It’s been a long and fairly difficult year on several fronts… and an even longer and more difficult last month or so. So Mr K and I decided we should ‘do something’ for a bit of a break at the end of the year. Given he’s got work coming up in Qatar on electric buses and we half expected to be in Qatar for work, come Xmas, we decided to look for something to do in the region and were tossing up between Egypt or Morocco as a suitable destination. In the end, we chose Morocco – largely because Casablanca has the largest electric bus fleet in North Africa and we could combine our break with a bit of useful investigative work that will help next year. Doesn’t everyone choose their Christmas destination based on where the largest electric bus operators reside?
Anyway, a couple of weeks ago, we booked and got things sorted and, as per usual, I read and booked and understood the transit arrangments, but also as per usual, I completely forgot how much I absolutely hate the long haul transits. We had a 14 hour flight from Brisbane to Dubai, followed by a 2 hour lay over there, and an onward 8 hour flight to Casablanca. Urgh… my back pain was through the roof and my feet were killing me. :/ Grrr… really need to break these trips up (I keep saying that, and I keep forgetting when booking shit).
We arrived in Casablanca about 1pm local and had to wade through customs and the usual. Because I thought I might be arriving solo (given the high probability that Mr K would be coming from Qatar), I had arranged an airport transfer… usually we would just use public transport or haggle with cabbies when we got here. Our driver swiftly reminded us that we weren’t in Kansas anymore by driving like a Turk – all over the road, no indicators from him (or anyone else), braking short all the time and weaving in and out of the traffic. All he needed was a cigarette and one hand on his mobile phone and it would have taken me back to 2007.
When we got here and checked into the Hotel Almouday, I was absolutely shattered and REALLY need to get my poor feets in the air. So Mr K went out hunting and gathering looking for SIM cards, water and to sus out the local area while I tried hard not to fall asleep in the middle of the afternoon… with varying levels of success. Eventually, we caved and had some little pizzas for dinner (loaded with anchovies – yum!) around 7pm and then crashed. I managed to sleep until around 2am and even managed to get back to sleep until around 6am… exhausted after the last few months much? Ahuh.
Today is Friday … buses, buses, buses. Maybe we will see some of Casablanca by Sunday.
