Date of visit: April 28, 2015
Could it be the biggest trouble day of the trip?
The hotel will arrange a shuttle bus to take you to the airport.
After three days of side trips, the day came for us to leave Istanbul for Casablanca. The shuttle bus, arranged the day before, arrived almost on time at 7:20 a.m. At 10 euros, it was a great deal. We stopped at several hotels on the European side, and the shuttle bus was packed with almost 8 passengers. With a view of Bosforus to our left, we headed for Ataturk International Airport for the first time in four days.
The airport was not so crowded and there were only a few people lined up at the counter of Turkish Airlines to Casablanca. Automatic check-in by machine was no problem, and baggage check-in was completed without waiting time at all. It was so smooth that I felt uneasy.
Breakfast here. Breakfast at the hotel started at 8am, so we couldn’t eat there. But in Istanbul, you can eat as much as you want outside, which I think I did when I came here 5 years ago.
By the way, Ataturk International Airport has an X-ray inspection of your luggage when you enter. I seem to remember that this was a bit troublesome. As I recall, five years ago, they made us open the inside of our trunks. However, although there was an X-ray check, the inside was never opened, and there was no check at all. I wonder if they have become more lenient.
On the way to the departure gate, I passed through the baggage check and passport control without any difficulty. We arrived at the gate more than an hour ago and flew to Casablanca almost on time.
Arrival at Mohammad V Airport, Casablanca
The cabin was empty, and after takeoff I occupied the center four seats by myself, making the five-hour flight easy.
Then we arrived in Morocco. For immigration, I filled out a white form with my name, passport number, where I was staying, purpose of my stay, etc. and handed it over, and there were no questions from the officer. However, I had to use a ballpoint pen to write a mysterious code number under the entry stamp. I later found out that the hotel staff had checked and filled in this code number when I stayed at the hotel. It wasn’t a particularly time-consuming procedure, but I think it’s more efficient and better to keep track of these numbers.
Buying a prepaid sim in Morocco, too easy!
I asked if I could buy a prepaid SIM, which was easily accepted. I handed over my iPhone 6 (which I had changed to English), and the shopkeeper took care of everything from activation to recharging.
The procedure was very smooth, probably because they are familiar with it, and it took about 10 minutes. The charge, 150DH (dirham) including the additional charge of 4GB, is about 12 yen per dirham, so about 1,800 yen in Japanese yen, very cheap!
Both web browsing and SMS are comfortable to use. This is convenient, wonderful.
30 minutes by train to Casablanca city.
From Muhammad V Airport to Casablanca city by train, 40 dirhams and 30 minutes to reach the city’s Casa Voyage station.
From there we took a petit cab to the hotel. This cost 50 dirhams. A petit cab is a shared cab in Morocco, a small old car painted red.
Casablanca, not worth stopping by?
The hotel we chose in Casablanca was good, but I was surprised to find that there was really nothing to see in the city. Well, it was just as I expected, because I was moving from Turkey, and I was only thinking of this place as a transit point because I arrived halfway through the trip.
Food poisoning!
In the end, when I returned to the hotel dismayed after strolling for about 20 minutes, and lay down in the head, an incident occurred. After a while, I felt a strong chill. The chill was so bad that I hurriedly put on a jacket and wrapped myself in a futon, but the chill did not subside. I took out a thick blanket from the closet, and although it eased the chill a little, there was no sign of the chill getting better… Why on earth did this sudden onset of chilliness occur? It seemed that my stomach was not in good shape. It seemed that the in-flight meal I had eaten just before arriving at Cala Blanca had hit me, and that this hadn’t been digested yet was the cause.
However, tomorrow I have to go back to the airport and rent a car. I’m not going to fix it no matter what. Fortunately or unfortunately, only my stomach is affected, and my intestines are undamaged. In other words, throwing up should fix it. I’m used to this kind of thing since I was little, so I just drank water and threw up repeatedly until I felt better. It was hard, but by midnight, I felt much calmer, my stomach felt better, and my fever went down along with it. By 2 a.m., I recovered to a level where I could sleep well. Even while I was suffering until then, I was taking fine sleep, so I was able to wake up comfortably at 7 am the next morning. But my head was still a little dizzy.
It was a good decision to get a good hotel, really.
Will we be able to rent a car safely? (continued)
