No big adventures today. We packed up our things, found our way out of the medina, and met up with Said to take us to the Casablanca airport.
But first, we went back to Majorelle Gardens and exchanged Mom's French cookbook for and English version. There were no problems.
Along the way we saw cactus farms.
And cactus hedges.
Remember when we landed and I said Casablanca was foggy?
Apparently it's pretty standard. It was foggy again today.
Mom and Dad were on an earlier flight than ours and were able to check their luggage long before we could. So we said goodbye to them and sent them through security. Dan and I stayed behind and waited, and waited, and waited for our check-in desk to open. This was very boring.
We were finally able to check-in and get our boarding passes so we headed off to clear security. Customs came first and it....well...it was a bit like being in a Marx Brothers' film. There were two lines and like 8-10 customs desks. Line 1 had four customs officials and Line 2 had two. Line 2 was therefore moving slower than Line 1. Fine. But then Line 2 lost a customs official. He just wandered away. So then it was moving even slower, especially when the person who got up to the desk had problems.
People started bailing out of Line 2. We were in Line 2 and not in a hurry so we stayed put. And then Line 2 lost its last customs official, again he just wandered away. Meanwhile Line 1 has actually gained a customs official. People at the head of Line 2 are now trying to rush to open Line 1 desks. While all this is going on there's one or two customs officials just chilling behind the desks doing nothing. Absolutely nothing. And there are always one or two people who are trying to cut to the head of the line because they think they're going to miss their flight. Getting to a desk has now become a battle of who is the fastest. Line 2 finally gets a customs official back and Dan and I slowly pass through Customs.
I don't remember much about security so it can't have been bad. We clear all the nonsense and learn that our flight is delayed. This is only problematic because we have a connection in Rome and it's the last flight down to Naples for the night. Oh well, we'll figure it out when we get to Rome.
We finally got on our plane and taxied to the runway. My window was all scratched up but it made for some neat effects with the lights.
Bye Morocco! We had a blast!
This concludes our adventures in Morocco.
Epilogue -
We landed in Rome and found out that our flight to Naples had also been delayed, so maybe we would make it. We get off the flight and run through the FCO airport. Or we try to, because when you get off the plane you get on a bus that takes you to a terminal. We apparently were not the only ones trying to make the connection because when the bus was reasonably full, the Italians started getting very restless and rowdy and banging on the bus yelling "let's go!". The bus driver was not to be swayed and continued to smoke his cigarette and chat with the other bus driver.
When the bus finally took us to the terminal there was a bit of sprinting until we found that we had to clear customs. This was basically like going through security again and having your passport glanced at. Another small sprint and we are stopped again because we have to get on a second bus to take us to the other terminal. So we wait for the bus to fill up so it can take us somewhere else.
Once at the new terminal we have maybe two minutes to catch our next flight as all the bus waiting and customs bits has eaten all the rest of our time. We run to the gate to find that the flight is still delayed for another hour or so. Dan and I laughed through most of this. I think it's because we had resigned ourselves to not getting home tonight back in Casablanca. Anyway, it was all a bit silly.
We eventually made it home.
