“Natural Beauty and the Wonder of Adventure”

So our Sunday, yet again, was so so good. I started out majorly impressed with myself by finding that I could still talk to a taxi driver and order a crepe in French, as well as Arabic. Happy days. But in the queue for our breakfast crepes, we called the boys. They were meant to meet us at the downtown train station, but managed to get to the little one further south. Regrouping, we hopped into second class for the trip to Casablanca! The whole trip took just over an hour, and it took 50 minutes for us to sit together. And yet, the journey was smooth and there were no problems. Once we stepped off the train, we were immediately met with one of the main differences between Rabat and Casablanca – the smell! As we alighted we were smacked in the face with wafts of salt and fish (it got less pleasant later on), and wandered out through the ring of taxi drivers trying to rip us off, to find some genuine ones. Casablanca is a fascinating city, in the sense that the touristy bits are absolutely stunning, and the rest is like a shanty town. It feels a lot more like Africa – crazier road systems, more smell and dust and, well, poverty in a sense. We caught a Petit Taxi (red instead of Rabat’s blue) to the Morocco Mall – one of the two things to see in Casablanca. When we got there, we were greeted by an enormous IMAX theatre, and a vast air-conditioned designer shopping centre… with a floor-to-ceiling aquarium in it, with scuba-divers feeding the fish. Yes, really. What is that about?! Anyway, we wandered up to the food court (of course), and eventually settled on Pizza Hut, after many other outlets had turned our heads. We chatted about pizza (naturally), and how Alice and I are completely un-New York in that we don’t fold our slices, and I was derided for sometimes rolling my pizza to eat it. Anyway, the tour of The Other Thing To See was at 2pm, so we got into two taxis to Hassan the Second Mosque. Or, at least tried to. James and Alice got one, and Billy and I got in another. But before we could drive off, our door was opened by an angry Arabic-torrent-spouting man and (I think) told us to get out. Confused, we stood on the pavement and watched what turned out to be a gaggle of taxi drivers argue with each other about (we find out later) how much to charge us. On these journeys, the meter means nothing. In fact, it was turned off. After a while we were taken to the mosque, and once we got there, instead of being charged around 20 dirhams, we were charged 50. That’s the most we’ve been charged here yet, and one of the shortest journeys. The same thing happened to Alice and James. Billy was not impressed.
The main word I can use to describe the mosque was impressive. It was enormous, intricate, and just, well, big! We wandered around for a bit (and nearly went into the men’s section during prayer. Awkward.) and settled down for an hour to wait for the tour. Even though he’s allergic, James developed a slight obsession with the stray cats that were slinking from one group with food to another. Every one of them rejected him, because they had no food. Cats are terribly practical.
The tour of the mosque was really well done. Our tour guide was really friendly and kind, and we learned a lot about the weight of the door that is used only for the King and the President, and the amount of money that they spent on the washing pool that nobody has ever used or ever will. It was very impressive, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that, however beautiful, all it was was stones and trees. However good, all of it will one day crumble away. When we came back today, the girls had arrived back from the Sahara. And the things they told us about lying in the sand, under the stars, watching the long shadows and talking about life, it struck me that that can’t melt away like wood and stone. Charlotte described their discussions as being about “Natural Beauty and the Wonder of Adventure”, and genuinely, I think that that, for me, will always be more beautiful.

I am a final year BA International Relations student at Sussex University, and I'm also studying the Arabic Language Elective Pathway. Alongside this, I am acting as a Student Language Ambassador, in hopes of convincing the world that a language is a beautiful thing :)

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One comment on ““Natural Beauty and the Wonder of Adventure”
  1. Amira Mills says:

    مـرحـبـا هـنـا

    أنـا سـعـيـدة جـداً و أنـا أقـرأ هذا

    I am a bit confused: Rabbat and Pizza? I am not sure they go together? Have you experienced the tajine yet?
    James and the stray cats: I like him already! Even African cats understand the tourist culture, no food sir no purring and don’t waist my time; next please!

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