Day 17-December 25, 2013: Goats in Trees and Snakes if you Please

Today we drove to our last town on the tour, Marrakesh. A few days ago, it was decided that we would draw names for a Secret Santa gift exchange. So at our 1st coffee stop, we held our gift exchange. People came up with great gifts for each other. I received a scarf and Amanda got a small tagine with cutouts to put a candle in.
Our next stop was a surprise to all of us; an Argon tree full of goats! They climb up the branches and just stand there. They don't move. Someone called it a Christmas tree with live goat ornaments. Apparently the goats like to eat the Argon nuts, but that is not what was happening here. We had to pay the owner of the goats to take a photo, and bonus: hold a baby goat. A sight I will never forget. So unusual, to say the least.
When we got to Marrakesh we saw a royal cemetery and a palace built in the late 19th century for the favorite wife of a prime minister of the king. We then went through the medina, through the souks, and onto the square, the most famous square in Africa. There you will find food vendors, monkey trainers, snake charmers, musicians, dancers, acrobats, magicians, goods sellers, henna artists...
They are there all day, but larger crowds gather at sunset. Don't dare try to take a photo or video without paying for the privilege. They will see you and demand payment. Keep coins in your pockets.
Amanda and I had dinner at a restaurant off the square (pastille!) and then took a taxi back to the hotel.

Day 16-Dec 24, 2013: Silversmiths and Silver Fish

Today was a free day, but Ismail took those of us interested to the silver jewelry co-op. Teenage students learn to do filigree and engrave over 2 years. There were beautiful things in the store and I bought myself a bracelet.
Then, a few of us went to the fish market for lunch. We chose our seafood from the seller, they weighed it, sold it to us, and then we took it to one of the "restaurants" behind the stands and gave our bag to the griller. He cooked the food for us and returned it to us on a plate. We had to separate out the parts that we wanted to eat; remove the head, skin, bones. Love the experience. Amanda started out in the group, but bailed on us, choosing to go eat pasta instead.
The rest of the day we wandered the souk, shopping and people watching. Some guy offered me a thousand camels. Thank you very much!
I chose not to go to dinner that night, 3 meals per day was catching up with me. Too much eating.
Essaouira is a much different place that those we had experienced so far, generally more upscale, less crowded, more laid back. Being more of a resort area I guess this makes sense. If I was ever to return to Morocco, this is where I would go.

Day 15-December 23, 2013: "We're gonna need a bigger boat", OR "I just ate Ismail's tip"

We woke up to a decent breakfast, actually the usual breakfast, of hard boiled eggs, bread, jelly, honey, coffee, tea, orange juice, with the addition of Nesquik (YAY) and a hazelnut spread.
I couldn't wait to get out of there, though. I was tired of the cold and anxious to end this part of our tour. We walked back down the mountain to meet our van in Imlil. This town was full of shops selling supplies for the climbers going all the way to the summit of the Atlas Mountains.
We stopped at a grocery store to pick up food for a picnic lunch. Our picnic was amongst Eucalyptus trees on benches and tables made of concrete. Interesting.
We then stopped at a women's cooperative for Argon Oil. We watched the women working and were shown all of the products made from Argon Oil. They were really expensive. We didn't buy anything.
Our destination was Essaouira, a resort area on the Atlantic Ocean.
Our guide told us he liked Essaouira, even though it was full of hippies. He kept talking about curly hair, and we realized he was talking about dreadlocks. He was right. It was kinda hippyish. Fun.
Anyway, we were staying in the Souk, the open air market of shops.  The difference between a souk and a medina, is a medina is a place where locals both work and live. Men with wooden carts wheeled our luggage to the hotel.
We were all anxious to take showers, since the previous night no one would have removed one bit of clothing. We probably went from temps in the 30's to temps in the 60's. I discreetly removed layers while in the van, even my pants to take off my long underwear. Had to be done. Also, 2 pairs of socks down to none and 3 shirts and a jacket down to one shirt.
This hotel had a room with a toilet and a little room with a shower, so the whole room was the shower. Amanda took the 1st shower and told me the water wasn't draining. I waited a while and then walked into the water. After a while Amanda yelled "turn off the water! You're flooding the room!" I quickly rinsed my hair and turned the water off. She was not exaggerating. I quickly dressed and went down to the desk to confess. Two well dressed guys came up to the room with a squeegee, a bucket and a couple of towels. They showed me that you need to push down on the center of the drain and it pops open. OOPS. They were trying to tell me that they usually keep it closed because of the smile.  When I didn't understand, I eventually figured out they were trying to say smell. We all had a laugh, but I was a little embarrassed by what Amanda and I had done.
At 6pm we were still in our rooms and we heard the familiar call to worship, but A HUNDRED TIMES LOUDER.  Apparently, our hotel is really close to the mosque. So we knew we would have a 6am wake up call!
We all went to dinner at a restaurant with white tablecloths and cloth napkins. It was quite a culture shock from our previous restaurants. The waiter brought a chalk board over with a long list of specials written in French. He didn't speak much English, but could basically translate the board. The last 2 items were lobster, one for 105MAD and one for 125MAD (Moroccan Dirham), or around $13-$15. It also said 100 grams, which he pointed out, but of course, it meant nothing to me. I guess I figured that was the size of the lobster. this was a really low price for lobster, but we were on the ocean, so it made sense. I'm guessing you can figure out what's coming next. When the bill came, it turns out the price was per 100 grams, and my lobster cost about $65! I was horrified. We had been doing great with our spending so far, nothing to feel guilty about.  

