Casablanca

=CASABLANCA= Lots of the stalls here are just full of the usual junk items found in markets world wide but the food areas were fascinating – large slabs of meat and fish lying on counters awaiting buyers – they are then cut depending on the purchaser’s wish – piles of eggs, olives of varying colours - some spiced, nuts, spices, dates, live chickens, and, of course, numerous “things” we had no idea of.
 * After a sumptuous breakfast of cold boiled egg, bread and jam washed down with copious cups of tea, we decided to find the medina and see what the locals looked like. Surprisingly we didn’t get lost, and that’s without a Sarah or GPS to guide us, and into the medina we dived. Although supposed to be a fairly “modest” medina it was big, crowded and noisy enough for us.

We actually bought a couple of pieces of traditional clothing – lots of trying on (plenty of helpers), being walked from shop to shop to try different sizes, colours, styles etc etc and finally the haggling to get the price down from 260 MAD (Moroccan dirham) to an eventual 180MAD (about $26 Aud) for a shirt for Colin and from 350 down to 260 for a dress/pants set for Gail – I’m sure the sellers made a killing but we were very happy with the prices we paid so I guess everyone won in the end. We were advised to halve their first price and start from there so we don’t think we did **too** badly? || ||

On our wanders back to the hotel we stumbled onto the other markets with fish etc plus small live turtles for sale (for soup?) This is a big, bustling, noisy (everyone’s car horn appears to work!) fairly shabby looking city with some unexpected sights like an old horse and cart or a man pushing a barrow down the main road. As in most Muslim countries, coffee shops seem to be full of men, often sitting on the footpath facing the street, just filling in the day idly chatting. It’s rare to see women doing the same.
 * [[image:IMG_4954.jpg caption="Entrance to Medina"]] || [[image:IMG_4933.jpg]] || [[image:IMG_4935.jpg caption="Olives anyone?"]] ||
 * [[image:IMG_4934.jpg caption="hmmm chop, spare rib or steak?"]] || [[image:IMG_4940.jpg caption="Yellow melons (?)"]] || [[image:IMG_4947.jpg caption="Fish cutting in progress"]] ||
 * [[image:IMG_4964.jpg]] || [[image:IMG_4962.jpg]] || [[image:IMG_4966.jpg]] ||