My trip to Morocco began on September 27, 2013. I left work around mid-day to head to JFK Airport for my overnight flight on Royal Air Maroc. I’d read mixed reviews about the airline, but it was the only direct flight from the US to Morocco and I didn’t want to waste any time with layovers, so I decided I’d just make the best of it. The flight was pretty good overall, although I don’t consider myself an expert on what constitutes a good flight or airline versus a bad one. I generally just think that if I got there on time, in one piece, with none of my things being misplaced in transit, that it’s been a successful flight. I guess you’d say that my standards for flights are low, which might have something to do with the fact that I’ve spent my entire life flying on American airlines, which are considered to be some of the worst in the world.
I tend to get motion sickness pretty easily so I took some dramamine pills at the start of the flight, which also has the effect of putting me to sleep pretty quickly. The airline provided some small pillows and blankets, but I’d also brought an inflatable pillow to use around my neck. It ended up not being very good and I wished I’d bought a real pillow. I went with the inflatable version because I didn’t want to carry too much on the trip with me, but I’ve since learned that a real travel pillow is always worth the minor hassle of carrying it with you. It was about an hour or so into the flight when they served dinner. I don’t remember what they served because I was pretty out of it thanks to the dramamine, to the point that the woman next to me had to help me turn my tray around so I could eat the food on it. I slept fairly well on the flight and landed in Casablanca around 7am.
Once the plane landed we had to deplane by climbing down the staircase of the plane and then getting on a bus to take us to the terminal. I went through customs and then tried to find an ATM since I’d need money to get into the city. I could only find one ATM, which only had French and Arabic as language options. I couldn’t figure out how to use it because it kept giving me an error, but eventually someone who could read French appeared and was able to help me. Once I got some money I took the train into the city. There’s a train from Casablanca’s airport into the city that runs from 6:50am to 10:50pm (and from the city to the airport from 6:38am to 11:38pm) and departs every hour. Tickets are around 40MAD, and the journey takes 30 minutes. To get into the city you ride three stops to Casa Voyageurs. (You can also take a cab, but cab drivers in Morocco are notorious for overcharging and can be very aggressive, so the train is a much cheaper and easier option.) Most of the ride into the city was kind of suburban looking, and reminded me a little bit of Texas.
Once I got to the Casa Voyageurs station I debated between taking a “petit taxi” into the city center, or walking. There’s also a tram in front of the station that’s about 7MAD, but I hadn’t read much about it and wasn’t sure how to use it. If you decide to take a taxi, be aware that you’ll most likely be ripped off by the driver. You’ll likely pay 30MAD (if you’re very lucky and a good bargainer) minimum, but most likely closer to 60–90MAD, and they’ll frequently try to drive the price up by announcing an extra charge for each passenger and each bag. If you must take a cab, it’s best to walk a few blocks away and find a driver who will agree to using his meter.
I didn’t want to take a cab because of the cost, so I decided to walk to my hotel instead. This turned out to be a huge mistake as it was significantly farther away than I’d anticipated, and I wasn’t entirely sure where I was going. By the time I finally got to the hotel my back was killing me from carrying my bag, and I was soaking wet from the rain. I stayed at Hotel Central, which I’d booked on Booking.com. The hotel was fine, but when I stayed there again later in the trip before flying back to New York, I was horrified to discover the room I’d been given had bed bugs. Wherever you stay, always be sure to check for these, as they can be quite common. After I checked in I changed out of my wet clothes and then went into the souks to find an umbrella. After finding one I walked back to the hotel, and on the way back a guy walked up to me and started saying something in French and grabbing at my umbrella. I couldn’t understand what he was saying because it was all in French, but I’d been warned that Moroccan men could be rather aggressive towards foreign women, so I got worried that he was trying to bother me and I sped up and ran away. I realized later that I still had the tag on the umbrella and that he was probably just trying to help me get it off.
01 | Painting on the Walls of Casablanca’s medina
02 | A door in Casablanca’s medina
After some time at the hotel I went to La Sqala for lunch, which I’d read great reviews about. On the way there I had to walk on the road since there no sidewalks. This was a bit unnerving since drivers tend to drive very fast and there aren’t any places for pedestrians to cross the street, so when you need to cross you kind of have to just run and pray. Luckily, I managed to locate the restaurant fairly quickly. It was nice, but not quite as amazing as I’d expected based on the reviews. While I’m not a vegetarian, I decided to get the vegetable tagine because I didn’t want to eat anything that would upset my stomach since I’d just gotten there. I also ordered a dessert that had a filo-like dough with layers of cream between the filo. The food was pretty good and the portions were huge, so I wasn’t able to finish any of it.
