Meknes and Journey to Casablanca - Fifth Day in Morocco

21. September 2022

I thought we had gotten up early before. We hadn't. On the fifth day, we were up at 6:45. It's what happens when you plan half of the trip in just a few hours on a video call. You'll be in a bit of a hurry heh.

We ate breakfast - nothing special; just what we had that we could prepare quickly. After that we lined up and headed out of the Riad, to speedrun the city of Meknes. - we had no real plan.

Meknes isn't the biggest of cities, but it's far from small. It has a few things to see. We sauntered through Meknes and it was quite normal looking for a 21st-century city, not the medina we were used to from Fes.

After swerving around the corners for a bit, and going through a city wall or two, we arrived at a simple and quiet street with a few shops on one side and a giant building on the other. We only knew that this was the mausoleum (tomb) of some mighty person.

But our attention was caught by the dozens of birds on the collapsing building next to the shops. White and black, tall and skinny. Dozens of storks stood and rested on the destroyed building, some flying off, others landing.

Yes, we have storks back home. But seeing a small army of these birds simply chilling in one place? Yes, this was a first for me.

A man from one of the shops - the only one open at the early hour - shouted across the street that the mausoleum would open at 9:00, just 10 minutes from now. And so we sat down to wait. We took the opportunity to get some more information.

The building was the mausoleum of one Sultan Moulay Isma'il, who ushered in the Golden Age of Morocco. The Moroccan monarch concentrated the country's power in his hands and established Morocco as a regional power.

And at the same time, he was the father of 868+ children! He is the man who (verified) had the most children in the history of the world. Genghis Khan only supposedly had more of them. The insane number of children was the result of a harem numbering around 500 women. Only 4 of these were wives.

After taking some nice photos of the former palace-turned-tomb, we set off to explore the city's medina. And yes... Experiencing the medina of Fes skewered our expectations of Morocco.

The medina of Meknes was a mere candle compared to that of Fes, which was a wild bonfire.

Still, we managed to get lost and then find our way out of the maze to get back to the Riad. This too turned out to be an experience.

When we left the rooms in the morning, the city was practically empty, peaceful, and silent. Now, when we went to the train station, the city was completely different.

The previously empty and wide streets were full of cars and stalls selling all kinds of things. People crowded the sidewalks and restaurants were opening up.

I didn't get it. How come they didn't take advantage of the colder early hours of the day? Why start business only when the heat comes? The heat in Morocco is no joke, by the way.

A 1-hour walk awaited us to the train station. "We can do that, we don't need a taxi," we said. That lasted for only about 15 minutes of walking.

A taxi would've been a good idea. But we couldn't agree on what to do. So we went on foot. In exchange for our suffering, however, we saw the city. Not just the medina, but what modern Meknes looked like.

Damn, it was totally modern. For example, there were Mcdonald's and KFC, and Pizza Hut, and of course, the infrastructure was great. I thought the city was more beautiful than some of the cities back home.

However, two things were different: the intense, dry, dusty heat (thank goodness there wasn't much humidity) and the almost complete lack of trash cans. The latter resulted in a lot of trash on the streets.

After walking for about 45 minutes, we reached an exchange office and bought several Moroccan dirhams. And finally, it was time for... food, LOL, we were starving.

We went to some western burger place. I took a 'bianco' chicken pizza. At the time, I didn't know that meant a pizza without tomato sauce. Umm, okay... But I got ketchup, so it was okay. The meal itself was insanely good.

We used the table and the air-conditioned room to see who owed what to whom and to pay off the debts. After all, two girls were leaving us at the train station. Settling up, we continued our journey towards the train station. Due to backtracking for the food, it took us another 25 minutes or so to reach it.

Maybe it wouldn't be so bad if we didn't run out of water. Now that. That wasn't ideal. Immediately after arriving at the station, we split into two smaller groups, one went to buy tickets and the other to buy water. Oh, water.

A few minutes later the trains arrived. This is where our group split. Two of the group returned to Fes to fly to Barcelona, while the rest of us went on to Casablanca and then Marrakech.

Damn. I've always laughed at the stories of someone missing someone right after going apart, despite only having known each other for a short time. Now? What? Wow, I felt the hole left by two girls right away.

The train was simple, the carriages were divided into compartments. Like in Harry Potter. Surprisingly, the card was quite expensive. From Meknes to Casablanca, the ride of 200-250 kilometres cost 630 dirhams - about €12.50 per person.

But we wanted to see the Moroccan landscape on the 3-hour drive. And we did see some of it. Again, the 'episodes' began. Outside the city, there were initially a few minutes of pure stones and earth.

A desert. Then, when I started writing notes for this blog, trees and farms appeared.

Then it was desert again.

And trees again.

And so our journey went. Until a Moroccan working in Canada came into our compartment. This guy... I don't know if it's possible to be more extroverted. He immediately started a conversation with us. Where we're from and all that. Another passenger with us in the compartment joined in the conversation, a young woman.

Again we heard that Morocco is very liberal. That clubs and nightlife can be totally fucked up? That women may be naked in clubs? LOL?

Of course, all this was intended for cities, their newer parts. Definitely not the medina of Fes, which was our first stay in Morocco. Those alleys and their inhabitants really influenced how we saw the country.

Drees, as the Canadian Moroccan was called, also told us that we had been paying way too much until now. For the Airbnb in Casablanca. And for taxis.

What!? We thought we were getting steals for the most part, that we were paying dirt cheap prices. Apparently, we were being hella scammed. We paid in hundreds of dirhams, which should only cost a couple of ten dirhams, maybe a hundred or two hundred.

Of course, Drees was also open to questions and I asked him about the different Arabic dialects around the world. Answer: apparently, Moroccans can understand any other Arabic, but other Arabs will not understand Moroccan dialects.

When Drees left after an hour or so, our room became somewhat quiet.

Even the young woman who took part in the conversation, Hafsa, quieted down - she said she was tired. But she still told us when to get off the train.

But we got off the train too early. Not due to our fault or Hasfa's. The ticket sold was to the main station.

And when we were checking the distance from the station to our Airbnb, we were looking at another station. Well, fuck. Instead of a 30-minute walk, we had a good hour ahead of us. No way. As soon as we got out of the station, taxi drivers came to us with offers. The first was: €5 per person for 4 kilometres.

Hell no, we wouldn't take it, not after Drees told us it was possible for €2 per person. So we reduced it to €3.50 per person. Fine. We drove to the Airbnb.

The building was in a sketchy-looking neighbourhood, although it may have seemed so because we arrived at a late hour when the sun was already setting. The apartment was mad nice, though. It was very new, and modern, with Mickey Mouse, painted on the wall.

Cool, the rest of the group went to the store, and I stayed in the Airbnb. Tasked with finding beaches worth visiting in Casablanca, I opened Google and read. And read how we had an Airbnb in a dangerous neighbourhood and we weren't supposed to go out at night. Under no circumstances.

Hell, it was already dark outside. I was worried for a long moment. I quickly wrote to the company to be careful. Until I realized I had read it wrong. The neighbourhood we were in was actually one of the safest.

Come on, Samo. When the gang got back we laid on the couch and watched 'Inside job' on TV - we had access to Netflix.

Then we went to bed and said, "We will plan our stay in Casablanca over breakfast."