Tuesday, April 11, 2006
Marrakech, Fez, Casablanca...
I am in Casablanca.
I had dinner at Rick's tonight, a restaurant/bar named after the one in the film Casablanca. It is run by an American woman. Most of my traveling companions were appreciative of a bit of Western cuisine after all the Moroccan food, as good as some of it was. Last night's dinner was the best of all the Moroccan food we had, so we ended our string of prearranged Moroccan dinners on a high note.
EOU was excellent, as usual. There were some inspiring and valuable seminars, interesting and memorable company, and lovely outings.
I did some guided tours before and after the EOU, which was great, thanks largely to a great guide, named Rachid. Prior to this trip, EOU outings were the closest I have gone to guided tourism. I can say that traveling in a van full of tourists did feel a little cliche at times. This was less true on the pre-tour, which was only 5 people (two Americans), but more so on the post-tour that has taken up the past few days, when I was traveling with a larger group -- 16 people, all but two of whom were Americans, the biggest contingent being from Orange County, CA. The other two were a nice couple from New Zealand.
I still have most of a week left. The rest of the time will be more unstructured, and I'm ready for that. I return to Marrakech tomorrow for a couple of nights in a riad (Moroccan B&B) which I'm told is quite nice and well-positioned for exploring (and getting online). If they'll let me use my own PC that'll be great... if not, the French-style keyboards in most of these places are known for making Americans want to drink poison Koolaid.
It is 5am here and I should be asleep. I think I'll go try.
I had dinner at Rick's tonight, a restaurant/bar named after the one in the film Casablanca. It is run by an American woman. Most of my traveling companions were appreciative of a bit of Western cuisine after all the Moroccan food, as good as some of it was. Last night's dinner was the best of all the Moroccan food we had, so we ended our string of prearranged Moroccan dinners on a high note.
EOU was excellent, as usual. There were some inspiring and valuable seminars, interesting and memorable company, and lovely outings.
I did some guided tours before and after the EOU, which was great, thanks largely to a great guide, named Rachid. Prior to this trip, EOU outings were the closest I have gone to guided tourism. I can say that traveling in a van full of tourists did feel a little cliche at times. This was less true on the pre-tour, which was only 5 people (two Americans), but more so on the post-tour that has taken up the past few days, when I was traveling with a larger group -- 16 people, all but two of whom were Americans, the biggest contingent being from Orange County, CA. The other two were a nice couple from New Zealand.
I still have most of a week left. The rest of the time will be more unstructured, and I'm ready for that. I return to Marrakech tomorrow for a couple of nights in a riad (Moroccan B&B) which I'm told is quite nice and well-positioned for exploring (and getting online). If they'll let me use my own PC that'll be great... if not, the French-style keyboards in most of these places are known for making Americans want to drink poison Koolaid.
It is 5am here and I should be asleep. I think I'll go try.