Day 14-Dec 22, 2013: Gite with no Heat

I forgot to tell the most interesting stop from yesterday. It was at a Berber Herbalist Pharmacy.  The pharmacist told us what the products were used for, and let us smell and sample them. The prices were reasonable.

Today we drove 5 hours into the High Atlas Mountains. There was snow on the ground at one of our photo stops. We left our van at the town of Imlil and our daypacks were loaded onto 3 donkeys for the rest of the journey up the mountain to our gite. A gite is basically a Bed and Breakfast. It was a fairly steep walk up the mountain path. Amanda and I did get to ride the donkey part of the way up. It was cold but comfortable with the physical activity. It took us about an hour to get to the gite. There were 5 bedrooms with 3 mattresses on the floor of each room. There were 2 toilets, 1 squatty potty (hole in the floor), and 2 showers. No way anyone was going to use a shower. There was one small propane heater in the main room. That was it. And it was cold, probably in the 30's. Three generations of the family who owned the house lived on the basement level. We were served tea at our arrival and then Ismael entertained us by writing all of our names in Berber, Arabic, and then gave us a Moroccan name. Dinner was a vegetable and potato tagine, and some meat, supposedly beef. The beef was full of fat. Not the best meal. After dinner, Ismael had some games planned, but I couldn't stay in that room any longer. It was too cold. I had to get into my sleeping bag with the heavy blanket on top.

Day 13-Dec 21, 2013: "Come With Me to the Kasbah"

The above quote was familiar to me, but I didn't know why. I looked it up and it was from the trailer of a 1938 movie called Algiers, but the line was not actually in the movie, and NO, I wasn't around then. It starred Hedy Lamarr and Charles Boyer and apparently it received attention because of Hedy Lamarr's beauty. It was later a radio show, and it was the inspiration for the movie Casablanca that was filmed in 1942. Anyway, I'm guessing my dad used to say it.
Anyway, we started the day by visiting the town of Ouarzazate, called the Hollywood of Morocco, because of the 2 film studios there. Some of the movies filmed there were Lawrence of Arabia, Gladiator,  The Mummy, Salmon Fishing in the Yemen, The Hills Have Eyes, and some of the TV series Game of Thrones.
We continued on to the village of Ait Ben Haddou where the Kasbah exists. A Kasbah is a type of fortress. The Kasbah is about 1000 years old and some people still live there. It has been carefully restored, and is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Only 3 of our group chose to cook our own dinner in the hotel kitchen. We made a chicken tagine. Amanda and I will be continuing this cooking skill at home.

