A Tale Of Two Cities

Capital Punishment
Ok, so that might be a bit harsh of a title, but it was the first pun that came to mind. I got the train from Tangier and arrived in Morocco’s capital Rabat just as it was getting dark. Stepping out of the train station I noticed it really was a modern city, with clean, wide, palm lined avenues and fancy buildings. One of the reasons I knew I would have to visit Rabat was to arrange my visa for future travel, so the next morning I got up bright and early and caught a taxi to the Mauritanian embassy. I had heard some nightmare stories of how difficult it could be, which was why I wanted to arrive early in the week and give myself as much time as possible. When I got there a half Moroccan half Mauritanian man named Zeine greeted me outside the gates, he told me I needed two passport sized photos and a copy of my passport. Zeine didn’t work for the embassy, but has made a profession of helping bewildered tourists and I appreciated his entrepreneurship so gladly accepted his help. He took me to sort out all the requirements, and while I went into a local bank to complete the 690 dirham (roughly €70) visa payment, he even filled out my application form which was all in Arabic and French. He never asked for asked for any money, but I was more than happy to give him a 50 dirham tip, hoping this would suffice for his assistance, and he seemed pleased with it. The following day I went back to the embassy and after an hour or so of waiting I could pick up my completed visa, it really wasn’t as complicated as I had feared. When I wasn’t handling bureaucratic issues I was walking around the city, and although it was nice, there was just something lacking, it didn’t have that charm or character that I had gotten used to in the past couple of weeks, the medina wasn’t as chaotic, the alleys were wide enough to fit two cars and after a few days I decided to keep moving.

Of All the Gin Joints…
It was only an hour’s train ride south to Casablanca, the city made famous by the 1942 movie (which I have never seen) is by far the largest in the country with a population of nearly four million and the economic capital. Walking from the station to my hostel I immediately found what I was missing in Rabat, even though its a big modern city as well, the neighborhood where I stayed behind the Casa Port was oozing with personality and gave me flashbacks of Latin America with its small plazas and yellow Spanish Colonial architecture. I spent three days falling in love with the big city, the different neighbourhoods the mixture of modern buildings, French boulevards, the old medina, souqs and giant mosques along with the nice weather made for perfect long walks. Unfortunately most of the oceanfront is currently under renovation, but once the beach promenade is finished in a couple of years, Casablanca will have even more of a reason to visit.