After recovering from our Marrakech adventure Sam, Tyler, and I decided to wake up and take a train to Rabat, which is only about an hour trip each way. It was definitely not like the Marrakech adventure with the train system, however it was a nice change to not be stranded in the middle of no where for once. We met up with a couple other people and headed for the station.
Rabat is the capital city of Morocco and to be honest, very uneventful. We had no plans except to wander. The city is bustling, just like Marrakech, but there's a completely different feel. Here in Rabat it was a controlled bustling while in Marrakech it was just absolutely insane. We still had to play a bit of frogger to get across the road, but we found that if you hold up your hand as if to say "thanks/stop" all at once, most drivers will acknowledge that. It's different because back in the states if we see someone starting to cross the street we'll wait for them to cross even if they start at the opposite side. In Morocco, you take what you can get. If you're driving and have 5 feet to go before someone gets to your vehicle, you take it and go full steam ahead.
We came upon a local market, still souks, but it was where everyone would get their necessities. Clothes, electronics (despite what people think these are NOT necessities), fruit, etc. We then exited the Medina (which is the old city, and is usually fortified) to walk around the new city. A little boy with only heels, no toes, came up to us begging for money. It took all of my strength to turn the other way again. We continued on to pass the university in Rabat. Definitely not what our campuses look like at home. It was about eight buildings or so all connected and within two city blocks.
There was really nothing we had our heart set on seeing. We walked passed the Parliament building and Chamber of Representatives. Each of these government buildings were guarded with men carrying AK47s strapped to their sides. In fact, everywhere we went there were groups of guards carry their guns or what looked like military people in uniform. We stumbled upon the mosque which was enormous and then the entrance to the Royal Palace but got shooed away from that by some guards.
I was hoping that in Rabat there would be a larger change during the call to prayer. Sure enough we heard the call around 4pm and there was no noticeable change in the behavior of the locals. The more I thought about it, though, the more I realized that we all just assume that since these people live in an Islamic country that they all believe the same thing and take it so seriously. That's hypocritical of me since in my last post I talked about all of the similarities between our two different worlds. In the US there are so many beliefs. Sundays are like our own call to prayer, but not every single Catholic or every single Methodist abides by it and shows up. That's just another way of how people claim that we're two separate worlds based off of religion yet we're so similar even in that department. If you came to Morocco and there were churches every place you saw a mosque, you wouldn't have a problem with it. There would be nothing different than being in America and driving through a city and witnessing the numerous churches on the street corners.
After some more walking we headed back to the station to catch the train back to the Casa (our new name for Casablanca). Yet again the sky got darker and darker as we entered back into the port city. It was the liveliest I've ever seen it though. By the time we finished grabbing some dinner on the ship, it was starting to get dark. There's not much to do in Casablanca during the day, let alone at night and it's not the safest place to be so we decided to call it a day and chill on the ship. Also, here's a little side note for futures SASers: if you take care of your stewards and the rest of the crew, they'll take care of you. I had a couple glasses of some unsweetened iced tea (pretty bland.. actually incredibly bland), so Mez (the coolest Jamaican waiter on board), walks over with a couple glasses, says "I noticed you drinking the tea, I added a little lemon for you this time" and sets them down. It was awesome. So remember, don't just be a spoiled kid and wait for the waiters to take your plates. Be a little proactive. It's not that hard to scrape the food off and put it in the dirty dish container.
The port here is dirty. Incredibly dirty. On the outer decks of our ship there is a layer of dust that's caked onto the railings and floor. When you look outside it looks like there's a light covering of snow, but instead it's dust. I don't even want to know how much of it is in my lungs at the moment.
I'm hoping to take a tour of the mosque in Casablanca tomorrow, then the souks, and then the grocery store since I'm almost completely out of everything and as nice as potatoes and pasta is 24/7 on the ship, it just doesn't hit the spot anymore. Funny how that works, right? We leave at 2000 (8pm) for Ghana! :D
Peace
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