Casablanca, Morocco: Day 1

On our first day in Morocco, Jill and Steph (and Steph’s mom, who had come to Morocco to visit her) went on the Casablanca City Orientation, so I spent the day with Brady. We set out in search of a bar and shopping, settling first into a hole in the wall spot with no lights whatsoever and a hole in the ground (literally) to pee in. We drank the local beer and ate ketchup flavored fried chip-like…things. I won about 5 games of War before we left to look for shopping. We stopped first at a stand selling what looked like a delicious treat: fried dough, sort of like a donut. We ordered two and watched with delight as they sliced each one open longways before spreading peach honey inside and then dipping the entire concoction in sugar. It was absolutely the most amazing thing I have eaten this entire summer. They invited me back to make some with them, at which I failed miserably; this surprised me, as it was not a difficult task. The knives were not sharp enough! This is my excuse.

After two binis (the aforementioned deliciousness) each, Brady and I continued walking. It only took us about a minute and a half to find our next distraction: neon chicks. It is exactly what it sounds like: baby chickens dyed all different colors of the neon rainbow. The pink ones were the most vibrant, but there were also yellow, green, and orange little bumpkins running around. The vendor placed one in each of my hands and I marveled at the cuteness for a few minutes before he grabbed them back and began packaging them for me to take home. Brady had to basically peel me away so that I didn’t purchase something I could do absolutely nothing with.

We finally found shopping! Albeit, the bazaar was less than a five minute walk from the port, but we had made several stops. I purchased some items and we browsed for a bit, annoyed only when one particular little boy would not leave us alone. He grabbed my hand and kissed it, scaring me half to death, and then looked up at me with sad puppy-dog eyes only a seasoned beggar could have. After we left the bazaar, we went back to the bar for a drink before heading back to the ship for a nap. I spent the rest of the night sleeping, electing not to go to Rick’s Café (from the movie Casablanca), because it is notoriously expensive and I have never seen Casablanca anyway!