Day 12-Dec 20, 2013; Farm and Fossils

We got up at 6am and left camp on our camels at 6:30 so we could see the sunrise. It was so early and so cold and dark, nobody said a word. It was a little cloudy and the sunrise was anti-climatic. Luckily, we took a shorter route back to the Auberge.  It was assumed that we would want to take showers when we got back, but we were too cold. I had pointed out to the group that the showers were hand held, so we wouldn't be able to warm up in the shower. After breakfast we left the town of Merzouga and Ismael thanked me for explaining the difficulty of the hand held showers, especially if you want to wash your hair. He said he relayed the problem to the hotel manager and they were going to fix it.
We stopped at a farm (I guess) with goats and camels so that we could try camel milk. I had a sip. It was OK.
Then we stopped at a manufacturer of tables, lamps, countertops, etc. made from mined marble/granite with fossils imbedded from the Paleolithic period.
We arrived at our destination of Tinehrir and the Todra Valley. There was then a walk in the Todra Gorge, but I stayed in the hotel. I was so chilled, I couldn't get warm and I was getting a cold. Dinner was in the hotel. I got a lemon chicken tagine, the best tagine I have had so far.
Power goes off at 11pm. I hope I feel better tomorrow.

Day 11--Dec 19, 2013; Sun and Sand/Camels and Cold

Today was a free day until our departure at 3pm on camel into the dunes to our tent camp. The air was cold but the sun was hot while we lounged on the patio overlooking the dunes during the day. We packed our bags with just what we needed for the night in the desert. I put on long underwear, 2 shirts and a jacket for the ride. And we all had the scarves we had purchased at the medina wrapped on our heads by our guide, Ismael, for the proper look for the photos.  It was perfect. It was about one hour before we arrived at the camp. We dismounted the camels and climbed up a dune to watch the sunset. It was a tough climb and some of us didn't make it all the way to the top. We sat down and the wind was blowing so hard the sand was flying around our faces. We didn't enjoy the crunch, so after the rest, we continued up to the top to join the others. Amanda was sand boarding and everyone was impressed with her skill. I got it on video. We took photos and watched the sunset, and then went down the dune to the camp.  
We sat around low tables on cushions, and were served by the camp staff wearing traditional garb.
Every meal in Morocco starts with 2 bowls of olives, 1 bowl green, 1 bowl black. And baskets of bread. And then we were served a beef tagine with potatoes and vegetables. A little too spicy for me. And then the usual fruit for dessert.
And then the staff built a fire and got out drums and a symbol-like instrument and started playing and singing what I presume is traditional music.
I had added another down jacket and hat and gloves, and it was still freezing. They had thick blankets for us to wrap ourselves in. We slept in canvas tents with rugs on the ground and mattresses and pillows. We had our sleeping  bags and the blankets from the camp. There was electricity for lights in the tent and 2 flush toilets and a sink behind the tents.

Day 10-Dec 18, 2013: Drive and Surprise

We had a 10 hour drive today, but with numerous stops it wasn't bad. We drove through forests, over the Middle Atlas Mountains, through the pre-desert and some of the terrain looked like the Grand Canyon. We had a surprise stop on the side of the road where some Barbary Apes gathered, and some friendly dogs.
We arrived at our desert auberge (simple hotel) on the edge of the sand dunes of the Sahara Desert.

Day 9-- Dec 17: Medina remix and restaurant remix

We left the hotel at 11am in the van and got dropped off at the medina. Although Amanda didn't want to hang with me today, we got separated from the initial group and ended up eventually as just the two of us. Was fun just wandering the alleyways to see what we would find. I took lots of pictures. Just fascinating. And we didn't spend too much money. The van picked us up at 3pm and we stopped at a grocery store in  a mall. Actually, it was more like a Walmart 'cause it sold everything there. We were shopping for food for our 10 hour drive tomorrow over the middle Atlas Mountains to Merzouga in the Sahara Desert. No WiFi for the next 2 nights, so probably update on Friday.
We split into 2 groups for dinner. I chose to revisit the restaurant from lunch yesterday to get more lamp chops. Alas, they were out. Got beef instead. And fries and Morocco's national drink, mint tea. It's green tea with lots of mint sprigs in it, and sugar. Very good, and I don't drink tea. I paid 40MAD, or approx. $5.

