When I turn 46, I say "No more nonsense": Parts Unknown?... On y va! .... AGP

5:30
I wake up before the alarm.. Must be excitement. It's as if someone said "Windmills!" to Don Quixote ;-)

And I realize I still have to pack .... ;-(

8:30
I FINALLY read the label on the ground coffee package that I bought 4 days ago PROPERLY.
NO wonder I have been sluggish...... I've been drinking DECAF COFFEE !

the Bridge Of Mercy !

the Western disease: Build all kinds of shit but it doesn't get repaired

9:15
I took the Airport Express Bus A when I arrived here, but the C1 train is even easier (3 stops to the airport) and cheaper (only 1.80 Euros ;-).

Although I have to ask an attendant for help on how to use the ticket machine. "Toca! Toca !" is all he says, LOL.

10:00
Stupid Airport..... Millionaire's jets parked outside...

Millions of check-in counters but no Food or Drink before security apart from a Starbucks and a Burger King. And no Booze!
I feel like I'm in Morocco already ;-(

I can't even check in yet...

counters 332-333 are still occupied by a flight to Rotterdam....

even though they already dragged the Royal Air Maroc metal stand out....

...and this exciting architecture....

Finally, they change the display and I can check in

This time I don't complain that I'm given a window seat, maybe there will be some good pictures flying over the White City?

I'm hesitant to go through security already, but there is absolutely NOTHING to do/eat/drink in the non-secure zone of this airport.
First time someone actually inspects the bracelets I removed and stored in my backpack; they must have looked threatening on the X-ray image !

With still one hour remaining until boarding, spending 11 Euros on 2 small bottles of wine and an Empanada Atun seems like an excellent idea.

I think one of those bottles will go into my backpack.... I don't want to drink too much before being confined to a window seat and also, finding wine might be tricky in Morocco..... although I have already mapped out the 1.6 km route to the nearest Carrefour, which is the only supermarket licensed to sell alcohol in Morocco ;-)

11:45
Boarding time..... but there is NO PLANE at the gate.... NOT AGAIN, Please !

But there is a reason for that: We have to take the bus because the plane does not physically FIT on one of those gate tunnels....

It's an ATR propeller job again.

We all know how much carry-on crap bring onto planes and this time it's no exception..... only storing those stupid suitcases is so much more difficult:

The Mediterranean sea glows like liquid silver

Is THAT Africa already?

Food: Yummy chocolate muffin, cheese sandwich, drinkable yogurt

YES,it is ;-)

The flight is only 1.5 hours, so soon it's time to land again......

The immigration line-up is much too long for my taste....... And there is a moment of panic when I see that most other passengers have filled-in immigration forms folded into their passports..... OOOPS!
I and a few other panickers get the forms from a helpful Samaritan and fill them with squiggles using our passports as writing desks.
The man behind the counter seems VERY friendly.....but he is actually working his way through the squiggles on my immigration form, LOL.
I have to explain IN FRENCH what my job is (I was a bit sloppy filling in the immigration form ;-) .....but I don't know the French word for Translator in French: "changer la langue Aleman a langue Anglais" . then he understands smiles and tells me "En Arabe : blomafsalsdfk " He even repeats it but I still have to look it up on Google later. I am a مترجم .(Mutarjim)

I need MONEY. Exchange 100 Euros to MAD (Maroccan Dirham); that gets me 1040 MADs....

Now I want to smoke, but if I step out of the airport, they won't let me back in.... "Smoke in the train station" the guard says.....
First ANOTHER line-up: Buy a train ticket: "un billete a Casa Port, premiere classe, s'il vous plais"
64 Dirham for a 1 hour train journey (the bus takes 2 hours and I have no idea how much a taxi would cost).

But there are NO SMOKING signs everywhere! I am relieved when the other passengers don't care either about the signs either ;-)

15:35

The train starts moving !

One hour through fields, sheep, then square buildings, even the mosque towers are cuboids

16:05
We're passing through Casa Voyageurs..... this is where the trains to Fes and Marrakesh leave and from where I will leave Casablanca in a few days.....

The Royal Moroccan Train Service has toilet paper in the train's toilets.... would be nice if the Spaniards at Caminito del Rey would learn from that ;-)

ONCF also has WiFi at its stations! My laptop connects to the router, but there is no internet behind it, LOL.

16:25

Casa Port

NOT what I expected a Casablanca train station to look like ..

Following my phone's GPS directions

Good thing I have my GPS Map ready, LOL.
left, right, straight......!? There is NO straight.... but they are filming a movie..... and I'm even being told (very NICELY though).....

...... that I am NOT allowed to take pictures, LOL.

more and more narrow and confusing alleys ....

There it is: Hotel Central !
She remembers that I requested a room with balcony... and I get sea view as well ;-)

The take-along Malaga mini wine bottle is pretty much gone by now, so it's time to go follow the GPS again.... this time to the nearest Carrefour!

On my way through the Medina, there just SO many people, SO many new impressions, but I get shy taking pictures.... These are these people's lives.... I don't want to make them feel like the exotic animal in a zoo.....

But a day later I wish I had taken a picture of the sheep's heads and feet being prepared for cooking at the side of this road.... the image is burned into my memory, I just wish I had it on file, LOL.....not something one sees every day.

I'm glad I have my Vietnam training in dealing with NUTTY traffic... it comes in handy here ;-)

I find the Carrefour, but there is NO WINE
So I buy some soap & munchies instead.

I'm already exhausted when I get back to the hotel boozeless, but I ask the receptionist anyway: WHERE do I get some WINE?
"Oh! EASY: La BelVie La Gironde !".....she says.
This means as much to me as if she had said the Arab word for translator!
"Every taxi driver knows it"
At first I am reticent to venture into the darkness, but then I tell the nice receptionist woman "Why NOT..... It'll be an ADVENTURE".... she just grins and says "See you tomorrow then!"

The first THREE taxi drivers know it but they don't want to take me...... at first I think it is an anti-booze statement. Then I find a taxi at the Casa Port train station and he will take me for 70 MAD. Sure, I might be paying a tourist price, but now I also find out why NONE of the other taxis was willing to take me .....

Traffic in this city is MADNESS. Saigon is harmless compared to this.....at least in Vietnam the traffic MOVES..... My driver pulls a few stunts (like passing 30 cars waiting at the light in the opposing traffic (i.e. left) lane only to squeeze in front of the first car at the light..... and NO ONE honks because of that, LOL.

He earns his money!
Of course, there is NO wine in the Carrefour supermarket..... so I ask a guy stocking the shelves...... He guides me OUTSIDE the store, points at a small doorway to the right and says "follow that man"...... I do .... full of anticipation... up two flights of stairs.... turn left.....
and it's CHRISTMAS!!!....There is a large and fully stocked LIQUOR STORE there....

And they even have the GREY Wine that I have been reading about in the internet..... ;-)
But they don't sell corkscrews and I had to leave mine in Malaga....
WHAT are the chances that my strange hotel will have one?

Time to walk back to my hotel.... it's only 2.5 km, LOL....
..... OMG, my feet hurt.....

That's 6 km of walking just this afternoon on this Wine Safari....

The fabulous reception woman surprises me when I return:
There is a Corkscrew !

Now I am STARVING....
I will try Casa Fish right in front of the hotel.....
Alas, Paella (40 MAD) is OUT, so the owner convinces me to try the Fish Platter for 80 MAD, even though it looks a bit too big for me. Oh what he hell.... and I'll have a the a la menthe with that!

OMG, I never realized that the tea that everyone drinks on the terraces here is REALLY SWEET !