We made the travel choice to sacrifice sleep for one more night in Asilah before our flight to Egypt from Casablanca. The only train option to reach Casablanca in time for our flight left at 6:05 a.m. In broken Spanish, I asked the hotel manager if he could reserve a taxi for us to pick us up at 5:00 a.m. and carry us the 2 kms to the train station. He told me no he couldn't reserve a taxi, but we could easily go just one street over and get one. Not trusting the first guy and/or my Spanish, we asked another one of the hotel managers the same question using hand gestures. He also told us it no problem.
Still in disbelief about the ease of getting a cab at 5 a.m. in this small town, we set our alarms, mapped the walking route to the train station (just in case), and made a plan to leave in the morning with enough time to walk to the train station, if necessary.
Morning came. We groggily got ourselves ready. We left the hotel, full moon and stars shining brightly, and walked to the street where supposed easy taxi would come. Did it come? Obviously not! We had to hoof it to the soundtrack of the moonlit ocean waves all the way to the train station. Did we get the train? Of course we did!
We needed to change trains in Casablanca to get to the airport, which made the perfect opportunity to meet with one of Pallavi's old friends, who is a Moroccan she met in Delhi. We made an audible and decided to get the 11:13 train to the airport after arriving at 10:20. No problem....however, her friend was late! By the time she arrived at 10:45, we had just enough time to down a quick cup of coffee and they had the elevator catchup! At least they got a chance to catch up. 30 minutes is better than nothing.
We got our flight (again, stepping back in time into international travel circa 2000 with our central TVs and chicken/beef options), arrived back in Cairo, did a power-duty free shop for our friends, and made it back to Heba and Nayeli's.
Still in disbelief about the ease of getting a cab at 5 a.m. in this small town, we set our alarms, mapped the walking route to the train station (just in case), and made a plan to leave in the morning with enough time to walk to the train station, if necessary.
Morning came. We groggily got ourselves ready. We left the hotel, full moon and stars shining brightly, and walked to the street where supposed easy taxi would come. Did it come? Obviously not! We had to hoof it to the soundtrack of the moonlit ocean waves all the way to the train station. Did we get the train? Of course we did!
We needed to change trains in Casablanca to get to the airport, which made the perfect opportunity to meet with one of Pallavi's old friends, who is a Moroccan she met in Delhi. We made an audible and decided to get the 11:13 train to the airport after arriving at 10:20. No problem....however, her friend was late! By the time she arrived at 10:45, we had just enough time to down a quick cup of coffee and they had the elevator catchup! At least they got a chance to catch up. 30 minutes is better than nothing.
We got our flight (again, stepping back in time into international travel circa 2000 with our central TVs and chicken/beef options), arrived back in Cairo, did a power-duty free shop for our friends, and made it back to Heba and Nayeli's.
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