Day 8--Dec 16, 2013: Roman Ruins and Ancient Medina

The day started with a sit down breakfast of bread and a croissant with butter, jelly, cream cheese. And that was it.
We drove through fertile farmland and past markets and local scenes that I so wanted to stop and photograph. How the people live their lives is fascinating to me. Hopefully, more opportunity will come. Outside of the cities, people get around by donkey, and the donkeys carry the loads. Horses are a sign of wealth. Olive trees are plentiful, and it's harvest time now, just once a year. They lay a tarp below the tree and then beat the branches with a stick. Sometimes they drag the tarp out to the street and a vendor may drive by and buy their whole harvest (they hope). We stopped at some scenic views where there were vendors selling fruit.
We arrived at the Roman ruins of Volubilus, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. They were mostly destroyed by the 1755 Lisbon earthquake. The town was built about 2000 years ago (!) and was abandoned in the 11th century. It covers about 100 acres. It was a prosperous town which is evident by the remaining building ruins; pillars, outlines of houses and rooms, spas, olive press, and amazing mosaic floors with scenes of animals, Gods, stories, etc.
We then drove to Fes and toured the medina, the worlds largest, with 9000 winding streets. It's a walled city with no cars and covers 900 acres. Some buildings in the medina date back to the 9th century.  There are 350 mosques inside. Devout Muslims pray 5 times per day. The call to worship is heard from every mosque when it is time to pray. It is a real person chanting from every mosque. There are areas for each type of vendor; silver, leather, fabrics, food, carpenters. We were given a sprig of mint before visiting the tannery because the smell can be so offensive. It was not, though, possibly because it was not a warm or sunny day. We visited a weaving co-op and many scarves were purchased by the group. And we saw the 1st university in the world, founded in 859. Loved the medina! So exotic! We go back tomorrow for our free day!
Four of us (me and three of the four 20 somethings) chose to go to a dinner show. We were served 6 different appetizers; an eggplant dish, a cauliflower dish, a tomato salad, beets, olives, lentils, and bread, of course. There were 4 musicians on stage playing instruments and singing. We then got pastille, a traditional meat pie with chicken, ground almonds and cinnamon, and a phyllo like dough, and maybe powdered sugar on top. Soooo good, especially if you are addicted to cinnamon, like me. Amanda loved it, too. They also brought us a beef tagine, apparently usually with prunes. Dessert was fruit. (They call that dessert?)
The show had a traditional female dancer, a magician, and a belly dancer.
The place wasn't very full, only 4 tables of people. The dancer pulled all of us out of the audience to dance on stage with her for a couple minutes. Then they had a mock wedding. They took Amanda and one of the other 20 something girls. They dressed them in traditional finery and demonstrated what a wedding would look like. Photos to come, eventually.

Day 7--Dec 15, 2013: Menus and Meknes

We had an amazing buffet breakfast in the hotel; omelets cooked to order, pastries, fruit, dates, etc.
We left the hotel at 8:30 in our 15 psgr. van. The missing group member turned up, and is a 20 something from Taiwan who is studying in Sweden.
We drove to the imperial city of Meknes, stopping on the way for lunch at a chicken restaurant, according to our tour leader, Ismael. They had other things, but I tend to take him at his word for the specialty of the restaurant. I got the 1/4 grilled chicken which came with white rice and some spicy rice, and fries. It cost about $3.50. Food is really inexpensive. And an adventure. Usually no menus. Ismael tells us what they have and we pick. Dinner was different. It was primarily a pizza place, with menus. I got a 4 cheese pizza. The servers wore yellow and red uniforms like you would see in an American fast food restaurant. Anyway, as I was saying, generally,  you don't get a menu, and you don't get a bill either. When you are finished, you walk up to the register and tell them what you had, or, the waiter writes your total on a piece of paper and you pay him. And we can't drink the water here so we have to constantly be buying bottled water. The large bottle costs 6MAD, or about 75cents.  
Back to Meknes: Sultan Moulay was so afraid of attack, he built a massive grainery to store food for himself and his 500 concubines for 20 years. And he had stables for his 12,000 horses.
We had a brief visit to the square where the locals gather to be entertained by story-tellers and snake charmers, and vendors were selling paintings and shoes.
There is rarely any heat in any buildings, and it is cold here. And the restaurants are often open across the front. So we often keep our coats on all the time. And people sit at the outside tables.

