I discovered that both May 1st and May 2nd are public holidays here and booked a flight.. quite randomly to Tangier. I planned to go to Chefchaouen, Fes/Meknes, and maybe Rabat. But then the weather forecast said it would be rainy and cold in that area for the whole week, so I changed my plan, paid an incredible 6 EUR for the first night in Chefchaouen because I couldn’t cancel it for free anymore, and decided I’d just take the fast train south to Casablanca as early as possible.
From the airport of Tangier, I already knew how to walk to the bus station and get to the city. When I got out of the airport it was sunny and surprisingly hot, then some clouds showed up, it started raining just a little, then a bit more, and when I got to the bus stop, it just started pouring. When a bus came. Luckily it was the right one, but I would have gotten on any 😉 When it arrived at my stop in the city, it had stopped raining again. I bought something to eat, then a simcard, and tried to withdraw money. But all ATMs wanted a fee. And I remembered that only the post bank does not. The simcard guy told me I can pay my trainticket by card, and that’s what I did. The train was nice, but I got a stupid place in a 4-seat with table corner, and thus had feet across from me 😉
In Casablanca, I took the tram to my hostel, no, no taxi, found the hostel (there was no sign with the name, just a different name,..), had a break, and then went out again to meet some couchsurfing guy who took me on a city tour by scooter. We saw the big mosque, the lighthouse, the cathedral, a square with ‘Casablanca’ letters, and then went to eat cheap Tajine 🙂 It was good, and cost 25 mad each. And then it was time to pay, and he told me ‘it’s 50’ – obviously assuming that I’m paying for his food. That’s not very moroccan,.. right? 😀
The next day, I spent with a girl from the hostel, going to the tourist market, buying olives and break, and some cookies, and having a picnic in the park. We walked past much of the stuff I saw yesterday again, and suddenly the city made a lot more sense. In the evening we went to the same Tajine place again, with another guy from the hostel, then had an ice cream in the street back, and that was it.
In the morning, on the way to the train station I walked through the mostly closed market, bought a coffee in a tiny place, and then it started raining again! lol There was a long queue of people, again, waiting to buy train tickets. So I tried to buy mine online and it didn’t work. Probably because the train was sold out :/ so, while queueing, I bought a ticket for the next train online, then went back out of the queue, and had more than an hour to spend. Note: buy train tickets in advance!