for a little bit about Morocco. He also touched my arm and told me I had beautiful skin and that I could be his sister.. haha.. he was very excited I looked Moroccan and gave me a big hug and those kiss things that French people do.. he just kept smiling and telling me how much I looked like I could be his sister. After this he asked us if we wanted some mint tea (mint tea and hospitality are huuge in Morocco).. we declined, but he insited and that his mother would make it for us.. so he sent his cousin and got us a pot of tea and six cups! The tea was actually very good even though I don't like mint very much. We sat there and drank the tea while he talked more about Morocco and how they love Americans and how Moroccans are very hospitable, which we could see. He told us how his cousin lives in America.. in COLUMBUS, OHIO to be exact.. and I couldn't believe it.. I told him that's where I'm from.. and he hugged and kissed me again, and I think that made him like me even more than he already did! He said his cousin has been there for 12 years and is studing Biology at... OSU!!!!!! How weird is it to run into a random Moroccan who has a family member in my same city!?! It was crazy!! He gave me his cousin's name and I had him write it down so I could try to find him on the internet and tell him that I met his cousin in Morocco! After this, he taught us some words in Arabic and wrote them down for us.. and he also wrote all of our names in Arabic for us, which was really neat! We all stayed for awhile and I bought a shirt for pretty cheap since he liked me.. and then he walked us back and showed us all the little ships where they make the shirts, dresses, leatherware and all that stuff.. it was pretty cool! He was very nice and told us to come back tomorrow for tea and we don't have to buy anything! haha
Once he walked us out, we all were tired and out of money, so we headed back to the ship. We missed the shuttle and the next one wasn't for over an hour, so we just walked back. It took waaaay more then 20 minutes, but I don't think we walked exactly the right way.. but still, it took a really long time! On our walk back to the boat we saw some crew from another ship and they wanted a picture with us, Americans.. which was funny. We finally made it back to the ship after turning the wrong way and having some people stop and tell us we were going the wrong way and then the police offered to take us back, but we said no even though they were nice.. but you never know how corrupt they are, especially after hearing stories about the ones in Turkey and even some in Egypt who ended up getting fired after we left.
So.. that was the sum of my day today.. and now I have to find the 2 girls I may be going to Marrakech with tomorrow and figure out if and when we're going and all those cool details...
I may not be able to write tomorrow.. so if I don't I definately will on Wednesday!
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