Day 6--Dec 14, 2013 Market, Mosque, and Meeting

Today we took the 7:30am train from Tangier back to Casablanca. 4 women were in the compartment with us and 1 shared some kind of nuts with us. They tasted like almonds, but were much bigger. When we got off the train we walked to the Central Market. It was stalls selling fruits and vegetables, a fish market, and restaurants all the way around the outside that were all serving fish. There was no menu. You paid 1 price and got what you got; a salad which was mostly tomatoes, a bowl of lentils, and a plate of 4 whole fried fish, whole fried prawns, and fried calamari.  And lots of bread. I asked for butter. It took the waiter a while to figure out what I wanted. I saw him leave the market restaurant. Then he brought me a whole tub of butter. When he brought the bill, it was 70 MAD per person as we had been told, plus 10 MAD for the butter. LOL.
We then ran for the main road and quickly got a taxi to the Hassan II Mosque for the last tour of the day. It's the 3rd largest mosque in the world and holds 25,000 people. It was finished 20 years ago and took 6 years round the clock to build. It was built by 2500 workers and 10,000 craftsmen.  The tile work and the wood carving are unbelievable.
We then met our tour group and leader back at the hotel. Besides us, there is a girl from Indiana, a girl from Australia, a woman from Switzerland, one from Toronto, a couple from Niagara Falls, Canada, and a man from northern England. One woman hadn't arrived yet.  

Day 5--Dec 13, 2013: Lucky Friday the 13th

It was raining when we awoke, but stopped before we left the boat, and the sun soon came out. Our 1st stop was back down Winston Churchill Rd.-the main road, to where it crossed the runway. Planes were due in at 10:50 and 10:55am. We watched the barriers come down across the road, like we have at railroad crossings, and the policeman closed the gate across the sidewalk. A crowd gathered to watch the 2 planes land, cross the road, and pull up to the terminal. It wasn't as loud, exciting as I thought it would be.
We then walked through the town center until it was time for lunch. We went back to the marina to Ipanema's Restaurant for a highly anticipated buffet lunch.
We picked up our luggage at the boat and walked out of Gibraltar and back into Spain to the bus station. Just a 15 minute wait until the local bus back to Algeciras. It was 3:45 and we were just about to enter the ferry terminal and a man on the street told us there was a 4pm ferry and if we bought our tickets at the travel agency across the street we could make it. At the terminal they would make us wait until the 5pm ferry. So we bought the tickets and ran back across the street and into the terminal. We made it! This was a different ferry line than we had taken 2 days ago. Much fancier. And there were cabins on the deck above, so the ferry must be used for cruises. Once we arrived at Tangier Med we boarded the Supratours bus for the ride back to Tanger. We had tried to buy WiFi minutes on the ferry, but it didn't work, so we had no hotel booked. We met a Canadian couple on the ferry who had been backpacking through Africa for 3 months, who were also hoping to find accommodations on the internet. They said they had been camping or staying in hostels. I then started thinking about how much money we were spending on hotels and asked Amanda if she wanted to stay in a hostel. It was fine with her.  We planned on looking for a restaurant with WiFi when we got off the bus. Of course, we were approached by a "representative of the tourist bureau" who wanted to help us. He told us there was a hostel right near the souk (market), and he would get us a taxi. Amanda was more agreeable than me. I was reluctant, especially when he walked us over to a taxi with no light on, and he jumped into the taxi, too. I immediately looked for inside door handles. This had me very nervous. This man chose the taxi, and rode with us. My plan was that if we left a busy area, we were out of there at a red light. This was too contrived, and I pictured us sold into white slavery. We got to the hostel, which was really a hotel, and the man went in with us and asked the man at the desk for room #1. This made me even more suspicious, figuring they were all in it together, and he had another key to the room. He asked us if the room looked OK. We said it did. Then, the motive became apparent. He offered to escort us to the souk for 2 hours for 15Euros each. (Since Tangier is so close to Spain, they accept Euros along with Moroccan Dirhams).  When I scoffed, he lowered the price. He explained that the "tourist office" didn't pay him for giving the tourists advise. This was how he made his money. The guide books do advise to hire a guide in the souks so that you don't get lost. We told him we only wanted to get a dessert and then go back to the room. Amanda offered him some money for his help and he left. Our room has a bolt, so we are safe. I told Amanda all of the reasons I was concerned, but she said she just went with her gut.