03 | La Sqala Restaurant
After lunch I walked to the Hassan II Mosque (Grande Mosquée Hassan II مسجد الحسن الثاني) to try to catch the 2pm tour. Once I got there it was hard to find anyone who spoke much English so I had a hard time trying to find tickets. It turned out there was no 2pm tour that day, but there were tours at 3pm and 4pm instead, so I walked around and took some photos while I waited. Our tour guide was a very knowledgeable guy with braces who was fond of saying “please” every time he wanted us to follow him. He explained that all the materials used to build the mosque came from various parts of Morocco. The mosque is the third largest in the world, and was built to celebrate the 60th birthday of King Hassan II. It was very dark inside the mosque, so it was a little hard to see (which wasn’t helped by the gloomy and dark weather outside), but it was very beautiful.
04 | Hassan II Mosque (see more photos here)
After the tour I decided it was time to check out the souks now that it was no longer raining. There isn’t really any rhyme or reason to how the souks in Casablanca’s medina (or anywhere else in Morocco) are laid out. It’s a bit like someone threw a bowl of spaghetti in the air and then decided to lay out the streets the way the strings of spaghetti landed. Luckily for me, I have a knack for learning my way around in new places and I actually managed to get pretty good at navigating the area fairly quickly. You can’t really get cars into the medina because most of the streets aren’t wide enough, but there were a lot of people on motorcycles that you had to watch out for. If you’re traveling with a smart phone, I’d recommend installing MapsWithMe and downloading the offline map for Morocco so you can keep track of where you are. I didn’t have a smartphone with GPS with me for this trip, but I’ve had one for all of my trips since then and it’s invaluable.
After getting tired of the souks, I walked over to the Casa Port train station to buy all of my train tickets for the trip (you can see train schedules online, but can only buy tickets at the station once you’re in the country). Trying to get the tickets took a while because of the language barrier, but I eventually got them all purchased. If you’re trying to do this, I’d recommend writing out what tickets you want to buy ahead of time, in French if possible. You’ll also want to keep in mind that they don’t use AM and PM for times, but instead use the 24 hour system. So if you want a ticket for 7pm, you’ll want to write down 19:00, otherwise you’ll get a ticket for 7am. Also keep in mind that the month and day format is the opposite of what’s used in the United States. So while 9/10 is September 10 in the United States, 9/10 would actually be October 9 in Morocco. On the bright side, trains in Morocco aren’t extremely strict about when you use your ticket if you’ve got a ticket for second class. If you get a ticket for 7am and miss the train (or need to leave later), you can easily hop on any other train (as long as it’s the same train line to the same place) using the same ticket and they won’t mind.
Next I decided to go try to find the Sacre Coeur Cathedral (Eglise Sacré-Cœur de Casablanca). It was pretty nice, but I didn’t go inside (I’m not actually sure if you can). On the walk back towards the hotel I found an ATM and the Ensemble Artisanal store, where you can buy souvenirs at set prices instead of having to haggle. It was starting to get dark and I ended up getting a little lost trying to get back to the hotel. Since it was getting late, most of the shops had closed, so all of the stores that I’d memorized earlier in the day to find my way around suddenly all looked the same and it took a few minutes of running in circles and panicking before I managed to find my way back to the hotel.
05 | Sacre Coeur Cathedral (click to read more)
After that, I decided it was best to find dinner somewhere close by. I went to a restaurant that focused mostly on seafood, but the menu said they had pastilla as well, which I was interested in trying. I ordered the pastilla but somehow things got lost in translation and I ended up being served a salad with fried fish and shrimp on top. The surprise salad was okay, but it was also way too much food, so I only ate part of it. I noticed here that almost all of the soda they serve in the country comes in glass bottles. I’ve realized since then that many countries do this so that the bottles can be reused later. The company delivers the full bottles to the restaurant, and once they’re empty they take them back to be cleaned and refilled, then redelivered once again. The restaurant was mostly empty, and most of the people there were men, with only a few women. (Most cafes in Morocco are populated almost exclusively by men.) After dinner I went back to my hotel and got ready for bed. I set my alarm for sunrise so I could take some photos the next morning before taking a train to Rabat.
06 | Door in the Medina
07 | Minaret in the Medina
08 | Door in the Medina
09 | Minaret in the Medina
10 | Entrance to the Medina
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