Good bye Casa, Hello Dubai.

Our friend Omar came to pick us up from the airport at around three o'clock in the afternoon. The morning had slipped by us chatting in Facebook with our friends and drinking coffee at the hotel lobby. Now when I look back to it from our third hotel lobby since that one, it kind of makes we wonder was it worth it to go to Morocco.

Marrakech itself was dirty, but yet a very interesting city. The High Atlas Mountains were unbelievable and especially the hike to Mt. Toubkal was something I will never forget. All the people we met in this country were far from what people in the Western world expect them to be. Almost without any exceptions people are kind, welcoming, happy and even though some of them have so little, they still manage to keep a smile on their face. You have to admire their spirit, and that is why everyone should visit Morocco at least once in their lifetime.

Now back to our story of our trip to Casablanca. As I wrote earlier, Omar came to pick us up from the airport and we drove to Casablanca through the flat deserts of Morocco. We arrived to Casablanca at dawn, and the first thing - as always - was to find us a decent hotel. Luckily, Omar had friends everywhere and he was able to find us a nice place in just a few minutes. The hotel was old and there were two different sides in it. There was the normal side and then the budget side. We of course went for the budget side, and despite the fact that there was no hot water, no pillows and the room temperature wobbling around +12ºC, the hotel did its job. It gave us shelter and a place to sleep. 

As we got ourselves checked into the hotel, it was time for dinner. During our drive we asked Omar about the food in Casablanca and he told us about an excellent seafood place. The place is located near the fish market so the fish is always absolutely fresh. Omar guided us through our orders, and it seems that it is more than wise to ask what is fresh, rather than look at the menu in these sorts of restaurants. The food was amazing, and as the plates flew by, we really started to like Casablanca through its cuisine. The evening went the same way as the three to come were destined to go – by sitting in the hotel lobby shivering and surfing in the mysterious places of the Internet.

We woke up early the next day and headed to the fish market, but at the gates we received a No No from the police officer, because of our cameras. So, filming was not allowed at the port. We decided to go sightseeing the old new city's streets and talked about everything. Omar called us at around 11 o'clock and we met him at an old marketplace with a small fish market inside it. We took some photos and shots and Omar wanted us to try the oysters. The old lady selling the oysters had already convinced me to try them, but when Omar told me that his daughter eats eight or nine of them every time they come there, I was sold. We put the cameras rolling and down the hatch goes the oyster. When the time came to say something about the oyster, I went speechless. It was unbelievably tasty with all the lemon and everything. It was so different from the oysters in Europe. Ten times better, to say the least.

At the market we told Omar about our misfortunate trip to the first fish market and he started laughing at us. He wanted to go there with us, so we jumped to his Pathfinder and drove to the fish market once again. He just nodded at the officer and we were in. Omar is a pretty well connected guy it seems. The fish market is a huge place, where the fishermen come to sell their daily catch every morning. Some of the fish are sold through auctioning, including the tunas and the marlins, and the rest of the fish are sold from small tables to whoever wants to buy some for their daily needs. The fish market is an exciting place to visit in Casablanca if you want so see what the ocean has to offer. 

In the evening we went to this one local spot to have something to eat, and it seems that you really have to know the places in Casablanca to find something proper to eat. We ordered three courses of meat and fries, and that is what we really got. The fries were okay, but the meat was absolutely hideous. We thought that it had to be some cat caught from the alley or something. We managed to eat some of it, but not all because of the taste. 

The next day it was time to do some fishing. A couple of days back I had asked Omar if there are any shore fishing spots next to Casablanca. He told me that his brother-in-law is an ambitious fisherman, and that he can probably help us out. So, as the location that we were heading to was 20 kilometers from Casablanca, we went for an early start once again. We drove to Omar's brother-in-law's home first, and then headed to our destination. The location was a beautiful sand beach next to a quad rental. We borrowed our gear from the owner of the quad rental and headed to the beach. The fishing was angling with sliding weights and a hook. On the hook we put a small piece of squid as a bait that we had bought from a fish market on our way to the beach. And so the fishing began. After an hour, Ape seemed to have something on the other end of the line, but after five minutes of struggling, the approximately five meters long fish got away. There was a café on the side of the quad rental as well, and the staff brought  us a keg of beer and some paella to eat. They even carried us a table and some stools to the beach, easy livin'. So, we didn't catch any fish, but it was still a memorable day at the beach for us.

The day just wouldn't have been right without a few after-fish beers, so we headed to a beach club close by that the guys knew. The place was packed with maybe 50-year-old rich guys and lots of young girls, and the music was pumping hard. Jet set people dancing everywhere, and what more can I say than that the place was of the hook, so to speak. After a beer, it was time for us to head back to Casablanca and to our lovely hotel lobby.

Our following day started with a coffee in the new center, and I went to see how a local sports shop looks like. And something funny happened as well. We met our goofy guide Rachid from Marrakech. If you think that there are 5 million people living in Casablanca, what are the odds to meet someone you know? Anyway, Rachid wanted us to visit the Twin Towers to see the Casablanca from its side to side. The view from the tower's roof café is unbelievable. You can see the whole spread of Casablanca's thousands of blocks and all the way to the sea. We bought flights through the Internet and Rachid played some piano. He even had his dog sitting on a stool next to him listening him playing. Nice time spent, and once again we were on our way back to our stunning hotel. The city is pretty much seen in just a few days, so we decided to just spend the last day hanging out in our hotel.

The last morning we headed to one café with a faster Internet connection near our hotel to fix our GPS-tracker. After a few hours of trying, it kind of started to work, nice. So, the last thing to do in Morocco for us was to get a couple of shots done and to go for a short lunch with Omar. Omar really knows the places and once again the food was amazing. We ate some Moroccan salad, olives, fish balls, tongue and cole in marinade. It was so tasty in all the ways imaginable.

After the lunch it was time to head back to our hotel and start heading to the airport. We pre-ordered a BIG taxi to pick us up. Well, it was big, but not in the way we had hoped for. An old Mercedes 230D without folding backseats, nice and funny. The driver tried to fit our 190cm long ski pack sideways to the trunk first, with us laughing next to him. After a while, he let us do the packing. We have been traveling enough to know how to pack cars, we told him. So, two rollers in the trunk, four backpacks on our laps and the huge ski pack inside the car reaching from the windshield all the way to the back glass, and we were on our way. In this kind of  countries they have carriers at the airports, and with just a few euros you will have all your luggage carried all the way to the check-in counter. They even give you the visa forms that you need in order to leave the country of Morocco. So forward we go, said an old woman in the snow and we were off to Dubai.