Thursday started easy and took a walk into town, but as soon as we got our passports back and were outside the gate, a local fisherman caught up with us and decided he wanted to guide us around on his own. Something I wasn’t very interested in and we wanted to take a look around in the city on our own, so we stopped at a beach and were standing there for 5-10 minutes before we continued and after 50 meters he said goodbye and we continued. We didn’t get too far when we came to a park and I saw a bank and wanted to exchange some money, Bjørn and Vidar was just behind me. Inside the bank only 2 of the cashiers was manned, and I got in line like a meter behind the guy in front of me that got his mail stamped or something. The desk was about 1,5 meters wide and spacious enough for another guy on each side, and those two spots was soon occupied by some other locals. So I decided to close the gap so I wouldn’t be lat in line, but to stay in line and wait for your turn is not something common down here, more and more locals went past me and up to the desk and asked for this and that.

It seriously started to annoy me, and when the guy that got his mail sorted out didn’t have the right credit card to pay with left to get some money, i took two quick steps forward were had been standing, put my passport on the desk with the money and gently pushed the papers to the lady next to me aside. But to no help, the cashier took her papers and help her out, even if she had seen be in the line longer than anyone there. So if she took the papers to the guy on my other side I decided to take my passport and money and leave, and guess what, when she was done with this lady, she took those papers. So I got my stuff and walk out of the bank slightly annoyed only to find Bjørn and Vidar outside with the local fisher again, but he had told them a lot of stuff so it was ok to have him with us. Before we left, the guy that was next to me came out and wanted me to come back in, but I had no plans going in there again, huh.

So we continued walking towards the centre of town and the local market, but at the main gate he took us along the wall to the corner to show us another entrance and a small market outside the wall, first thing was a guy selling flowers, and he had some nice flowers, and then it was butchers, fish, fruit and vegetables along the rest of the wall with all the smells that comes with that. But we came through a small gate in the wall and showed us around there before he took us to the railway station and another bank, then we went to a local bar and got a local beer. After that we wanted to walk around on our own and said goodbye to him again and gave him 100 Dirham, about 6-7 Euro, but he wanted more of course to his sick children that he was going home to see. But he didn’t get anything and we walk over the street to sit down on a bench, and after a little while we saw him sit down at a bar on the other side with a smoke, even he told us he quit smoking a year ago…

Today, Friday, i and Vidar have been to Casablanca, Bjørn didn’t feel well so he spent the day in the boat all day and felt better when we came back. But me and Vidar took the train and were there in 25 minutes. We walked up a street that was just outside a big market, and a local guy in a shop stopped us if we wanted anything in his store, but we didn’t, so he asked if there was something we wanted and Vidar wanted a new wallet, and then it was like his ass was on fire, he quickly dragged us inside the walls and some very narrow streets to another store, had a look at the stuff there, then another guy came with some wallets, but I think I will leave the rest of this story for Vidar to tellJ

When we were done there, we just walked up and down in this market area that was quite big and easy to get lost, many came up behind us whispering hashish, but we kindly said no, one of them wanted something else too and had half his hand down my pocket, but then we told him to go somewhere else if he didn’t want to get in trouble, something he couldn’t understand. But all the valuables were in my backpack. Not sure where we were, but this guy said hey, and Vidar was the first to turn around and walk over to speak with 3 guys eating sardine kebab at a guy standing with his barbeque on the street. It turned into quite a long chat and they gave Vidar a kebab and offered me one too, but the little sample I got wasn’t that tasty so I didn’t want one. We talk about this and that, and that we didn’t come from Denmark was nice, because of this cartoons that have been published in the newspapers there they didn’t like Danish people, and it turned into more talk about religion, and that is something we didn’t want to talk about being surrounded by Arabic people. I got to practice my Spanish and when we said we wanted to take a look at the huge mosque there they was so happy to help us that 3 of the guys walk us almost all the way over there, until a point where they didn’t want to follow us anymore.

The mosque was next to the sea, and it is huge, what a building and so detailed decorations, we took some pictures outside before we walked towards the entrance and figured out we could go inside, if we wasn’t allowed, someone would stop us anyway, but no one did so off with our shoes and in we went. After a little while it was time for a prayer, the well known singing, this you can hear all over from different mosques all over. But what an amazing acoustic inside, it was incredible. We were walking around inside until a man came toward us at one end of the building, he was wearing a camouflage vest and a quicksilver caps, and it didn’t look like he had anything to do inside this mosque, but he asked if we were Muslims, and we’re not, and he told us that this was not a place to be for none believers during this holy day or something. He guided us towards a door, but we couldn’t go out there, because this boss of something was sitting there and if he saw us we would get in trouble, so he took us to another door 30 meters further down and we went out, but he said we should give some guards 100 dirham for the difficult situation we had put them in, so to be nice we gave them the coins we had, about 15-20 dirham.

On the outside we walked around the big square, but got sick and tired of the constant rubbish coming from the PA system outside and walked back into town. We walk quite a bit, then we sat down at a local fast food shop and had some food, chicken, coca cola and some fries. All this was only 67 dirham, an ok price for once. Then we walked down to the marked area again a bought some stuff, then we walked into the shop were Vidar did some shopping earlier and talked with them again for a while. But then it was time to get back to the boat, but outside the marked area we met the guy in camouflage vest again that through us out of the mosque, so we sat down and he insisted that we had a cup of tea with him, and it was a good cup of tea, no doubt. He told us a lot about Morocco and we brought out our newly purchased map and he drew and told about this and that. Then he thought we should taste the local dish they eat during this holiday, couscous, and we could always try some of this, so we took a seat inside and got served this kinda porridge with vegetables and a few pieces of lamb meat and a glass of sour milk. It tasted well, not the milk for my concern, but when they showed us the bill I could have fallen of my chair, how could a small plate of this be 160 dirham, 14 Euro, and then another 70 dirham for the milk and tea, it was a big discussion with the guy that came with the bill, and kindly asked the guy in the camouflage west to shut up while I was talking with this other guy, but for no good, they showed us this price on a menu in French, so we paid and got out of there, bastards. Our new friend wanted to take us to a sport shop, but we were fed up with him and said we wanted to get back in the boat, which was ok by him, he just wanted some money of us, but not a chance that would happen.

So, the conclusion must be, if you are going to buy something, whatever it may be, food or clothing, ask about price before you ask about anything else, if it is outrageous, just walk out, they will screw you around and get more money of you than you can believe. If it sounds ok, bargain a little bit, at least you will feel well with yourself, even if the screwed you around, and another thing, if you feel rude or impolite if you don’t answer when they shout at you or you totally ignore them,  if they want to sell you anything or just beg for your money, you shouldn’t worry about it at all, I think it is just as rude and impolite to behave like I have seen here, but guess that is how it has become with all the tourist that are here and how easy it is to take advantage of them that don’t know their language.