It’s about 8 in the morning… actual 8 this time. I still can’t believe that I didn’t know the actual time for the last two days. Anyway, I’m scheduled to be leaving here in about forty minutes, the destination isn’t completely clear, but I do know that I will be visiting a mosque. Supposedly this mosque is one of the largest around.

I woke up to rain today, and although it’s not too cold it’s overcast and it looks as if there may be more rain today. What do I know about rain? The last time I saw rain was about five months ago, and before that it was last Summer when I experienced any real amount of precipitation. I going on history here, it looks like it may rain. :)

There’s not much to talk about, and in reality I’m doing nothing more than killing time right now. I didn’t sleep very well last night mostly because I was too lazy to turn off the air conditioner. About 4 in the morning I was shivering under the covers and still I wouldn’t turn off the AC. I mean, I would have had to get out from the blankets to turn off the refridgerator, which I eventually did. The result is that I’m kind of “out of it” this morning. So out of it that at breakfast I was going for a large scoop of scrambled eggs, and was having problems getting the eggs to come off the spoon. I finally figured out, after asking someone, that what I was scooping out of the bowl was butter. Talk about feeling dense.:)

I made the move to the new hotel today with the plan to meet up with the group that I’d be traveling with. Note that I said that in the past tense because I missed the initial meeting at 730 tonight. I can’t believe that I did something so stupid, so stupid in fact that I’m almost too embarrassed to say what it was. Okay, well when I adjusted my watch/computer to the new time zone, I guess I missed it by an hour. In other words, I came down to meet my group at 830 instead of 730. Geezzz, could I be any more dense?

Other than that the day was okay. I did a lot of walking today. I didn’t see anything that great, but I did walk through some markets, and saw lots of Casablanca. The area I’m in now, as opposed to yesterday is much better. The other hotel was in a very run down part of the city, and although I actually like that kind of atmosphere there was a sense of worry when I was walking around. This area is by no means affluent, but much less poor.

I finally put the pictures that I took yesterday on my computer and resized them, so I’ll add them today.

It’s about 7am and I’m sitting in an open café under my hotel. There is African music playing through small speakers on the wall. I’m the only person here, but outside I can hear two people talking in Arabic. The café opens to a courtyard of palm trees and some park benches. So I got into Casablanca yesterday after about two of the worst plane rides I’ve taken in the last few years. I won’t say anymore about this once I vent a little. Why do the airlines insist on treating us like cattle? They herd us from one spot to another, cram us into seats that are just large enough for our bodies, completely ignoring that our arms and legs need space too. ‘nuff said.

I got into Casablanca in a strange mood. I didn’t know what to expect or where I needed to go. That’s not exactly true, I had the address of my hotel, but I had no clue where it was, or how far it was away.  I was a little pissed at the flight that I had endured so I decided to take a taxi. The taxis are nothing more than ancient Mercedes Benz that have a small sign that suggests it’s purpose. The ride was straight out of some movie. The driver honked his horn at nearly everything that was in front of the car, he made lanes where most normal people wouldn’t imagine a lane to actually exist. He wasn’t the only one either. At one light on a four-lane road, I counted six cars just waiting for the light to change. It’s all good, and to be honest I really enjoyed my taxi ride to the hotel.

Casablanca is different than what I had expected, which is a good thing. I was told that it was more cosmopolitan than the rest of Morocco, so my thought was, was that I was going to step into another Dubai. Fortunately that wasn’t the case, and at what I’ve seen so far, there is nothing cosmopolitan about this city.

After arriving at the hotel, I headed out just to walk around to see as much as I could before I wore out. It’s four hours earlier here than Dubai, so I had to deal with a little bit of jet lag, but it wasn’t that bad. I headed towards a large mosque stopping at the beach as I got closer. The beach really wasn’t a beach but more of just a retaining wall that people (mostly kids) were jumping from into the breaking waves.

I walked for about another 2 hours slowly making my way back to the hotel. I kind of like doing this kind of sightseeing. I get to be a part of the people as I walk along.

I haven’t put the pictures that I took yesterday so I won’t add any today. I also have to change hotels so I can meet up with the tour that I’m taking, so I don’t have time to do it this morning. I got back to the hotel about 10pm (Dubai time) which was 7 here. I fell asleep shortly afterwards. Pathetic when you go to bed at 8pm… I did get up at 4 though.