Of all the gin joins in all the towns in all the world

Moving on after Gibraltar was tough.  I woke up early and took off for the ferry terminal to catch the boat to Africa.  And more so this morning I had a hard time dealing with the lack of a second language.  It may have been a side effect of tiredness or just general apprehensiveness about the whole day.  It was going to be a lot of moving about.  So shortly before 8 AM I boarded a bus to Talifa.  From there it was on to Tangier via the FRS high speed ferry.  Little note, apprently there are two ferry ports in Tangier... Tangier Ville, the one right by the town, and Tangier Med, one about 45 minutes or so out of town... which seems kind of a misnomer to call it Tangier anything. 

Since the plan involved a tight connection with a train, I took the ferry to Ville, which required the bus ride to Tarifa.  At any rate, I finally managed to get the first stamp in my new passport, a Spanish exit stamp.  Seemingly an easy task for most, not so much really for me.  Without getting into details, the way I entered the EU didn't involve an entry stamp, and I had to explain this to the Customs officer in Spain when I went to leave.  Luckily, I had kept some supporting documentation and along with my work ID i convinced her I had not snuck in nefariously. 

Well, I was finally leaving Europe for the African portion of the adventure.  It's amazing how different the world is a short distance across the straits.  From the European/western way of just paying the price listed and a normal up and up  manner of doing things, it's back to the haggle and harass mentality.  So fresh off the boat, I started looking for a way to obtain the coin of the realm.  I didn't see an ATM or change desk.  I didn't see one when I left that gave out Dirhams.  I found a cafe and asked about a money exchange.  The guy behind the counter said hold on, went and got his buddy and asked how much I wanted to exchange, I told him he whipped out his wallet and that was that.  I don't think I got the best exchange rate possible, but I also didn't have to pay a transaction fee.  So I'll take it. 

And it was off in a taxi to the train station.  Again, price negotiation and  here I am in a "grand taxi", or a worn out old Mercedes.  Once at the train station I realized I had wrote down the wrong departure time for the the next train to Casablanca.  And barely made it.  Approximately $18 later i settled into my first class seat for the next 4 and half hours to watch the scenery go by.  Travel advice, splurge for first class on Moroccan trains.  Its a small upcharge (relatively speaking) and worth for assigned, big comfy seats.

Pulling out of Tangier

Surprise number one:  The place was green!  I was expecting desert and sand.  Nope, grass and some trees and plants in every direction.  I was informed that the coastal area had been receiving a lot of rain of late, so it was particularly lush.  As far as northern Morocco goes, they could use a trash plan.  Seems the current plan is to throw it all in piles near the train tracks.  The farther out of Tangiers the better, but still kind of spoiled the scenery.  I was amused to see people pulling to stops along the way with mules and carts to pick up those disembarking.  And despite the ramshackle appearance of some houses whisking by, they all had satellite dishes on the top which also amused me. 

As we pulled into Casablanca, it had the appearance that everyone said it does, a busy big port city. Not particularly scenic.  There are some nice parts, an ancient medina, some nice art deco buildings, and a big mosque.  That's about it really.  Though the NY Times says it's a place to go in 2013, i may have missed out on what they were so fond of.  Of course, he Times tends to cater towards... wealthier travelers. 

At any rate, made it to my hotel and settled in for a bit.  Then out to explore.  The biggest attraction in town is the Hassan II Mosque.  It looked close outside the window, so I'll walk it.  Yeah, I need to quit doing that, it's never that close.  On the walk, i thought the shortcut I took would be fine, turns out it was through a rather... unscenic neighborhood.  Oops.  But the plaza and gardens around the mosque were lovely.  The place was huge, though I'm not allowed in.

Hassan II Mosque

On the walk back, I had planned to stop by Rick's.  Denied!! They were closed for a couple hours between lunch and dinner.  Not to be deterred, I returned later to experience the reproduction.

"Casablanca" is a favorite film of mine, and I pretty much decided to stop in Casablanca just to go to Rick's.  Owned by an American expat, she's gone to extreme lengths to reproduce as much as possible from the movie (there was never a "Rick's" in Casablanca).  And done a fine job.  It was well worth the stop to dine with the essence of Bogey and Bergman.  A few cocktails, and a jazz quartet (though I was hoping for Sam to play it again) made for a lovely night.  It was very hard to resist the urge to spout movie quotes.   Calling it a night, I was thanked by "Madame Rick" (the owner) for coming in and I headed back for a nice sleep.  The next morning, it was off to Marrakech.

Rick's Cafe