We All Scream For Ice Cream!!

Posted by Nicki

Emily and I have now completed our circle in Morocco and are back in Casablanca. However, this was not the original plan. The original plan was not to get back until tomorrow afternoon after a fun filled two days in the wonderful beach town of El Jadida; or so our guidebooks promised…This, unfortunately was not the case.

We left essouaira early early on Wednesday morning after having a very wonderful time there. The city was charming and peaceful full of lots of great cafes and beautiful ocean views. I was a little sad to leave. But our plan promised fun on the beach in the next town too. We arrived in El Jadida about 5 hours later by bus, and walked down to our hotel. The place was enormous with huge rooms. Very old and kinda creaky, but it seemed nice and we were to pay 3 dollars each a night with a view of the ocean. So far so good. (Little did we know that later at night the hotel would just seem kinda creepy. Emily mentioned today that it kinda seemed like a place for a mystery novel or something.)

Then we went out to look around. The city had a very odd vibe. Hardly any tourists, and certainly no western women. Lots of those cafes I had talked about before that are all men that just stare you up and down as you walk by, ick. We finally found a restaurant that served food and looked decent. But it was not so good. They didnt have half the food on the menu and the food they did have was particularly awful, especially emilys pasta. Who knew you could screw up spagettii?

Em and I decided we deserved some ice cream after a meal like that. We went on a long hard search for some. Announcement: There is NO ice cream in El Jadida. (We did find some really awful stuff, but I refuse to classify it as ice cream) What? Whats a girl to do? We even went to the ice cream shops that had pictures of yummy sundaes all over their signs, nope we were told, no ice cream until june! Boo to them. We went into a grocery store to buy some cookies for later at that point. The grocery was the most awful depressing sight. The shelves looked as if they hadnt been stocked in ages; the lights were pretty much out, and there was no refridgeration. And; Emily discovered later that one of the packages of cookies she had bought had nice little nibble holes on the back! Mice in the grocery! ISH! That about did it and we decided no more El Jadida for us thank you.

The only plus side was the old cistern in the portugese city part of town. Its this old eerie well/resevoir thing. When you go inside it at first glance looks like a large moldy room with a bunch of water on the floor. But then, as you look around, its really pretty cool. It was used in the filming of Othello, and looks extremely shakespearan. Its got all these huge old arches and colomns and because of the one circle letting light in in the middle, they all reflect onto the floor. It creates a really stunning effect with the light, and the pictures I took I think actually may turn out very cool. PS. I am eventually hoping to get you all photos, my camera just doesnt work with these computers yet.

In any case, for now, we are back in Casablanca, have had our fill of delicious ice cream and chocolate crepes, and are very satisfied. We will be taking a day trip to the capital city of rabat tomorrow, and then its on to Spain on saturday! I hope you all are doing well!