Day 4--Dec 12, 2013: Cave, Castle, and Cuteness

We walked through the old town with the usual European town square and the narrow walking streets full of holiday sights, entertainment, and shoppers. LOVE! We were convinced to take a small van tour rather than the cable car up The Rock. St. Michaels Cave was amazing. I’m not sure I can even explain it. It’s a huge space like an auditorium with stalagmites and stalagtites forming beautiful columns, and it is, in fact, used for concerts. I would love to be there for one.

Then we went to where the government feeds the Barbery apes. They were everywhere. The apes are all tagged, so the tour operator knows their names. He tells you to hold your arms out and the ape will jump into your arms. Photo op time! I think the tour guide had a banana in his hand, but I didn’t see him give it to them. The tour guide carries a stick in case the apes misbehave. There were some steps you could walk up where you could look to your left down to the Mediterranean Sea and to the right down to the Atlantic Ocean. Confession time: We were told not to touch the apes, but I couldn’t resist. There were 2 apes on a wall checking each other’s fur. I was right next to them and touched the one next to me lightly on the back. Nothing happened, so I petted him a little more. The other ape saw me and jumped over and bit me on the wrist. Didn’t go through my jacket or skin, just feels a little bruised.

Then we went to the Moorish castle where we had a great view from the top across the Strait of Gibraltar to Morocco.

Gibraltar is having a problem with the apes coming down into town and driving the residents crazy. Tourists are not to feed the apes, but somehow they know there is food to be found in town. After our tour, back down off the rock, there is a small park/cemetery. There were about 4 apes in there eating berries that had fallen off a tree onto the ground. (Why don’t they climb the trees to get them?) I was taking pictures of them and one jumped onto Amanda’s back. She was not even aware that it had been behind her. She has a red mark on her arm where it clawed her. Then closer to town, a gentleman pointed us down a side street where there were apes. We walked down and there were dumpsters near where 3 apes were on peoples balconies. One had a whole baguette.  

 Dinner in a very British pub. Fish and chips for me!

Gibraltar has its own money. Same value as the British pound, but the money says Gibraltar on it, and has Gibraltar scenes/symbols.

Day 3--Dec 11, 2013: Wizards and Waiting

Last night we stayed in a hotel across the street from the train station so that we could get a 5:45am train to Tangier so that we could get to Gibraltar at a reasonable time. There was a “wizard”on the train with a white beard wearing a long robe with a pointy hood. He got on carrying 2 somethings in a zippered case. He stood on his seat and put them on the overhead rack and unzipped the cases. And they started chirping. We never saw the birds. Anyway, the train got to Tangier at 10:45am. We got a taxi for the port, where we thought we would probably get a free shuttle to the “new” port where there would probably be an earlier ferry. The driver stopped in front of a Supratours bus and told us it would take us to the port. We left at 11am for the 50 minute drive, promised the noon ferry. No such luck. The water was too rough and the ferries were delayed. We didn’t leave until 3pm for the 1.5 hour trip. We then walked to the local bus station for the 40 minute bus ride from Algeciras, Spain to the border town of La Linea. We then walked into Gibraltar, down the main street across the runway, into the marina, and to our 52 foot boat B and B, the Con Dios. Surprise, Amanda!

