la shokran.

so on our second trip to Europe, we decided to throw in a little of northern Africa. i've always wanted to go to Casablanca, maybe more or less just to be able to make conversation if anyone brought up if I've ever watched the movie. turns out the movie was shot in Hollywood anyway, so Chicago is actually closer than the real place. regardless, we decided to start our trip in Morocco, make our way through Andalucia via the Costa del Sol and then end up in our last stop in Portugal.

we flew into Casablanca. i met up Henson, or HANZO, at the airport and then Mata would meet us up at the hotel since his flight came in later. honestly, i didn't really know what to expect. the combination of traveling to my first Muslim country and watching way too many movies like Syriana, The Kingdom and Babel thwarted my perception. i sat there waiting in the airport just waiting to be abducted and put in a dark room for having untied shoes. anyway, Henson finally arrived and we took the train from the airport to our hotel in city center. Here's a video of our ride Slumdog Millionaire style:

anyway, Casablanca in short, didn't have much to offer. it is a dirty metropolitan city, much like Panama city, but with less skyscrapers. the best part about it was someone, an American at that, decided to finally open up a "Rick's Cafe" in Casablanca. it looked every bit the part and even had the movie on loop. the only thing missing was the black guy who was playing the piano.

Rick's Cafe w/ Casablanca playing in the background.

we spent the night in Casablanca and took the first bus out to Marrakech in the morning. if Casablanca was any indication, Morocco was not very strict at all in regards to Muslim countries. the night before we were listening to live music, while locals dressed in Western attire drank and smoked the night away. So much for death by stoning. when we got to Marrakech, you understood exactly why tourists gravitated here. it is clean, vibrant and bustling - indicative of its famed grand bazaar Djemma el' Fna. we had heard a lot about this grand space - from snake charmers to live music to even some forbidden black magic. what we were really there for, however, was the food. the consensus on eating this open air food was widespread; half the ppl on forums said there was nothing wrong with eating the food while the other half suffered ungodly tummy aches and countless trips to the bathroom. regardless, we were going to try it out. here are some pics of the local fare:

Goat's brain.

Marrakech was otherworldly. it was something I have never experienced. the souks (markets) reminded me of the palengkes in the Philippines but in a grander scale, both in quantity of items and aggressiveness of vendors. they had everything - leather goods, ceramics, rugs, herbs, spices, artwork, shawls, etc. Mata even picked up a pet turtle - far from the original plan of buying a snake like they did in the movie "The Darjeeling Limited". We named him Dorian, after the Canadien traveler we met one night at the only watering hole in the Medina. Here's his handsome self:

Dorian with his new shell.

the next day we took a 2 day 1 night trip to Zagora. we hopped in a minivan with a handful of other travelers who signed up for the trip. the next 8 hrs was grueling. we were riding through plus 100 degree weather, in an un-air conditioned vehicle, with the relentless sun beating down. here were some pics along the way:

pitstop through our course through the Atlas Mountains.

our fellow traveler showing off his bargaining skills.

souvenirs.

tagine pots.

once we got to our destination, we hopped on a couple of these:

for the night, we were to camp in tents, but the tents proved to be too hot so we ended up sleeping under the stars. the sleep was restless but it was worth it; when the moon went down, you could see every star in the galaxy. here are some pics:

we returned back to marrakech the next day. we finished up our last souvenir shopping and had one last meal at Djemma el' Fna and then we were off on an overnight train to Tangier to catch the morning ferry to Gibraltar, Spain.