Casablanca

The girl with the golden hair stopped travelling the world for a short while to celebrate the New Year’s Eve. The event took place in Casablanca, at the Sheraton, and it was, well ... not bad. The food was excellent, live music by a local band and a short belly dance show at the very end … Happy New Year everyone!

The first day of 2007 started a tad late … We managed to actually get out of the hotel at 2pm, after a rather long while spent pondering on what I should wear :-) (I usually decide on that much quicker but this time it took me a while) and a frugal brunch.

Again long walk today. We started by exploring the street labyrinth of the old city. The poverty but, most of all, the dirtiness of the little narrow streets startled us. I have seen poverty elsewhere but the one here was beyond what I had seen before. A quarter of the city stripped of any beauty, with shabby houses, lousy, stinky little streets. People walking around briskly, men staring indecently, little children trying to get some money, teenagers playing football, people selling fruits and veggies. Lots and lots of stray, skinny cats everywhere, especially lurking around butchers’ shops in hope of getting a piece of meat. Heartbreaking.

We next found a great mosque, quite new (around 50 years old), built during the time of the previous King. It is an impressive building, lying on the ocean shore. As only Muslims were admitted inside, we kept ourselves busy watching the ocean waves for a while, walking on the shore and smelling the fresh breeze. At last something beautiful to admire.

The evening finished with a short walk in the more modern part of the city, the neighbourhood of our hotel. Casablanca, as Marrakech, is very polluted and, at some point, walking down the street becomes a real pain. Soon, we found ourselves tired and longing for the shelter of our hotel. Back in the room now, for a well deserved rest.