The Trip of a Lifetime: May 14 to 17, 2022 - Casablanca

May 14, 2022: Captain’s log: stardate 27: Casablanca
Running in a new place is always scary. Today I ran on a new continent. You always go out after sunrise and try to find large streets. When I left the apartment I saw very few runners until I got close to the ocean. Then there were tons. A lot of good runners, but also plenty off plodders like me. Nice area too. Most of Casablanca is a sh*thole, but this part isn’t.
We did Rick’s Cafe for lunch today. It’s really the only reason we came to Casablanca. I was in heaven, even though the champagne cocktail was $18. I know it has nothing to do with the movie, and is a total tourist trap, but Casablanca is my favorite movie ever. I saw it with Roz on several of our anniversaries. I saw it under the stars in the middle of the Atklantic Ocean and I saw it in 35mm at the Coral Gables Cinema with Paul Henreid’s granddaughter. I couldn’t come to Morocco without stopping in Casablanca to have a champagne cocktail at Rick’s.
It comes at a price though. The men here are very creepy. They leer at Roz. And trust me, she isn’t dressing provocatively. The I was jogging today a young lady paused her run because she had a stitch. She was bent over in pain from it. There was a man in some sort of religious gown grasping a string of beads. He saw her situation and started walking over to her, but obviously not to help. She saw him coming and started running again, even though she was still in pain. The buses won’t stop for us if there are no locals at the bus stop with us. What’s up with that? Can’t even figure out why…tourists?…black woman?…white man?…maybe something we haven’t thought of. Oh well. Take the bad with the good. Bigots won’t spoil our trip.
I’m having trouble finding a basic French book. Today I found two vocabulary books for little kids to at least get started. It is coming back slowly but surely.
jusqu'à demain

May 15, 2022: Captain’s log: stardate 28: Casablanca
We went to the Hassan II mosque today. It is beautiful. It is the third largest mosque in the world, behind Mecca and Medina. During Ramadan, it accommodates 105,000 worshippers at a time. 25,000 inside and 80,000 outside each day. The architect was French. They used a lot of cedar and titanium in the construction because of the salt air. The details are intricate, like the Alhambra.
Going through it reminded me of touring the magnificent churches in Rome and Sagrada Familia in Barcelona. Great beauty built on the backs of a lot of poor people by a few wealthy people. Pastor Joe at Calvary Chapel in Philly (where they passed around takeout chicken buckets for the offering) used to say he was worried that people would start saying you have to use chicken buckets to worship God correctly.
So many people follow the trappings. In the midst of all the beauty today I thought, “Wow! If men can make something this beautiful, then God’s Temple must be breathtaking. And since my body is God’s Temple, than his work in me is way more beautiful than any house of worship.” And mine was built on the back of the creator of the universe and only cost one life…mine.
jusqu'à demain

May 16, 2022: Captain’s log: stardate 29: Monday in Casablanca
We have not slept well since arriving here because we have neighbors who stay up all night making noise. It’s hard to tell if they are partying or fighting. They play music and scream. There is a lot of street noise, but that is easy to ignore. Hopefully these neighbors are an outlier and we can sleep better when we move on to Marrakesh.
We went to Habbous today. It is a recreation of a Medina. The actual ancient Medina here is pretty crappy. This is much better. We did some tourist shopping. I still haven’t found a good French book. The search continues.
We ate at a little restaurant called Zayna. Food was excellent and they had two guys playing traditional instruments and singing.
We grabbed YOLO Burgers for dinner. Mine was like a flavor bomb. Boom!
Tomorrow we do a little more sightseeing and then come home to prepare our move to the desert.
jusqu'à demain

May 17, 2022: Captain’s log: stardate 30: Tuesday; Casablanca
We visited the Museum of Moroccan Judaism today. Out of the way, but a must see for people who understand the importance of an Arab country tolerant enough to have a Jewish museum. It housed artifacts and pictures. There was no guide. Trust me you don’t need one.
I have been falling in love with olives since we first started getting off the boat for excursions. My favorite in Spain was a jumbo, pitted green olive with some kind of deliciousness infused into it, that we had at the brewpub in Gracia, Barcelona. Here my favorite is a very very ripe black olive that they serve with everything. You spear them with a toothpick so you don’t stain your fingers.
I’ve watched the movie Casablanca so many times over my lifetime. I figured I better watch it here. I always notice something new. Last night I noticed this. When Victor Lazlo arrives at the prefect’s office for his meeting, Captain Renault asks him how he slept. Laszlo says, “I slept very well.” Renault says, “That’s strange; nobody's supposed to sleep well in Casablanca.” Maybe Captain Renault shared our neighbors! They were actually quiet last night and we slept very well. Must have been their night off from hell-raising.
We are spending this evening making final preparations for Marrakech, which is the real destination of this trip. Quite some time ago Roz said, “For my ** birthday (my mom didn’t raise no fools) I want to go to Marrakech.” She was going to take an art class with a group, but COVID-19 knocked that out. So we figured out a way to make it happen on our own.
We have so many cool things planned over the next week. Kids, sorry we will be spending some of your inheritance. Get over it.

It wouldn’t be much anyway.
jusqu'à demain