We needed to return the car to Marrekech and made the decision that it made more sense to take the seven hour train ride to Meknes that same day rather than wasting another night in Marrekech or taking a night train to Meknes and having a bad night's sleep.
We got stuck behind a bazillion trucks when we climbed the mountains from Marrekesh to Ouarzazate the first time and it took us 4.5 hours. We needed to reverse that journey and get the car back to Marrkesh by 1 p.m. Unhappily, we started off at 8:30 a.m. The drive was beautiful! Somehow, we managed to avoid any major delays or getting stuck behind slow moving vehicles. We made to Marrekesh in 3.5 hours! Then things took a few bad turns on the way to the airport, and by bad turns, I mean, we almost went into a no-entry and managed to drive through the medina, past our original riad, and through the city on our way to the airport. I cannot stress enough how I wish I was just driving in Warrensburg, MO, where the biggest obstacle to your safety/timeliness/patience is the older folk driving from the Veterans Home or on their Sunday drive. We made it all in good time, turned the car in, and got to the train.
After a few hours on a super comfy train, the likes of which we haven't seen since Europe, in our packed little compartment, the young Moroccans sitting next to us started talking to us. We learned so much about Morocco as we chatted to them for the next 5 hours. Apparently, you can't travel on a train in Morocco without chatting with the other passengers in your compartment. It just is a part of the Moroccan train experience. One young guy, a Moroccan cinematographer, coming back from a shoot near Marrekesh, couldn't wait to get back to Casablanca so he could roll a joint. He went on and on, humorously, telling us all about canabis production in Morocco (which apparently supplies 90% of the supply found in Amsterdam's cafes), and about the best hash he'd ever had that got him so high, he saw a white light and thought he was talking to God. My response: "What did God say?" He didn't know! How disappointing.
What was even more amusing is that as he went on and on and on about how good weed is in Morocco, and how excited he was to roll a joint in Casablanca, was that the 45 year-old Muslim woman sitting next to him, was laughing and giving a knowing smile, right along with him! I would have been so embarrassed speaking of such things with a "Mom" kind of character in the compartment. Nope! She had the smile of a "been there, done that, had fun" expression the whole time.
The young girls sitting next to us were coming back from interview with RyanAir and are studying to become airline attendants. We chatted with them, and asked them a variety of questions about their studies and our observations in Morocco. At one point we started to joke about weird things people have seen on flights. The girls' teacher told them that once, he was working a flight from Morocco, and while they were sitting on the tarmac, he passed an old man, who had decided it was time for him to get out his own small kettle and make himself tea!! Who does that?? Pallavi and I decided that we would really struggle in a situation interview question that asked, "what do you do if you pass a passenger who is using his own kettle to make himself tea?" We still don't know.
We got stuck behind a bazillion trucks when we climbed the mountains from Marrekesh to Ouarzazate the first time and it took us 4.5 hours. We needed to reverse that journey and get the car back to Marrkesh by 1 p.m. Unhappily, we started off at 8:30 a.m. The drive was beautiful! Somehow, we managed to avoid any major delays or getting stuck behind slow moving vehicles. We made to Marrekesh in 3.5 hours! Then things took a few bad turns on the way to the airport, and by bad turns, I mean, we almost went into a no-entry and managed to drive through the medina, past our original riad, and through the city on our way to the airport. I cannot stress enough how I wish I was just driving in Warrensburg, MO, where the biggest obstacle to your safety/timeliness/patience is the older folk driving from the Veterans Home or on their Sunday drive. We made it all in good time, turned the car in, and got to the train.
After a few hours on a super comfy train, the likes of which we haven't seen since Europe, in our packed little compartment, the young Moroccans sitting next to us started talking to us. We learned so much about Morocco as we chatted to them for the next 5 hours. Apparently, you can't travel on a train in Morocco without chatting with the other passengers in your compartment. It just is a part of the Moroccan train experience. One young guy, a Moroccan cinematographer, coming back from a shoot near Marrekesh, couldn't wait to get back to Casablanca so he could roll a joint. He went on and on, humorously, telling us all about canabis production in Morocco (which apparently supplies 90% of the supply found in Amsterdam's cafes), and about the best hash he'd ever had that got him so high, he saw a white light and thought he was talking to God. My response: "What did God say?" He didn't know! How disappointing.
What was even more amusing is that as he went on and on and on about how good weed is in Morocco, and how excited he was to roll a joint in Casablanca, was that the 45 year-old Muslim woman sitting next to him, was laughing and giving a knowing smile, right along with him! I would have been so embarrassed speaking of such things with a "Mom" kind of character in the compartment. Nope! She had the smile of a "been there, done that, had fun" expression the whole time.
The young girls sitting next to us were coming back from interview with RyanAir and are studying to become airline attendants. We chatted with them, and asked them a variety of questions about their studies and our observations in Morocco. At one point we started to joke about weird things people have seen on flights. The girls' teacher told them that once, he was working a flight from Morocco, and while they were sitting on the tarmac, he passed an old man, who had decided it was time for him to get out his own small kettle and make himself tea!! Who does that?? Pallavi and I decided that we would really struggle in a situation interview question that asked, "what do you do if you pass a passenger who is using his own kettle to make himself tea?" We still don't know.
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