The market in Rabat

Far less people visit Rabat, it is not a destination for visitors to Morroco. It is considered dull and laid back. Indeed, compared to Marrakech, it is just that, nobody hustles, you are welcomed to look, buy if you want or not. But there are interesting places one would miss if one thinks there's nothing in Rabat. On the contrary, Rabat is much more interesting than Casablanca. The market, the beach front, the Andulasian walls and the old souk is really nice, the pace is slow and idyllic. I like Rabat. We arrived at the train station and headed straight for the old part of town. We are more interested in the old town than any new town, this applies everywhere we go to. I am heartened to see market shelves stocked chock full of food. Morroco is experiencing a higher standard of living than most of its neighbors. Morrocans seem to be happier people. The Pharmacy shelves are full of western medicines, that's always a good sign.

The Ramparts of Rabat

Before we arrived in Morroco, we hadn't planned on visiting Rabat but since we found the time we are here in Rabat. Rabat is a sprawling neighborhood outside these ramparts. Even within the rampart walls it is crowded. This, after all, is the capital of Morroco. It faces the Atlantic ocean and it breezy and absolutely pleasant. Morrocans are friendly and helpful people and so welcoming, unlike Egyptians. We found Egyptian women, especially those who wear the muslim garb very hostile towards us, 2 Chinese females. They must question our audacity to be so free and to able to travel without a male 'dragoman'. In Morroco, even women in muslim garb are very friendly and accepting.By and large, Morrocans have a higher standard of living than Egyptians. We find that people are happier when their standard of living are better. I'm happier when my bank account is fatter. When I'm happier, I'm a nicer person, it all ties in with money in the pocket. What's this got to do with the ramparts of Rabat? Absolutely nothing!

Rabat

We arrived back in Casablanca quite late in the night after a very very long train trip from Marrakech. There was trouble with the communication links on the tracks. Imagine 2 foreign women trying to look for accomodations at 11pm, we walked into 2 establishments near the railway station, one was full, the other was scary. We found a friendly taxi driver who found us a nice and cheap place nearby. We had another full day before we needed to fly out of Morroco. We decided to take the hour long train ride to Rabat, the capital of Morroco. We arrived at aa station that was under construction. The pace of modernisation is quite furious, in fact, I read this about most places that are interesting and where people are flocking to these days. I read this about the major cities in Turkey because I'm preparing to go to Turkey. You can say this of China too, though I don't know about India. Rabat is a thoroughly modern city at first glance. We found ourselves face to face with a group of blind protestors. We walked into a pharmacy and saw all the western medicines being stocked on the shelves. We really came to see the old part of town and there is a large and interesting old part of town which we will explore....

Picnic

It's heartening to see that people still take picnics. As the train rolled along and I'm at my most watchful, looking out the window, trying not to miss anything because I don't know when I'll be back this way again. I saw some people picking wild flowers, I thought to myself, 'how fun, wish I was out there with them.' Then I saw more and more groups of people, with blankets laid out or hung out for shade. They parked their cars alongside the road and they were sprawled all over the grassy meadows. They were families, out together and having picnics. How fun, it never cease to amaze me to see families get together to do things together. I could never find the time for such leisurely activities. I'm constantly in search of doing something useful. The past week, I've been tied down at work and at some training seminar and at home working on some online courses for work. The company I work for wants all their pharmacists to be certified as immunizing pharmacists, we can now give vaccination shots. It was a lot of work and a lot of fun. I came home to check out some blogs online and noticed what other people do for a living, making 'zines' and selling them. How fun. And I have to be doing the serious stuff, learning to give shots and making sure I don't prick myself with a dirty needle. The technology with regards to hypodermic syringes is pretty advanced these days. We use syringes with retractable needles. We had to pair up and give each other shots with sterile saline. That was a lot of fun after the initial fright of giving shots. Now I have to go back to work to start a vaccination clinic.

Wild flowers

I promised myself, my next house will have more land and I will turn a part of it into a wildflower meadow. Right now this house is on very limited grounds because of its proximity to the ocean, I can't afford anymore land. I wished that I could have been outside taking these photos instead of from a moving train. But a moving train is all I had and I clicked away. The memories of this day is forever with me. There was only a short time before it gets dark and time was precious. Time is always such a precious commodity, the time spent with family, the time spent speeding through all the cities while we are abroad. That's all the time we have, a short few weeks with which to speed through a different part of the world. Once we get back to Casablanca, we had another day which we'll use to see Rabat. Rabat is next.....