Rabat & Casablanca

My trip to Morocco was quite long and so much happened. So there's quite a lot to say. We went to Rabat, Casablanca, Fez, Khenifra, Erfoud, Azrou, Oum-er-Rbia, Ait-ben-Haddou and Marrakech. The trip was the conclusion to my program abroad. Our final exam of sorts. The goal was to go out and encounter the Francophone world. And I'm so very lucky to have seen that part of the world. Yallah! Here we go.

Mosque tower in the Rabat medina

I left with 13 other students from Seattle and two professors on the 18th. We flew into Casablanca and were in Rabat early that evening. The adventure really started the next morning. We had meetings around 10am every day, but I decided to get up early and explore with my friend each morning before our group days started. Our first morning in Rabat consisted of a stroll through the Medina (the old, walled city). We wound up finding a cemetery and a door to the ocean.

Rabat seaside

 From there, we continued along the cliffs looking out at the Atlantic that hit the western coast of Africa. The first day I was struck by the smells. Especially the mint, sold in heaps on the almost every street. (I'm now pretty obsessed with mint tea, which I will be forcing on all of my friends and family upon my return to the US). When we did make it back to the hotel to meet everyone else, we were immediately shoved in the van to make the hour drive to Casablanca. I really enjoyed hearing our bus driver speak. Most of the time we spent in that van, he was chatting with Victor (our professor) who quickly found out what a brilliant man he was. A physics academic studying in France until one of his parents fell ill and he had to return to Morocco to support his family, and that's how he ended up as a chauffeur. He had such a kind smile and seemed genuinely excited to show us his country.

La Grande Mosquée Hassan II- Casablanca

In Casablanca we went to the Grande Mosquée Hassan II. Built in the 80/90s under the King Hassan II, this mosque is enormous. It's situated right on the water and absolutely dominates Casablanca. It is one of the only mosques in the world that visitors are allowed in. So we got the tour (from a very sassy guide) and I marveled at the detail and architectural majesty.

Thé à la menthe- Moroccan whiskey

We were back in Rabat for dinner that night. Our professors walked us through the medina, which by that time was completely packed with people. Navigation of a group was very interesting and quite time consuming. We went up to the kasbah and had one of hundreds of mint teas in the Andalusian gardens.

The next day we got to meet Abdallah Zrika, the poet I've been raving about for some time. And the beautiful Touria Hadraoui. In the morning Zrika read us a few of his poems and then spent hours with us discussing his work, life, the intricacies of translating poetry and so many other things. What I really enjoyed was how he talked about his words, saying that each has not only a personal history for him, but often a color, a smell, a taste. As a visual person myself, I really like the idea of colors and sensations with marks on a page.

Mausoleum 

So Zrika in the morning. And for lunch I roamed the medina again, this time with a different friend. We got a little lost, so lunch was never actually found. But we did get tea and stare out at the ocean while I drew and she read. In the afternoon we met Touria Hadraoui. She is a stunning malhoun singer (Here's a video of her singing). Malhoun is a very traditional form of Moroccan singing, where the songs are called poems. She is the first woman to sing this male-only form of music. Hadraoui also talked about her life, how she discovered the malhoun and she even sang a few poems for us. It was incredible to hear her. And the malhoun seemed to fill the room in a way that we had never heard before. She was just absolutely lovely.

We had a few hours to spare after the meetings, so we asked the van driver to take us around to whatever he thought was worth seeing. We went to some mausoleums and then to ruins of an old city. That night I ate pastilla (not pronounced like tortilla) which is delicious. A sweet pastry filled with meaty bits and covered in powdered sugar and cinnamon. Sounds bizarre, but oh so tasty.

Salaam waalaycoom from Rabat

Mosque tower ruins- the storks are believed to be good luck. So they're allowed to nest absolutely anywhere they want

And with that we were done with Rabat. On to Fez in the morning.