Meandering through Casablanca

Greeting from 'Cas' as the locals call Casablanca. We have had a very enjoyable day and a half wandering through the medina, exploring the markets and meeting some of the locals. The people here are very friendly and we have been surprised at how little we have been bothered by people trying to take us somewhere or get us to buy some of their wares.

Today we strolled to the Al Hassan Mosque - the third biggest in the world and yesterday we explored the winding, narrow streets of the Medina. It is unlike any city I have been to and feels very much Arabic, rather than African. It is Ramadan at the moment so we have felt a little bit uncomfortable eating during the day, but what can you do! It is more like curious looks than anything else.

It has not been without incident - yesterday a guy got knocked down by a car in front of us. He sat on the road looking shocked but got up and seemed OK. The driver to his credit stopped his car and came up to check he was OK and then for added good measure, kissed him on both cheeks. The guy who was knocked down was a big, muscular black guy so the scene was quite bizarre.

Our accomodation is extremely basic - our hotel room has a bed, a shower, a light bulb with dangling, wires exposed from the ceiling and the linoleum floor is discoloured with black spotches from the water leaking from the shower. That said its clean and has a little balcony to watch the goings on below.

Tomorrow we are taking a bus to the little coastal town of Essouira - I may have spelt it wrong - which should make a nice contrast from Casablanca and our stop after that, Marrakesh. We will probably spend another night in Casa on the way back.