Day 2--Dec 10, 2013 : Sleep and Stalker

Again, things did not go according to plan. Amanda was landing at 1pm and I was to meet her at the airport. Of course, I was tired because I had flown all night the day before. And I stayed up late that 1^st night in the hotel. I should have gotten up by 10:30 to get the train to the airport at around 11:30. You know what’s coming. I overslept. I woke up at 12:30! I dressed and packed quickly and had to go to an ATM to get cash for the taxi that I now had to take. The taxi took as long as the train would have. Lots of traffic. I was an hour late. Amanda was a little upset, to say the least.

I was hoping to get out of Casablanca that day, and had cancelled the hotel for that night just 2 days before. Our Morocco tour doesn’t start until the 14^th, and it starts at the same hotel. They were willing to hold our bags until we return. We went back to the hotel to repack our small bags for 4 days. Unfortunately, we had to wait for both trains so we were not going to make the last train to Tangier at 5:45. So now we needed a hotel. We decided to take the 5:45am train the next morning. So we got on our tablets and found a hotel near the train station, a different station than the one near our hotel, but turns out to be about 1.5 miles away. We could walk or take a tram. We started walking down the street with the tram and stopped to ask a man where to buy the tram ticket. He talked to us for a while (in French) and offered to get his car and drive us to our hotel. We politely refused and finally got away and continued walking. I thought that maybe we should take the tram, but the ticket machine wouldn’t process my credit card, although cards were accepted. So we continued walking and sure enough, the man drives up in his car. He pulled onto a side street in front of us. We kept going and crossed the street and ducked into a restaurant so that he wouldn’t see us. He seemed very nice, but of course, we couldn't take the chance.

Day 1--Dec. 9, 2013 : Lights and Luggage

I'm definitely not in Kansas anymore! Couldn't stop laughing when I came into my hotel room. I found the light switches, but the lights wouldn't turn on. And the hall lights are motion activated and so they turned off. I couldn't see a thing. Went back to the desk and the bellman/concierge had to show me. The room had a real key and a plastic card attached. The door opened with the key. So there ...is a slot on the wall in which you jam the card into and the lights turn on. Therefore, you can't leave the lights on in the room (the TV either) when you leave with the key. When you pull the card out all the lights go off. Why are so many countries so much greener than the US?
So I had shoved my sleeping bag under the elastic cords on the top of the rolling duffle, and used 2 carabiners to attach it. The 2 pieces somehow got separated and came off the plane as 2 pieces of luggage. Oh where, oh where, have my carabiners gone?
It is definitely difficult when you can't find anyone who speaks English and you need info. I walked around the Casablanca airport following the info sign, but never found the info booth. Well, I found one, but no one was there. I had read that I could take a train part of the way to the hotel. So I bought a ticket at the train station and had to change trains. I found my first English speaker on the train, luckily, because the guy who sold me the ticket told me to change at the 3rd stop. But the girl on the train told me not to count the 1st stop. The train doesn't usually stop there. She got off at the 2nd stop. Then the good thing happened. Two Muslim women who didn't speak any English were sitting by me. They watched me to make sure I got off and insisted on helping me carry my luggage. Then they asked others which track I switch to for the 2nd train. One had a sleeping baby, and although she wasn't going the same way, she gave her baby to her friend to hold, and carried my bag to the correct platform. I was very appreciative. Then I had to get a taxi to the hotel. Some turned me down. I negotiated the price and it turned out to be close enough to walk.
Still don't know exactly what Amanda and I are doing 1 or 2 of the next 4 days. Why can't I book a train ticket in Spain and get the ticket when I board? Rail Europe online says I can't book it because they don't have time to mail it to me. They suggest a date over a week from now. ?????
I meet Amanda at the airport tomorrow afternoon. She is overnighting in Dubai tonight.