Adventures in Paris and Morocco: Casablanca with Michael

Two weekends ago, I got a visitor from the North Pole-- Santa Claus! Hahaha, okay, maybe not quite Santa, but Michael is living in Sweden right now, which is practically the North Pole. I'm sure he enjoyed the nice beachy weather and soaked up the sun during his visit! Though Michael doesn't quite resemble Santa Claus in any way, he did bring me presents! I've been a very good girl so far this year :) I got some more hand sanitizer, krisprolls (Swedish fiberous deliciousness packed into a small bread toast), milk tea, and cayenne pepper to make my food here deliciously spicy! In the 4 days Michael was here, I got to skip some boring lectures (they really were useless, according to my friends), spend a day in Casablanca, and explore Rabat.

Friday afternoon, after class, Michael and I hopped on a train to Casablanca, one of the major tourist destinations. We were originally planning on visiting Chefchaouen, a cute, small town in Morocco, but the unpleasant weather and long transportation there was not ideal for a weekend visit.

Through a series of miscommunication, Michael and I ended up staying in Ain Diab, a nice, ritzy area of Casablanca for a night. We were originally planning on staying there for two nights, but the hotel cost a lot more than we thought it did, so we made sure to enjoy the nice beachy area as much as we could. Unfortunately, the first night there was somewhat stressful. I had forgotten to bring my passport because I didn't think I would need it and I didn't want to risk losing it, but the nice hotel we stayed at required you to have your passport. I guess there's a specific number/stamp that hotels need, and the hotel wouldn't let me stay there unless I had it.. soo I had to make a trip to Le Grand Commissariat, where I was able to get the stamped number on my passport officially written and signed by an authority. With most of our evening eaten up, we didn't really get to do much in Casablanca that night, like go out to a movie or go exploring. We had a quick dinner at a restaurant near our hotel and went back and slept soundly.

Ain Diab's fancy hotel rooms

The next day, Michael and I decided we would walk around Ain Diab and enjoy the beautiful weather and beach before checking out of the hotel and finding another hotel closer to the medina and train station. We spent the morning walking around Ain Diab and on the beach.

We had a lovely lunch at a seafood restaurant right next to the beach. It was the first time I've had salmon since coming to Morocco and it was SO good. I've mentally made a list of foods that I want to eat when I come back to the states, and my mom's salmon is definitely on the top of the list!

After a nice, leisure lunch, we found a hotel in the medina and took a taxi there. Unfortunately, I encountered the same passport issue with the hotel and I was told to return to Le Grand Commissariat. We put our luggage down in a room first and sat there thinking about what to do. I really didn't want to go back to the Commissariat, mainly because it was just so inconvenient, so Michael and I decided to return to Rabat. We were only in the room for about half an hour before we decided to leave, but when we told the receptionist we didn't want to stay, he made a scene and told us that since he had already written down Michael's passport information, he had to pay for that night! We were both furious and thought the receptionist was being ridiculous. We had not stayed the night at the hotel and we didn't understand why the receptionist couldn't just cross Michael's information out. Since Michael had already signed registration papers, he decided to pay the 100 dirhams, which wasn't much, but nonetheless, we were not happy with the guy. It was late Saturday afternoon when we got back to Rabat and by the time we found a different hotel, it was around dinner time.

The next two days in Rabat weren't too eventful. We had a nice, traditional Moroccan meal one night, definitely one of the highlights of Michael's visit! The traditional Moroccan salad was amazing, I'm hoping I might be able to learn how to make it from my host mom before I leave.. At the restaurant, we ordered a dish of chicken tagine and couscous. The full course included bread and olives, the Moroccan salad, our main dishes, fruit (oranges & dates), mint tea, and pastries. There was also live traditional music, which was neat to see and hear.