The Great Moroccan Goodbye Tour, Part 1: Casablanca

I left my teaching job in Morocco on November 22nd with a fun Thanksgiving social event as my goodbye to the students. Then, on Thanksgiving Day, I hopped on the train to the airport to meet my friends arriving from the United States.

I had been thrilled when my cousin/friend/college roommate Amanda, said cousin's boyfriend Jeff, and a good friend from high school Brittany all made plans to come on an adventure in Morocco. I had been looking forward to our trip for months, so it felt like long wait outside the airport as they navigated the dreaded Casablanca customs line within, but eventually we were united. After hugs and introductions (I'd never met Jeff before), we hopped in a taxi into the city.

It was Thanksgiving, but they had also just completed around 24 hours of traveling, so we had tajine for dinner nearby and a low-key evening in my apartment. The following morning, we took taxis up to the port. There, we ate a huge Moroccan brunch at La Sqala, the beautiful restaurant inside an old fortress, and wandered the Medina. We were browsing the shops when the afternoon prayer call rang out, so then we quietly skirted rows of men kneeling on the narrow street and found our way back to the main road.

From there, we followed the coastline around to the Hassan II Mosque, the most famous landmark of Casablanca. It was cool to see the people flooding out of the huge building as the prayers finished. After taking some photos, we found taxis back to my apartment and packed up for our trip around the country. In the middle of the afternoon, we hopped on the train to Marrakesh.