Rabat January 13, 2012 – Friday

   Caught the 8am train out of Casablanca port train station and arrived in Rabat shortly after 9am.  We tried using the wifi that was floating around the train station but a security guard who obviously had nothing better to do with himself and his position of power told us we were able to sit where we were, so we decided to just head and try again when we leave Rabat. Lugging all of our bags with us, we made our way from the train station towards the Medina, where we hoped to find a place to be able to stash most of our bags, so we wouldn’t have to haul them around with us the whole day.  

   

   We happened upon patisserie Majestic that we recognized from the lonely planet guide and stopped there for a bite of something fro breakfast.  Café o les, and some different types of pastries were quite enough to satisfy us both for the time being. We then proceeded on into the medina and eventually found a place where we could dump our bags in a cheap room and headed off through the medina to explore and find our way to the ocean.  

   Spent a good couple of hours walking along the coast and taking plenty of pictures out on various points and interesting rocks that we deemed to be epic picture taking spots.  Made our way around the end of the point and went and checked out the Tour de Hassan II, yet another tribute to a Hassan, and we also saw the mausoleum where Mohamed V and Hassan II are laid, all encased in marble and displayed for the public.  Spent a good chunk of time taking random pictures around the Tour Hassan where all the pillars from the old mosque still stand after the rest of the structure was destroyed in an earthquake years ago.  Got a couple of good jumping pictures with the tower in the background and even ventured some planking and hand stand ones on/against some of the pillars when we got over the fact that the security guards might kick us out for doing it.  Turned out it wasn’t that sacrilegious and we were fine.  We made our way back to our hotel room for a little bit before venturing out again to find something to eat in the later afternoon. 

  

   We found a little stand where they were selling different types of sandwich kind of things.  I still don’t know what I didn’t just take the chicken one that looked like dörner kebab, but anyways, now I know for next time.  I got the plain meat one that I thought was just beef, and Stephen got the mixed one that was the beef looking meet and this other really red sausage that we had no idea what kind of animal it had come from.  We made our way back down to the ocean through the medina to eat our food and discovered that the “beef” was actually just a lot of liver cooked up with onions and peppers and stuff, and still after eating most of his sandwich, Stephen still doesn’t know what the red sausage was.  I don’t think I have to say that we didn’t finish it all up. I had had quite enough after about half of mine, though Stephen did manage to make it almost the whole way through his.  All part of traveling, trying new things, and then knowing what to avoid when looking for the next meal.  

   We sat around the rocky beach a little bit, eating spits and just watching the waves crash into the rocks and fisherman casting their lures into the water, but never catching anything before heading back to our hotel room.  We stopped at a small hole-in-the-wall internet café on the way and checked a couple e-mails and facebook and things after we figured out how to use the keyboard that was totally set up differently. We definitely take immediate internet access for granted back home. Ha but it finally worked in the end, and we were able to let our parents know that we were still alive and rough travel plans for what we were going to be doing in the next couple of days.  Back at the hotel I had my first encounter with a squat toilet again after many years now, but it went relatively well although it was kind of wet in the bathroom. I attributed that fact to the last guy who had been in there, who by the sounds of it had had a kind of a rough time and seemed to splash around a lot and came wheezing out of the bathroom when he was done, visibly exerted over his latest antics that clearly accompanied his trips to the toilet.  Thankfully I noticed that there was no toilet paper before I went in, and was able to get some tissues from Stephen that did the job just fine.  Got to keep my eyes out tomorrow for some toilet paper somewhere, definitely should be considered a necessity when traveling around here.