Really Rabat

I owe you a blog post... I know, I know, it's been weeks since I promised you a blog. Blame the sleepless nights. It transforms my days into long dreary hours of just floating, a well-tuned machine with need for minimal brain activity.

I spent another birthday in Morocco! I'm 22, 23, 24, 25, 26... Who the hell cares, right? As a birthday present, I dressed up and played tourist for the day. Complete with the giant orange back pack, Ray-ban Aviators, and oh so comfortable boots. And of course, the love of my Morocco life, my Canon 350D-SLR.

Rabat is my weekend get-away. And for my birthday, I pretended to be a newbie - unfamiliar, lost, amazed, stupefied at times, and willing to walk. The trek started out the doors of Royal Hotel, one of my most stayed-in Rabat hotels. It offers a clean room and a clean bathroom for only 400 dirhams (for those of you who don't know, dirhams are the Moroccan currency. Equivalent to around 8 US Dollars). Rabat offers a wide variety of hotel accommodations. The cheapest ones can be rather dingy, that is, if you don't pick the right ones. Some of these cheap hotels even have communal toilets and no baths! Then there are the high-priced 5-star hotels (or hotel until October when the Hilton Rabat resumes business) which I think can offer some of the most amazing breakfast buffets (the Hilton is the only hotel in Rabat that serves REAL BACON in their buffet). And of course, there's the average hotel Royal. In the words of Goldilocks, "It's just right!" This is the view from my bedroom balcony.




From the Royal Hotel, I had to dodge a couple of male-hollers, which I am surprisingly used to. Yes, I have learned the art of selective hearing. I make my way down the streets of Rabat Ville. This is the old city where the medina is. Never go in the medina (the market) wearing a skirt. You might end up getting stalked by some scary person who would stare you down as if you were naked. There is a huge post office in Rabat Ville, and a Bank Al Maghrib, Maroc Telecom Office, stores, and offices. And of course the Royal Palace.




This is Rabat Ville on an early Sunday afternoon. This is a center street isle where people walk around, trying not to step on pigeon poop, take pictures, sit around, or lounge on the grass. The structure at the end of the road is the Mosque Assouna.

I made my way through, passing the La Gare (train station) which is now under construction. Rabat Ville is filled with grand arches and doorways just like these.



This is a doorway to a museum, which (like most of the other stores) is unfortunately closed on Sundays.



By this time, my travelling feet are starting to ache, and three cars were creepily following me. It was getting scary, and as much I wanted to continue walking and taking snapshots of Rabat Ville, I hailed a cab and made my way to Rabat Hay Riyad.




This is a more posh section of Rabat filled with modern office buildings, apartments, restaurants, and people on a family day out - complete with baby carriages and kids running around. I went to what I think is the center of Hay Riyad, Mahaj Riyad, where I planned to continue with my tourist-for-a-day game. Clicking away on my camera, people were starting to be bothered by the sudden flash, some of them were looking very annoyed too, so I decided to take a breather, and a lunch break!



I met some friends for lunch, just a little notion to remind me it's indeed my birthday. We went to Kiotori, my favorite Japanese restaurant. It was my lucky day in Kiotori. The staff of the restaurant knew us as favored clients (because of the thousands of times we ate there), and asked me to sample the brand new additions to their menu. FOR FREE! Imagine an entire platter filled with sushi, sushi, and more sushi! A very very happy birthday to me!

By this time, I was about done playing tourist and was ready to go back to being a regular part of the crowd. My friends and I went to Megamall (which is not even an inch close to being really MEGA), had ice cream, and surprisingly... WENT ICE SKATING!!!

I called it a day at around 8 pm, and headed back to my friend's house where I stuffed myself with Filipino food that I missed so much, and filled my head with images from TFC!

The week after this, I was back in Rabat. And the week after, and the week after.

What can I say, birthdays have to be special. And playing tourist for a day made it a teeny bit more special than an ordinary day would have been.

by: stillinatrance@multiply.com